A few days ago, a roundtable about the relation between civil society organization and political issues held in SYNA news agency. Here is the first part of the report.
In this roundtable I have emphasized that NGOs have political responsibility and also political function. But they can not have political activities. It means they can not involve in the process of sharing the power like the party. But many times the activity of NGOs creates some changes in political arrangement.

The relation between Political society and civil society

Here is my interview with Farah karimi, An Iranian Mp in the Netherlands in Iran-emrooz popular website. My interview was published in Shargh Newspaper last Wednesday but not completely. Here is the completely interview which points to some issues in democracy and civil society both.

Ms. Karimi in interview talks about the relation between political society and civil society. She believes: “there is a close relation between politician’s and NGOs. Because they have to achieve the request of people and so they have to be connected closely. We can not say they are separate from each other. But it depends on the political system. If we live in a democratic country, normally politicians try to know about the views and opinions of people about their life, problems and requests. This would be a mutual relation. But when you live in a country with nondemocratic political system, then people will be pessimist about any relation with government. In the democratic one everything is democratic and transparent and in the second one you can look at an instrumental relation and of course corruption….”
Farah also tells us about the Iranian civil society and the things that happened during the last years in the society. “I left Iran 23 years ago and when I came back last years, I wondered. I saw a high intellectual capacity in the society. I saw how youth and women try to play a effective role in the society and solve their problems.” She said.

Look at the last version of black list websites in Iran

During the last days it was hard for me to write. Sometimes I feel like this. I have some programs for my life and I have to manage them but most of the time environment act against these ideas. We are here to confront with all of these noises.
Now i am in my office and working on a report about a Paltak chat between Iranian about "Love and sexual relation". You know that’s a taboo in Iran. But the Editor of social desk in Shargh told me to prepare a report of this dialogue. I had to consider many limitation....there are many things in this field that we are not allowed to talk about.

I am going to Hormozgan next week for a workshop. It is about team working skills. Two weeks ago two NGO member form Bandar Abbas city were attended in my workshop. They were interested to join us in all of our workshop. But they couldn’t live in Tehran during the workshops. And also it was hard for them to pay fot the tickets for every workshop. We suggested holding a workshop for about 30 individuals with no cost in Bandarabbas. They were really surprised. I am happy to go there. Bandar Abbas is in the south of the country....

U.N. Agency to Rebuke Iran for Obstructing Inspections

VIENNA, June 17 - The International Atomic Energy Agency's governing board prepared to deliver a stinging rebuke to Iran on Thursday for its lack of cooperation, deepening the conflict between Tehran and much of the world over its nuclear ambitions.

The criticism is contained in a resolution, expected to be ratified by the board on Friday, which accuses Iran of obstructing the agency's efforts to inspect sophisticated centrifuge facilities, where Iran could produce weapons-grade uranium.

When Politics Corrupts Money

By SHIRIN EBADI and AMIR ATTARAN

Published: June 16, 2004
"The World Bank has a human rights problem: it doesn't respect them enough. The bank also has a political problem: concern about global poverty, according to its president, James D. Wolfensohn, is "near a low point." Yet the bank, concerned about the second problem, seems to lack awareness of the first — to the detriment of its mission to help the world's poor."....

When Politics Corrupts Money

By SHIRIN EBADI and AMIR ATTARAN

Published: June 16, 2004
"The World Bank has a human rights problem: it doesn't respect them enough. The bank also has a political problem: concern about global poverty, according to its president, James D. Wolfensohn, is "near a low point." Yet the bank, concerned about the second problem, seems to lack awareness of the first — to the detriment of its mission to help the world's poor."....

