Israel, Iran-Hezbollah Threat Heightened

My June 26, 2017 Interview with Seth Frentzman, opinion editor of The Jerusalem Post: In an exclusive interview with Radio Farda via Skype, Mr Frentzman said he believes the new threat by Nasrallah has been taken very seriously in Jerusalem.

Life and Times of Late Princess Ashraf Pahlavi of Iran in 15 Minutes

A MUST WATCH on the life and times of Princess Ashraf Pahlavi, twin sister of the last King of Iran, who passed away on 7 January 2016

Princess Ashraf Pahlavi of Iran (English version) from Deb Bergeron on Vimeo.

My interview with Dr. Sadegh Zibakalam in the latest issue of "Khat-e Solh"

Khat-e Solh Monthly [Persian], number 28 featuring my interview with Dr. Sadegh Zibakalam

You can download your free copy here

Visit to Israel Gets Filmmaker “Cleansed” from Iran's Cinema Museum

Screen capture from the first page of Global Voices website ( as of 23.July.2013)

Here is a piece I wrote on the Iranian film maker, Mohsen Makhbaf's recent participation in Jerusalem Film Festival (JFF) that started a heated debate among Iranians. 

NOTE: Although, journalistically, I tried to give voice to both sides of the conversation in the abovementioned report, personally I was among the proponents of a dialogue between the civil societies of both nations in which capacity I see Makhmalbaf's trip as a constructive measure.

Here is a debate [fa] between Nargess Tavassolian who supported Makhmalbaf's participation in JFF  with Sadra Shahab, who signed the open letter criticising the director:

 And this is Nargess's blog post expressing her views about the same subject.

Worth a Thousand Words...

A young Iranian wiping the explosion mark of a hand-made grenade off the mausoleum of Cyrus the Great near Shiraz, Iran. CLICK TO SEE THE FULL SIZED IMAGE

I used to believe in a fierce version of Persian Nationalism, some years passed by before I learned the difference between patriotism and nationalism; hence decided to choose the former as a personal principle. Today, however, I am best described as a humanist patriot. I have no idea what I will grow into tomorrow! 

With that introduction, I would like to share a photo I found on a Facebook page named after a man many of us consider a national hero, Cyrus the Great. 

The dramatic photo depicts a young Iranian using what seems to be his shirt to wipe the explosion mark of a hand-made grenade off the mausoleum of Cyrus the Great near Shiraz, Iran. According to some accounts posted on social media, a group of by-standers described as resembling members of Basij militia had been taunting people who had gathered to celebrate Nowrooz near the resting place of a man they call "The Father of Iran".

I see this in essence as what is upon us as a nation, to wipe off the dirt that has tainted the face of our collective identity, culture and civilisation. We need to reclaim our place in the international arena as a respected people and definitely not as what is represented in our name today. 

Here is footage of the incident posted by citizen journalists on Youtube.

Our Noble Aspirations, Shirin Ebadi & I, Ten Years Later

A few days ago BBC Persian aired a documentary (above) on the life of our nation's only Nobel Laureate, Shirin Ebadi. I still recall vividly how as a young student in Tehran I was overjoyed at the news of her great achievement and then developed mixed feelings when I heard my favourite Iranian 'Shir-Zan' [Literally: Lion Woman] identifying herself as a Muslim or when she said her prize belonged to all Islamic states which I, in the staunch nationalistic mindset of my early 20s, wished she wouldn't have. For me that kind of rhetoric suited the clerics ruling over the country ever since 1979, not her. She was to represent us not them! 

All that said, I remember I almost kissed the TV set when she said these words before the dignitaries and journalists from all major news channels around the world: 

I am an Iranian. A descendent of Cyrus The Great. The very emperor who proclaimed at the pinnacle of power 2500 years ago that "... he would not reign over the people if they did not wish it." And [he] promised not to force any person to change his religion and faith and guaranteed freedom for all. The Charter of Cyrus The Great is one of the most important documents that should be studied in the history of human rights.

And then, still not sure what to expect from this nice woman who had brought us some pride, I wrote a piece on National Review Online which I - as you might expect - titled "Noble Aspirations". 

