Current Issues:
A concerned friend, sent me the T O D A Y ’ S N E W S
“Religious leaders in Iran have started a campaign to end all university programs that educate men and women together, The Guardian reported. The push follows the release of statistics showing dramatic gains for women at Iranian universities, where they now outnumber men in key programs. The Guardian quoted a cleric as saying that universities were turning into “fashion shows.” I called Iran, and had a long conversation with a trusted university professor friend. There is no factual basis to the above report. From time to time, there are discussions in Iranian papers about the disproportionately higher number of women in Iranian universities (about 70% of the students). No official comments have been made about an attempt to reduce the number of women university students.
Mostafa Tabatabainejad, an Iranian American student at UCLA, was repeatedly stunned with a Taser by the campus police and then taken into custody. He had been asked to leave the computer lab after he failed to produce an ID during a check at around 11:30 p.m. Many terrified students videotaped the incident on their cell phones. The videos show Tabatabainejad screaming in pain as he was stunned several times with a Taser, each time for three to five seconds. He was told repeatedly to stand up and stop fighting, and that if he did not do so he would “get Tased again.” He is heard screaming on the video “I’m not fighting you” and “I said I would leave.” Carlos Zaragoza, a third year student of English who witnessed the incident said Tabatabainejed was also stunned with the Taser when already handcuffed. Zaragoza said. “(He was) no possible danger to any of the police.” One troubling point is that, according to eyewitnesses, Tabatabainejed was already leaving when the police entered. The other that according to a study published in the Lancet Medical Journal in 2001, a charge of three to five seconds can result in immobilization for five to 15 minutes, which would mean that Tabatabainejad could have been physically unable to stand when the officers demanded that he do so.
According to Peter Eliasberg, managing attorney at the ACLU of South California, “It is a real mistake to treat a Taser as some benign thing that painlessly brings people under control.” Eliasberg said: “The Taser can be incredibly violent and result in death.”
Second Slide Show of Isfahan
Time for nice, healing, beautiful images to look at! My good friend Bahar Bastani has just sent out a gorgeous series of pictures from the historical city of Yazd in central Iran. I will turn them into a power point slide show and send them out in the next window. For now, scroll down and look at the one that I have pasted at the bottom of this message.
I do have another slide show for this window from the city of Isfahan. This is my second slide showof Isfahan in these windows. I have deliberately blended historical as well as modern scenery, art work, etc. Click on the power point attachment, then on view, and then on slide show. Enjoy!
Iranian Annual Book Fair
The Iranian Annual Book Fair is a major event that brings together thousands of volumes published in various subjects. Thousands of people travel to the capital to simply visit the book fair. This year, the book fair attracted two million Iranians. My good friend Behrooz Ghamari, who wrote a piece for Illinois International Review after his recent trip to Iran, has a picture of the people attending the book fair in June. While critiquing aspects of life in present day Iran, Behrooz - a historian and sociologist who takes special interest in Iranian current issues - presents an overall positive and hopeful view of the country. Do take a look http://www.ips.uiuc.edu:16080/io/iir.shtml click on fall 2006 issue, and go to page 2 and 3.
Iranian Cinema
Iranian cinema continues to produce internationally acclaimed, often critical, films. A great feature of this cinema is the presence of women before or behind the camera. Nikki Karimi, the actress whose talent was, early in her career, overshadowed by her beauty http://www.payvand.com/news/06/oct/1083.html is now making it big as a director. Last month, Karimi presented her second long feature film “A Few Days Later,” in the Italian film festival at Rome. Karimi has acted in some the sharpest feminist statements by the prominent woman director, Tahmineh Milani. “A Few Days Later” tells the story of a young woman who has to make serious decisions about her life.
Fatemeh Keshavarz, Professor and Chair
Dept. of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures
Washington University in St. Louis