Monday, February 25, 2008

افغانستان

For the attention of Andrew!!! LOL
شاید این نوشته من با واقعیات عالم فرهنگ و سیاست هماهنگی نداشته باشد. اینکه امیدوار بودم با رفتن طالبان نوعی حکومت مردمی با آزادی نسبی مذهبی و بیان در کشور افغانستان شکل بگیرد و دیگر رفتارهای احمقانه اسلام گراینان افراطی را که به مدت سی سالی است در ایران شاهدیم در این کشور همسایه شاهد نباشیم. اما با خواندن و شنیدن ماجراهای اخیر در این کشور دلم گرفته و با اینکه از جمهوری اسلامی انتظار بیشتری نداشته و ندارم و البته کشوری که سالیان سال درگیر جنگ و نزاع بوده و ... اما هیچگاه فکر نمی کردم آمریکائیها و غرب دوباره اسلامگرایان را در افغانستان و عراق بر سرکار بیاورند
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جمعه 22 فوريه 2008 - 03 اسفند 1386 - تجلیل از روز جهانی زبان مادری - این نهمین سال است که سازمان ملل متحد از روزی به نام روز جهانی زبان در سراسر جهان تجلیل می کند. امسال این روز به نام "سال زبان مادری" از سوی سازمان علمی، آموزشی و فرهنگی سازمان ملل متحد، یونسکو، نام گذاری شده است.
از روز جهانی زبان در افغانستان در حالی تجلیل شده است، که این کشور در روز های اخیر با موجی از تنش های مختلف در زمینه استفاده از زبان مادری رو به رو بوده است.

زبان ملی افغانستان؟
مجازات برای بکارگیری واژه های فارسی

"مضحک و خنده آور"

آقای بابی در گفتگو با بی بی سی این اقدام وزارت اطلاعات و فرهنگ را غیرعادلانه و بدور از انصاف خواند و گفت: "این حکم نشان می دهد که وزارت فرهنگ تحمل ندارد افغانها زبان مادری خود را بکار ببرند و صدای ما را می خواهد در گلو خفه کند."

خبرنگار تنبیه شده تلویزیون افغانستان افزود: "مجازات به جرم استفاده از زبان مادری ام، مضحک و خنده آور است."

عکسهایی از تظاهرات حمایت از روزنامه نگار افغان

حدود دوصد تن از مردم کابل، در اعتراض به صدور حکم اعدام برای پرویز کامبخش، روزنامه نگار افغان در بلخ، در برابر دفتر سازمان ملل متحد در کابل دست به تظاهرات زدند.
کفرآمیز؟
نگرانی از ادامه بازداشت روزنامه نگار افغان

انتقاد و نگرانی

قانون اساسی افغانستان تبلیغ ادیان غیر از اسلام را در این کشور ممنوع قرار داده است. اما آیا می توان خواندن یک مطلب "کفر آمیز" از طریق اینترنت و توزیع آن را به چند نفر دیگر، اهانت به اسلام و گرایش به کفر نامید؟

در فقه اسلامی این مسئله وضاحت دارد که "نقل کفر، کفر نیست."



Sunday, February 24, 2008

The legend of Shiraz

The legend of Shiraz - a Persian fairy tale
Joyce Goldstein, Special to The Chronicle
Friday, February 22, 2008

