Guardians' council rejects referendum bill. Khatami will stay on to 2005, read the EIU analysis while waiting for the ICG analysis. If you're staying in Iran only in the hope that things will improve, I say leave.

Australian police raid Iranian homes. "She talked to them and said if you want to get the terrorists, you've got to go to Iranian embassy, not here, you've got the wrong people."

The streets are covered with pictures of Khomeini for the 14th and 15th of Khordad holidays. I remember the book "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television" well, it is one of my favourites and I refer to it all the time. In the book, the author Jerry Mander (his real name) quotes a Hopi Indian theory that whatever you look at the most or meditate upon, you become like. In fact the idea is present in many world cultures and religions. He uses this and other ideas about how light enters in the top of your head to argue against TV. If you see Khomeini's unsmiling face everywhere and keep seeing it all the time, it will probably have a bad effect on you. Another word to describe the Iranian government is "necrocracy", government in the name of the dead (I read this in some Khomeini biography). In every country there is a dictator, you see his picture everywhere... in Iran, you see the dead dictator everywhere. It might be the same in Syria, with Hafez and Bashar al-Assad pictures everywhere, but I don't know.

The most important point for me, however, is that if the government spent on traffic a fraction of the time they spend on signs, Iranians wouldn't be treated worse than Swiss dog shit. The rule of law would be enforced and many of the problems of Iranian society would disappear at once.

Some links on how the US helped Iran with their nuclear program before the revolution. Dilip Hiro probably has a good book about this.

Slashdot has an article advising you to buy a bad computer for US college, because you won't be able to play games and if you work it out you're probably spending $1 a minute on classes!

Russia 'halting Iran nuclear help'.

Persepolis a comic book about an Iranian childhood. (see news.google.com for links) Interview with the author.

Khatami stalls for time; Mullah's Manhattan Project from instapundit. The author suggests a pre-emptive strike on Iranian nuclear facilities... Let's not invade Iran based on weak "intelligence". Menas Associates has a page about Iran I found through some Reuters article.

Iran brain drain article on BBC. I am not sure that going to India is such a big improvement...
"Everyone wants to leave because of the economic problems, because of the social conditions facing young people," [he] said. It talks about English teaching here, but what it doesn't mention is how terrible the quality of teaching in Tehran is... people learn English grammar in school but not how to speak. I've met lots of people who have a degree in "English translation" from Azad Islamic University (four years!) that can't speak a word!! I wanted to talk about this: if you can speak English well, then you can leave, but if you can't, then you are out of luck because the main countries built on immigration (Canada, US, UK, Australia, NZ, South Africa even) are all English-speaking countries.

OK, some pictures from yesterday. I went to Darakeh again, arriving at 6:30am... walked for a few hours, had ash-reshteh, talked about mathematics problems... then I went to a gathering in a walled garden near Tajrish. Remember, "paradise" originally came from a Persian word meaning "walled garden". It was really great. In fact I went into the wrong place at first and it had to belong to a (dollar) millionaire... when I got to the actual place, it was even better and I could hardly believe I was in Tehran... of course, the area is full of magnificent houses no-one lives in... anyway, pictures tell the story best.

Eric Robert Rudolph arrested, I remember reading about this guy and thinking he would never be caught...

The Waldorf transcripts showing how Powell and Straw doubted the evidence... it reminds me of the joke about the preacher's notes... "argument weak here, shout loudly!"

Apathy in Iran. Finally, an article quoting people who live here. British Airways has 5 flights a week to Tehran now.

Iran holds Saif al-Adel. So what was he doing here?

A specialist on US-EU relations says: "U.S. hawks were privately pressing for pre-emptive strikes to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities, as Israel did with Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981." Utilitarianism says: if everyone had the same pre-emptive policy as the US, what would the world look like? Would it be a safer place? I suppose looking at the big picture, it is Iran that needs to make concessions now, because the EU policy on Iran is going nowhere. Otherwise the EU policy will become closer to the US policy.

David Warren says Michael Ledeen is the best informed Western journalist on Iran? Is this really what people in the West think? I hope not.

I went through my nedstat links (see that graph over there?) and came to... Iranian or Canadian which has a horror story about a guy who was born in Iran but now has a Canadian passport travelling to the US. From there I went to where's my elephant which had a BBC link about Rumsfeld saying Iraq destroyed its WMD before the war. Does this make sense to you? I'm sure there's a big contradiction there somewhere, someone just needs to write a good web page about it, putting all the statements by Powell, Bush, Rumsfeld, Blix, Ritter etc together.

Disaffected Muslim is interesting. He/she is very articulate, self-aware and self-critical and I pretty much agree with everything he/she says. And I love dogs too! Little Green Footballs writes critically about the Muslim world, but I didn't like the guy's coverage of Rachel Corrie, for example. Just as it's possible for some to be anti-Israel in a kneejerk way, LGF is pro-Israel in the same way.

