Peace for Iran

American rapper Wyclef Jean sings for Iran and Iranians.

For Love and Peace

Aksana B., a Ukranian pianist in Sweden, plays Anoushirvan Rohani's Del-e-Koochoolo, a long-time favorite of mine. I wonder what has inspired her to play Persian music? Does she love an Iranian man? When I loved an Iranian man, I moved mountains for him! It's beautiful music, delivered beautifully. Enjoy!

Just a quick note to say that I will be going to a peace demonstration in San Francisco (at the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza) later today with my younger son. The protest will be against Israeli attacks on Gaza. We will be joining the Iranian contingent which has been organized by my friend Enayat. If you live in this area, join us. The Iranian contingent will meet on the corner of Grove and Larkin, in front of San Francisco Public Library, at 11:00 a.m.

I hope you have a beautiful Saturday, full of love and peace. Please don't forget to pray for world peace, too. I promise to write a proper post when I return later today. I miss writing here!

Peace

Ostad Jalal Zolfnoon performs live with Morteza Falahati, Farid-ud-din Attar's poem, Ay del agar asheghi. This song was originally performed by Alireza Eftekhari, in his album Mastaneh, one of my most favorite collections of Persian music. A song full of sweet and sad memories for me.

To those of you who fasted during Ramadan, Happy Eid-e Fetr.

To those of you who are Jewish, Happy Rosh Hashanah.

To all of you who follow the rules of loving hearts, peace, and humanity, Happy Today.

Go love, hold, kiss, and celebrate all those who matter to you in your lives. Learn, teach, motivate, and stay focused on the business of love and respect for human life, for that is the only mission worth pursuing, praying, and sweating over in this world. Our world is threatened by flames of hate, greed, and ignorance, the remedy to which can only be love and understanding and responsibility by each and every citizen of this world, directed at each and every citizen of this world. No one has a right to threaten another's life and to violate another's right to peace. Remember and pray, and most importantly strive for peace. That's all you can do as an individual. That's what we all must do.

Voices for Peace

This is the first cut of the "no war on Iran" video clip Shcauleh Sahba has made. She is looking for 16 more volunteers to film in the clip and people to help her with music and Farsi captioning. Once it is completed, her goal is to create three broadcast quality versions of this public service announcement (one with out any subtitles, one with English subtitles and one with Persian subtitles) and get it on national TV as soon as possible. Here's Schauleh's blog about the project on Iranian.com today. A beautiful young Iranian with a beautiful idea. It is an honor and a pleasure for me to be included in this project.

Happy Thursday everybody and make this the day you will do something for peace.

P.S. Happy Happy Birthday to my wonderful reader-turned-friend, Farshad Salehi, a.k.a. Universal Farshad, a.k.a Uni-Far! Here's wishing you a fabulous year of love, friendship, and joy.

Children of Adam

Nina Pari Aghabeikzadeh, a young Iranian-American woman (born to an Iranian father and an American mother), has made a five minute film about Iran and protesting potential plans to attack Iran . It is called "Children of Adam," based on Saadi's poem, Bani adam azaye yek peykarand... I have seen the movie and find it sweet and uplifting. Too bad it’s only five minutes, though!

Nina has entered her film on an online film festival with the theme: “Muslims in America : Stories Not Stereotypes.” I would like to invite you to go see it and vote for it if you can before midnight tomorrow night, which is the deadline for voting. Here’s what you have to do:

1. You have to join Link TV to be able to vote. So, go to this link: http://www.linktv.org/community/join , fill out your information and click submit (it doesn’t cost anything to join).
2. Go to your email to receive the registration verification email from Link TV. Click on the link they give you.
3. Go to this link: http://www.linktv.org/onenation/films/view/224, watch the movie, and vote for it. Please note that you will have to watch the five minute movie before you can vote or it will get a negative vote value.
4. Enjoy and share your thoughts here, in the comments section under the movie in Link TV, or directly with Nina at ninapa_film@yahoo.com.

New Year's Prayers

New Year's Mass, St. Joseph's Church, Tehran, January 1, 2008. Photo by Mohsen Sajjadi; see Mehr News for more pictures.

I went looking for a picture appropriate to the occasion of New Year's Day for my post. Among the many many pictures I saw today, I found this image of a New Year's Mass held by Armenian Christians in Tehran most touching. There is something about group prayers that is very appealing to me. Even when people don't believe in God or religions and engage in group meditation instead, something about all those people concentrating together is interesting to me. Anyhow, I'd like to think that those people in the picture were praying for world peace at that moment. We need it now more than any other time. Whatever the occasion, whoever the congregation, and whatever the religion and medium, everyone should be thinking about and hoping for peace and doing something about it, too.

Peace On Earth

Ashayer woman displaying Gilim weaving at Middle East Tourism Expo in Shiraz, November 2007.

I went to see a preview of the film, No End In Sight, at UC Berkeley tonight. The movie is about Iraq war and what went wrong to make one mistake into thousands of others, killing over 3,000 US soldiers and in excess of one million Iraqi's in the process. It was heart wrenching and sad, and it made me angry to see the ineptitude of US-appointed "managers" and "consultants" in Iraq, turning that country into hell. It was so sad. Occasionally, I read in some publications that some Iranians desire military action on Iran. Though I have always thought those Iranians idiots, I so wished I could find them and make them see this movie with me tonight, to see if after watching it they still want a military attack on beautiful Iran and its people. War is hell anywhere and for any nation. There is no such thing as a "sensible" war. All wars are senseless. Even so, the US occupation of Iraq has been one of the most senseless wars in the history. They showed a young Hispanic American soldier who had lost his eyesight and health to a roadside bomb. Disabled and sick, the last thing he said was that his only wish was that someday he realizes something good came out of this war, that he had lost so much not for nothing. I doubt he would get his wish, I'm afraid. I pray for peace on earth tonight.

