News for the internationally inclined
From the category archives:
For most Americans, the idea of a Muslim martyr can cause quite a bit of anxiety. Some immediately imagine a brown “towel-headed” man with an explosive device duct-taped to his chest, or sewn into his under garments, and a crazed murderous look in his eyes. Unfortunately, this kind of act in the name of Islam, an act that kills both Muslims and non-Muslims indiscriminately, is all too common.
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In December 2007, during a trip to Dubai, I explored the enormous mall-hotel-ski resort, Mall of the Emirates, with my uncle Amir. An Iranian businessman, Amir was buying construction parts in Dubai for his business back home. I remarked that I had never seen anything like it in my life. He looked stunned.
“Behnam, did [...]
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Every good political movement has a leader. South Africa had Mandela. India had Gandhi. Even 1979 Iran had Khomeini.
When protests broke out after the Iranian presidential elections this past June, that leader was supposed to be Mir Hossein Mousavi. But as time went on he was trumped by Mehdi Karroubi, who dared to speak out [...]
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When news broke out in November that a US Army psychiatrist and self-identified devout Muslim shot his colleagues at the Fort Hood military base in Texas, it didn’t take the American media long to start speculating on what role Islam played in the massacre. But five months earlier, when the American media began covering the [...]
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In a special session held on the morning of November 20, 2009, the United Nations General Assembly approved a draft resolution condemning human rights violations in Iran. The United States Senate had passed a similar resolution a day earlier, prompting media sources to herald the two occasions as a constructive step against the Iranian government. [...]
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“The Iranian women’s movement is not simply demanding equal rights alone. It is demanding a larger universal reality, which is democracy.” – Shirin Ebadi, October 9, 2009
A couple of weeks ago, I had the rare chance to sit down with Nobel Laureate Dr. Shirin Ebadi, a prominent human rights lawyer and democracy activist from Iran. [...]
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Today, marks the 30th year since the 444 day Iran Hostage Crisis began in 1979. On this day the media traditionally offers us images of burning American flags and effigies of Uncle Sam. We are reminded of the great chasm of mistrust and misunderstanding that has marked the last three decades of US-Iranian relations. But [...]
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Reading Gandhi today in countries like Iran helps these to problematize the issue of nonviolence in their respective civil societies. As such the Gandhian critique of tradition and modernity offers a theoretical terrain for a nonviolent approach to politics in Muslim societies.
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When caricature takes the place of dialogue, everyone suffers – especially when it comes to understanding issues affecting women, who struggle worldwide against being silenced. Some right-wing American bloggers recently twisted an article that I wrote in a way that did just that.
I wrote that many women activists in Muslim countries tend to emphasize issues [...]
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The 13 Aban demonstrations in Iran commemorating the US embassy take-over in 1979 will gain greater significance as we approach the next public demonstrations on Student day: 16 Azar (December 7).
As most analysts have pointed out, it is by now clear that the post-eletion demonstrations are not going away and that there are [...]
There is a certain buzz in Iranian papers about Ahmadinejad's trip to NYC last week. Echoing Israeli newspapers criticizing of Prime Minister Netanyahu's remarks at the UN , the Iranian media is celebrating the unseating of the state of Israel's primary justification for itself.
Archive for Kouross' Blog »Calling all news junkies! I read through many articles to pull today’s story together. Whether or no there is a real connection between the CIA and the insurgent groups on the Iran/Pakistani border is questionable, but what’s more fascinating is why are we hearing so many mixed messages from inside Iran. The article [...]
Archive for Yaz' Blog »