Discovering that the tooth fairy and Santa are not real can be a downer, and I hate to see a fairy tale demolished.
But for years people believed that the Shiraz grape (known to many of us as Syrah) originated in ancient Iran. The city of Shiraz is about 900 miles from Tehran and home to some of the world's earliest vineyards. One story has it that the grapevine cuttings were brought to France by a 13th century crusader knight who planted them in the Rhone Valley and became a hermit (hence the famed Rhone wine Hermitage).
Another ancient Persian tale is even more far-fetched but appealing. The story is that King Jamshid stored ripe grapes in a cellar so he could enjoy them all year long. One day he sent a slave to get some grapes. When the slave didn't return, the king went down to the cellar and discovered the slave passed out from the fumes and carbon dioxide gas emanating from fermented grapes. One of the king's mistresses, depressed after having been rejected by Jamshid, decided to drink this supposedly poisoned potion in a dramatic gesture of despair, only to leave the cellar elated, dancing and in high spirits. The king understood the power of wine to deliver pleasure.
Back to reality. Super-sleuth Dr. Carole Meredith at UC Davis did a DNA studies of the Syrah grape only to determine that it is native to the Rhone Valley, not Iran. So how did this grape get to Australia? It appears that the first cuttings of Shiraz made it there in 1832 when James Busby, who's often credited with bringing the first wine grapes to Australia, shipped it from Europe along with hundreds of vine samples. Shiraz is now the most widely planted red grape in Australia.
In Australia, Shiraz has different personalities. The McLaren Vale style of Shiraz featured in today's Wine Selections is jammy, laden with ripe black and red fruit. Tannins are restrained and the wine has smooth, opulent mouthfeel. The Barossa Valley produces a more peppery and herbaceous style.
I hate to let a good story die, so I had been thinking of cooking a Persian dish to go with the wines. Because the name Shiraz is so romantic, it still summons images of life in ancient Persia, of blue-tiled mosques, of rich rugs and of a divine cuisine, a cuisine so voluptuous, nuanced and flavorful it influenced the foods of Morocco and subsequently the Catalonia region of Spain, where meat and fruit dishes still appear on the table. What capped it for me was the film "Persepolis," which I saw with my granddaughter. That set us talking about the glories of ancient Persia, and my regret that given today's political situation, I shall probably never get to Iran in my lifetime. But I can still cook Persian food.
Khoresh (also spelled khoresht) is a Persian stew/sauce often served over rice. It may even be layered in a baked pilaf called a polo. In the winter, when fresh fruits are scarce, meats are prepared with dried fruit. Some think that this stew will help cure a cold or the winter doldrums, just like the wine cured Jamshid's discombobulated mistress.
The fruit in the wine is echoed by the stew's prunes and citrus juice. To balance the wine's acidity, I added a touch of pomegranate syrup. The sweet spices are not overpowering but subtly echo those in the wine. Salt brings all of the flavors together, so season and taste again until you are happy. Elated, in fact.
Khoresh (Beef with Prunes & Carrots)
Serves 4 to 6
Because a khoresh is a cross between a stew and a sauce, the meat is cut into 1-inch pieces, smaller than for a regular stew. This khoresh can be made a day ahead of time. Save the prune soaking liquid to add for reheating so the prunes don't scorch. Serve with rice pilaf.
1 pound pitted prunes
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
2 teaspoons kosher salt + more to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 pounds stewing beef (boneless short ribs, brisket or chuck), cut in 1-inch pieces
2 large onions, chopped
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1/2 teaspoon saffron crushed and steeped in 2 tablespoons very hot water
1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup fresh orange juice or 2/3 cup orange juice and 1/3 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons pomegranate syrup, if needed (see Note)
-- Chopped fresh mint, optional
Instructions: Plump the prunes in hot water. Combine the cinnamon, cardamom, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter in a skillet and brown the meat over medium-high heat, sprinkling it with some of the spiced salt mixture. Do this in batches so the meat is not crowded in the pan and can brown easily. Set aside.
In a Dutch oven, melt remaining butter over medium heat and cook the onions until soft and pale gold, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir the remaining spice mixture into the onions. Add the meat to the pot and deglaze the skillet with the broth and saffron mixture, stirring up all of the brown bits in the pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover the pot. Simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Add carrots, citrus juice and drained prunes (save the soaking liquids), and simmer for 30 minutes longer or until meat and carrots are tender. Taste with the wine and adjust seasoning. It may need a bit of lemon or pomegranate syrup for balance, or a bit more salt. If the sauce is too thick add a bit of the prune-soaking liquid. Garnish with mint, if using.
Per serving: 565 calories, 33 g protein, 61 g carbohydrate, 23 g fat (11 g saturated), 125 mg cholesterol, 1,036 mg sodium, 9 g fiber.
Note: Pomegranate syrup is found in stores that specialize in Middle Eastern foods. My favorite brands are Cortas and Carlo.
San Franciscan Joyce Goldstein is a restaurateur, consultant and cookbook author. E-mail her at wine@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/22/WIE8V164R.DTL
This article appeared on page F - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Where's hot for 2008

Where's hot for 2008

We asked 10 experts to give us their predictions for next year's hottest destinations ...

