زندگی با طعم گیلاس

A stool, a red small television and a heart full of hope, is their whole share of international soccer wave in the world.

Iranian women gathered to watch soccer outside the doors of Tehran"s biggest stadium during a match between Iran and Bosnia on 31 May 2006. This symbolic action was against all those rules that do not give any right to Iranian women to watch soccer in the stadium. While in the other side of the wall 100.000 men shout hurrah for their team, women are kicked buy police forces. They even do not have the right to watch the game in TV behind the high walls of stadium that its name in Persian equals "freedom". 

Just one month before in a shocking action, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered to the head of Iran"s sport organization: "Open the doors of stadiums to women. Give them the best place to watch the Soccer matches." These two sentences repeated in every news announcement of Iran"s state run TV on 24^th of April.

It looked like that Iran"s regime is finally bowed to give more freedom to women. Soon it became a hot topic for all people in taxies, in universities, in work places and all this gained freedom made women rights activists more optimistic to fight more for their rights.

But all this sweet victory did not last so much. Ayatollahs made a fatwa that Muslim women are not allowed to watch bare pats of men"s body. They said that Ahmadinejad"s Government should be ashamed to suggest these "non Islamic" things. Finally the supreme leader wanted Ahmadinejad to "listen" to Ayatollahs and all that hope vanished in a second.

 In all these 27 years after Iran"s revolution, women"s entrance to the stadium for watching Soccer matches was forbidden. Twice before Iranian women rights activists had gathered in front of Azadi"(freedom) stadium and insisted to watch the match. Once it was on 9^th of June in 2005 for a match Between Iran and Bahrain. It was just before the presidential elections and Islamic hardliners at last opened the doors for shouting women who had some placards that were written on them: "freedom, equality, gender equality", "freedom is my right, Iran is my homeland".

After Ahmadynejad"s winning in the elections women activists were disappointed to watch any Soccer match again. On 1^st of March 2006, more women gathered to watch a Soccer match. Police forces did not allow them to enter the stadium and even beat them. At last police forced women to ride a bus to keep them at a distance and after one hour, police released them. This behavior made women rights activist anxious but a week later on 8^th of March, the international day of women, police again invaded women gatherings and there were no allowance for university students to hold a ceremony in the universities. That was what social activists expected: a new conservative move for imposing more inequality to women. Ahamdynejad even changed the name of the only "women affairs" organization to" women and family affairs" organization. It seemed that in his government women are only accepted as mothers or wives.

Although it seems that Ahmadinejad"s action has been a very big and unsuccessful reform but even his political friends" say that it was just a show. Masoud Dehnamaki, Hardliner activist and editor in chief of "sobhe dokouhe" newspaper which is a newspaper for "Basiji"s, told Mainichi that

"I think Akhmadinejad has done this to show that his government is open about social issues. I think his work has more political meaning than social."

Dehnamaki used to attack student demonstration to prevent them to criticize the regime.

While lots of women shout in stadiums for their favorite team during the world cup in Germany, Iranian women look at them on their TV screens as a never accessible dream. But women rights activists seem to be indefatigable. They have managed a very big demonstration to protest rules against women in Iran"s constitution. Entering soccer matches is one of their requests in front of lots of big limitations of Iranian women.

In addition to fair and equal laws they want to gain a citizenship right. There is nothing written in the law that women are not allowed to watch the Soccer matches. It is only social norms and customs against this, what they call:"unwritten law".

There is an Iranian story that tells about a venerable old poet who traveled to China. When he arrived, some poets and painters went to say welcome to him. They showed him a pool to wash his hands. The man turned up his sleeve but wonderfully understood that all the pool and its fish were paintings. It has been years after the old relations between two civilizations through silk road, now more business men and oil sellers travel between two countries. But is it still Iran"s misunderstanding of a future cooperation with China or it is a real partnership?

Iran and China are now involved in more than 100 joint venture projects in line with their economic and technological cooperation said Lio G Tan, Chinese Ambassador to Tehran according to news by Islamic Republic News Agency in November 09, 2005.

He also had announced that Iran-China trade volume is expected to reach 10 billion dollars in ????.Lio told the first seminar of opportunities of Iran-Hong Kong Cooperation that the value of Tehran-Beijing commercial exchanges exceeded seven billion dollars in 2004, showing 25 percent growth compared to the year before. Lio put the value of direct exchanges between Iran and Hong Kong at dlrs 60 million to dlrs 170 million in a period starting from 2003.

The head of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce, Assadollah Asgaroladi, told Irna on 8^th June 2006 that the official hoped the figure would surpass US$ 13 bln by the end of Iran"s Fourth five-Year Development Plan (2005-2010). The China-Iran connection covers a whole spectrum of economic activities: dam-building, steel mills, ship-building, transport and dozens of other projects.

Ahmadinejad submitted his first annual budget to Iran’s parliament on January 15, 2006. This year’s budget (starting March 21) law is based on oil price of US$40 per barrel. The budget is approximately 195,000 billion rial, about 70% of which is devoted to government controlled areas. The budget was planned to oppose economic monopolies, and is the largest in Iran"s history with a 50% increase on the previous financial year, a change some of Ahmadimejad"s opponents describe as “disastrous.” Some Iranian MPs believe that even this extremely large amount of money will be insufficient to fulfill Ahmadinejad’s election promises.

2006-2007 budget proposals is to be an operational budget where funds would be devoted based on the outcome of an operation rather than dividing the budget among organizations.

