PAYAM Ashena: November 2014 by Leanne Pedante

ASHENA

PAYAM P. O. Box 60613 // Ir vine, California 92602 // USA Tel: 949.451.1440 // www.Ashena.com // Payam@Ashena.com

Volume 26 // Issue 309 November 2014

“A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.” - Khalil Gibran

IN THIS ISSUE p. 04

Publisher: Javad Mostafavi email: payam@ashena.com Senior Editor: Newsha Mostafavi email: newsha@ashena.com Contributing Editor: Ginny Jeffery Published By: Negaresh Business Services, Inc. Address: P.O. Box 60613, Irvine, CA 92602 ISSN 1528-6061 Phone: 949.451.1440 Fax: 949.451.1830 www.Ashena.com payam@ashena.com

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Payam-e-Ashena is Southern California’s Persian Community Magazine since 1989 Payam-e-Ashena is an independent, bilingual, non-political, non-religious journal. Its contents include world and local news, business reports, cultural, social, and economic affairs of the Persian Community in Southern California. Payam-e-Ashena is non-partisan, unbiased, and the choice of affluent and well-educated Persians. It is published on the 15th of each month and mailed to subscribers and businesses in the Persian Community in addition to wide distribution in Persian centers and markets.

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NOVEMBER 2014 04 IS THE ISLAMIC STATE A GOOD THING? RAYMOND IBRAHIM ENVISIONS A FUTURE WITH AN UNCHECKED ISLAMIC STATE

08 AN ANCIENT CITY AWAITS FOR TOURISTS IN IRAN AS IRANIAN TOURISM SOARS, PRESERVATION IS NEEDED

10 IRAN AND THE UNITED STATES: AN INSIDER’S VIEW SEYED MOUSAVIAN’S BOOK EX AMINES PAST SETBACKS IN THE DELICATE RELATIONSHIP

14 AN ORAL CONTRACT IS AS GOOD AS THE PAPER IT’S WRITTEN ON

ATTORNEY BABAK SHIRDEL EXPLAINS THE PITFALLS OF THE HANDSHAKE DEAL

16 OBAMA SHOULD GO TO TEHRAN IS IRAN THE KEY TO STABILITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST?

18 TEHRAN’S VENDORS BATTLE THE STREETS TO SURVIVE

STREET PEDDLERS FACE DANGEROUS- AND EVEN- DEADLY CONDITIONS

20 WHAT IF THE SHAH OF IRAN HAD REMAINED: 35 YEARS LATER

SLATER BAKHTAVAR IMAGINES WHAT MAY HAVE BEEN

22 ALONE AGAIN NATURALLY: WOMEN SINGING IN IRAN

CONSIDERED TOO PROVOCATIVE, FEMALE SOLOISTS WANT TO BE HEARD

30 ACTOR SHAUN TOUB RECIEVES REZA BADIYI ACHIEMENT AWARD

NOOR IRANIAM FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES WINNERS

34 BULLETPROOF COFFEE 101 WAKE UP WITH THE HOTTEST NEW HEALTH BEVERAGE

36 16 CANCER CAUSING FOODS YOU PROBABLY EAT EVERY DAY

HOW MANY ARE LURKING IN YOUR KITCHEN?

40 IRANIAN SNAPSHOTS: RIOT IN THIEVES ALLEY, PART THREE

A NEIGHBORHOOD DISPUTE STIRS UP CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

IS THE “ISLAMIC STATE” A GOOD THING? by Raymond Ibrahim

The following is an envisioning of what might eventually unfold if the Islamic State is left to flourish. Although it is only one of several scenarios, due to its ostensibly implausible nature, it deserves some delineation. 4

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The Islamic State (IS) continues expanding its territory and influence through jihad. Religious minorities that fall under its sway—at least the fortunate ones—continue to flee in droves, helping make the Islamic State what it strives to be: purely Islamic. Left unfettered, with only cosmetic airstrikes by an indecisive Obama administration to deal with, IS continues growing in strength and confidence, as Western powers again stand idly by. More and more Muslims around the world, impressed and inspired by what they see, become convinced that the Islamic State is in fact the new caliphate deserving of their al-

legiance. Such Muslims—the most “radical” kind, who delight in the slaughter and subjugation of “infidels”—continue leaving Western nations and migrating to the Islamic State to wage jihad and live under Sharia. In other words, a sizable chunk of the world’s most radicalized/pious Muslims becomes localized in one region. There they openly and proudly display their anti-infidel supremacism. Through all, the Western media has no choice but to report objectively—so thoroughly exposed for its barbarity has IS become that it is an insurmountable task to whitewash its atrocities. The world

has seen enough about IS to know that this is a savage, hostile, and supremacist state without excuse. Even Obama, after originally citing “grievances” as propelling the Islamic State’s successes, recently made an about-face, saying, “no grievance justifies these actions.” Put differently, the “Palestinian card” will not work here. Western media, apologists, and talking heads cannot portray IS terror— including crucifying, beheading, and raping humans simply because they are “infidels”—as a product of “grievances” or “land disputes.” Indeed, the Islamic State itself, which is largely composed of foreigners, is the one invading other territories (Iraq, Syria), massacring

and driving out their most indigenous inhabitants, from Christians to Yazidis.

the second phase of the caliphate is now or never—conquest of “original infidels.”

In time, the Islamic State’s borders are fully consolidated and the “caliphate” is a reality. Its war on fellow Muslim “apostates”—its current excuse for not engaging the greatest of all “infidels” in the region, Israel—eventually comes to a close or stalemate.

As Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu recently declared during his U.N. speech, “ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree. ISIS and Hamas share a fanatical creed, which they both seek to impose well beyond the territory under their control.”

Then the inevitable happens: another conflict erupts between Israel and Hamas; Muslims around the word, including those under IS authority, drunk with power and feelings of superiority, demand that the time to wipe out the Jewish infidel has finally come; that

Thus the Islamic State will eventually be compelled to start saber rattling and worse against Israel. After all, its entire legitimacy is founded on its namesake—that it is the “Islamic state,” the state that magnifies and protects Islam and MusP AYA M - E - A S H E N A

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lims. It must eventually confront Israel or else be proven the greatest of all hypocrites, ormunafiqun, a term of great rebuke in the Koran that some Muslim authorities are already applying to IS for not confronting Israel now. Conflicts inevitably ensue between Israel and its neighboring Islamic State. But unlike the Jewish state’s war on Hamas—which the mainstream media can manipulate and portray as a war on innocent Palestinian women and

children—world governments and media will find it exceedingly difficult to criticize Israel should any conflict between it and IS arise. Unlike sympathy for the Palestinians, non-Muslims around the world vacillate between hate for and fear of the Islamic State; even Karen Armstrong, John Esposito and their ilk cannot apologize for this particular group of Islamic savages—other than to insist that theirs is not true Islam (an irrelevant point for the purposes of this scenario). Moreover, the argument habitu-

NON-MUSLIMS AROUND THE WORLD VACILLATE BETWEEN HATE FOR AND FEAR OF THE ISLAMIC STATE

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ally used against Israel—that its war on Hamas creates innocent Palestinian casualties—loses all legitimacy in any war on the Islamic State.

After all, IS, the state itself—not some terrorist organization ensconced within the state—is beheading, massacring, and enslaving humans solely on the basis of their religious identity. Its citizens—who went there of their own accord, unlike “displaced” and “trapped” Palestinians—are fanatical, extremist Muslims, whose greatest aspiration is to decapitate an infidel. No one can apologize for this. The best that can be said is that this is not “true” Islam, which is neither here nor there. This is why, even now, the proIslamic Obama administration is forced to condemn IS and even (if perfunctorily) militarily engage it. In short, conventional war becomes very justifiable against IS—espe-

cially because there is no longer any worry of accidentally killing this or that moderate or non-Muslim, as they have all been driven away, replaced by Islamic terrorists from around the world. And conventional war has traditionally been the bane of Islamists, who prefer terrorism, hiding among civilians, using them as shields, and playing the victim. Safe from international censure and pushed to the edge, Israel eventually obliterates the Islamic State, while even Islam’s greatest apologists in the West must hold their tongue or risk being seen as defenders of the state responsible for the greatest atrocities—crucifixions, beheadings, rapes, slavery, and wholesale massacres—so far

committed in the 21st century.

THREE POSITIVE CONSEQUENCES EMERGE FROM ALL THIS: 1. Not only is the Islamic State destroyed, but with it, some of the world’s most supremacist and hate-filled Muslims—those who quit their home countries, including those in the West, to persecute and kill the “infidels.” 2. The rest of the world’s Muslims get a major and much needed wake up call. Some may start to rethink the notion of “jihad” and eternal enmity for the rest of the world. Some may start to rethink Islam altogether. 3. The non-Muslim world also gets a much needed wake up call, another lesson to add to the ma-

jor wars and conflicts of the 20th century, this time about Islamic fascism, which, finally, becomes catalogued as the danger it is. Note: I am not advocating for this scenario—admittedly, one of many different kinds of scenarios that can develop if the Islamic State is left to flourish—and would prefer to see IS made extinct now. For even if this scenario comes to pass, matters must first get significantly worse before they can begin to get better. P Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Judith Friedman Rosen Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum and a CBN News contributor. He is the author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013) and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007).

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AN ANCIENT CITY WAITS FOR TOURISTS IN IRAN BY: MADI JAHANGIR

Iran may be experiencing an influx of tourists, but much needs to be done to preserve its ancient history.

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TEPPE HASANLU, Iran — There are graves everywhere at Teppe Hasanlu. “Probably, there are ancient graves here, layer by layer,” says Meisam, an archaeology teacher. He tells us stories of life and death as we walk up the hills surrounded by cemeteries. In the hot summer days of August, wild flowers, insects and the breeze blowing in between the ruins are the only sentient beings here, besides me and my friends, a group of young tourguide trainees. However, not even our presence disturbs the absolute solitude of this ancient site in northwest Iran. Most of my classmates share similar dreams and hopes: love of travel and an opportunity to make extra money. After decades of isolation, Iran is experiencing a sudden boom in tourism. This new market has encouraged many young Iranians to try and make a profit from it — in this case, as tour guides. “Salam!” yells Behdad, a fellow tour-guide trainee. He is performing the role of tour guide for the group, and his voice echoes off the clay walls. “If you do not

greet me, then at least say a proper ‘salam’ to your country’s magnificent heritage,” he says. He describes our surroundings at Teppe Hasanlu, and how Apadana Palace in Persepolis was inspired by these forgotten clay columns. Teppe Hasanlu, literally, the “hills of Hasanlu,” is located on the southern shore of Lake Urmia, about 4 miles northeast of the city of Naqadeh in Iran’s West Azerbaijan province. Here, life stopped centuries ago and left most people unaware of its dramatic past. A British archaeologist first investigated Teppe Hasanlu in 1934. Later, the hammers of American archaeologists broke thousands of years of silence in this ancient city. Americans launched the Hasanlu Project to investigate the ancient site and the area’s history and politics. The Hasanlu Project shifted its focus to the Iron Age when archaeologist Robert Dyson unexpectedly found a gold bowl in the arms of a soldier who had died in the fire that destroyed the city. They learned that Hasanlu was

continuously inhabited from the 6th century B.C. to the 3rd century, before it was destroyed by fire. The brick walls are evidence of a nation that built some of the era’s greatest castles, long before the founding of Persepolis. In addition, the spinning wheel of Mithra that was carved on the golden bowl proved the existence of a great civilization able to mold metal. The Americans also found a pair of entwined skeletons buried in a grave, appearing to have died in an embrace. “We did not discover all these,” Meisam said. “Foreigners showed Hasanlu to the world, besides the fact that this archaeological site has many more layers to be investigated. We cannot currently do anything because we do not have the funding and means to protect them. However, I believe this might be better for our historical sites to remain untouched for now. The ground best preserves a country’s heritage.” Meisam has worked on many archaeological sites throughout the country. He believes Iranians should be at the forefront of showing their culture to the world: “I

hope you, as tour guides, talk over and over about our history and culture for the foreign visitors and keep that rich heritage alive, to [let people] get to know all this, so that the future generations will be enthusiastic and proud in preserving their identity and historical background.”

site like Hasanlu. If they have the means and knowledge, why not? Such places of outstanding cultural, historical and natural significance are not only owned by one country or nation. They belong to humanity. If something causes damage, the responsibility is with all of us,” she says.