Wired News writes more about Iranian bloggers.

I patiently await the next International Crisis Group report about Iran. Possibly before June 16 (IAEA meeting), almost certainly before August 5 (one year since their last Iran report).

Chess in Kabul by Frans M. Hoynck van Papendrecht. Boys and girls get to play, and the article has good pictures too. Khomeini banned chess in Iran until 1988 and then Mullah Omar of the Taliban banned chess in Afghanistan. Note that Kabul is more liberal than the rest of the country.

"Prior to the Ayatollah, Iran, under the Shah, was the only Islamic country that organized chess and participated in chess tournaments, including the 22nd chess olympiad in Israel in 1976 (in Haifa)." (from the above link.)

I went to Kolakchal today and because it was Tuesday there were no people. That deserves pictures too!

Lieberman favours regime change in Iran:

"There's no nation in the world where the government is more anti-American and the people are more pro-American then Iran," he told FNS host Tony Snow. "And that's the equation we have to flip."

So, the USA should make the people anti-American and the government pro-American! Like the Arab countries, in other words...

Lots of other news in links: Iran Says It Holds No Senior Al Qaeda Members; two-faced Iran hiding Osama bomb goons; (what a classic tabloid headline) Iranian lawmakers protest to ayatollah; IIFM membership for Iran; Australian foreign minister's remarks in Iran; Azar Nafisi in The Atlantic; Ruzegar-ye-ma review; (sounds like the profiled presidential candidate would have been much more in touch than Khatami!) Lady Sun complains about having to wear socks.

Lastly, Cannes is going downhill... (switch to Venice)

"The poor quality of the pool this year -- a view shared by many -- raises questions about the French festival's traditional hegemony and festival director Gilles Jacob's unabashed reverence for directors based on their reputations rather than their most recent results."

SNSC bans publication of letter to Khamenei. (from ibelievethat). How ironic, to ban the publication of a letter which in part complains about the lack of press freedom! Khatami is the chairman of the SNSC.

Sen Robert Byrd writes "The Truth Will Emerge" concerning Iraq (from eyeranian)... the san francisco chronicle writes about regime change in Iran:

"Iran's hard-line government, accused by the Bush administration of harboring top al-Qaida members, poses a big problem for the United States and should be replaced, lawmakers said Sunday."

What would this sound like if we switched "Iran" and "the United States", then changed "Bush" to "Khamenei" and "al-Qaida" to "MKO"?

"According to someone" is an article in which the ombudsman of the Washington Post claims that, despite the Jayson Blair scandal, all their quotes from anonymous intelligence officials about Iran will be real quotes. He acknowledges the problems with anonymous sources.

Finally the Australian foreign minister talks to Khatami and Kharrazi, and it's reported in Australia this way and Iran this way. (Of course Iran Daily plays up the "blame America" angle, can't they think of something new?)

Yesterday I went to Darakeh again. The mountains were full of basiji wearing keffiyehs, and women in chadors. Some had green, red and white headbands. People were giving out free saffron drinks, and later free zam-e-zam soft drinks. The reason behind all these strange events was the commemoration of 3rd Khordad 1361/24th May 1982, the victory at Khorramshahr. There are lots of cloth murals up again.

I played some chess there... there was one interesting position, which I should convert to a jpg file in keeping with the new graphic style here!

Iran denies accusations about al-Qaeda. The interesting point about the Guardian article was that it mentioned European diplomats also say al-Qaida is in Iran. Also an Arab newspaper is quoted saying Saad bin Laden is there.

The pictures below are of chelo-kebab at the ali baba restaurant. They are for Mr Plate but anyone else is welcome to look and salivate :-)

Khatami won't resign. I told you this was a "game", didn't I?

"The administration of Mr. Khatami is very hopeful about the future of economic, social and cultural progress and thus the issue of resignation is out of the question."

Yes, everyone I meet is just so full of optimism! They are skipping and bouncing along the street, as money flitters out from their pockets! But they are making so much, it isn't worth their time to stop and pick it up! Happy happy joy joy!

"The future of the regime is very bright." Good good good. The problems are all in your mind! Just keep being happy and everything will be OK!

I intended to write about Iran's forex rate, it seems artificial... here is the first article I found.

Roya on I Believe That wrote about how annoying it is to go to university and have your clothes examined every time you go in, and that Larijanivision had a documentary concluding the problem was with women. Let's look at today's news, and see if men are responsible for any problems in Iranian society.

