Readers' corner
Aiming for Iran
Sir-- I assume that you are a friend of Iran. On the other hand I assume that you are not a fast friend of the US. Either position is really of little consequence. This is because the arguments of importance that you advance to buttress the conclusion you wish to reach are not germane to the true nature of reality. You focus on the ability of the US military to invade and occupy Iran. You conclude that this is not likely. Therefore you conclude that Iran is safe. Sorry, you are mistaken. Look for a ferocious air campaign, with no holds barred, possibly with battlefield nukes used on Iran's nuclear facilities. Heavy destruction which will reduce Iran to the level of Iraq. Broken and the clerical regime changed.
Khary Sudan
Tennessee
USA
Nobody's business
Sir-- As an American I cannot help but wonder why it is that our government insists on ramming our way of life down the throats of those who do not wish to accept it. It is as though we have come to accept the course of war as a new sporting event for the world to watch, yet few really wish to participate. We have made a terrible mistake allowing [voting and/or having appointed ] the rich of this country into our government. It is clear to me that these "wealthy Americans" do not have my interests in mind when they pass laws or make foreign or domestic policies. I smell revolution in the winds of the hurricanes and tornadoes devastating so much of America. When will the government of the people, for the people take care of business at home?
Daniel Gomez
Louisiana
USA
Who's next?
Sir-- The US has a history of over 170 years in acquiring the resources to further the goals of people funding the government ('Harvest of occupation' Al-Ahram Weekly 1-7 June). Look at the history of the America, like sowing confusion so no clear view exists except to those who direct the public along preordained paths. Iraq is just the latest in cultures to be eliminated, besides making great material for movies and books for the masses of "drone clones" whose sole purpose is to consume as much as, or more than, their neighbours with no thought of the future. Also, war in Iraq, like Vietnam, gives the gun runners/makers a place to test out their wares. I am curious to see which people are next.
David McEssey
Wisconsin
US
Pact overlooked
Sir-- Not surprisingly 'An unequal Sudan' ( Al-Ahram Weekly 1-7 June) is as lopsided as it is unobjective. It completely ignores the agreement that the government of Sudan signed with the eastern front in Asmara last week that sets out the time for negotiations to a peaceful settlement of the problems in east Sudan, under the auspices of Eritrea.
Salma Hassan
London
UK
How much she meant
Sir-- When I saw the article about Dr Cynthia Nelson ('Body silent, legacy vibrant' Al-Ahram Weekly 1-7 June) I began to cry -- not knowing until that moment of her illness and death. Dr Nelson was a teacher like no other. She loved anthropology, students of anthropology, and she loved Egypt. In our last e-mail to one another, I had told her how very much she meant to me as a professor and as a model of how good anthropology could be. We had known each other for 29 years by then and I had admired her work and commitment to anthropology so much that I never forgot her, year after year. In that e-mail, I told her that one of my fondest wishes upon finishing my PhD in anthropology was to teach alongside her at AUC. Her response to me was "I know you will. You have always loved Egypt as much as I, and you have always held her in your best regard."
Dr Cynthia Nelson was a gift to all of the lives she touched. I will never forget her and I am sure I am only one among many. When I return to Cairo in a short time and walk on to the AUC campus, I know I will feel her loss even more than I do today.
Amira El-Masri
Washington DC
USA
Minor detail
Sir-- Regarding 'Native informers and the making of the American empire' ( Al-Ahram Weekly 1-7 June) with lovely graphics of Oriental beauties, at first I thought the opinion belonged to the Weekly but it turned to be that of an embittered professor of Iranian Studies at Columbia College in New York. Regardless, Al-Ahram Weekly is our main source for international opinion and I must protest that the opinions expressed in this article are so completely misogynic and narrow-minded that they should have made your copy editor cringe, unless of course, he was somehow seduced by the nubile maids rather than the article.
Reading Lolita in Tehran is a memoir of an awful time when women suffered under Islamic theocracy. The author of the article published by the Weekly, Hamid Dabashi, is enraged that the photo on the cover of the book has been cropped, it is not "real". That the author of Reading Lolita, Dr Azar Nafisi, used the framework of English literature, which is accessible to the English reader of the memoir, is somehow "stealing part of the truth to tell a bigger lie". In her book, her classes are threatened, she is threatened, her students -- one by one -- lose their liberty, their dignity and their lives, under the oppression of this ghastly political resign, and all she has to offer are the outlines of hope found in English literature.
If a small group of women can manage to huddle together in a professor's apartment and find some courage and hope from English literature, who is this Kovorkian Iranian chair professor in an ivory tower in Columbia New York to utter such complaints that the image of the cover of that book may have been cropped. What a small error in the light of such great suffering and courage into which Dr Nafisi has given her perfectly adroit, personal memories for us all to consider. Please don't trick us into reading such a tirade with such beautiful pictures of "Oriental" women.
Jill Roberg
Minnesota
USA
Inappropriate term
Sir-- If the subject were not so tragic, I would find the line "disturbances in Parisian suburbs" too funny ('After the cartoons' Al-Ahram Weekly 1-7 June). I am quite sure the residents of the areas [in France] terrorised by rampaging youth would not recall those tumultuous nights as mere "disturbances".
Victoria Zaper
Illinois
USA
Reality film
Sir-- I cannot wait to see The Wind that Shakes the Barley ('The stakes of representation' Al-Ahram Weekly 1-7 June) as I am a descendent of one of the nuts and bolts that ended up in Australia from Ireland. My great great grandmother migrated to Australia with seven children on her own. The famine sent her to the other side of the world. Life there was very hard, as the same oppressors were in charge. The problem with this film as I see it, is that there doesn't seem to be any mention of the fact that the British are still there. I thought he could have mentioned that. As an Irish Catholic in Australia you were looked upon as a second rate citizen. Not being able to segregate us by colour, they used religion. Just as they did in Northern Ireland. I never felt really free until I came to live in Sweden. I could go to fill in a form without being asked which religion I followed.
As to the film with Khalid Abdullah, he gives a reasonable excuse for acting in the film. That is of course, if you believe, Al-Qaeda did it.
Johanna Moren
Karlstad
Sweden
Dads everywhere
Sir-- The father's plight in 'Not without my daughter' ( Al-Ahram Weekly 1-7 June) is quite the same as that faced by all Western fathers who lose their children to these all too common acquisitive mothers. Though I am an American, the way fathers and children are treated in the West is our deepest embarrassment, and ought to be.
James Carmine
Pennsylvania
USA
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