CNN reported in July of this year that a “tsunami of tourists” is headed for Iran. However, Teppe Hasanlu has remained unaffected by the invasion. Tourists visit the major historical sites in Esfahan and Shiraz rather than some of the more obscure sites in other Iranian provinces.

Mohadeseh and I are the last to leave the hills. I would love to return to the ancient city soon, since an hour is not enough to explore and document the place. Yet, there is perhaps more to Teppe Hasanlu, which is surrounded by cemeteries. Leaving the hills is to leave all the layers of graves, houses and temples behind — all the layers of life, love and death. When we get on the bus, many untold stories, unanswered questions and mysteries are left behind.

“This place looks like it is not being taken care of. I would like to see some [recreated] photos of how it looked when it was inhabited; where the soldier hugging the gold bowl was found; or where the lovers’ skeletons were discovered,” says Mohadeseh, another tour-guide trainee. She dreams of perfecting her French to guide French-speaking visitors. “I think there is no problem in [having] a global corporation preserve an important historic

As Iraq’s historic sites are reduced to rubble, the ground of Iran’s Hasanlu preserves its buried history for the future — for the day when it will be discovered, cherished and appreciated by the generations to come. On the hills of Hasanlu, where wars wiped out civilizations, love is stronger than death. P

LEFT TO RIGHT: LOCAL WOMEN PASSING BY THE GRAVEYAARD; A GROUP OF TOUR GUIDE TRAINEES WALK THROUGH THE RUINS OF TEPPE HASANLU; THE SITE’S CLAY WALLS; HASANLU WAS EXCAVATED FROM 1956 TO 1974, REVEALING A LAYER OF A CITY FROZEN IN TIME.

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IR A N A ND T HE UNITED STATES: A N INSIDER’S VIE W by Peter Jenkins Seyed Hossein Mousavian, the lead author of

Iran and the United States: An Insider’s View on the Failed Past and the Road to Peace , has two objectives: to help American readers understand the Iranian perspective on the fraught US-Iranian relationship, and to advocate a sustained attempt to break the cycle of hostility that was triggered by the 1979 Islamic revolution.

AMBASSADOR MOUSAVIAN WAS THE SPOKESMAN FOR IRAN IN THE NEGOTIATIONS OVER ITS NUCLEAR PROGRAM WITH THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY FROM 2003-2005 PHOTO BY SEYED HOSSEIN MOUSAVIAN

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Such is the suspicion on both sides of this relationship that some readers may wonder about the extent to which Mousavian’s descriptions of

can be reduced, simplistically, to two broad currents. The first contains those who nurture so great a sense of grievance towards the US, and so

“IT IS SOME WHAT REMARK ABLE HOW OF TEN REL ATIONS HAVE BEEN SE T BACK JUST WHEN IT SEEMED THAT A THAW WAS ABOUT TO SE T IN...HOW RE ALISTIC IS IT TO SUPPOSE THAT AN IMPROVEMENT IN US-IR AN REL ATIONS COULD BE ACHIE VED?” the Iranian perspective in this book, which was co-authored by Shahir Shahidsaless, can be trusted. This reviewer’s opinion is that Mousavian—a former Iranian ambassador who has been living in the US since 2009—whom the reviewer has known since 2004, is not trying to pull wool over anyone’s eyes. There is corroborating evidence for much of the information he advances. If in places the reader senses that he or she is not getting the full story, a respectable explanation is at hand: those who have worked at the heart of a government, as Mousavian has done, are bound to be “economical” with certain truths, as a British cabinet secretary once put it. The Iranian political establishment 12

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deep a mistrust, that they have no wish to end the intermittent cold war of the last 35 years. In the second current are those who understand that nurturing grievances is futile, who recognize that the US has legitimate grievances of its own, and who believe that a measure of détente is in the interest of both countries. Mousavian belongs to the second current. So do Iran’s president since August 2013, Hassan Rouhani, and his foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator, Mohammed Javad Zarif. Iran’s ultimate decision-maker and religious leader, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, straddles the two camps. He is deeply distrustful of the United States, which he suspects of being bent on the overthrow of the Islamic

Republic and of having no interest in détente, but he is ready to give the second current opportunities to prove him wrong. Iran’s president from 2005-2013, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—who created a deplorable impression in the West, and gifted Israeli propagandists, by denying the reality of the Holocaust—came to office as a member of the first current, a “hardliner.” But one of the revelations of this book is that he made more attempts than any previous leader to engineer a thaw in relations with the United States. Mousavian’s intriguing thesis is that Ahmadinejad believed that achieving détente would be so popular with Iranian voters that it would help him to become Iran’s equivalent of Vladimir Putin. The middle section of the book is given over to an account of the USIranian relationship from the author’s first-hand experience. Mousavian does not flinch from addressing all the episodes that have generated a sense of grievance on one side or the other, from cataloguing the false starts and missed opportunities, to exploring the incidents that have set back relations just when an improvement seemed to be in the offing. He has been so well connected to several leaders of Iran’s nezam (establishment) during most of the last 35 years that these chapters amount to a fascinating story, told from the inside of a political system that many foreigners find opaque. It is somewhat remarkable how often relations have been set back just when it seemed that a thaw was about to set in. In 1992, intelligence about Iranian nuclear purchases undermined the good will created by Iran’s intercessions to secure the release of US hostages in Lebanon. In 1996, the Kolahdooz incident set back relations with Europe that had

been improving since the early 90s. In 2002, the Karine A incident negated the cooperation that the US had been receiving from Iran since 9/11, and it led to the infamous naming of Iran as a member of the “Axis of Evil” in a State of the Union address. Mousavian suspects that these and other setbacks were not coincidental; they were the work of people who had no interest in a thaw. That theory would account for the haste with which Iran’s enemies have asserted Iranian responsibility for such incidents. But in the last analysis, answers to these puzzles of responsibility have yet to be authenticated. In any case, how realistic is it to suppose that an improvement in USIran relations could be achieved? Mousavian admits that there are formidable obstacles to full normalization, and he seems to doubt that the US and Iran will become best buddies any time soon. Chief among the obstacles, seen from the US side, are Iran’s refusal to modify its view that the Jewish character of the Israeli state, proclaimed in Israel’s constitution, is bound to result in injustice, oppression and humiliation for Palestinians living in Israel, and has in fact done so— plus Iran’s determination to support a fellow-Shia movement that Israel and the US deem to be terrorist, Hezbollah. On the Iranian side, Ayatollah Khamenei fears the consequences of anything more than a modest rap-

prochement. In his view, the opening of a US embassy in Tehran, for instance, would create opportunities for US subversion of the Islamic Republic, and greater exposure of the Iranian population to all things American would undermine respect for Islamic values. He remains convinced that the US seeks the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.

reasonably be construed as threatening as long as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitors its use. He fears that the US and EU negotiators will fail to appreciate the cultural and psychological factors that would lead the Iranian nezam to prefer no deal to the kind of capacity reductions that the US and EU have been seeking.

Yet Mousavian believes that there is a middle ground between mutual hostility and full normalization. He sees the scope for the US and Iran to work together, on a basis of mutual respect, to achieve common objectives in areas where their interests coincide. At present those areas include Afghanistan, counter-narcotics, WMD counter-proliferation, energy security, and combating the Jihadi threat in Iraq and Syria.

The Islamic Republic is rooted in nationalist as much as in religious values, he explains. The nezam is quick to perceive threats to Iran’s sovereignty and national dignity. They would rather defy than be humiliated. They are ready to engage in reasonable compromise but they will not capitulate.

Developing what Mousavian terms “a framework for cooperation” should be accompanied, he suggests, by an agreement to lock the drawer that contains both sides’ equally long lists of historic grievances, and by a commitment to eschew the rhetoric of enmity and aggression. The key to taking relations on to a new plane, he argues, is resolving the dispute over Iran’s nuclear activities. This dispute has been fueled by Israel, partly perhaps for Palestine-related reasons, and by the US’ strategic balance of power considerations. He believes that a resolution is nonetheless possible. The progress made by American and Iranian negotiators since September 2013, and the alarm that this has caused Israel’s prime minister, suggests that he is right. Mousavian warns his readers against pressing Iran to cut back its uranium enrichment capacity from the current level, which, objectively, is modest and cannot

It is these insights into the Islamic Iranian mind-set that are likely to make this book exceptionally interesting for all but students of Iran— and even they may like to compare their views with those of Mousavian. He will doubtless be pleased if the book sells well, as it deserves to do. But what will please him most, I suspect, is if it contributes to a better understanding of Iran in the US and in Europe, and if it helps bring to a close a quarrel that reflects well on neither side. P This review was first published in Farsi by the BBC Persian Service on October 13th, 2014. Peter Jenkins was a British career diplomat for 33 years, following studies at the Universities of Cambridge and Harvard. He served in Vienna (twice), Washington, Paris, Brasilia and Geneva. He specialized in global economic and security issues. His last assignment (2001-2006) was that of UK Ambassador to the IAEA and UN (Vienna). Since 2006 he has represented the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership, advised the Director of IIASA and set up a partnership, ADRgAmbassadors, with former diplomatic colleagues, to offer the corporate sector dispute resolution and solutions to cross-border problems. He was an associate fellow of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy from 2010 to 2012. He writes and speaks on nuclear and trade policy issues. P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

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AN ORAL CONTRACT IS AS GOOD AS THE PAPER IT’S WRITTEN ON

By Babak Shirdel

As Judge Samuel Goldwyn famously said, “an oral contract is as good as the paper it’s written on.” Do oral agreements form legally binding contracts in California? As with any legal question, the answer is not so cut-and-dry. Oral agreements can create a legally binding contract, but that depends on the type of the agreement and the all important “integration clause.” Under an oral contract, two parties orally state the terms of the agreement without a written instrument. Think for example you are selling your couch. A friend comes over and you ask for $100. Your friend counters with $80, and you agree. Even in this simple interaction, an oral contract has been made resulting in legally binding obligations for both you and your friend. If for example your friend takes the couch but never pays the $80 or if your friend pays the $80 but you do not let him take the couch, the obligations under the contract can result in a legal judgment against the wrongdoer. Even more complicated, if your friend backs out of the agreement, your friend can still be forced to pay “damages” even if you still have the couch (for example, continued storage fees, difference with lower future selling price, etc). This simple oral agreement created a legally binding contract. However, there are several legal issues with oral contracts. First, under California law, there are many types of contracts that must be written. For example, agreements for services performed longer than one year, agreements to sell any real estate, marriage agreements, or even the sale of any good worth more than $500 must be under a written contract for the contract to be legally enforceable.

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Even if your oral agreement does not fall into one of the categories that must be written, oral contracts have several legal difficulties. Take our earlier couch example: if your friend comes back and takes the couch but does not pay, you can sue him under the oral contract to collect your $80. But now your friend says that you really agreed to $70, not $80. Without a written agreement, there is no evidence as to the agreed upon price aside from you and your (now former) friend’s oral testimony. These situations easily turn into a he-said-she-said situation. A written agreement would have easily clarified this dispute.