Ten years have passed by since those days, Shirin Ebadi faced so much difficulty in her beloved Iran that she had to leave everything behind and live a life of exile. I, that used to call myself Koorosh Afshar, have apparently followed suit and no longer need a pseudonym to protect my safety on this side of the border.

Other things have changed, too, including my views on nationalism and what nation-ness means to me these days; however, I still fervently believe in every word I said back then:

Mrs. Ebadi is at a very critical juncture. She can, with her wise secular words, shatter the suffocating bonds of theocracy, and represent to the world the desires of the Iranian nation. As she faces obstacles in doing so, she should be bolstered by the fact that nothing is nobler than the just, secular aspirations of my nation–or the act of supporting them. She should remember the words of Thomas Paine: “Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst; every other species of tyranny is limited to the world we live in; but this attempts to stride beyond the grave, and seeks to pursue us into eternity."

Oh, and I now have this addition to my personal library. Shirin Ebadi's Golden Cage signed by no other person than herself for a "Mr. Hooman Askary, with best wishes of success!"   :-)

Alia strips again, this time here in Sweden

This is what happened a few days ago here in Sweden. Alia Majed El-Mahdi -whom you most likely know by now- took her protest to the frozen streets of Sweden and the very doorstep of the Egyptian embassy in Stockholm. Alia shed her clothes along with two fellow-activists to denounce what is being done unto her people back home in Egypt. She protested a Muslim-Brotherhood's darling, Mohammad Morsi, for having started to sound much like the notorious Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini lately referring to his powers as "divinely-sanctioned and blessed". 

In my perspective, regardless of how brave and courageous Alia was in at least standing up and doing what she could, this was made possible thanks to this benign and benevolent Swedish nation. What the Swedes have achieved as the fruit of the sweat and blood of thousands of people through generations has resulted to the betterment of not only themselves but many people like Alia. Like us who have taken refuge here in this land. This is added reason why I honestly believe that constructive patriotism should eventually evolve into globalism: You can only have a good neighbourhood if you-first and foremost- take good care of your own residence.

All throughout the years I have never relinquished my unfathomable love for my plagued motherland.  In my mental journey I came a long way from ethnocentrism and blind nationalism to a reformed nationalism to patriotism in the sense just elaborated, - also reflected in the very title of this blog. But today I say proudly that just as I will always remain grateful to my beloved Iran, my second homeland is definitely this very wonderful Sweden.

I love Iran and would do whatever humanly possible for her, but it is Sweden that makes it possible for me to do what I need to do. It is Sweden that allows me to write freely now and indulge myself in these very basic freedoms for which people lose their lives in my homeland. 

I will always love you Iran. I sure will do. But allow me this once to rephrase the opening sentence of this post and say: This is what happened a few days ago here in Sweden, my second homeland.

My latest report on Global Voices in the featured section

Here is the link:

Screen capture of Global Voices website, retrieved on 12.12.12

Nostalgies of the Burnt Generation

In case you did not know we, the Iranian youth born during the 80s, call ourselves 'The Burnt Generation'.

We were born just after a bloody revolution and then lived through an eroding war that lasted a whopping whole eight years, -- that's enough to get you from the crate to school desks; right? We witnessed death at every corner and learnt that life was nothing to be taken for granted while this world was not worth being cherished. All these nihilistic ideas were inculcated onto our young minds throughout the years. We were denied the little reasons to be happy that were congruent with our early years, were segregated at schools from as low as seven years of age and were forced to digest concepts such as martyrdom and self-denial. 

This background insight should be enough to give you just a taste of how things were for us as children. In case you are interested, there are now numerous sources on the internet that will provide you with a more exquisite account of the term and the context. My own piece dated 12.June.2003 might serve as a decent starting point. I still lived in Iran at the time and was 22 back then. 

But as much as The Burnt Generationists led a less-than-jolly-life, we may still take the liberty of indulging in the Western luxuries from time to time. One of those luxuries that still reach us through the labyrinth of sanctions imposed on Iranians is...ehem...nostalgia. 

We are best at this one, trust me! We are a nation that successfully ranks atop, and if not there 'among the tops', of every refugee and diaspora chart. Thus, it is not that daunting of a task to find things that take us back to a state of felicity and joyousness that quite probably never actually existed in the first place!

