Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The Curious Case of Mir Hossein Moussavi

As I birth this new blog, I can't help but draw some similarities between myself and that other life-giving child-birther: the woman. Yes, women are not that much unlike you and I. We both have dreams and aspirations, we both crave companionship and we both put our pants on one leg at a time- although the difference being that before hand I shave my legs regardless of whether or not I'll be having sex. All these strange coincidences lead me to wonder that if men and women share so many similarities, perhaps the women of America and Iran are not so different from each other. I wonder who Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of Iranian presidential hopeful and reformist Mir-Hossein Mousavi, text-messages when she's in the mood for a booty-call.

So will this new election bring any relevant change for the women of Iran? It is hard to tell where the candidates stand on social reform for women due to the fact that their websites lack any actual text, but instead contain a systematic repetition of squiggles (ie. اطلاعیه مهم دفتر مهندس میرحسین موسوی) . I can only assume that this is done to throw off the state controlled networks of the BBC and CNN. And if this claim , like the recent election results, is backed by Foreign Ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi, who am I to question it?

But who are we to insist that Iran even needs social reform? Especially in a patriarchal society, isn't the old saying true that "father knows best"? So goes the story of Neda, a young woman who was shot in the heart while attending a Tehran protest with her father. Already Neda has achieved viral notoriety through Twitter.com and the national media while her name has become a battle cry for sympathizers across the globe. Iranian officials still deny the ongoing violence and put blame where it is plainly deserved, squarely on the shoulders of Western media. Shame on you, CNN. In other news, has anyone seen the Kim Kardashian sex tape? Boy I'd like to peek under that burqa.

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