Under any oral contract, people can forget the terms of an agreement, people can misinterpret the terms of an agreement, or people can simply attempt to defraud and misrepresent as to the terms of an agreement. Now consider that you are looking to buy your friend’s couch for $100 and you write a simple contract – one couch for $100. However, when it came time to pick up the couch, you notice that one of the cushions is ripped. In order to make up for the rip, your friend says he will reduce the selling price to $70. Even though you have a written contract, you now have an oral amendment to that contract. If your friend later demands $100 for the couch, your oral contract should take precedence. But again, we have the same issue as above – there

is no evidence of this amendment aside from you and your friend’s oral testimony. He-said-she-said rears its ugly head again. Under any oral contract, people can forget the terms of an agreement, people can misinterpret the terms of an agreement, or people can simply attempt to defraud and misrepresent as to the terms of an agreement. The act of writing down the agreement not only alleviates many of these concerns, but also gives the best opportunity for the parties involved to truly have a “meeting of the minds” with respect to specific terms of the agreement. It is often lack of foresight as to the potential issues between contract parties that leads to issues down the road when a disagreement arises. Whether dealing with selling your couch, or with more complicated business arrangements, even a simple written agreement can save you an extensive amount of trouble.

On the other hand however, even a written agreement is not safe. Most business agreements have a clause that states that the written agreement is the complete agreement in-and-of-itself. Such a term is generally called an “integration clause” (sometimes called a merger clause). This may sound like a good term to include in any written contract, but beware. With an integration clause, the written contract would take precedence over any previous oral agreement or negotiations. But because most contracts are negotiated orally, if the written version of the contract does not exactly represent the intent of the parties involved or if the written agreement does not capture the full extent of the oral agreement, the oral agreement would not be enforceable under the contract. You must make

sure to fully read any written contract to see if an integration cause is indeed employed, and to determine if the written contract fully memorializes the agreement. Think of the unscrupulous car dealership that promises free carwashes and oil changes for the life of the car. But come time to sign the contract, you don’t realize that the contract has no mention of carwashes or oil changes anywhere. If the contract has an integration clause (which it most likely will), you are out of luck to sue under the contract to recover for these damages. There are several pitfalls with both oral and written contracts – whether it’s simply selling your couch or more complex business interactions. A little foresight on the front end to ensure the contract is written to accurately represent your intent could save a lot of time, effort and cost on the back end. P

For a free consultation regarding your contract needs, please call Babak Shirdel from the Law Offices of Martin & Martin at 213-388-4747.

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Obama Should Go To Tehran By: Peter Van Buren

President Obama left out the most important word of all in his speech outlining a strategy for Iraq: Iran. If Iran is the 500-pound gorilla in the room with Iraq, it is the 800-pound monster in the Middle East. No real stability can be achieved without Iran. It is time for the president to go to Tehran.

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For all the talk about boots on the ground for America’s air offensive in Iraq and Syria, Obama ignored the ground truth: Iranian forces are already there. The Iranians also command enough attention in Baghdad to significantly enable or stall filling the cabinet positions of Defense and Interior (Maliki held both portfolios personally) that are key components of any sort of “inclusive” government. Tehran’s real advantage? Everyone in Iraq remembers it is the Iranians who never really withdrew after 2011. The Iranians truly understand the cross-border nature of the Middle East. An Iran that works closely with America will yield some version of stability in Iraq, affect the war in Syria (Iran, through its many proxies, including Hezbollah, has supported Assad by fighting his Sunni rebel enemies, moderate and radical alike), perhaps reduce pressure on Israel, and could calm the entire region by acting less bellicose toward a less bellicose United States. This would enable the comprehensive actions needed in the Middle East to slam shut the doors the United States blew open in 2003. Obama’s Iraq plan has already failed in Libya, Yemen, and Somalia to produce any but the most fleeting “successes.” The Brits and Germans won’t fight in Syria, and Turkey is reluctant to go in deeper, weakening any talk of coalitions. As Obama becomes the fourth president in a row to order war in Iraq, a new solution is needed. There is little to lose. After the midterms, he will be a true lame duck. Candidates can run against his failure, or bask in his success. With a dramatic gesture, Obama can start the process of re-balancing the Middle East. Too many genies are out of the bottle to put things back where they were. Tough realities will need to be acknowledged regarding nukes. Having watched America’s serial wars across the region, and the sort of odd deference shown to North Korea after it went nuclear, the Iranians will never back away completely. Tehran also watched

closely what happened in Libya. Qaddafi gave up his nukes and ended up dead, while the Secretary of State laughed about it on TV. Obama cannot move forward without accepting that he cannot paint himself into a corner over Persian nukes. Israel has had the Bomb for a long time without creating a Middle East arms race. Let the Iranians stay comfortable, albeit in the threshold stage of nuclear weaponry. To begin, follow the China model — set up the diplomatic machinery, create some fluid back channels, maybe try a cultural exchange or two. They don’t play ping-pong over there, but they are damn good at chess. Offer to bring Iran into the world system, slowly, and see if they don’t follow. Give the good guys in Tehran something to work with, something to go to their bosses with. Iran has reasons to play. Regional stability can benefit its own goals. Removal of sanctions can grow its economy, and allow it to sell oil in global markets. Calmer borders allow Iran to focus limited resources on domestic problems. Change in Iran, like anywhere, has to come from within. Think China again. With prosperity comes a desire by the newlyrich to enjoy their money. They demand better education, more opportunities and a future for their kids. A repressive government yields to those demands for its own survival and before you know it, you’ve got iPads and McDonald’s. Despite some tough talk aimed at both sides’ domestic constituencies, America and China are trading partners, and have shared interests in regional stability. In a way, as China was to the Soviet Union, Iran can counter-balance undue Saudi influence on American actions. There will be friction, but it can be managed, what President Kennedy called during the Cold War the “precarious rules of the status quo.” Islamic nationalism is a powerful force in the Middle East, and the defining mover of world events in our time. It is not going away. American attempts to create “good” governments failed in the Middle East. The new world order created a place for countries that are not puppets of the United States, and not always allies, but typically countries that other nations can work with, maybe even influence occasionally. That’s statesmanship, and a chance at stability in the Middle East. Perhaps even a chance for a beleaguered and exhausted American president to finally earn his Nobel Peace Prize. P

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Tehran’s vendors battle the streets to survive

any of the city’s poorest residents are setting up informal businesses to stay afloat. With little security, they face constant battle to adapt to changing laws and protect themselves from extortion. In the shadow of the luxury clothing shops and electronic stores lining the eastern end of Tehran’s Mirdamad Boulevard, 55-year-old Amaneh spreads on the ground an array of hair ties, women’s tops, and plain men’s socks that she sells to passersby. She is one of thousands of peddlers who make a living selling cheap and often recycled goods on the streets of Tehran. “[The police] don’t bother me,” Amaneh says, retrieving a card and holding it up. “See, I’m disabled, and I always carry my card.” She hasn’t stood up or moved since she started talking. “They know I’m ill.”

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Constantly threatened by changing city ordinances and rogue security officials out to extort protection pay, the work is far from being physically or financially secure. Still, many poor residents turn to street selling as their economic conditions worsen, in a last-ditch effort to pay for the growing costs of healthcare and household management. Most of them are not migrants, but Tehran residents facing dire existential problems: street children, struggling students, disabled former construction workers, desperate mothers with children in tow. Inside metro carriages and below the feet of pedestrians on high-traffic boulevards, their growing presence is a thorn in the side of Tehran authorities, who often stage harsh crackdowns against them. Marjan, 10, who sells goods at a metro station and occasionally boards the trains to hawk postcards, says that the authorities have yet to turn down the heat. “They follow you and we hide our goods under clothes,” she says. “But they still know. It’s like

they can just tell by looking at you.” Ali, a 30-year-old street seller in Karim Khan, says he has to pay protection money to avoid harassment by city law enforcement. “If I don’t, they’ll just take everything,” he says. “In the end it’s worth it, just to stay afloat. It’s exactly like in the days of the Qajar monarchy: The beggars had to pay protection money to royal patrols just to be left alone and do their begging in peace.” The situation took a turn for the worse recently, when Tehran city officers tasked with alleviating “street congestion” brutally assaulted 41-year-old street seller Ali Cheraghi. A few days later, Cheraghi died of his wounds. A former petty tailor and mender, at the time of his killing Cheraghi salvaged trinkets from the trash heap to make a living, gathering them from dumpsters and loading them into the back of a truck with the help of his 14-year-old son Abolfazl. Ali died on August 14th at Nurafshar hospital in Niavaran,

north Tehran. Abolfazl gave a testimony of the events to the Iran workers’ news agency (ILNA): “A truck from the ‘street congestion’ committee turned in front of us and blocked our way. Then four guys got out and told my dad to step out. He told me to stay seated, and then he got out and I listened. One of the officers told my father that the truck would be confiscated, and my father he said he would call the police. But when he began dialing, the officers pounced on him. One of them grabbed his hands and held them behind him and the others beat him. When I got down from the truck, I saw one of the officers hit my father on the side of the head with a set of brass knuckles. That was when he fell to the ground.” According to the testimony, all four of the officers then fled the scene, finally allowing Abolfazl to call for help. The attack occurred near Bagheri Highway on West 196th Street, and a 13-second film of an unconscious Cheraghi lying on the ground was captured by witnesses and has since made its way to YouTube. Ahmad Masjed Jome’i, the current president of Tehran’s city council and former head of the Islamic ministry and guidance under Mohammad Khatami, visited Ali Cheraghi’s family in a show of solidarity and demanded answers from the Tehran mayor’s office. He called the officers’ actions “inhuman” and “oppressive,” adding that witnesses confirmed the police officers’ involvement in the crime. Facebook users jokingly predicted the mayor’s characteristic indifference toward social justice issues, simultaneously hoping he would be unable to skirt this controversy as easily as past scandals. In recent weeks, social media users also berated the politically conservative former police chief for his attempts to impose gender segregation in administrative offices. Ghalibaf’s official response came

one week after Cheraghi’s death, but erroneously referred to the event as though it had happened the previous day. The mayor referred to Cheraghi’s case as a “constant problem.” “The courts will see to the events of yesterday...They will be capable of seeing the truth and identifying the wrongdoers,” Ghalibaf said, effectively absolving himself of responsibility and passing the matter off to the judiciary. One hallmark of Ghalibaf’s mayorship is the outsourcing of administrative and security contracts to the private sector. As a result, contractors became convenient scapegoats for scandals. After the media picked up the Cheraghi story, Ali Javid, the young deputy mayor of Tehran’s fourth district, said that the main “elements” responsible for this crime were private contractors lacking direct ties to city administration. He added that the deputy mayor of the district where the assault took place also shared responsibility for Cheraghi’s death, as he allegedly failed to notify the relevant city organs of the incident. Rahmatollah Hafezi, president of the commission of health, environment, and city services of the Tehran City Council, criticized the mayoral office’s report on the Cheraghi killing, pointing out that no mention is made of the background against which the altercation between Cheraghi and the officers occurred. Hafezi then referred to “outrageous” bribing and extortion practices of city contractors and suggested that the city government pass emergency laws to confront corruption. Whether hired by the city or private companies, security officials have “stolen more of my stuff than I care to think about - up to 300,000 tomans [$100] worth of things in one go before,” says Rajab, who sells a colorful pallet of knick-knacks on Valiasr Street. “You can just barely get by if you bribe them. In fact, you can’t get anything done without a bribe in this country. Going to the police station

all the time, every day, to deal with the harassment, you won’t be able to sell anything. Paying the money is the only way to go.” Rajab is the sole breadwinner in a large family. At home, he struggles to pay for food and utilities and attempts to foot the medical bill of his wife, who suffers from uterine tumors. His youngest son attends fifth grade while his eldest daughter attends university, where she pays about $330 per term for tuition. Each day, he departs from the Shahriyar neighborhood on the outskirts of Tehran at around 6am to get to his selling spot by 9. On hot summer days he sits on the sidewalk until around 8pm before riding the bus back to Shahriyar. Business is slow, he admits. “If I make even a little bit, I end up spending all of it that night on things we need for the home. No one’s really buying anything at the moment.” Rajab sells small decorative cars, yellow toy school buses, and antique Handley watches. He also sells disposable razors, dolls, and sunglasses. He says he was once a construction worker, but turned to street selling 18 years ago after a workplace accident. “I fell off of a wall while working and landed on some glass. It cut me from here,” he says, drawing a line with his finger from the top of his chest, “to here.” He finishes at his bellybutton. “My innards were coming out. I was in a pretty bad state. It took me a year to recover and I can still feel the stitches and wounds to this day. When I got better, I had to start selling these things.” A girl stops in front of Rajab and asks him the price of one of his items. “7,000 tomans,” he says, and he continues: “They [the police] come randomly and hit you, they scream all kinds of horrible obscenities at you, they smack you on the head ... I don’t have any connections. I have toP go along with whatever happens.”

