This post is from Pedestrian, one our favorite bloggers writing in English about life in Iran. She has given us permission to re-post some pieces from her blog. This is the first in what we hope will be many to come. One other very important sign of the new year I’ve neglected to mention before: the special Norouz issue of reformist newspapers which are published as a special issue magazine and span hundreds of pages. It all began with the first reformist newspaper, Jame-e [Society] and their special Norouz magazine in 1997, in the first year Khatami became president. Subsequently, every other newspaper which was still not banned by the new year would publish a special issue. Running to the newspaper kiosk and buying half a dozen copies of the magazine, for various family members and my own, was an integral part of my Norouz ritual. The smell of those pages is very much a part of Norouz for me, and I’m so grateful to my family who make sure to bring those magazines half way around the world for us every Norouz whenever we are not in Tehran. This year, we were all worried that there would simply be no publications left to print a special edition, but with the lifting of the ban on Bahar newspaper, they are the reformist newspaper to publish a special issue. And it’s got so many great articles to read I don’t know where to begin:
I also have the last two issues of IranDokht before it was closed. I don’t know what they were thinking by putting Hassani [Hassan Khomeini] on the cover – of which would be their last issue. As soon as he appeared on their cover, everyone knew they would be closed down within days … and they were.
But, as in the tradition of reformist papers, and our people, as soon as the old one was closed down, a new magazine was opened. This is the first issue of the new magazine, Mehrnameh, whose editor in chief is Mohammad Ghouchani, one of Iran’s brightest journalists, and the former editor in chief of Irandokht:
Don’t you just love the cover? A photo of Shariati and Soroush – the son’s of the famous intellectuals.
The Bahar special issue is 288 pages, and every page is worth reading. To me, this is a sign of our very triumph: with all the people they’ve imprisoned, tortured, silenced, threatened … who knew we had so many left willing to take pen to paper again, to write again, and think again … and force us to think and rethink all over again?
[Originally posted March 18, 2010 on Pedestrian: The sidewalks of Tehran in quest of glory.] One other very important sign of the new year I’ve neglected to mention before: the special Norouz issue of reformist newspapers which are published as a special issue magazine and span hundreds of pages. It all began with the first reformist newspaper, Jame-e [Society] and their special Norouz magazine in 1997, in the first year Khatami became president. Subsequently, every other newspaper which was still not banned by the new year would publish a special issue. Running to the newspaper kiosk and buying half a dozen copies of the magazine, for various family members and my own, was an integral part of my Norouz ritual. The smell of those pages is very much a part of Norouz for me, and I’m so grateful to my family who make sure to bring those magazines half way around the world for us every Norouz whenever we are not in Tehran. This year, we were all worried that there would simply be no publications left to print a special edition, but with the lifting of the ban on Bahar newspaper, they are the reformist newspaper to publish a special issue. And it’s got so many great articles to read I don’t know where to begin:
I also have the last two issues of IranDokht before it was closed.I don’t know what they were thinking by putting Hassani [Hassan Khomeini] on the cover – of which would be their last issue. As soon as he appeared on their cover, everyone knew they would be closed down within days … and they were.
But, as in the tradition of reformist papers, and our people, as soon as the old one was closed down, a new magazine was opened. This is the first issue of the new magazine, Mehrnameh, whose editor in chief is Mohammad Ghouchani, one of Iran’s brightest journalists, and the former editor in chief of Irandokht:
Don’t you just love the cover? A photo of Shariati and Soroush – the son’s of the famous intellectuals.
The Bahar special issue is 288 pages, and every page is worth reading. To me, this is a sign of our very triumph: with all the people they’ve imprisoned, tortured, silenced, threatened … who knew we had so many left willing to take pen to paper again, to write again, and think again … and force us to think and rethink all over again?