Free Republic

Maryam had invited her two daughters and their husbands and grandchildren for Norouz, the New Year's feast, to her home in western Tehran when I called her on Saturday. It was after 9:02 p.m. when "tahvil," the change from the old to the new year, 1389 after Iranian calendar, was celebrated at Maryam's apartment, as it was in hundreds of thousands of other households in Iran and other countries. She had prepared a beautiful Haft Seen, the Norouz table, and cooked delicious Iranian food. The television was on to follow the announcement of the "tahvil," after which everyone congratulated each...

Iranian authorities have reportedly released on bail a top reformist who has been jailed since last June, along with a filmmaker and a reformist journalist. The news comes ahead of Iranian New Year celebrations on March 21. Opposition websites say Mohsen Mirdamadi, head of Iran's biggest reformist party -- the Islamic Participation Front -- was released after posting bail of about $450,000. He is awaiting a verdict on charges of acting against national security and propaganda against the Islamic republic. Earlier this week, the Iranian regime declared that it had banned political activity of Mirdamadi's Islamic Participation Front. Film director...

TEHRAN - On the eve of the first International Day of Noruz, the United Nations secretary general expressed hope that “people around the world will draw on this festival’s history and customs to promote harmony with the natural world and foster global peace and goodwill.” Noruz begins on March 21, the first day of spring. Following is the full text of Ban Ki-moon’s message, a copy of which was sent to the Mehr News Agency and the Tehran Times by the UN Information Center (UNIC) of Tehran: “The General Assembly’s decision this year to recognize the International Day of Noruz...

It was raw, irritating and urgent as ever to be Iranian with iranian.com filling our tortured need for friendship, affection and acceptance. We are alone again. You and I. You and I. Alone again. We are sitting in the Julia Morgan Theater. Freezing. It is cold. It is 16 March in the year 2002. The Iranians with one American couple have gathered to celebrate and laugh. Son can you hear me? Whether I went home or stayed there would be a price to pay. The wooden theater was dark like the inside of a Japanese Temple. You could just barely...