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WHAT IF THE SHAH OF IRAN HAD REMAINED: 35 YEARS LATER BY SLATER BAKHTAVAR

In 1979, after a long campaign of political pressure applied by the Carter administration in the United States, the Shah of Iran fell to the Islamic Revolution, ending a tradition of monarchic rule that had persisted in Iran for thousands of years, since the rule of Cyrus the Great. The stage was set for the rise of the Ayatollah, and the establishment of a theocracy in Iran that, today, most Iranians do not even want. But what if none of that had ever happened? While a momentous departure from actual history, it is not nearly so far-fetched as it sounds. It isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t difficult to imagine that, beset by strife as the Shah was at the time, the opposition of a major world power like the United States was the final straw that brought the monarchy to an end. However, it is not even clear why 20

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President Carter chose to engage in such opposition. While there were some human rights concerns taking place under the Shah, as Carter noted, these paled in comparison to the atrocities committed by the sorts of Islamic extremists that have since risen to power in Iran and found a more conducive environment in the Middle East generally. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s see what else would have been different had Carter relented, and the Shah remained. With the Islamic Revolution never occurring, Iran under the Shah enters into the 1980s as Ronald Reagan is elected President in the United States. Always a supporter of Iran in general and the Shah in particular, Reagan continues the

close friendship that had long existed between the nations. Other nations also respect and appreciate Iran’s moderation, leading to the establishing of alliances w i t h m a n y A fr ic a n countries, as well as India and Japan. Iran, meanwhile, having never supported a single terrorist organization, continues to shun extremism under its strong secular government. Perhaps most significantly, cultural exchange with the West prospers greatly, with many young Iranian students studying abroad at American universities, where they are exposed to Western ideals of freedom and democracy. Developing a taste for these values themselves, the seeds of organic change are planted when these young people return home. Hostilities do persist between Iran’s Shah and Iraq under Saddam Hussein, but strong ties with the United States ensure that Iran receives the finest military support with which to defend itself when necessary. Meanwhile, as a non-partisan nation comprised mostly of Persians as opposed to either Arabs or Jews, Iran finds itself in a strong mediational role in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, neither of whom see reason to distrust a local presence with no vested interest in their fight. Towards the end of the 1980s, demonstrations for democracy have begun and spread wildly in Iran. Never a repressive ruler in the vein of the Muslim theocrats, the Shah is content to mostly allow these demonstrations, which build in intensity over time, and even to initiate limited political reforms in response. Iran is on the way to becoming a representative democratic state. As the world economy stagnates and recession looms, the Shah is faced with further challenges in Iran. Influenced by

his strong, mutually beneficial relationship with the West, and especially the United States, he responds by massively privatizing the Iranian economy, allowing the foundations of free enterprise to emerge. However, unemployment still soars as a result of the world’s strained financial conditions, leading to further protests. By the time the 1990s are over and the 2000s have arrived, the pressure has reached critical mass, and the Shah agrees to institute a constitutional monarchy in Iran, essentially giving away the majority of his administrative authority. An elected prime minister and parliament come to power, with a president appointed by them. With this, Iran becomes one of the only democracies in the Middle East, effectively cementing its already long friendship with the United States. Demonstrating their trustworthiness almost immediately, Iran is at the forefront of the fight against terror in the aftermath of 9/11. Already watchful of the small but dangerous extremist Islamic element within the nation, these terrorists are now actively sought out and suppressed. Support is offered to the American military campaign in the Middle East, with flights to Iraq being suspended. Intelligence is shared with the US and joint covert anti-terrorism operations are conducted by the two nations in cooperative tandem. American efforts are strengthened and made more efficient by the local ally, and while the activity still threatens to destabilize the Middle East, the democratic Iran’s unwavering support eases the jitters of the oil market, reducing upward pressure on gas prices in the US. As the Arab Spring takes hold after the American invasions, Iran continues to work toward forwarding the interests of the United States, applying its now considerable diplomatic clout to opposing the installation of theocratic rulers in Arab nations deposing secular dictators. As nations such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar attempt to spread their extreme flavor of Sunni Islam, called Wahhabi, Iran’s mostly Muslim but overwhelmingly peaceful population support the more moderate Shiaism. The Middle East prospers from this sobering influence, as Iran grows ever stronger and eventually seeks to strengthen its independence from the United States. While the two remain close allies, Iran grows into its own democracy, inspired by but now different from America. None of these hypothetical scenarios require any great leap of faith. In fact, it could be argued that they represent the simplest logical extension of the consequences of a saner foreign policy from the United States towards Iran. In actual history, of course, the US seems to have spared no effort to antagonize and degrade Iran at every turn, shutting out a peaceful, progressive people simply asking for support in developing their own democracy. Sadly, Barack Obama seems to hold no interest in reversing this trend. Perhaps the next President will; one must only hope the people of Iran can hold on until 2016. P

Slater Bakhtavar is an attorney, journalist, author and political commentator. He is author of Iran: The Green Movement. P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

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ALONE AGAIN, NATURALLY:

Women Singing in Iran Music and theatre directors are in a tug of war with hardliners who find women singing solo too provocative

A shabby downtown apartment, its air conditioner jutting out of a cracked front window, isn’t where you would imagine Iran’s foremost sopranos to be honing their craft. But behind its storied walls their coach, Austrian-trained opera director Hadi Rosat, may well be rewriting the rules for women singing solo in Iran. What’s more, he began in the dog days of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s conservative presidency.

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Since the Revolution of 1979, restrictions have been placed on women singing. These first prohibited all singing but evolved into a ban on women singing solo in front of men who are unrelated to them. Conservative clerics say women’s voices have the potential to trigger immoral sensual - or kinetic - arousal. Rosat has had many brushes with the authorities. His group was ejected from the 2012 Fajr music fes-

tival because his work, Puccini’s theatrical opera Gianni Schicchi, featured an uninterrupted two-minute solo by Shiva Soroush. In the sample video he sent earlier to festival organizers, Rosat had shown his cast singing in an innocuous choir, with no solo and no acting. But Rosat is not one to give up, saying he spends 95% of his time lobbying for permits from the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance, which must authorize all artistic productions even before any tickets can be sold. His persistence had Gianni Schicchi on stage at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall just months later, although Soroush’s solo still threatened to upend his efforts. After their first show, a reporter from a conservative news outlet alerted Ahmadinejad’s culture ministry. Reps showed up the next night to shut down the production. Rosat protested. “Didn’t I ask you to come and watch the rehearsals?” he told them (they hadn’t). “Assume tonight is your last, and that you’ll wave goodbye to the stage and go home,” they responded. “They hadn’t been aware of what an opera was,” says Rosat, whose work was Iran’s first proper theatrical opera since the revolution. The ministry had simply taken him at his word when he assured them it wouldn’t be subversive. It might have ended there. But the officials watched the show in its entirety, after which Rosat got on stage to explain. He carried authorities through the legal crucible he had to overcome to obtain his permits and praised the culture ministry for authorizing his opera “on the basis of trust.” Perhaps Rosat’s passion moved them. Maybe the solo wasn’t as inflammatory as they had imagined. When the cast got word of their special guests that night, they arranged for a background singer to murmur inaudibly over Soroush’s voice so it wasn’t as off-putting to the officials. Whatever it was, in a sudden turn of fate, officials approached Rosat and

the cast backstage to congratulate them. They even asked Rosat for more tickets so they could bring their families the next night. “They understood there’s nothing dangerous about opera,” Rosat says. “They realized that I’m not here to disrupt anything, that we performed a work of art that doesn’t pose a threat to anyone.” In a sense, Gianni Schicchi was the straw that broke the camel’s back. “For solo-singing women, the road has been opened,” Rosat says. “[Today] they are doing it without any problems; none of them faced the obstacles I did.”

Women began singing in the theatre – and sang peek-a-boo solos

You’d be hard pressed to find documented examples of women singing solo in post-revolutionary Iran. Searching the Iranian media won’t yield much because female solo-singing, when it has occurred, has usually gone unpublicized. None of the writeups of Rosat’s Gianni Schicchi seriously addresses the uninterrupted solo that moved some in the audience to tears. But in post-revolutionary Iranian theatre women have been singing solo for years, long before Gianni Schicchi and long before last year’s election of moderate president Hassan Rouhani. One vocalist recalls a performance by Hannah Kamkar, who sang a Persian tasnif (ballad) completely solo, albeit from behind a black curtain, in Ayat Najafi’s 2000 play Sleepy Noon (Nim Ruz-e Khab-alud). As word of mouth spread, people bought tickets just to hear her. A playwright cites Sadegh Hatefi’s 1991 work Boar Toothed (Dandan Goraz) in which Marjaneh Golchin sang a solo. Playwright and director Pari Saberi’s works have also featured bouts of female solo-singing. And since Rouhani’s election, numerous theatrical productions - including Rosat’s Farsi rendition of The Sound of Music, Hamid-Reza Naimi’s Faust and Socrates, Mohammad Rahmanian’s The Last Days of Esfand, and Diana Adama’s recreation of Mozart’s Magic Flute - have made waves for their substantive solos by female vocalists. In the Islamic republic, however, it’s often difficult

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to say what qualifies as a “solo” and what doesn’t because many supposed solos are variations on choral singing. Jargoned in Iran as ham-khani or “co-singing,” it’s exactly what it sounds like: to brush aside the red tape, women have over the years sung together with other men and women to mask their own voices. “The goal is to make it so the woman’s voice isn’t detectable,” says one concert organizer.

advocating it be “eliminated” in favor of other pastimes - “something else that’s educational,” he pleaded. And then, with words alone, Khomeini barred Iranian women from singing in public, a move other

Background

Decades after the revolution, faint memories of women who grew to be national pop stars still course through Iran’s veins. Within the intimate confines of Tehran’s elevator shafts, you might hear the melody of Haydeh’s GolehSang echoing between floors. Or, perhaps you’ll recall a cover band at a packed Shiraz restaurant waiting for a government delegation to leave the premises before performing an Iranian band “Accolade” at an unauthorized performance in Tehran, Iran. instrumental version of a Googoosh January 2013 / Photograph by Vahid Salemi, AP classic, to the raucous applause of a post-revolutionary generation that knows the lyrics all too well. And big-name clerics did not oppose. you might have read about the Islamic republic diehard that, though madly in love with his country’s Iran’s newly empowered leadership was equipped ruling Ayatollah, must admit: he has a soft spot for with a drive to transform a society whose denizens, Homeyra’s arresting voice. said Khomeini and others, were becoming increasIn the 1970s, these three stage-named women singing western-styled pop-- Haydeh, Googoosh, and Homeyra - were regulars on Iranian airwaves and household names among the urban youth. They booked stints at garishly lit cabarets on Lalezar Street, sang for state TV’s Rangarang, and even entertained for birthday parties at the palaces of the Shah. But at some point after the Islamic revolution caught fire, they departed their homeland. State TV’s new managers didn’t take too kindly to them. “Googoosh… Haydeh and many other singers have no longer any place in radio and television,” they wrote in a press release. Indeed, all state-media broadcasts of music, regardless of their Iranian or western origin, were banned. The Revolution’s leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa forbidding music altogether,