A democratic civil society will provide a democratic political system


My interview with Farah Karimi has published in Shargh Newspaper today. Farah is a member of parliament in Netherlands. She has left Iran 22 years ago. Last year she came to Iran and saw the depth of transformations and changes in the Iranian Society. So after that she became interested to visit Iran more. She is brave, smart and punctilious. We have talked about the situation of civil society in Iran and also a comparative review on some topics in this subject. I will translate some part of this article in English later

One of my friends who is a capable journalist left iran and went to france to continue his education.
Now, as the political sphere is getting more closer, wise men try to find somewhere to increse thier capacities for the future. good luck....!

During the last days many ISP (Internet Service Provider) has been closed by the court. Now we can only use the ISPs which are under the control of government. It means we have to ignore many website which has been filtered by them. Many political websites can not be seen these days, so access to information is getting limited more and more.

Last day my workshop about “Communication Skills for NGOs” held with 39 participants from Tehran and 4other provinces. It took long from 9 to 15. I think that it was a wonderful experience for me. Because of this workshop I was so busy to prepare to requirements for the workshop. Perhaps I agree with a request from NGOs of the Hormozgan province to hold a similar workshop there.

Women core of resistance


The women campaign against anti-woman stateTV programs.

Last week the women MPs informed that they are working on a plan that allow the men to marry with more than a woman. “We have to find a solution. The numbers of girls and women have increased and now they are more than men.” Said of the women MPs last week. This expression excited many women including the exe-women MPs. “This is a disgracing idea and women who are active in Iranian women movement are ashamed.”
Let me tell you that this idea surprised me. Here many of political and social activists think that they can not be hopeful about any vanguard plan for women in this conservative’s parliament.
I think the resistance core of the political and social sphere will be focused on the women issues. In fact after the collapse of reformist in their way to democratize the political system, at this time we are confronting with a serious ambiguity. But the women have shown themselves forceful to follow their requests. Only a few weeks ago they had a campaign about the governmental TV which is belong to conservatives. The TV used two-wife personalities in their program for several and infuriated women. The protest of women in * of Mars is another example. Activating and increasing the number of feminist websites is another sign that we can mention it. We will hear more about the women activists in the future.
Islamic regime has a critical challenge with women issues and as I said before their identity has mixed with women issues.

I have written a note about Chalabi in Iraq and his relation with Iranian officials in my weblog a few days ago. Now, Look at comment in Foxnews about this subject. I found it readable.

A week without any writing
During the last week I could not write a work in my blog. I started to open the blogger page but every time I could not write. Some times I feel my fingers have been frozen to write. But another time I feel free to write man and many words. The institute that I the editor of their monthly (Volunteer) will hold a workshop on “Communication Skills for NGOs”. I am the trainer. This workshop will be the first practical activity that follows my book. My book also will publish next month. During the last week however I could not even a word in my weblog, but I finished an analytic article about National Youth Organization. In this article I have discussed about the activities of this organization. Beside, I finalized my interview with Ms. Farah Karimi the Iranian MP in the Netherlands parliament. The shargh newspaper will publish these two pieces next week. Now Is Thursday night. I spent afternoon and night with my family. I read newspapers and websites for about two hours and now am 2a.m.
I have decided to improve my ability in English writing. One of my friends kindly has prepared some books about influential writing and will give me when she is coming Tehran

Social limitations begin…?



Iranian society is in ambiguity after coming conservatives to the parliament a few month ago. People have contradictory feeling about their behavior in the society. They remember them that how they established Hejab as Islamic cover for women. And also they remember the years of severity in 1980-1990. Some of analysts believe if the conservatives won’t limit the society because they are trying to show a democrat face of themselves. But some other believes if they act in this manner, they will loose their authority in the society. Because, conservatives are representatives of people who strongly believe in Islamic regime beliefs at the present time.
Last day Judge Mortazavi who is fundamentalist conservatives and involve in the death Zahra Kazemi Iranian-Canadian Journalist last year, announced that they are going to strict about the style of women dress (Hejab). Summer is coming and the tendency of young girl to use fewer cloths in their way to ignore and pale the Hejab is increasing. Last year they tried to close shops and arrest girls who dress in different ways but the question is about this year, a year before presidency