Visiting Isfahan- I

After the cease fire in Lebanon, I feel a bit relieved. Here, I try to get back to the usual tune:

I had a short trip to Isfahan a couple of days ago. To me, this city in central part of Iran is the most beautiful city of the country. It's the usual tourist destination of all those who travel to Iran. It was the capital city about 450 years ago and then it was of the few cities of the world having a population more than 1 million. You can imagine the flourishing life then. Isfahan is rich in its historical treasures. The city embraces an international cultural heritage- Naqshe Jahan Square. The square locates three architectural masterpieces in; two mosques and a four storey palace at the third side. The fourth side is the entrance of the old bazaar connecting the Square and Jame' mosque, the only monument dating back to 1000 years ago. The city is divided into two southern and northern parts by a river called Zayande Rud. Four historical bridges are constructed on it. The scenery of the river and the bridges is amazing. If you had a chance to come to Iran, you need more than one week to visit the entire city.

* Uploading images in blogger is an agony. If not, I would have loved to post a lot more.

See o se pol (meaning 33 bridges) - of the ancient bridges (may be the most famous one) crossing Zayande Rud, the river diving the city. The scenery is amazing and I never lose the opportunity to roam around and enjoy its beauty. The historical bridges on Zayande Rud are made of bricks and stones mainly and have been used during all these long years. Nowadays they are just used by pedestrians.

The sign quotes from prophet Mohammad:" Throw away the hatred!"


A samavor and tea pots beside, waiting to fill the stakans . I took the picture in a restaurant we lunched in.

Armenians were taken to Iran some 450 years ago forcefully by one of Safavid kings, then rulers of Iran. They were supposed to transfer know-how and technical knowledge to Iran and actually they did. Armenians are known as some technical minded people in Iran. The rate of education is high in them disproportionate to their population ratio. In Isfahan they live mostly in a district called Julfa. This is a picture of Vank church in Julfa. The beautiful thing is the dome which is usually an Islamic architectural element beside their own gothic dome. The church is registered as a cultural heritage.

Hassan Nassrallah on a billboard. It quotes from Khamenei:" Stronger than ever, the Muslim nations of the world hate America and are angry with it."

Women in front of a gold shop- a familiar scene in Iran.
Golden ornaments are not just ornaments, they are kind of investment for our women who don't have any rights after marriage. They pile golden necklaces and bracelets and earrings to be sold and used whenever needed- for unpredicted circumstances. For this reason, gold is exchanged in whatsoever ceremonies come up; giving birth to a child, wedding, graduating from university, etc.

The beautiful dome of an old religious school- Chahar Bagh school. Like most of historical monuments in Isfahan, it dates back to 450 years ago.

Visting Isfahan- II



Just in the middle of a park I saw this beautiful place for praying the god- Namaaz. A young man is doing Rokoo'. I'm not religious at all, but I liked the place and the atmosphere.

Playing chess was forbidden in Iran. I don't know why and how it was like this. Khomeini was the one who dared to make a 'fatwa' and ok it. This is a park in Isfahan and the chess corner of it. These two men were of the groups playing there.

Statues are forbidden to make in Islam. The same goes for sculptures, but not that restraint. Isfahan is of the cities daring to shake this law. Here is an work of art of our prominent sculptor- Parviz Tanavoli, standing in front of municipality building.
A Baluch kid in Naqshe Jahan square. When I asked his parents whether they mind if I shoot, they smiled and said :" Of course not!". The kid couldn't understand what was going on.

A beautiful sky in the background of Ali-Qapoo palace in Naqshe Jahan square.

Handicraft shop- copper and brass stuff

What happens if an insect falls in a cup of coffee ?!


The British: will throw the cup into the street and leave the coffee shop for good.

The American: will get the insect out and drink the coffee.

The Chinese: will eat the insect and drink the coffee.


The Israeli will:
(1) Sell the coffee to the American and the insect to the Chinese.

(2) Cry on all media channels that he feels insecure.

(3) Accuse the Palestinians, KHizballah, Syria and Iran of using germ-weapons.

(4) Keep on crying about anti-semitism and violations of human rights.
Note: If the coffee shop owner was a jew himself, added to the above should be 'self-hated'.

(5) Ask the Palestinian President to stop planting insects in the cups of coffee.

(6) Re-occupy the West Bank, Gaza Strip.

(7) Demolish houses, confiscate lands, cut water and electrity from Palestinian houses and randomly shoot Palestinians bringing one hudreds excuses that the insects have been flying from civilian areas.

(8) Ask the United States for urgent military support and a loan of one billion dollars in order to buy a new cup of coffee.
Note: Any resolutions or statements to be ratified by UN should be drafted by IDF people.