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ingly “west-toxified.” So, paying musicians was declared illegal, as was the sale of musical instruments. Cafes, cabarets, bars, concerts, and discos were closed down and outlawed. Revolutionary vigilantes enforced the rulings, occasionally travelling to villages with historically rooted musical traditions to make their leader’s decision known. A few short years later, in the throes of the Iran-Iraq war, Khomeini backed down from his original decision to outlaw all music, citing as permissible the eulogistic hymns sung at the funeral of his co-revolutionary Ayatollah Morteza Motahari. Others recall his lack of objections to the broadcasting of patriotic and religious hymns on national television. Western classical instrumental music eventually returned to hotels and restaurants, where the works of Bach, Chopin, and renowned Iranian composer and pianist Javad Maroufi again enchanted guests. And once more, after the UN-brokered ceasefire ended

the eight-year war with Iraq, Khomeini in 1989 took another major step to seemingly undo what he had done, lifting the ban on the sale and use of musical instruments. Perhaps he would have continued un-

Women singing in public, and the peek-a-boo solo

When reformist president Mohammad Khatami seized the reigns in 1997, the situation improved. Helped to power by a generation of baby boomers thirsting for change, the chronically smiling Khatami kicked cultural liberalization into overdrive - by Islamic republican standards, that is. Concerts were instituted where women could sing in front of other women. Western classical music was again taught at Tehran University, and a record number of permits for albums and concerts were issued by a culture ministry headed by the reformminded Ataollah Mohajerani. Whereas pop music had been Azadeh Ettehad, from the band “Accolade,” sings in an unauthorized stage performance in Tehran, Iran. illegal — listening to it in your January 2013. Photograph by Vahid Salemi, AP car constituted an offence certain kinds of domestic pop and concerts were now authotangling the knot he had tied in 1979, but later that rized, a move that spawned pop phenomena like Beyear, Ayatollah Khomeini passed away. nyamin and the group Aryan. It was during the post-Khomeini era that cultural restrictions relaxed in earnest. Under the presidency of pragmatic conservative Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, traditional music was given the green light and came to be sold legally on cassette. It acquired further legitimacy after a 1992 speech by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Khomeini’s successor as supreme leader. In the face of what Khamenei called the “western cultural onslaught,” traditional music was deemed an authentic Iranian production. Traditional music ensembles like Dastan, Khonya, the Kamkars, Ham-Avayan, and Shams emerged. Post-revolutionary Iran’s first concerts were held, some of them in cultural centers built by Tehran mayor Gholamhossein Karbaschi. Music classes were again legal. Traditional vocalist Parisa, who sang hijab-less before the revolution, was invited back to Iran to teach another generation of Iranian women at the Centre for Preservation and Dissemination of Iranian music. But Parisa and other Iranian women were still barred from publicly singing solo in concert and in front of mixed audiences.

The “co-singing” movement picked up steam under the relaxed social atmosphere of Khatami’s presidency, when women singing at all was still a hot-button issue. The winds of change awakened an experimental spirit of singers toying with one of the Islamic republic’s most enduring taboos. “It wasn’t easy back then [to sing solo] - they took issue with it and harassed singers,” says a classical vocalist who wanted to be identified as Faranak. “But in the end, with government connections and what have you, it was possible for these kinds of things to happen.” These were days when no one had a camera-phone and YouTube didn’t exist. State TV didn’t - and still doesn’t - film performances. Meanwhile, the performers themselves made sure culture ministry minders were out of sight. If government officials did drop by, adjustments were made on the fly to turn women’s solos into choral performances. And journalists knew writing about solo-singing not only brushed up against their own red lines, but also

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threatened the performers they were covering.

woman’s un-chaperoned voice out in the open. “Well, we do what we must to make things happen,” he said. Her teacher had friends in high places, she surmises.

So female “singers would do their thing in complete media silence,” says a traditional vocalist who asked not to be named. It’s why she decided to stay in Iran while oth- At a recent concert by traditional music ensemble the ers, she says, broadcast their voices on foreign satellite Kamkars, Saba Kamkar navigated a powerful soprano networks so they could flee the country as asylum seekers number as her co-singers briefly went silent, only to join or allow their fame to extract them from Iran. She wants in moments later. In Pari Saberi’s latest play Delightful to prove - especially to those from more conservative backgrounds Still wildly popular, Iran’s 1970s diva Googoosh - “that a woman’s voice is not provocative.” In the late 1990s, a choir led by Faranak’s former music instructor organized public concerts that managed to get around the constraints. “I remember when I saw one or two of his concerts, it was clear women sang solo,” she says, even if it might have involved attempts to “fool the authorities.” The supposed deception she’s referring to is often no more than one’s “co-singers” quieting down - sometimes to the point of being nearly inaudible - to highlight a female voice. It’s still a highly common technique in both theatre and even public concerts. But instead, what Faranak’s instructor likely did was employ a familiar but more audacious tactic: injecting brief moments of genuine female solo-singing throughout an otherwise co-sung performance, a kind of peek-a-boo solo. A piece might open with co-singing, only for the choir to then slip into absolute silence as a woman’s voice emerges to sing uninterruptedly solo for a short while, after which she is rejoined by her fellow co-singers.

Garden (Bagh-e Delgosha), a female soloist can be heard singing for a moment’s time, after which she is joined by a deathly silent male murmur for the remainder of the piece. Fatemeh, who has filmed two independent documentaries on solo-singing by Iranian women, remembers when vocalist Afsaneh Rasaii released her album Looking at White Waters in the Khatami days: “There were some parts where she sang solo, and [a man’s] voice was still in the background, but it might have disappeared for 30 seconds, and then her voice would be heard [solo].”

Faranak recalls the instructor being coy when another student asked their instructor how he managed to get a

Peek-a-boo solos appeared to no longer require “connections,” and directors applying for permits to autho-

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rize their work might not even detail the extent of the female solo-singing, if at all, given how brief and unpredictable it is. It harkens back to a recurring theme in the Islamic republic’s cultural tug-of-war: artists chip away at taboos and then raise the stakes, provoking conservatives to shift their ire toward the latest cultural transgression. That’s not to say the women’s singing movement hasn’t been dealt any setbacks. After Ahmadinejad came to power, there were more cancelled concerts (even women-only concerts), more frequent surprise censors at theatre performances, and more anecdotes of conservative officials in the audience being outraged by the women singing on stage. Women’s voices on co-sung albums were more likely to be drowned out by men. But that didn’t stop women from singing. After all, Gianni Schicchi was first performed in the final months of the Ahmadinejad administration.

“It’s not co-singing”

When director Mohammad Rahmanian returned to Iran in 2013 following five years of self-imposed exile, he directed a play called Old Songs. But it was his follow-up, The Last Days of Esfand, that had Tehran talking. A musical featuring western pop from Abba and Mary Hopkin to Amy Winehouse and Frank Sinatra, Esfand stars Ashkan Khatibi and female lead Ghazal Shakeri. Together, the two perform solos and duets alongside three cosingers in the background. Here, “co-singer” is the term director Rahmanian stresses in an interview with Mehr News intended for domestic consumption. That, however, doesn’t do justice to Esfand, or the other productions that have featured solo-singing women in Rouhani’s time. “It’s not co-singing,” Khatibi says. Technically, he adds, co-singers in a choir parrot the lead singer, but in complementary octaves. The co-singers in Esfand do regularly sing along with Shakeri as any proper choir would. But then, say, at the beginning of the

Hopkin number “Those Were the Days,” they fall completely silent and allow Shakeri to open the piece with a brief, unequivocal solo. On other occasions, they might hum so lightly as to be imperceptible. “It’s as if they’re instruments,” Khatibi says. Granted, Shakeri doesn’t sing any of the numbers entirely solo from start to finish as Soroush did in Gianni Schicchi, but there are many brief peek-a-boo solos when the choir dims down to an almost inaudible volume. For director Rahmanian, the minutia behind solosinging isn’t what defines his work. “Never before has western pop been performed, nor has a woman stood in place [apart from the cast] with a microphone in front of her, and sung,” he says. “It was practically a concert in a play.” Indeed, it’s hard to imagine Esfand would have been authorized were it pitched as a concert rather than a theatrical production. Still, if there are potential troublemakers in the audience, the cast has made ad hoc adjustments to the play. This means on some nights, Shakeri’s voice has been less noticeable - less “solo” - than others, with co-singers taking on a more prominent role. “We would tell her to sing more quietly, or not to sway as much behind the microphone,” Khatibi says (the latter might resemble coquettish dancing, another potential offence). Rouhani’s deputy culture minister Ali Moradkhani - highly regarded among many musicians for his open-minded outlook - was present the first night of the performance, and did not protest, Rahmanian says. Did he clap? “I assume so,” he replies. Outside the realm of theatre, women singing solo in public concerts, emulating what Soroush did in the theatrical production Gianni Schicchi, is a different ball game. Some say that there has never been a moment when an entire piece was sung solo by a woman in concert. But there may be one documented exception. In Khatami’s second term in late 2003, France-based Iranian opera singer Darya Dadvar was invited to Iran to perform two pieces at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall: Schubert and Gounad’s Ave Maria and later a piece by Antonio Vivaldi, both in Italian. World-renowned Armenian-Iranian composer Loris Tjeknavorian

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conducted the Tehran Symphonic Orchestra, and for both pieces a choir of sopranos sang alongside Dadvar to make sure all was in line with regulations. But one vocalist on-stage with Dadvar at the time says she and others on-stage were instructed not to “co-sing” but to do something else entirely. For significant parts of the performance, they were asked to merely “move their mouths to feign singing” so the only voice reverberating in Vahdat Hall

“You might hear [women singing solo] in films and theatre, but state TV isn’t likely to broadcast it, unless it’s like a lullaby, for example,” says Fatemeh, the filmmaker. While women singing lullabies has become a normal affair in film and theatre since the Khatami era, the same could not be said about television. Or so it was thought.

You might hear [women singing solo] in films and theatre, but state TV isn’t likely to broadcast it, unless it’s like a lullaby

would be Dadvar’s. And it worked. In December of that year, Dadvar sang solo again in a production Tjeknavorian had been working on for more than two decades - The Tragedy of Rostam and Sohrab, based on Ferdowsi’s epic, The Shahnameh. This time, she sang in Farsi. This has led some to credit Darya Dadvar with being the first woman to sing solo in concert in the Islamic republic.

Lyrics, language and provincial license State TV forbids showing musicians in the act of playing instruments, hijabs are almost always picture-perfect, and many of the Rouhani administration’s statements deviate too heavily from conservative canon to warrant broadcast. When Channel Three played a sanitized version of Where The Wild Things Are a few years ago, they excised Karen O’s humming from the background music, instead looping the instrumental parts. So it should come as no surprise that women have never been shown singing on national television.

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A weekly historical TV series, Mokhtar-nameh, raised some eyebrows in Ahmadinejad’s time because the closing credits featured a woman from Bushehr, in southern Iran, humming a local lullaby. The series did not face any major objections, and it’s unclear if that was because of its religiously themed content, the lack of lyrics, or the provincial character of the vocals.