Go there now ... Isfahan, Iran, the the jewel of the Islamic world with its stunning Sheikh Lotfollah mosque

Photograph: Kazuyoshi Nomachi/Corbis


Emerging: Isfahan (or Esfahan), Iran

Isfahan's mist-blue mosaics flash in the desert, and on more adventurous travellers' itineraries. The city is the jewel of the Islamic world. On summer evenings families picnic along its riverbank, women loosening cumbersome chadors, offering a glimpse of red hem or tight denim. At its heart is the pale-domed Sheikh Lotfollah mosque, the most beautiful building on the planet. In no other man-made place have I felt a greater sense of serenity.

· Way to go: The Iranian embassy can be slow to issue travel visas. Agencies such as Links to Persia (020-7559 9600) can arrange a one-month visa for £168. BMI flies Heathrow-Tehran, but code shares the route with British Airways, from £468.70 rtn.

· Rory MacLean is author of Magic Bus: On the Hippie Trail from Istanbul to India (Penguin)

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Picasso would like Persepolis

Picasso would like Persepolis

By Mehr “Jay” Shahidi , TC Daily Planet
February 19, 2008
Minutes after I walked out of the theater after watching the new movie “Persepolis,” I remembered “Guernica,” Pablo Picasso’s masterpiece depicting chaos and horror of warfare. Not that Persepolis is about the same subject, but because both are superb forms of artistic expression demonstrating, explaining and dissecting the most inner chambers of human psyche in times of fear and disaster.
Opinion: Picasso would like PersepolisOf course Persepolis is much easier to begin to comprehend than Guernica. It is a motion picture with sound, music and verbal description. Yet, just like Guernica, it is a deeply moving story of human resiliency and the ultimate triumph of hope despite utmost adversity. It is serious. It is clean. It is also funny, touching and transcending. It is for the family. It is beautiful.
Persepolis is based on a cartoon story written for children. But it is magical in its appeal to our intellectual capacity. It narrates and weaves the simple as well as complex realities of our lives with our questions, dreams and wishes regardless of age. It is the story of any child growing up in a world of clear danger filled with clashing lifestyles and contradicting ideologies. It is also a world of possibilities, adventure, alternatives, beauty, kindness and hope.
Written by an Iranian immigrant to France, Persepolis is the autobiographical life story of the author, Marjane Satrapi, a truly artistic and visionary woman with rare courage. Her ability to take extremely intense and confusing subjects such as Marxism, Leninism, dictatorship, democracy, theocracy, freedom, rebellion, materialism, sex, love, drugs, cultural differences and more, and accommodate them inside a short book of diagrams and a two-hour animated movie, is indeed ingenious.
Persepolis is about a little girl born shortly before the 1979 revolution in Tehran, Iran. Her family is educated, secular and middle -class even though they are descendants of the previous and overthrown royalty of Persia. She is bright, inquisitive and charming. Her curiosity is limitless. For a few years she witnesses the civil upheaval against the last king of Iran (Persia) while her own family members and friends struggle with their political leanings and views under the iron hand of a dictatorship. She lives through the terror and uncertainty of the revolutionary period. And, she becomes of age when she is sent to live in Austria and France as a way to protect her from the dangers and excesses of the post revolutionary Iran.
The setting is Iran but the story of this little child traveling through the trials and tribulations of life in the process of becoming an adult in very universal. Her life is the saga of all those born under political oppression who grow up thirsty for freedom. It is the plight of refugees. It tells of the pain of millions who are compelled to abandon their homeland in order to seek solace elsewhere. It demonstrates the torturous lives of all who feel as second-class citizens. Country-less, demoralized and marginalized. The grass is not always greener on the neighbor’s lot. Marjane realizes that life in the so-called democratic nations have their excesses too. Alienation, substance abuse, promiscuity, crime, dishonesty, greed, lack of loyalty, transitory relationships and disintegrated families plague Western societies. The youth in modern cities also are confused.
Film director, Vincent Paronnaud has used his cinematic talents to assist Satrapi in the production of this elegant French movie. It is indeed a work of literature in cartoon form. If Persepolis was not an animated picture, it would lose its universal appeal. The background is Tehran. But, it is also the larger world. The faces are generic. The landscape is global. And, the production is meticulously cosmopolitan.
Persepolis is the story of all of us.