(9) Ask the United Nations to punish the coffee-shop owner by making him offer free coffee to him till the end of the century.

(10) Last but not least, accuse the whole world to be standing still, not even sympathizing with the Israeli Nation.

God's chosen people?

Josten Gaarder is famous in Iran for a book he wrote a couple of years ago to teach philosophy to the teen- Sophie's World. The book was read and re-read, presented as gift on different occassions, discussed and commented many many times here. An amazing work of literature.
I was directed to this through an Iranian group blog and I loved it. This statement pictures exactly what I think and feel about state of Israel. I think many of you feel the same. Here, I bring some parts of it:

"There is no turning back. It is time to learn a new lesson: We do no longer recognize the state of Israel. We could not recognize the South African apartheid regime, nor did we recognize the Afghan Taliban regime. Then there were many who did not recognize Saddam Hussein’s Iraq or the Serbs’ ethnic cleansing. We must now get used to the idea: The state of Israel in its current form is history."
......

"We do not recognize the old Kingdom of David as a model for the 21st century map of the Middle East. The Jewish rabbi claimed two thousand years ago that the Kingdom of God is not a martial restoration of the Kingdom of David, but that the Kingdom of God is within us and among us. The Kingdom of God is compassion and forgiveness."
......

"We recognize the state of Israel of 1948, but not the one of 1967. It is the state of Israel that fails to recognize, respect, or defer to the internationally lawful Israeli state of 1948. Israel wants more; more water and more villages. To obtain this, there are those who want, with God’s assistance, a final solution to the Palestinian problem. The Palestinians have so many other countries, certain Israeli politicians have argued; we have only one."
.....
"We do not recognize the state of Israel. Not today, not as of this writing, not in the hour of grief and wrath. "

Death knell ringing

Iran was attacked by Mongols about 700 years ago and the result of their attacks was the endless killings, setting the towns and cities on fire, collapsing palaces and houses…..in one word: leaving the entire country devastated in total ruin and rubble.
There are stories told of the horror and the pain of people in those days. One is:
An Iranian man was arrested by a Mongol soldier. The soldier had something to do, so he ordered the man:" Stay here till I come back and behead you!" And the man waited there for his fate……..
I think what Israeils had in mind – and their American backers- was something like that Iranian man's reaction probably because a few days back I read (I don't know where) an IDF officer complaining:" This is not a guerilla group. They have anti-tank missiles. Our tanks are hit and exploded by their Russian and Italian made missiles……". So, what? He expected to face some weak bearded soldiers armed with cocktail molotovs and when actually he faced a persistent strong group he has a right to whine and moan why it was not like what he (they) had imagined? Israelis thought (and still think) that they can dictate their plans over the whole region through merciless killings. Seems they have miscalculated.

Today, before millions of people watching Siniora speaking at the conference of Arab foreign ministers in Beirut, giving report on the barbaric killings of Israelis, he broke in tears more than twice. I'm sure, as his tears sled down on his face, many new soldiers with the deepest feelings of hatred against Israel and America were born in Arab (and may be non-Arab) world. Does it make any good for Israel? I don't think so!

I don't know what will come up of the gathering in Beirut, but what actually has happened in the hearts of millions of Arabs all over the world, is the deepest solidarity with Lebanese. I saw a report on Syrians' reaction on BBC today. Beside the Christian religious march which was changed to a rally in support of Lebanese last, the interesting scene BBC showed was a disco in Damascus where the young boys and girls danced under the flashy lights in a techno tune singing:" May god bless Hassan Nassrallah!"

Insanity vs sanity

1- After weeks of indiscriminate bombings, killing hundreds of civilians (more than 40% of them kids) and damaging Lebanese infrastructure, the US has come up with a magic solution: draft of a resolution. I think this resolution which is strongly opposed by Lebanese, has been aiming at mostly and fundamentally of intriguing disputes and enflaming sectarian conflicts inside Lebanon. Americans and Israelis hope that the savage killings of IDF (leaving nobody untouched) has made the necessary basis for some factions to give in and ok it. Besides, they know that not everybody in Lebanon is in love with resistance and Hizballah, so they are encouraging these factions to take into action and help Israel and the States to achieve their goals.

2- Despite the crazy heads of state of Israel, the cry for Peace is getting louder and louder there. The peaceniks who began with a demo of 500 people in the first days after July 12, now have become 10 thousands. As one of my friends said once:" As far as this kind of people live on Earth, the life is worth living." May they get stronger!

"Tomorrow I shall go to prison!" - army refuser explains his motives.