"Dishonored" truck driver beheads niece in public. I need to step outside myself, and be as objective as possible - is this an "Islamic" or "Middle Eastern" problem? Because I haven't heard about this kind of thing happening outside of these two "cultures" - whereever in the world it happens, there always seems to be some kind of "Islamic" or "Middle Eastern" connection. And another thing - it's always the MALE who's doing it, I've never heard of a story where an aunt/mother cut off her son's head because he was dating or had sex. You can tell me I'm wrong in the comments, if you think I'm wrong. That is, you can say it's just a problem of patriarchy, and certain cultures are backward in these areas. I have been thinking along these lines for a while - when women become emancipated, they have fewer children, and so patriarchal cultures are invariably dominant. I haven't read this idea anywhere, but I'm sure it's been discussed.

After more searching... "Honor killing is an Islamic duty" says the Islamic Action Front of Jordan; what is the Islamic view of honor killing?; "honor killing does not exist in Islamic law"; Anakultur "...organizes 8th of March celebrations in the most remote parts of the region [southeast Turkey] during the minimum of 2 hours celebration programme we talk to both to fathers, husbands, brothers and to the local authorities individually. Trying to explain to them that this practice of honour killing has nothing to do with the religion." So while the murderers and their supporters use Islam to justify honor killings, the majority who are horrified by such killings say Islam has nothing to do with it.

Once, the New York Times interviewed Molla Hassani (an ultra-conservative from Orumiyeh in the NE of Iran) and the journalist noticed that he was obsessed with stoning as a punishment for WOMEN, but never mentioned it once as a punishment for MEN. How can this be? On the one hand, Khamenei condemns honor killings, but on the other hand, this is the land of virginity testing and stoning to death for adultery.

On Sunday night I went to Chelo Kebab Ali Baba, immediately north of Vali-Asr Square. If you want to get away from people, this is a good place to go, because it has been practically empty every time I have been there. Remember that Tehran is like New York with 60 million people. (So why isn't the restaurant popular with young people, and how do they make money with no customers?) On the wall instead of pictures of Khomeini and Khamenei there are pictures of Khomeini and Taleghani. The decor and the pictures have not changed since 1979; in the West it would be promoted as "retro".

Aghdasieh Restaurant is also good. You can buy bread there without standing in line... the reason I'm going to so many restaurants is that while I was in the US, the power failed in my flat (for two months) and everything in my fridge died. I'm still trying to get rid of the smell!

Last Thursday I went to Darabad with a professor and a student visiting from the Netherlands. Because we went the wrong way at first, the way became difficult and my companions became fearful of walking across a sheer dirt slope. I was wearing bad shoes, with smooth soles, but I got to the other side and took amusing pictures of them with my new digital camera! On the way back I talked to the professor about a conference he and I are going to in the UK next month. The professor said recently he was talking to a woman who said getting a visa was easy! He said, "What time did you arrive at the British embassy?" and she said 5am! This seems perfectly normal in Iran, some people had stayed overnight!

Complaining is quite usual of course, this post was inspired by recent stories on Face It about how humiliating it is to obtain a visa, and the sort of humiliation Tehran airport officials put Iranians through. OK. So, I said to the professor, "Let me tell you what it is like to be in the British Embassy. Many diplomats live inside the compound. One day, after Friday prayers, the ansar-e-hizbollah (thugs who Mr Janati pays) turn up and throw bricks at your house, breaking all the windows. Then, they start throwing Molotov cocktails, eggs, tomatos etcetera. This happens very often for a period of several weeks. Another day, someone drives a pick-up truck full of gas cylinders into the wall of your house, killing himself, and then people start handing out leaflets saying he was a shahid/suicide bomber. Remember, it is a diplomatic compound, this is like an attack on the UK itself. And now you are asking why they treat Iranians so badly???" And he said, "but what if you are a head of department at a famous university (like he was) and have been to this same conference four times before? I will ring them to get an appointment and if they don't give me a reasonable time for an appointment then I won't go!" He has obviously developed ways of dealing with the stress in Iran under IRI (and he doesn't have economic problems), but the people like the ones on the Face It blog are desperate to get out, what can they do?

In passing: Mr Zarif doesn't realise that attacks on embassies are attacks on the territory of that country either. (from smccdi).

``M. Javad Zarif, Iran's United Nations ambassador, says Iran "has not invaded any neighboring country" for two centuries.

Since it is international law that a foreign embassy is the sovereign soil of the country represented, the Iranian invasion and hostage-taking of American diplomats from November 1979 to January 1981 stands in stark contrast to Mr. Zarif's assertion.''

The real saving private Lynch (from Face It) it's old but really interesting, I had to link to it.

US claims al-Qaeda operations chief in Iran and that Riyadh attacks ordered from there. Jeddah, Nairobi, Kuala Lumpur, or London, where will the next suicide attack be?

I saw a film last night Deserted Station at Asr-e Jadid cinema. (You can buy tickets on the net there, though I didn't for this). It was a terrible film and at the end I wondered what it was about. It must have been one of those "festival" films.

Iran steps up gas and oil ties with India (note remarks about Gujarat below). Jews of Morocco link. The Register writes about how Lawrence Lessig says the Internet is dying...