He pointed to certain rumors being circulated of an impending increase in gasoline prices which, he said, tend to have a negative on society, saying the "plan to ration gasoline is not new and is still under discussion."

Having pegged his reputation on his ability to help the ordinary man, Ahmadinezhad faces serious problems: the economy is a mess, his policies are disastrous, and Iranians’ expectations are sky-high. The World Bank’s 2003 report about Iran noted, “Despite the growth in the 1990s, GDP per capita in 2000 is still 30 percent below what it was in the mid 1970s, compared with a near doubling for the rest of the world.” Iranians are galled to find that their country has slipped badly behind the Arabs on the south side of the Persian Gulf, whom they traditionally have regarded as their social inferiors. Thanks to the tens of thousands of Iranians living in Dubai, Iranians know full well that Dubai is booming because it has embraced globalization, while their country falls ever farther behind, trapped by its suspicion of the West.

Ahmadinezhad’s policy is based on producing everything at home and creating barriers to trade -- he has no use for globalization. His government has been discouraging foreign investors, for instance, refusing to allow Renault to use the billion-dollar facility it built in Iran to build an inexpensive car for the Asian market. The recent Iranian boom has been based almost entirely on profligate government spending which cannot last forever. Despite the flood of oil money, government policies are such that the IMF warns the budget will fall back into deficit again within two years even if oil prices remain sky-high.

Economic discontent will lead to mistrust of Ahmadinezhad among people who voted for him hoping that he would fulfill his promises to fight corruption and improve the lives of common citizens.

In his presidential campaign, Ahmadinezhad promised the Iranian people that he would bring oil revenues to each citizen’s dining table. When Ahmadinezhad’s term began in August 2005, the price of crude oil was just above $55 per barrel. That price has risen rapicly since then, partially because of the Iranian nuclear crisis. Rising oil prices have increased the pressure on Ahmadinezhad to deliver, and the public perception is growing that rising state oil revenues have not improved the lives of average citizens. In the face of rising pressure, Ahmadinezhad has denied his televised promise and claimed that he said no such thing. In April, in a press conference, Gholamhossein Elham, head of the president’s office, joked that oil has a disgusting smell and therefore does not belong on the dining table.

Iran has always been a gathering of different ethnic groups. From 1501 to 1524 Shah Ismail(I) ,who was a man from Azeri ethnic group from north west of Iran ,united all of Persia under Iranian leadership after some nine centuries of foreign or fragmented rule. Being a Shiite, he declared Shi"ism as the state religion and converted virtually all of Persia and some surrounding areas under his control from Sunnis to Shi"ism. Shi"ism became a medium for the Persians to differentiate themselves from the rest of the Islamic world, in particular from the Sunni Ottomans. To ensure its continuation as the state religion, the Safavid kings who were basically Azeri supported the Shiite clergy. Shah Ismail(I) is known as the first person who declared Iranian "nation" in the history of Iran. He was Azeri and from his time Azeris started to speared all through the country. Now Iran has 30 million populations who live in the provinces that they are known as Azeri provinces. Azeris form 24% of Iran"s population According to CIA fact book.

Azeris has been a very powerful group in Iran. They are the symbol of resistance in front of foreign attacks. during the World War, The Soviet Union mounted a full-scale invasion of northern Iran in 1941, and after 1945 its refusal to withdraw from the Iranian part of Azerbaijan was one of the cold war"s opening gambits. Iran lost some important cities in Azerbaijan during Torkamanchay and Golestan conventions. Russia"s army was in Tabriz and famine had killed lots of people. Some of the analysts say that Iran"s modernization had started from that historical defeat; when people saw that despite all their courage, the technology gives more power to Russians.

...From the first days of Ahmadinejad"s Government, he started to show an extra attention to the concept of waiting for Mahdi. He insisted that he is just a Mahdi"s servant and all he does is just to make ready the society for his appearance. He starts all his speeches by some Arabic sentences that mean: Lord! Accelerate Mahdi"s appearance and give him health and victory, and let me be one of his good followers and aides. He even started his speech in United Nations by these sentences.

Even some people said that his victory in presidential elections was just because he is a religious man. Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi said that Imam Mahdi"s prayers were the reason of Ahmadynejad"s being a president. Before that, the same thing was said about the 7^th parliament members who are mostly hard-liners. Ayatollah Meshkini had said about them that the list of candidates had signed by Imam Mahdi.

Hassan Baiadi a member of Tehran"s city council said in an interview that people voted Ahmadinejad because he is a religious and holy person. Fatemeh Alia, 7^th Parliament member said that Ahmadynejad"s victory was "god"s hidden kindness".

In addition to all this comments, Ahmadinejd held the first section of cabinet near the holy shrine of 8^th Imam in Mashhad. He said there that his government is on a way that started from Adam and will continue until the stabilization of justice by Imam Mahdi in the world according to Islamic republic news agency"s report (IRNA). Before, His cabinet had signed a promise letter on 15.08.2005 that they will promise to Allah and Imam Mahdi and will swear to Koran that they will do their best as responsible people for the society according to Iranian student"s news agency (ISNA).

After Ahmadynejad"s speech in United Nations annual section on 18.05.2005, A short movie published by the internet that showed Ahmadynejad sitting beside Ayatollah Javadi Amoli. He claimed that when he was making his speech in the UN section he felt a light around his hed and all the audiences seemed to be all ears and they did not even blink