Bushehri women are known to sing solo in passion plays decrying Imam Hussein’s martyrdom in AD 680. In fact, Iran’s many ethnic minorities -Kurds, Azeris, and Lors, to name a few - have enjoyed rich musical traditions throughout history. This reluctance to upset ethnic groups, dating back to the opinions of Ayatollah Khomeini, may explain the government’s continued leniency. “Generally, when we’re talking about folk, ethnic, and local music, that’s when the restrictions ease,” Fatemeh says. The same goes for dress: TV, she says, is more willing to show an ethnic Lor in her traditional garb, even if that might entail more exposed hair and forearm than it would tolerate from urbanites. “Regarding music, this might also apply,” she says, mentioning languages like Kurdish or Azeri. “Perhaps not on state TV, but in film. If in a movie, you hear the voice of a woman who is singing folk music [in a language other than Farsi], yes, that movie will get a permit.” In a recent documentary about residents of the city of Sardasht in Iranian Kurdistan still suffering from the effects of chemical weapons attacks in the Iran-Iraq war, a Kurdish woman sings a local melody, solo, as the credits roll.

Some believe Farsi, the official language of Iran, is the root of the problem. Farsi might be more widely understood, and so more likely to inspire spectators to get out of their chairs and dance, sparking the kinetic arousal that cultural conservatives find abominable. That may be why operatic singing is more tolerated. “Opera isn’t considered provocative to them because you don’t clap to it,” says Ashkan. “Nor is it sexual.” Marzieh, a seasoned playwright well-versed in the art of obtaining culture ministry permits for her work, is still grappling with why “if a woman sings [solo] in an opera, it’s [considered] very different from a woman singing traditional music.” Or how ballet and modern “western” dance are tolerated in theatre, she says, but not their Persian counterparts. “In Iranian theatre, you can do modern dance as a woman, but Iranian dance with - you know, ‘ding da da, ding da da’ - with teasing and coquettishness, you can’t do that. It’s the same way in music.”

Rouhani’s winds of change

By the time Rosat took his second major work on stage in October 2013, a Persian-language rendition of The Sound of Music, the culture ministry had come to know and trust him, even as it underwent staff changes called for by President Rouhani’s incoming administration. “The issue had become personal - it was like, oh, okay, Hadi Rosat is doing it,” he says. But The Sound of Music (Ashk-ha va Labkhand-ha) featured more than one fully-sung solo. Farhnoush Rahimi and Rosemary Essapour, who played Maria and Mother Abbess respectively, sang numerous solos on stage, in Farsi, without humming, co-singing, or any other technique normally employed to avoid stepping on hardliners’ toes. But the road to women singing solo isn’t as wellpaved as Rosat would like to believe. Despite having co-singers on stage, The Last Days of Esfand received an order from a Revolutionary Court after its 20-day run preventing it from being performed again. And female soloists still cannot apply for permits to hold their own public concerts as independent musical artists. Some still worry their productions will be shut down, which is why intermittent humming, cosinging, and peek-a-boo solos still persist.

If Iran’s nuclear negotiations end in an agreement, they might afford President Rouhani the necessary political capital to undertake his promised domestic reforms. Those in-the-know have heard rumors of what that might entail for Iran’s vocalists, including an attempt to legalize solo-singing in all capacities once and for all. One cites a composer who is already recording tracks for a female solo album, to make sure he’s the first to the market should the ban be lifted. Another has heard the Rouhani administration wants to introduce singing, for men and women, into universities as an academic major for the first time. Rouhani administration officials have already proven to be of a “very different” breed than their predecessors, says Marzieh, who has word that one of the president’s culture ministry official wept as he watched a recent play of hers (which happened to feature short peek-a-boo solos). “Censorship of theatre has decreased significantly since Rouhani took office. Ahmadinejad’s officials only looked at things through an Islamic lens, but these people are educated, enlightened, and they’re even touched by a play. The censors that used to come before would come watch a play and keep their distance, as if the entire work was flawed.” “The ambience has changed rather than any one thing changing,” says Khatibi. “The lack of trust that hard, strict wall between artists and politicians - has been eliminated.” Among the Iranian intelligentsia these days, there’s a sense that women can now sing solo. This writer has lost count of how many conversations have begun with “so I hear female solo-singing has been legalized?” But it may be a bit alacritous to say the practice is now “legal.” Female solo-singing has happened. But it also hasn’t. There have been caveats - what with language, lyrics, different media, co-singing, humming, and peek-aboos impacting just how “solo” a performance can be. What can be said with more certainty is that it’s happening more frequently than before, with authorities continuing to turn a blind eye to the practice in Iranian theatre. For an Islamic republic that once banned music outright and denounced women singing in public, these are changing times. Rosat, meanwhile, is on the lookout for a strong female vocalist for his next work: the Engelbert Humperdinck opera, Hansel and Gretel. P

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ACTOR SHAUN TOUB RECEIVES 2014 REZA BADIYI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 7th Annual Noor Iranian Film Festival Announces Award Winners at Closing Ceremonies PHOTO: ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNER SHAUN TOUB WITH FESTIVAL DIRECTOR AND CO -FOUNDER SIAMAK GHAHREMANI P

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The 7th Annual Noor Iranian Film Festival (NIFF) honored film and television actor Shaun Toub with 2014’s Reza Badiyi Achievement Award on October 22nd. The closing night and red carpet awards ceremony was held at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. BAFTA-nominated film producer Bob Yari, whose films include Crash and The Illusionist, presented the award. Actor and comedian Maz Jobrani also honored Toub with a speech. Through a chance encounter with an astute talent agent, Toub broke into the Hollywood scene with hope in his heart and a natural talent to entertain. Toub has received accolades for several of his appearances in over 100 television episodes including Seinfeld, The Sopranos, Castle, NCIS, Chuck, Lost, Charmed, ER, Just Shoot Me, JAG, Married with Children and various movies made for television. His filmography includes his memorable performances in Bad Boys, Broken Arrow, The Kite Runner, Charlie Wilson’s War, Iron Man, The Last Airbender and the Oscar-winning film Crash. His recent work includes playing Majid Javadi in season three of Homeland and the upcoming film Papa, the life story of Ernest Hemingway, in the role of Evan Shipman the poet. Shaun was raised in Manchester, England and moved to America at the age of 16 to continue his education. He is very proud of his Persian heritage. Through various charity events and public speaking engagements, he inspires the community to embrace the arts, as the arts enhance everyday life.

community. Shaun has demonstrated 27 years of exemplary work in TV and film, playing the lead role of inspiring others.” Shaun was surprised just before receiving his award with video messages by his fellow industry members, including actor Jon Favreau, actress Nazanin Boniadi, Homeland creator Alex Gansa, actor Aasif Mandiv and mentalist Gerard Senehi. Over 350 guests, VIPs, filmmakers and distinguished guests were in attendance. Influencers from the Iranian-American community included: actor and comedian Ali Pourtash (The Stoning of Saraya M.), actor Ali Saam (Argo), actor Navid Negahban (Homeland, The Stoning of Soraya M.), actor, writer and director Arian Moayed, actress Vida Ghaffari (Cross My Heart), and many more. Screenings were held from October 17th – 22nd at the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills. The 2014

Toub said, “As an Iranian-American actor, receiving the Reza Badiyi Achievement Award is of great significance. That night as I sat and watched glimpses of my work throughout the years, I got to appreciate the great journey I’ve been on, and how blessed I am to be afforded the opportunity to do what I love and had dreamt of since I was five years old.” Festival co-founder and director Siamak Ghahremani said, “Each year NIFF recognizes talent who are outstanding trailblazers for the Iranian

BOB YARI, SHAUN TOUB, AND SIAMAK GHAHREMANI ON THE RED CARPET. AT ITS FOUNDING, THE NOOR FESTIVAL WAS THE FIRST IRANIAN -AMERICAN RED CARPET EVENT.

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event was presented by festival co-founder, director and producer Siamak Ghahremani and sponsors Pars Equality Center, Javanan Magazine, Radio Javan and KIRN 670AM. This year’s jury included Iranian actress Mahnaz Afshar (Shirin, Cease Fire, The Wooden Bridge), Iranian American actor Omid Abtahi (Argo, Those Who Kill, The Boys of Abu Ghraib), and actress and director Catherine Dent (Silk, The Shield, Gang Related, The Mentalist, Castle).

OMID ABTAHI

MAZ JOBRANI, BOB YARI AND DAVID FARIBORZ DAVOODIAN 32

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Past jury members have included prominent industry VIPs Marshall Manesh, Dennis Haysbert, Farajallah Heidari, Frances Fisher, Rainn Wilson, Brooke Adams, Esai Morales, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Reza Badiyi, Bai Ling, Omid Djalili, Ever Carradine, Natasha Henstridge, Maz Jobrani, Corey Feldman, Max Martini, Kami Asgar, Harry J. Lennox, Shaun Toub, Kyle Secor, Habib Zargarpour, Tony Plana, Kristoff St. John, Homa Sarshar, Navid Negahban and Behrouz Vossoughi. A non-profit, non-religious, and non-political organization, the Noor Iranian Film Festival (NIFF) was created to shed light, or ‘noor,’ on Persian culture, helping

to express the beauty of a culture that is commonly misperceived due to its portrayal in the media. In 2005, Iranian-born Ghahremani co-founded the festival with actor Anthony Azizi, and the inaugural international event premiered in 2007. Two years of planning and orchestration were required due to this being the first competition Iranian Film Festival outside of Iran, as well as the first IranianAmerican Red Carpet event. The festival’s mission is to educate the non-Iranian community about the culture and heritage of Iranians around the world through the medium of cinema. Not without challenges, the festival supports filmmakers whose voices cannot be heard inside of Iran and around the world.

the closing night Awards Ceremony held at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The event is also dedicated to cultivating and promoting Iranian-American talent in Hollywood. Screenings are held at the Laemmle Music Hall For more information, please visit www.noorfilmfestival.com. P

SHEBA KHODADAD AND ARIAN MOAYED

For seven days, the NIFF hosts premieres, networking events, and panel discussions, culminating in

PHOTOS COURTESY OF JOHN FUENTES AND 6 DEGREES DEEP

2014 NIFF WINNERS ARE AS FOLLOWS: Best Short Film: “More Than Two Hours” by director Ali Asgari Best Short Film Director: Ethan Rains for “Still Here” Best Animation: “The Hard Dream” by director Behrouz Bagheri Best Documentary: “Out of Iran: Iran’s Unwanted Sons and Daughters” by director Farid Haerinejad Best Documentary Director: Ayat Najafi for “No Land’s Song”

Best Feature Film: “When the Lemons Turned Yellow” by director Mohammadreza Vatandoust Best Film Director: Desiree Akhavan for “Appropriate Behavior” Best Story/Idea: “Boys with Broken Ears” by director Nima Shayeghi Audience Favorite: “Nowruz: Lost and Found” by director K-Von Moezzi The winning films will travel on to Daytona Beach, Florida in January.