I Am Iran

It's Friday. I have had a whole week of very exciting and very exhausting events. My older son was applying for university admissions this week. Waiting until the last possible moment created so much stress for him, something from which I hope he has learned a thing or two. Truth be told, I am learning a lot of things, too, about myself, about him, and about life in the process.

I leave you with a video clip which sweet Roja Najafi, Tameshk, has made. It was an idea I had, which she understood with all her heart and ran with it, adding her own soul to it. It is about Iran and about our collective desire to protect it from a potential attack. It was inspired by anti-war protests in San Francisco and Berkeley in October and November. You will see many of the photos that I have collected about Iran in the slideshow. My beautiful and talented friend, Vaaleh, performs her song "Mojdeh-ye Vasl," based on a Hafez poem in the background. I hope you enjoy it. Do tell us what you think. If you can' access Youtube, watch it here on FileDen.

I hope you have a good weekend, full of joy and warm feelings. Think about peace this weekend. Talk about it. Share this video clip with anyone you like, if you find it useful. Do anything and everything within your power to raise awareness about peace. Life is beautiful, full of promises of joys and accomplishments and good memories to come. All of that can only happen when there is peace. When there is no peace, there is fear, there is hate, and there is hopelessness. Peace is what our world needs the most. That's the least we can give our children and their children. Be good y'all.

Hearts, Arms, and Eyes

Ballet Afsaneh dance Persian dances. Music: The Hunt, by Azam Ali from her Niaz Album.

It's Friday. My kids got dressed up in their nice clothes and went to a birthday party. Days ran one after another this week, and before I knew it, another Friday evening is here, when I catch my breath, relax, and write another Friday post. This was a good week. I made tangible progress at work, in my personal affairs, and in some of my relationships. With a reception and many meetings to start a new project at work, I talked entirely too much this week. I am so appreciating the silence of this cool and dark evening. I am a generally sociable and noisy individual. I talk a lot and laugh a lot. It may be a surprise to most people, then, to know how much I value my solitude and quiet. When it's quiet, I get to think and regroup. It took me years to learn this need in myself. Now that I know it, I exercise it frequently!

I leave you with a dance clip of Ballet Afsaneh. They are a local dance company, specializing in Persian, Central Asian, Tajik, Afghan, Uzbek, Indian, and Azerbaijani dances. Though they have some Iranian dancers in their company, their dancers are mostly Americans. They have won many perfoming arts prizes and are regarded as a respectable dance company. You can read more about them on their website. Though a bit blurry, I hope this video clip makes you happy and lets you forget some of your worries.

I wish you all a fabulous weekend. I hope your hours and days are filled with rays of light, winds of joy, and sounds of laughter. I hope you stay warm with the love of your friends and family. Return those phone calls, write those emails, send those photos, and visit the ones waiting to see you. Remember, at the end of the day, nobody really cares how many times you mopped your floors or how vigorously you vacuumed the carpets; they care whether your hands were wrapped around their shoulders, your voice soothed their souls, and your reassurances made them strong. Go get busy with the business of love, understanding, and peace. Please don't shout, don't hunk your horns, and don't frown. Open your hearts, your arms, and your eyes. You may feel, touch, and see things you hadn't before. You just might. And don't forget to pray for peace.

Found Peace Today

I tried to go visit the Berkeley Courts today to inquire about a moving violation ticket I had received a while back (I will tell you the story some other time). The Courts are located across the street from where I work. My little mission fell flat on its face, and as I was walking empty-handed back to my office, I came upon a Berkeley gem. I visited the Berkeley Peace Wall. It was constructed based on a plan by artist Carolyn Marks who was inspired to build it when in 1984 she saw a sign in Berkeley which said: “Do Something Today For Peace.” She asked hundreds of people in different communities to each paint a tile about peace. The wall, featuring the hundreds of tiles painted by those individuals, was built in 1988 and was dedicated in 1989. The park surrounding the Wall is quite possibly one of the most peaceful spots of Berkeley. I thought for the hundredth time, some days all you have to do to feel good in Berkeley is just to step out.

Read more about the Wall here, and see Jahanshah Javid’s photos of the monument here.

Praying For Peace

Some days are hard. Coming out of several weeks' hard work, sleeplessness, and stress, I was so looking forward to starting a relaxing and commitment-free week. My week has gotten off to a stressful start, with trepidations about what happened today at Columbia University, what is happening in my household, projects I must finish at work, and what is happening to a few friends of mine. Thinking about what will happen tomorrow at the United Nations is not terribly uplifting, either. All day today, I had a crippling headache, and my neck and shoulders went back to their cramped and painful state. Yikes. I guess I will just have to keep remembering how well our event on Saturday went, and how good we all felt when we got together last night to celebrate completion of the Seminar. My bright young friends came and in addition to the regulars, two other bloggers joined us for dinner last night. The Man Who Observes Texas is a very interesting character, full of joy of life! I end this day praying for peace.

International Peace Day

September 21st, a day of ceasefire, a day of non-violence, a day of inter-cultural cooperation...

See here.