Tehran at night (image courtesy of Arash Hamidi www.hamidi.ir).
Hi Everyone,
I hope you have all had a very nice holiday break and are ready for
2007. Thanks again for all your kind messages after window number 16.
I have finally managed to catch up with e-mail responding to your
personal messages. Please note that there was an unusually high volume
of bounced messages as Window number 16 was sent out to the list. This
may be due to full mail boxes over the holidays. If you did not
receive Window on Iran – 16, and would like to have it, please write
a short note in response to this message and we will resend that
window to you.
Before we get to our current issues which usually focuses on
conflict, I would like to share two beautiful seasonal images from
Iran:
Iranian Christians praying in a Tehran church on Christmas (image courtesy of www.iranian.com).
To see some neat pictures of Iranian Christians celebrating this past Christmas in Iran click on:
http://www.payvand.com/news/07/jan/1006.html
Also, I have attached a very short slide show – about ten slides – of winter images from the famous Dizin ski resort in Iran. The photos are by Shahrokh Setudeh. Click here: The famous Dizin Ski Resort in Tehran. Enjoy.
Current Issues
Following American’s recent announcement of its readiness to deal with outside interference in Iraq (interesting language to use by a country which has sent its own forces about 10,000 miles to solve Iraqi inner problems), the American security forces kidnapped five Iranian nationals in the city of Erbil in Iraq early last Wednesday morning. These unnamed officials called “diplomats” by the Iranian government and “operatives” by the Americans are still in custody. So far, nothing other than a few local maps has been declared to be found on these individuals.
Iranian News sites reflect widespread criticism of Ahmadinejad’s
inflexible diplomacy on the developing Iranian nuclear industry amidst speculations that enrichment activity has been suspended at least in the Natanz site.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070113/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear_diplomacy
A major poll in Iran confirms that Ahmadinejad’s popularity is falling
dramatically since his election in June 2005. When asked “If the
elections were held today, what would be the chances of his election
to the office, 76.1% said “much less,” and 15% said “less.” Only 5%
said he would have a chance of getting re-elected. The total number of
respondents was over 43,000, a significant number in itself.
Sunday Times has revealed frightening plans of a possible Israeli
nuclear attack on Iran. The level of anxiety among the Iranians in the
country, and Iranian Americans in the U.S. is beyond description. All
we can do is hope and pray that a new Nagasaki and Hiroshima are not
in the making: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2535310,00.html
I received Robert Fisk’s article on Saddam’s execution from two
friends Bahar Hashemi and Adam Shriver. My general policy is not to
include in the Windows issues which are not directly relevant to Iran.
Here are some Iran-related excerpts from this article particularly
informative to Americans who wonder about anti-American feelings in
the region. These unfriendly feelings are often attributed to
religious hatred for western freedom. Fisk’s article describes a small
portion of what America signifies to many Iranians. On the American
support for the Iraqi attacks on Iran (1980-1988), Fisk quotes a
German arms dealer:
“Mr Fisk… at the very beginning of the war, in September of 1980, I
was invited to go to the Pentagon,” he said. “There I was handed the
very latest US satellite photographs of the Iranian front lines. You
could see everything on the pictures. There were the Iranian gun
emplacements in Abadan and behind Khorramshahr, the lines of trenches
on the eastern side of the Karun river, the tank revetments -
thousands of them – all the way up the Iranian side of the border
towards Kurdistan. No army could want more than this. And I traveled
with these maps from Washington by air to Frankfurt and from Frankfurt
on Iraqi Airways straight to Baghdad. The Iraqis were very, very
grateful!”
According to Mr. Fisk “the terrible cocktail” of nerve gas and mustard
gas used freely on Iranians and Kurds by the Iraqi dictator was also
“given to Saddam by the US. Washington denied this. But the Iranians
were right.” The most moving is Mr. Fisk’s personal encounter with
Iranian soldiers affected by these chemicals. I apologize for the
graphic nature: “I saw the results, however. On a long military
hospital train back to Tehran from the battle front, I found hundreds
of Iranian soldiers coughing blood and mucus from their lungs – the
very carriages stank so much of gas that I had to open the windows -
and their arms and faces were covered with boils.” Rober Fisks full
article was published in the London Independent, in case you are
interested http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2114403.ece
More Visual Delight
All right, time for some nice friendly visual contact. Many of you
have told me that you like the visual information coming through these
windows. I think I have given you enough of historical monuments for a
while. So, here is a power point slide show of just faces and places
in the city of Tehran. Just click here: The city and people of Tehran.
On that note, I wish you all a great week — and a great start to the
spring semester if you are in the academia. Again, please let me know
if you did not receive Window on Iran – 16.
Till the next Window, stay healthy and warm.
Best,
Fatemeh
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Fatemeh Keshavarz, Professor and Chair
Dept. of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures
Washington University in St. Louis
Tel: (314) 935-5156
Fax: (314) 935-4399
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