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Bulletproof Coffee 101 Forget the cream and sugar. Butter is the new cool kid on the block, especially when it comes to your morning coffee. By Melissa Schollaert

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Bulletproof Coffee, which is coffee with grass-fed butter and medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) oil mixed in, was designed by Dave Asprey, owner of Bulletproof Executive, to “supercharge your brain function and create effortless fat loss with no cravings.” Bulletproof Coffee may be a great way to get healthy fats first thing in the morning. Starting the day with healthy fats provides energy, is good for cognitive function, and supports your hormones. Butter from grass-fed cows supplies a ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids that’s far healthier than butter from conventionally raised livestock. MCT oil is like rocket fuel for the brain and metabolism (research also indicates its anti-aging, helpful for autoimmune conditions and lowering cholesterol. (1) MCT stands for medium chain triglycerides. It is a concentrated form of fat that is about six times stronger than coconut oil when it comes to feeding your brain. The body makes ketones when breaking down fat which are a very efficient energy source and provide mental clarity. So here’s the deal: I am NOT a big fan of coffee. Most of the clients I see have tired adrenals, and caffeine- particularly from coffee and black tea- creates negative effects with regard to these precious hormones. The adrenals are responsible for energy levels, endurance and vitality. Coffee triggers your pituitary gland to secrete a hormone that tells your adrenal glands to produce adrenalin, thus increasing levels of stress in the body. Coffee has also been linked to blood sugar issues, and when combined with a sugar filled diet, Metabolic Syndrome may be the end result. Needless to say, caution must be exercised with regard to caffeine intake. Below are ideas and instructions to help you make your perfect “bulletproofing brew.” Espresso is better for you than regular coffee because it has less caffeine and is brewed on the spot. Espresso can actually be alkaline forming if you drink it within the first 15 minutes of being brewed. I recommend drinking Crio Bru, a coffee substitute made of roasted cacao beans. It’s loaded with antioxidants and minerals, with little to no caffeine. The flavor is similar to coffee without the acidity of some other coffee substitutes I’ve tried. Crio Bru was shown to be 5.5 on the litmus scale, consistent with raw cocoa. Coffee is more acidic at 5.0. Crio and coffee are more neutral than beer or any fruit juice and similar to carbonated water (which contains carbonic acid as a result of the dissolved carbon dioxide). The beauty of bulletproofing is that you can have that coffee shop foam without exposing yourself to low quality ingredients and your wallet to the coffee shop price gauge.

How to make a Real Nutritious Living “Bulletproofed” Beverage: Ingredients: 1-2 Cups organic coffee or coffee substitute 2 Tablespoons MCT oil 2 Tablespoons Grass-fed butter or ghee 1 teaspoon Maca 1 teaspoon cacao 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon turmeric 1/8 teaspoon cayenne Option to add: 1 Tablespoon collagen Directions: Brew coffee. Add all ingredients (coffee first) into blender. Blend for 30 seconds. Enjoy! Sources: 1. Babayan, V.K. Medium chain fatty acid esters and their medical and nutritional applications. J Am Oil Chem Soc, 1981, 58: 49A-51A.

Melissa Schollaert is a Holistic Health and Nutrition Counselor and founder of Real Nutritious Living. She’s been an on-camera expert for ABC, NBC, and Good Day Live, with her writing published on a number of healthy living and nutrition websites. Melissa also teaches cooking classes and workshops at Whole Foods and other retail outlets. She’s an avid yogi, always-improving surfer, and a firm believer in faith, love, and the healing power of green juice. She’s got a heart for helping others achieve their health goals to attain their healthiest, happiest life. Head over to realnutritiousliving.com for your FREE copy of “The Top 5 Slimming Superfoods for Weight Loss.” P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

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16 Cancer Causing Foods You Probably Eat Every Day

It’s probably not something you think about every day, whether or not the foods you are eating could contain carcinogens, but with almost 1.5 million people diagnosed with some type of cancer just last year, perhaps it’s time to look at what is in our foods that could be causing such a huge number of new cancer patients. Here is a list of the top 10 foods that you most likely consume every day that may contain carcinogens or be suspected of causing cancer.

1. Microwave Popcorn

Those little bags of popcorn are so convenient to just stick in the microwave, you wouldn’t think for a minute that they could be dangerous to your health, but they are. First, let’s talk about the bag itself. Proved by Wikipedia, conventional microwave popcorn bags are lined with a chemical called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). This is a toxin you can also find in Teflon. According to a recent study at the University of California, PFOA is linked to infertility in women. Numerous studies in lab animals and humans show that exposure to PFOA significantly increases the risk of kidney, bladder, liver, pancreas and testicular cancers. You can read more about this substance and the abovementioned studies at cancer.org. Now, let’s talk about the contents of the bag. Although every manufacturer uses slightly different ingredi36

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ents, most of them use soybean oil (a GMO product) as well as various preservatives such as propyl gallate, a chemical that causes stomach problems and skin rashes. Now they don’t actually say they are using GMO corn kernels, but that’s because the government says they don’t have to. Even if they don’t use GMO corn, you can bet they aren’t using organic!

Conventional foods are also subjected to an enormous amount of these types of chemicals as well as hormones to make the fruit and veggies grow bigger. Apples are probably the worst offenders with pesticides showing on more than 98 per cent of all apples tested. Fruits with a 90 per cent positive rate of pesticide residue included oranges, strawberries, and grapes.

Also, applied to the popcorn itself is a chemical called diacetyl. Use of this chemical caused Conagra Foods to remove it from their brand of popcorn, ACT, because it was causing lung diseases in the workers at their factory.

Washing fruit does not remove 100% of the residue. Pesticides are toxic chemicals to insects as well as human beings.

3. Canned Tomatoes

2. Non-organic fruits

Actually, most canned foods are a concern because of what the can is lined with. The linings of almost all canned foods are made with a chemical called bisphenol-A, or BPA.

Atrazine is banned in European countries but still used here. This is a weed killer that causes severe problems in humans, especially in our reproductive capabilities.

A study published in May of 2013 by the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences showed that BPA actually affects the way genes work inside the brain of rats. Even the FDA agrees that there is a problem with BPA, as it is supporting efforts to either replace or minimize the amounts found in canned foods. You know it must be bad when even the very lax FDA is concerned!

Fruits that are non-organic are contaminated with some very dangerous pesticides such as atrazine, thiodicarb, and organophosphates, as well as high nitrogen fertilizers.

A 2009 study found that when pregnant women drank water contaminated with atrazine, their babies had reduced body weights. Were you aware that the sewage from cities in the USA (nicely called bio solids) is used in the fields of farms in the USA as a form of fertilizer? You will never find organic food being cultivated in composted human sewage waste!

Tomatoes are exceptionally dangerous due to their high acidity, which seems to cause BPA to leech from the lining of the can into the tomatoes themselves. The level of BPA can be so high in fact, you should seriously consider not feeding them to

children. Due to FDA laws, there are no standards for labeling BPA so simply because a can does not say it has it does not mean that it does not contain BPA. Be safe and avoid cans. Cook fresh or buy glass bottles.

4. Processed Meats

What exactly are processed meats? This is a long list that includes, but is not limited to, sausages, hot dogs, bacon, and most lunchmeats like bologna or pimento loaf. Researchers who wrote in the journal of BMC Medicine said that the excessive salts and chemicals that are used when making processed meats are damaging to your health. The study showed that those who ate 160 grams or more of processed meats increased their risk of early death as much as 44 percent within 12 years as opposed to those who ate 20 grams or less. This study involved people from 10 European countries and went on for almost 13 years. All these processed meats contain numerous chemicals and preservatives including sodium nitrates, which make them look appealing and fresh but are well known carcinogens. Smoking meats seems to be particularly bad as the meat picks up tar from the smoking process. Yes, tar, the same deadly ingredient that cigarette smoke contains

5. Farmed Salmon

Although fish sounds like one of the healthiest foods possible, farmed salmon is one you should avoid. Unfortunately, more than 60% of the salmon consumed in the USA is farm raised. These fish are fed unnatural diets and are contaminated with chemicals, antibiotics, pesticides,

and other known carcinogens. They live in very crowded conditions, which results in these fish having 30 times the number of sea lice than wild salmon. Doesn’t that sound appetizing? Farmed salmon are fed chemicals to make their meat that reddish pink color that should occur naturally, but doesn’t because of the diet of chicken litter that they are fed. Also, due to their diet, they have less of the healthy omega-3 that we think we are getting when we consume fish. Studies have also shown that farmed salmon contain high levels of PCBs, mercury, and cancer causing dioxins. Avoid farmed salmon and buy it canned or look for labels in your market that state the fish you are buying is wild sockeye salmon.

6. Potato Chips

Yes, we know, potato chips are a cheap, great tasting, quick snack; however, the negative effects they have on your body may not be worth the little bit of pleasure you derive from these crispy snacks. Potato chips are high in both fat and calories, which are sure to bring on weight gain. A study done in the New England Journal of medicine found that eating just one ounce of potato chips per day caused an average two-pound weight gain in one year. Besides being full of trans-fats, which can cause high cholesterol in most people, they have excessive sodium levels which, for many people, cause high blood pressure. Potato chips have artificial flavors and colors and numerous preservatives that your body doesn’t need. Potato chips are fried at high temperatures to make them crisp, but this also produces acrylamide, a known carcinogen that is also found in cigarettes. If it’s hard to say no to your kids’ de-

mands for chips, try air-popped popcorn, whole-wheat pretzels, baked potato chips or tortilla chips, which are lower in both fat and calories. Apple chips or banana chips, which are dehydrated, are crispy and far healthier than regular potato chips.

7. Hydrogenated oils

All hydrogenated oils are vegetable oils. Vegetable oils cannot be extracted naturally (like butter is); they must be chemically removed from their source. They are frequently deodorized and colored to look more appealing to consumers. All vegetable oils contain high levels of Omega–6 fatty acids. An excess of Omega6-fatty acids cause health problems, such as heart disease and an increase in various cancers, especially skin cancer. You need a good balance of both Omega-3 and Omega-6. Try to get plenty of Omega-3 every day from supplements, grass-fed meat, and fatty fish such as salmon and mackerel. Hydrogenated oils are used to preserve processed foods and keep them looking appealing for as long as possible. Hydrogenated oils influence our cell membranes’ structure and flexibility, which is linked to cancer.

8. Foods that are highly salted, pickled, or smoked Nitrates and nitrites, which are P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

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frequently used to cure foods, act as preservatives as well as adding color to meat. Although nitrates do not cause cancer in and of themselves, under certain conditions these chemicals change into N-nitroso composites once inside the body. It’s this N-nitroso that is associated with an increased risk of developing cancer. When foods such as meats or nuts are smoked, they absorb considerable amounts of tar, a known carcinogen, that smoke produces. Meats such as bacon, sausage, bologna, and salami are high in fat and salt, and pickled foods are very high in salt as well. T h e r e is overwhelming ev idence that eating these types of f o o d s greatly incre a se s the risk of colorectal and stomach cancer, with the rates of stomach cancer being much higher in places such as Japan where the diet contains many highly salted and/or smoked foods.

9. Highly processed white flours

You may have heard by now that white flour, which lurks in many processed foods, is not a good thing, but you most likely have no idea just how bad it really is for your health. Refining grains destroys their natural nutrients. Mills are no longer content with waiting for their flour to whiten with time; they now bleach flour with a chemical called chlorine gas. The EPA states that chlorine gas is a dangerous irritant that is not 38

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safe to inhale and can be lethal in large quantities. White processed flour also has a very high glycemic rate and quickly raises blood sugar and insulin levels, which can be a direct cause of diabetes. Cancerous tumors feed mostly on the sugars in your bloodstream. By avoiding refined grains such as white flour, you can avoid or starve tumors.

10. GMOs

Genetically modified organisms, more commonly called GMOs, are foods that have been modified by chemicals. In a study done by Dr. Pusztai at the Rowett Institute in Scotland, rats were fed GMO foods. All the rats showed damaged immune systems and pre-cancerous cell growths, along with smaller brains and livers, in just the first ten days of the project. American consumers believe that the FDA has approved these GMO foods, but that is simply not the case. The FDA has NO testing procedures for GMO foods- NONE. The only human study ever published showed that the foreign genes that are present in GM foods transfer to the DNA in the bacteria in our digestive systems. We, the American consumer, are the guinea pigs in this case. Unfortunately, almost all grains, including soybeans, wheat and corn, are GMOs. GMOs do not have to be listed on food labels, so read carefully and look for labels that state the food is GMO-free.

