Iran’s military influence and control over Iran’s economy is growing fast. By some reports they control more than 70% of the import and exports of Iran.

Its funny how the government decides to so called “privatize” government owned businesses so they put them on sale on Iran’s stock market and a day after military owned companies buy all of its available stocks.

This is bad and good. Its bad because Iran is moving towards complete (as if it wasn’t already) military dictatorship and will make the country hell for people. On another hand it is a sign that this government is at its last stand against people and about to become history.

Dear President Obama,

As the president of United States of America it is your passion and duty to do what is best for your country, defend its territory, values, and ally countries. The ruling government in Iran has been a road block to Middle East peace, a threat to United States, has denied the Holocaust, and refrained from any meaningful dialogue with other nations. This government has suppressed its own people, denied them democracy, human rights, and now has hijacked the election.

Ahmadi Nejad, Khamenei, and other main figures in Iran’s government do not represent us, our beliefs, values, or positions in important international matters. We, the Iranian people, favor democracy; we want peace in Middle East and  Iraq; we do not deny Holocaust or want to wipe any country off the map. We want peaceful nuclear energy, not to become a nuclear army.

Mr. Obama, Iranians long for change the same way people in the United States did after the Bush years. The people of Iran now ask for your support. We do not expect you to fight our struggle but to help us fight it. We expect you as the leader of the world not to accept the legitimacy of the Iranian elections and the fraudulent presidency of Mahmud Ahmadi Nejad. Help us reach our dream change.

Mr. President, United States supported the 1953 Iranian coup that overthrew democratic government of Mossadegh. Don’t make the same mistake.

Best Regards,

The Iranian People

Following are a series of videos about Iran, its past history and as it is today by Rick Steves. I think the videos are very well made and would like to thank Rick Steve for his work.

You can read more about it on Rick Steves website’s Iran section.

Video 1/6

Video 2/6

Video 3/6

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Video 6/6

It has been a long time since I made a Learn Farsi post. Following are months of the Iranian calendar in Farsi:

Iranian calendar is an astronomical solar calendar and and one of the longest chronological records in history. The first day of the year is the first day of Spring (approximately March 21st of each year). For that reason, Iranian months don’t exactly correspond to different months in Gregorian calendar.

The corresponding days are estimates and not very accurate. Following are some good resources:

• Iranian Calendar
• Iranian Calendar application on Google tools.
• Iranian Calendar Firefox add-on.