The Slippers of Ozymandias: An Allegorical Reading of Bist

■ Kara Abdolmaleki

Mr. Soleimani pairs his slippers with pedantic care. The stationery items on his desk are arranged with ardent adherence to the laws of geometry and his employees are efficiently worked to the last drop of energy. He is a meticulous perfectionist, a reception hall owner, a despot and a clinically morose individual. This is the story of Bist [Twenty] by Abdolreza Kahani.

How do Iranians perceive sanctions on their country?

■ Ali Amirmoayed

As the West has tightened its sanctions on Iran and as Western leaders have rather proudly spoken of the effect of their policy, I thought it necessary to bring the forgotten group who suffer the most from the sanctions into mainstream discourse. This article indicates the impact of sanctions on the lives of millions of ordinary Iranians, whose situations are far removed from the political concerns of the sanctioning states. In so doing, I will first mention the growing idea of the West as Iran’s national enemy. The construction of this notion is attributed to the impact of sanctions on the daily lives of Iranians, who find these penalties demeaning and unjust. I will take this forward by explaining the side effects of this policy, which have political implications for the West’s dealings with the people of Iran in the long term.

An iranian letter to american president

You are Iranian President Obama! aren’t you?

■ Mahmud Farjami

A few months before the U.S. presidential elections of 2008, many of us Iranians would say “Yup… I knew it from the beginning… of course he is secretly an Iranian…” while referring to you! Most didn’t know this claim’s origin, not even the editors of the conservative Kayhan daily who published it as an exposé. Indeed it was a hoax, published on iTanz, a satirical Persian website. And it was invented by an Iranian satirist – me!

Shamlou and Persian ‘New Poetry’

■ Kara Abdolmaleki

Without doubt, Ahmad Shamlou is one the most widely debated – and therefore recognized – contemporary poets of the Persian language. Some critics lionize him as a revolutionary figure, who overthrew the scholastic monarchy of classical versification and introduced a novel system while others violently oppose the poet, accusing him of wanting sufficient knowledge and skill to edit and annotate a great poet like Hafez, for instance.