1-The latest 'achievement' of Israeli killing machine has been murdering 33 workers mostly Kurds, in a farm close to Lebanon-Syria border. I heard on BBCWorld some IDF official claiming that they have been watching the trucks going to and fro to Syria and they resulted it had rockets inside. Well, they hit the trucks and what we saw on TV screens was not missiles but fruit boxes shred into pieces. Seems Israelis want to leave nobody supporting them. They began killing UN peacekeepers and now Kurdish farm workers. Are they going to register their 3rd time of 'apology' for killing those with no connection with Hizballah?

2-Have you noticed all the fuss and moans in the first days of war regarding two soldiers are totally forgotten? At Israeli side, they are just speaking about pushing KHizballah back from northern borders and distancing it as much as possible and finally disarming or even dismantling it, and at American side speaking about the New Middle East.

3- Apart from the military outcome of this war, all the attempts of Israelis to
intrigue Lebanese to fight each other (as one of the Lebanese bloggers put once; giving the pleasure of civil war to Israelis) have failed totally. Thanking the savage murders and hundreds of bombings, Israelis have left no friend for themselves in Lebanon. If you don't believe me, look at LBC- the right wing Lebanese TV. There are priests, Christians, shiaas and sunnis speaking all shouting in anger, condemning Israelis. All the sectarian feelings of Lebanese have vanished to the shared anger against the common enemy.
Outside Lebanon, the waves of solidarity with Lebanese are strengthening day by day. Both in Arab countries (no matter they are Sunnis or Shiaas) and outside, nobody is fooled by the lies of IDF, Israeli government and their American backers. Everybody knows that this is a war between Israeli war machine and the whole country of Lebanon as the first step toward reshaping the whole region into a form Israeli government and Bushies would love to see. What I say is summarized into a term heard these days more and more:" counter production".

4- Israelis have lost the war morally. The defeat is for two major reasons:

a- they haven't been able to defeat Lebanese resistance militarily yet, although they are using the high tech weaponry,

b- the indiscriminate attacks against Lebanese infrastructure and civilians has raged anger all over the world. Thanking the media and internet, Israelis can't do whatever they would love to do –as they were used to do for about six decades, easy and rapid victories through savage killings- any more. All the crimes they commit these days are seen and judged by millions all over the world. They are never forgotten.

I received this today. This can explain what I'm doing right now on this blog:

They invaded and killed the Iraqis,
and I did not speak up,
for I was not an Iraqi;
They invaded and killed the Palestinians,
and I did not speak up,
for I was not a Palestinian;
They invaded and killed the Lebanese,
and I did not speak up,
for I was an Iranian,
Then they came for the Iranians –
and there was no one to speak up for me.

They are knee deep in the Big Muddy,

But the big fool says to push on....

I hope this war won't be another war of casualties and wounded people turning to nameless faceless census as it is in Iraq right now. Thanking the glorious and wise plans of neocons, Iraqi civilians are killed in big numbers everyday and the 'constructive chaos' has brought nothing beside blood and destruction to this ancient country.

In Lebanon, the battle is going on fiercely and IDF commandos did a very 'brilliant' operation last night attacking Ba'lbak, killing 20 people and wounding more just to arrest 5 men whom according Israelis are Hizbollah low-rank members. On BBC World it was an interview with a Hizbollah official in Ba'lback even denying that the arrested people have been the people of their party. Well, even if he is not true, that's not a pride for the strongest air force of the world to arrest just 5 men. Risking the lives of Isreli boys (having blue bloods in their veins), for such a thing?

As the war goes on and the expected rapid flashy victory is substituting by a long exhausting procedure of going to and fro in Lebanese territory aiming a dim future, the war mongers are trying to define a new target. This I read in Yediot Aharanot today. Well, both our name and Syrians' has been repeated since the beginning, but these days we can hear it more frequently.

Today when Olmert was boasting off about wiping the militants off the borders, they shelled about 160 rockets into Israel, one of them penetrating about 50 miles deep into Israeli territory. Well, may be this can teach him and others that this problem has no military solution and they can't go anywhere using their savage force, killing more and more of civilians, destructing the infrastructure of Lebanon. When they will ever learn?

Trying to know more about the circumstances in Lebanon, I surfed the website of Lebanese Communist Party today and found this and this. Also, this afternoon there was a live interview with Khalid Haddada, the general secretary of the Party on Aljazeerah. Through my weak Arabic, I could understand he was saying that the war in Lebanon is not targeting Hizbollah and resistance, but the whole Lebanon and her sovereignty.

Aha, and something more interesting. I found this today on a Lebanese weblog. Well, if it's true, "Hello there in Tel Aviv!"