Omid Memarian

Friday, September 17, 2004

Arrest of the Sina's father

Arrest of the Sina's father by the Iranian judiciary agents to press on his son Sina to stop writing has incited many of Iranian journalist and even foreign web loggers and social activists. Sina’s father is a famous man in Cinema however he has left his job after revolution. It is not really easy to write about Sina in Iran by journalists. Now the conservatives are sensitive about the web writers. Arrestment the families instead of the journalists to stop them for writing is a new shameful way to restrict the freedom of speech in Iran. Sina has been 22 days in the Jail two years ago. I remember the days that he was in the jail and his wife knew nothing about his place and what was going. Sina’s life became troublesome after that He could not write about political issues and even normal things in the society. He left Iran then. During the last months he was not so active but only some comments about his jail’s period made the conservatives mad.

Monday, September 13, 2004

Vahid hashemian, Iranian striker in Bayern can follow his team to Isreal. Iranian can not play with Israeli in no matches after the revolution. Many of Iranian players have lost their chance to gain medals after the revolution. The Islamic regime has not recognized Israel after the revolution.

Sunday, September 12, 2004

Today my interview with Fredrick Lyons the residence coordinator of UN in Iran has published in Shargh newspaper. I have asked some question about good governance in UN and the relation between UN agencies and civil society organizations in Iran, Many NGOs in Iran believe that UN is not transparent. They also believe that they give their projects to whom that are the former employers of the UN.

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

New round of arrests…

Last day one of my friends in Hayateno Newspaper called me and was surprised that I answered him. “I think you are arrested”. He said. I was surprised too. I asked him that why he thinks I have to be in the prison. He explain that two friends of us are has been arrested on Tuesday. One of them Babak write artistic articles and comments. He mentioned that there is list of writers that they believe they will arrest in the coming days. I don’t know really what to say. Because, I haven’t been active in the political sphere during the last year. During the last two years the number of my political articles and comments are less than 10. I think that there is no reason for arresting young journalists and writers like me of my friends in newspapers because we are the kids of revolution. What happened for the revolution that after 25 years is trying to eat its children?

Monday, September 06, 2004

Social Investment

We are going to work on "Social investment" and Civil Society in the next issue of our monthly Volunteer. So if you any comment or any link please informs me. I am also looking for every precise and precious text and comment about it. Good practice and also successful experience is also useful for

Again and again a failed social plan will perform. The authorities of Azad University have informed that they are going to perform a separation project between girls and boys in the university. They believe that 80 percent of their problems will solve by this policy. People are frustrated by these kind of polices that seems vain. The radical conservatives during the last months have found more space to act in social sphere. They don’t pay attention to taste of people at all. They always say their will instead of people but their understanding of people is only 8 or 10 percent of people. The separation between girls and boys in the universities in my opinion is disgracing.

Saturday, September 04, 2004

Last night I saw “The hours". This film impressed me a lot. The concept of family and relation between the people was thoughtfully....

Friday, September 03, 2004

Five Iranian Teenagers in an Arab Island

Sharq, Daily Newspaper, No. 162, Aug. 11st, 2004, Page 5

By : Omid Memarian

Iranian teenagers travel to the Persian Gulf Arab states to work, study or as tourists. Communication with other nationalities including Europeans about job opportunities and thinking about the prospect of a future career in case of being students, the open space and the possibility of attempting to achieve the goals set by individuals by making a certain amount of effort also account for such trips. More than half of the passengers on board of the flights leaving Tehran for Dubai and UAE are young Iranian guys and gals.

Iran's southern neighbor with a temperature of 50 degrees Celsius and 80 percent humidity is looking forward to prosperous days, while the weather forecast predicts rising temperatures just a few degrees away from stifling. Despite the extremely hot weather, the visitors arriving here keep increasing day by day. Iranians keep arriving at the Arab islands all year round, leaving the four seasons of their homeland for the uni-seasonal Arab states. Some choose to stay and settle down, while others take a deep sigh of relief once they return home.(Continued...)