Monday, February 28, 2005

" Nooshi va Joojehash" A Persian weblog !

One thing that keeps me busy these days is reading "Nooshi va Joojehash"*, a Persian weblog. Its writing style astonished me. It amazed me by its simple and easy moves from one word to another. Nooshi is its writer/creator.

The way that She, Nooshi, writs in Farsi (Persian) is astoundingly beautiful. I believe Farsi, is an abstruse language, the language of great poets like, Hafez and Rumi. The complexity of words and variety of styles are surprising in Farsi, yet Nooshi manages to bring simplicity and greatness in her words and make you feel close to the subject matter.

It is not only her style which makes her blog a page-turner one, but also the subjects of her posts are noteworthy. Nooshi is writing about her kids (Jojehash). She is separated from her husband and she wants to take the custody of children after divorce. The Islamic law, in regular cases of divorce, gives the custody of kids to the husband. She fights for her rights as a mother and as a woman and struggles with the bitter situations that divorce creates.

In her weblog she chooses to talk about her kids, Aloosha and Noosha and their every day life as they are growing. She is not using real names for kids or even for herself. Readers do not see any direct accusations against her husband but they may feel his shadow which makes you not be sympathetic to him. When you read her weblog you become a close witness to their lives: a friend who is invited on their dinner table.

"Nooshi va Jojehash" portrays the life of a single mother and her two children in today’s Iran. If by any chance you know Farsi, take a look at her weblog, you won’t regret it.

* http://nooshi.ir/

I find this picture interesting and meaningful for this post: after all "Jooje" means "Farm Chicken" and it is contributed to one’s children. I heard that here; in U.S. mothers call their children "their Monkeys" which I think has the similar concept.

Sunday, February 20, 2005

Roshanak!

I am in Panera again!

Today I had a call form Iran. My cousin, Roshanak*, called me . She is one of the kindest, loveliest girls I 've ever seen.
She talked about snow in Tehran and Rasht. 2 meters snow came in the last 2 weeks. It was and is a disaster especially near to Norooz, Persian celebration for New Year, the same day as beginig of Spring.

I miss the sweets, cakes and all the shoppings for the Norooz.

* http://www.harimeman.persianblog.com

Monday, February 07, 2005

Kite Runner

A friend of mine, A.F., suggested that I should read "Kite Runner" 2 mounts ago. I took a look at the cover, I saw the author’s name "Khaled Hosseini"* and I somehow became sad.

I don't know why, but recently I hate it when someone who knows you are form Middle East or somewhere other than U.S. wants to point it out to you that: "Hay this is about you guys, is this true?, see how much we care!, we study your culture, or oh so sad that this thing happened in your countries..." (as if I come from more than one country)
Another thing is that I miss my family, my country, my home so much that everything form there: a movie or a book or any news make me so upset that I want to lie down on bed for a whole day. I become so sad with these things that I don't want to tell anybody where I am coming from.

She/He* suggested it to me again and again and finally she/he lent me her/his own copy of the book. I asked her/him if the book had a sad story because I couldn't bear it. She/He said it had sad parts and happy parts: Just Read It. I thought, I had to read this one. Thanks to her/him, I started to read it. I am going to finish it soon.

It is Hilarious. It makes you want to have Pomegranate right away. It makes you wish if it was Yalda every night. It makes you hate war. It changes the meaning of honesty and honor.

Please Read It.


* Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. The son of a diplomat, his family received political asylum in the United States in 1980. He currently lives in California where he is a physician. The Kite Runner is his first novel.

* I think, I should put "He" first as a grammatical- correctness-point. But, by all due respect, I prefer "She" to be first. After all "Ladies First".