Here is an example of our nostalgic bits that has been going viral within the Iranian cyber space. It is an extract from one our childhood years' programs that constituted the very little fun we were allowed during those years:

[my translation]

1st puppet: Leave me alone, I wanna go and kill him!
2nd puppet: Not now, it is of no use. Come back.
1st puppet: Let go of me, I wanna go and kill him to teach him a lesson.
...
Host: What's up? Whom do you wanna kill?
...
1st puppet: I wanna pluck out his two eyes.
2nd puppet: But if you wanna kill him I will go with you too.
...
2nd puppet: We will beat the crap out of him so much that he will fall dead.
1st puppet: The lunatic.
2nd puppet: He has a screw loose.
Host: Don't swear kids, it's a sin.
Puppets (both): What? It's a sin? Do you mean you are on his side?
Host: But who?
...
 Host: I am on the side of all good human beings.
1st puppet: so you think he is a human being too?
Host: But who?
1st puppet: the one who attacked...the one who thinks it is his father's legacy...
1st puppet: that gav [Persian for cow]... Sadgav [in Persian 'hundred cows'. Apparently a demeaning term to refer to Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator, who was at the peak of his power leading the war against Iran.]
Host: Aha... Saddam... that lunatic must be....
2nd puppet: Killed!
...
Host: He deserves it.
1st puppet: Yeah, he must be mutilated.
2nd puppet: His moustache has to be plucked and he must be beaten so much that he falls dead.
...
Host: But he is dying already, with these attacks launched against him by our dear guardians [of the Islamic Revolution] and Basij [Militia] and army, he would die of a sudden heart attack any day and go to Hell....

And this was our 'Children's Program'!

Of course the host later advises the kids to give up on going on a "Hunt down Saddam" joyride and tells them "to study their lessons instead." But perhaps the message was lost within the early revolutionary zeal that made the scenes such as the one that follows a reality.

The footage shows Iranian minor POWs at a Red Cross camp in Iraq.

My new piece on Roozonline website (in Persian)

Here is the link.

"I owe myself life"

I wanna get back to writing about my personal takes on life, let's give sociopolitical themes a break. After all my 'personal' Facebook page seems politicized enough so why not utilize this place to fill the void? I am writing because of a touching experience I have had with an artistic masterpiece that at the first glance appeared a far cry from my conventional taste: a song by the French heavy metal group "Gojira" titled "L'Enfant Sauvage".  After listening to the song over and over again and savoring every word of it, I am now convinced my musical was frozen in at least a few decades ago.

Dom Lawson from The Guardian gives them a five star review and describes Gojira's new album "a ferociously original piece of work that reaches its electrifying zenith on The Gift of Guilt," being from where I come from I got goose bumps listening thorough "L'Enfant Sauvage", the album's second track as it is as if these words are screamed through the mouth of myself and my peers: 

So long I've been trying to match

It doesn't work I'm trying I don't know The aberration of this world
It killed a part of me and I was raging
The denial
Run away from institutions
I owe myself life


I will respond to this pression anger
There is light in this world I fight for
The reason you won't leave this cage
Betray your child the desire
that you won't serve to reveal yourself
Forgot to create your own life
Anger
Lies
Denial

I try to deal with

The pain is gone

There's no way

Flowing through me

Pathology of the Iranian Change: How the Global Community Can Help

This article originally appeared on Iranian Progressive Youth (IPY) website. 

Pathology of the Iranian Change:

How the Global Community Can Help

Written by: Hooman Askary

April 10, 2011

IRANIAN PEOPLE’S post-presidential-election demonstrations of 2009 were by no means a new phenomenon in Iran. They had precedence and they proved to be ongoing. They were a link in the long chain of events that constitute the story of change in the contemporary history of Iran. The main difference between this time and past events was the role of social networking and citizen journalism which had both become available thanks to the internet. This time the world stopped to see, even partly, what happened within the borderlines of the Islamic Republic. Foreign governments and international personalities condemned the brutal attacks of the Basij militia and members of the Islamic Republic Guards Corps (IRGC) on the defenseless people who were leading some of the most peaceful movements of modern times. They sought no vengeance, they bore no grudge and their aspirations were Earthly and “achievable”; that is, had they been backed by the international community. This article addresses one simple question: what can the international community do to help the Iranian people’s cause?