Posts tagged as Iran
Iran Cracks Down On Men In Shorts, And Good For Them
Yes, yes, even an insane radical theocracy gets it right every now and again.
U.S. Woman Detained In Iran On Accusations Of Spying With Device Implanted In Her Teeth
The world just keeps getting whatier, doesn't it? Iran has apparently arrested a 55-year-old American woman, Hall Talayan, on accusations that she attempted to cross into the country near the northwest city of Nordouz with some sort of "spying technology or a microphone" hidden in her teeth.
Failures in Journalism: Ahmadinejad's Visit and Negotiating with Iran
This time of year, when the air grows crisp and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes his annual visit to Manhattan to address the United Nations General Assembly, I often look back on my own encounter with the Iranian President. It was 2007, and I was thinking of writing a story about Neturei Karta, a tiny sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews known for their vehement anti-Zionism. (One of their leaders served as Yassir Arafat's Minister for Jewish Affairs; you may remember them as the rabbis who attended Iran's "International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust" in 2006.) One day that September, I called my main contact, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, to see what they were up to. READ MORE
Don't Call The British "Thick"
"They have plundered the world in the last 500 years and the young lad in charge now is even more stupid than his predecessor. It's as if God has made this nation servants of America and Zionists. England has nothing. Its inhabitants are not human, its officials are not responsible, and it doesn't even have any natural resources. (They are) a bunch of thick people ruled by a mafia." READ MORE
Toward A More Modern Method Of Stoning
Today in modest proposals: "The punishment of stoning needs to be updated to fit with the times. Having a frothing mob hurl rocks at a woman half-buried and yelling until her eyes fall out is a process of law which means well, obviously, but it needs to be given a modern gloss. There should still be a place for mob violence, for the semi-burial, for the hurling of rocks, and for stoning to stay on the statute books where it belongs."
State-Approved Iranian Haircuts Not As Square As One Might Think
There is an amazing bunch of photographs up at Iran's Mehr News site illustrating the government's recent decree of haircuts that fall in line with Iranian and Islamic principles. While the guidelines are intended to thwart the popularity of "Western" styles among the country's youth, they're not as short and crewcut-y as you might expect. Length in the back seems to be the main no-no, but Priestlian sideburns and Preslian pompadours meet with repeated approval. READ MORE
Iranian Cleric Passes Up Perfect Opportunity To End Bit With "... In My Pants!"
Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, acting leader of Friday prayers in Tehran, is concerned about earthquakes-a not unreasonable fear in a country prone to seismic disturbances. But what is the cause of these natural disasters? If you guessed "hot chicks in tight clothes," you are either familiar with a certain strain of Koranic interpretation or you have seen this item elsewhere. Anyway, let's hear it from Hojatoleslam's mouth (or, at the very least, from a translation of the Iranian media transcription): "Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes." Okay!
The End of the 00s: A Party In Iran, by Kaila Hale-Stern
Hadi is showing me pictures from epic-looking parties. Men and women dance, their bodies caught in ecstatic pause. The women are, for the most part, rather scantily clad: microscopic skirts dominate, and belly shirts that show a good deal of taut belly. Their faces are masterworks of make-up art: streaks of vibrant color rising to the eyebrow, glitter and blush and outlined lips. They move, the partiers, with abandon, heads tipped back, preening and laughing. The pictures are from Iran. READ MORE
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Hates Jews For The Normal Reasons
Sad news for fans of self-hatred: An expert on Jewish Iranians is casting doubt on this weekend's speculation that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a Jew whose family changed its name to avoid discrimination. Professor David Yeroshalmi, commenting on the assertion that the Ahmadinejad clan's original moniker of Sabourjian means "weaver of Jew prayer shawls," disputes the conjecture. READ MORE
Ahmadinejad Speaks
On the eve of Qods Day, the holiday celebrated by Iran with denunciations against Israel, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sat down with NBC's Ann Curry in attempt to show the world that he is indeed as cartoonish and shifty as previously suspected. (Watch the full interview here.) I mean, seriously, what is it with this guy? He's making Ann Curry look hard-hitting. More importantly, the Iranian opposition used today's festivities to demonstrate against the regime; the Guardian has a good roundup of the protests.