11. Refined Sugars Refined sugars are not only known to spike insulin levels, but also to be the most preferable food for cancer cells, thus promoting their growth.

Cancers seem to have a sweet tooth. The Nobel laureate in medicine, German Otto Warburg, first discovered that tumors and cancers both use sugars to “feed” themselves and/or to increase in size back in 1931. In order to proliferate, cancer cells seem to prefer feeding on fructose-rich sweeteners like highfructose corn syrup (HFCS) because they can metabolize them quickly and easily. Cakes, pies, cookies, sodas, juices, sauces, cereals, and many other extremely popular, mostly processed, food items are loaded with refined sugars and HFCS in particular; this may help explain why cancer rates are on the rise.

12. Artificial Sweeteners Many diabetics and dieters turn to artificial sweeteners to avoid calories and sugar. However numerous studies show that people who regularly consume artificial sweeteners, such as those found in sodas or coffee sweeteners, actually gain weight. Artificial sweeteners also make it even more difficult for diabetics to control their blood sugar levels, and worsen diabetes-related conditions like cataracts and gastro paresis. Aspartame has been found to sometimes cause convulsions, which may be mistaken for an insulin reaction. Fake sweeteners can inhibit your body’s ability to monitor its daily calorie consumption, causing you to crave even more sweets. There is mounting evidence that the chemicals that make up these sweeteners, especially aspartame, break down in the body into a deadly toxin called DKP. When your stomach processes this chemical, it in turn produces

chemicals that can cause cancer, especially brain tumors.

13. Diet Anything Diet soda and frozen and prepackaged foods labeled as “diet” or “low fat” frequently contain the chemical artificial sweetener aspartame mentioned before. There are numerous studies showing that aspartame causes a range of health problems including cancer, birth defects and heart problems. All “diet” food is chemically processed, with super refined ingredients, excessive sodium levels, and artificial colors and flavors to make it taste good. Artificial anything is NOT real food! Although the FDA says that all these added chemicals are safe to eat, you might want to take their advice with a grain of salt. After all, don’t they also tell you that sugar and vegetable oils are safe to eat? Not to mention GMO’s and fast food! There have been many studies that show that for some, these additives can actually be addictive. They feed that “feel good” part of your brain in a way that’s similar to cocaine! The companies that make such products are certain to make a lot of money off their addicted customers. Be smart and eat nature’s original diet foods: organic fruits and vegetables!

14. Alcohol An American study that followed the diet and lifestyles of more than 200,000 women for almost 14 years found that postmenopausal women who had up to one drink per day had an almost 30% increase in breast cancer rates compared to women who did not drink at all.

Alcohol use is the second leading cause of cancer, right behind tobacco use. While low to moderate consumption of alcohol can be healthy and reduce risk of heart disease, excessive drinking is known to cause heart failure, stroke, and sudden death. In 2007, experts working for the World Health Organizations International Agency for Research on Cancer looked at the scientific evidence regarding cancer and alcohol use from 27 different studies. They found sufficient evidence to state that excessive alcohol use is the main cause of mouth, esophagus, liver, colon, mouth, rectal, and female breast cancers. Don’t fret! You can still enjoy that glass of wine with dinner, but for your health’s sake, no more than one!

15. Red Meat You don’t have to give up your Tbone steak just yet; there is evidence that shows that red meat in small, infrequent amounts is actually a good thing. In fact grassfed beef contains conjugated linoleic acid, which actually fights against certain cancers. However in a 10-year study, eating red meat every day, even in small amounts (such as that quarter pound hamburger you like to enjoy at lunch) increased men’s risks of dying from cancer by 22% (20% in women). A separate study showed that eating a lot of red meat increased the risk of breast, prostate, and colon cancer. Red meat seems particularly risky for colon cancer. A US study that followed almost 150,000 people between the ages of 50 and 74 showed that the long-term consumption of red meat significantly increased the amount of colon

cancer in the subjects. On the other hand, the long-term consumption of fish and poultry appeared to have a protective effect. Enjoy that burger, but not every night. Save those steaks for a special treat, and be sure you are consuming grass-fed, organic beef for your best health.

16. Soda Pop Perhaps you heard about the recent study published in the American Journal of Nutrition. It found that people who consumed more than one soda per day had a higher risk of stroke than people who did not drink sodas. Loaded with sugar, sodas are an empty source of calories that cause weight gain and contribute to the nat ionw ide obesity epidemic. Consuming large amounts of these rapidly digested sugars causes blood sugar spikes, which can lead to both inflammation and insulin resistance. Soda is often the root cause of gastro-esophageal reflux disease, a condition where the contents of the stomach leak into the esophagus, causing stomach acid to painfully burn of the esophagus. Sodas also cause increased pain and irritation in those with ulcers. With artificial colors and food chemicals like derivative 4-methylimidazole (4-MI), it is no wonder that soda pop has been shown to cause cancer. P P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

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Iran Snapshots: Riot in Thieves Alley Part 2 of 3 Strong emotions stir up childhood memories, one helps guide the way out of a neighborhood dispute By: Haleh Anvari I drove out of the alley and onto the big meidan. By now my heart was in my mouth and I was doing a hormonal sprint through a number of emotions. Stunned indignation hurled past, bitter humiliation came into view and was suddenly replaced with anger and disbelief. A nasty sense of injury and injustice settled in. As I was about to come off the roundabout onto the boulevard that would take me away towards the mountains and north Tehran where I lived, I knew I would go mad if I just went home. As a woman I was subjected to endless annoying intrusions every time I was out in public, but this was not governmental and this was not political, and I would need to deal with it if I wanted to live with myself in the next few days. I would not get any sympathy at home, where the understanding was that wandering as I did, way too often and way too far south in the city, would bring with it such colorful experiences. So I drove back into Thieves Alley, heading straight to a shop where they knew me as a regular customer. 40

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I was by now in the grip of hiccupping sobs. I was so angry, I was convulsing. The shopkeeper’s assistant, a bearded older man, greeted me with surprise. I told him about the incident. And here something happened, something that took me beyond nostalgia – an idea, a story heard at another time, in another dimension, before my departure, before the revolution, before my return, came back to me and threw itself out in a phrase I could not recall hearing and had certainly never used in a lifetime of changes. “I am not leaving this place until I see your neighborhood’s hakam. I have been insulted and I will not leave until something is done. Who is the hakam of this neighborhood? Where is he?” I was demanding recourse through the old, traditional system of neighborhood governance. The hakam, the concept I had spewed out from deep inside a memory long thought to be lost, is a kind of elder, a medi-

ator. I had heard from my father that old Tehran neighborhoods had their own systems of surviving amid new urban lifestyles. There would be a father figure, a wise one, much like there were in rural areas, to whom you could go for casual citizen mediation, to avoid the formal legal system. Before legal systems even existed, the hakam would work to reconcile feuding neighbors or aggrieved family members. Mr. M, the owner of the shop, told Ghasem, the assistant, to run out. First to get the lady a sweet drink, since she clearly looked pale and in need of something sugary as a pick-up, and then to go and get “Haj Agha.” Having put a bottle of chilled Canada Dry orange soda in my hand, Ghasem went out again to return just five minutes later. He called me onto the street where a well-built man of about 50 with salt-and-pepper stubble was walking towards us. He wore his shirt over his trousers in the manner of those we call hezbolla-

his, fervently devout adherents of the regime. But he also wore a tailored suit jacket that made him seem more modern – maybe a merchant, or certainly someone who was not averse to the idea of a suit every now and then on special occasions, say a wedding. In one hand he twiddled some worry beads – he could be religious, or simply trying to quit smoking. But then there were his agate rings, tilting his appearance towards the devout again.

Right! And so we went back into the off-street.

But hold on, what about the shoes? He was wearing woven cotton giveh, the traditional shoes of the Iranian rural proletariat, made unisex by cool urbanites with a hippy-trippy bent like myself. So it was hard to place him.

“It’s the out-of-towners who are renting from” – he gave a name. “They were very rude to the lady.” He pointed to the broken windows. He didn’t have to say much more. Haj Agha just looked on and all seemed to be understood. Maybe they’d had trouble with this lot before.

Years later, had I seen the same man in the street demonstrations after the 2009 election I would have run the other way, he looked so much like a high-ranking member of the Basij. But there was the air of a different archetype from old Tehran about him. It was in the way he walked – not busy and brusque and wary, but like a man who felt connected to the pavement he traversed, his steps sure and unhurried. I could imagine him dressed in the costume of another neighborhood character from popular Iranian cinema before the revolution, the looti, the thug with a heart who wore a chapeau, drank and was wayward but stepped in to save the honor of his people. Ghasem quickly and respectfully relayed the events. Haj Agha looked at me and gestured that I should follow him. He didn’t speak, just made a motion that we should go together into the side alley. By this time I was losing adrenalin, the sugar from the fizzy drink was kicking in and my need for justice was subsiding in reverse ratio. “I think maybe I shouldn’t go back in there again,” I suggested helpfully. “Natars! Biya! Man bahatam!” Don’t be afraid, I’m with you!

The little koucheh was completely deserted. Not a soul in sight, only broken glass on the asphalt and nothing else. Mr. G, the metal scrap seller, was standing by his shop. When he saw Haj Agha he ran towards him. I won’t say he bowed but he was certainly at his most courteous. He corroborated my story and added some details.

Haj Agha stood in the middle of the koucheh, filling the width of the small alley with his presence, and addressed some unspecific window in the building where the culprits lived. He bellowed as if he was declaiming a soliloquy of Rostam’s, hero of the Shahnameh, for an audience in a tea house: “Whoever has broken this sister’s heart, I’ll break his heart. Whoever has brought tears to this sister’s eyes, I’ll bring tears to his. Whoever has been disrespectful to this sister of ours, he will have to face me.”

rack-less roof of my Renault 5, and I was sent on my way having handed over no money at all. I didn’t go back to Thieves Alley for a couple of months. I was a little put off to say the least. But one day in the spring, I returned, a little nervously to begin with but relieved when I saw Mr. G wave to me eagerly when he saw me walking towards his shop. The windows were repaired and it was business as usual. “Where have you been, Ma’am? We’ve been looking for you.” I felt ashamed that I had not come sooner to settle my bill. After all, he was being gracious because of the fracas when he didn’t take payment for the furniture he had let me drive off with. I apologized. “No, no! That’s not the problem. We’ve been looking for you because Haj Agha said the taxi driver and his family could only stay on if they apologized to you. They’ve been trying to find you to say they’re sorry, so they can stay.” I declined a second encounter with the angry family, paid him and left.

“That’s OK. Don’t worry,” I said, by now desperately longing to be back home.

To this day, I don’t know who Haj Agha was, what his position was in this south Tehran neighborhood, or in fact what actually happened that day. Did my challenging the taxi driver trigger the incident, or did I catch the tail end of an ongoing neighborhood drama? But every time I recall the events of that day, I wonder at the power of stories heard through un-listening ears in childhood, that settle somewhere deep and unknown and help form the basis of that intangible yet most overpowering of emotions, nostalgia. The stories that become part of you and in turn make you feel part of a place, even when you are convinced you no longer are. P

But he was not to be deterred. Within ten minutes the full set of furniture was stacked and secured on the

Haleh Anvari is an artist and the founder of AKSbazi.com, a crowd sourcing site about Iran.

Then he turned to me and said, “Go home now, sister! Leave it to me!” I felt like a bit-part actor who had overstayed her cue, uncertain as to what I should do next. “But the lady was buying some furniture from me!” complained Mr. G, unhappy it seemed with the day’s unfinished transaction in the face of the damage caused to his property.

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