Dilemma of Iranian language

Islam has gained territories through its sword and then manipulated conquered peoples by its imposed cult. Language of Islam which happens to be Arabic is one of the main yoke of its domination until our days. Iran was forced to speak Arabic during the two centuries of Muslim occupation. After the military occupation, Iranians could partly restore their language, however botched it into Islam, a mishmash called “Farsi”. Farsi remains until now a mixture of language of Islam with the ancient Persian or Parsi.

In the course of Iranian history, Iranian languages have been written with a number of different scripts. The last one was Avestan, which was banned along with the Persian language itself after the Islamic invasion in 642 AD. The Islamic conquerors imposed their language as the only allowed language on Iranians. The current language, Farsi, appeared during the 9th Century and is written in a version of the Arabic script. Because of its “divine” links with the language of the Koran and Islam, nobody has ever had the right to reform or modernise this script.

In this article, I open a debate over the factual adaptability of this “Farsi” language. The point is if the language is useful for a modern society and especially for our future generations. Such questions are raised up in a sensitive era of our history when our country is de facto occupied by a privileged caste of Muslims who call themselves Seyeds, Sheiks, or devotees of Shiite Islam who considered for many as a force of occupier. This odd era reminds many of our people of the early Muslim aggressors in 7th century when everything including our language was brutally smashed. No wonder, our already crippled Islamised Parsi or what we call it now “Farsi language” is now constitutionally forced to take further Arabo-Islamic allure, a project called “The Cultural Revolution”, planned since 1980 by the Mullahs’ regime. Mullahs believe it is effective to learn Arabic, what would give an edge over the Islamic language – this however has created the opposite so that most people exaggeratedly hate this language, furthermore, right-wing Iranians not only hate Arabic, but also blindly Arabs, labeled them as the mind patterns of “pro-Arab” Mullahs!

The long-term objective of The Cultural Revolution is to root out any aspect of non-Islamic identity from the society by introducing a greater portion of Arabo-islamisation in the language. It is to promote the existing “Farsi” into a more Arabo-Islamic language. The process aims a negation of the rest of pre-Islamic Iranian identity--the similar process of 7th.century when the early Muslims occupied the country and destroyed the advanced Persian civilisation.

The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran considers educational institutions based on Islamic principles and norms. The constitution does not tolerate any other identity in faith and language. It has implied this wish by saying, “since the language of the Koran and Islamic texts and teachings is Arabic, and since Iranian literature of post-Islamic history is thoroughly permeated by this language, it must be taught after elementary level, in all classes of secondary school and in all areas of study. Therefore, lessons of Arabic language and reading of the Koran will gain more compulsory character despite dislike of an increasing majority of students to such Islamo-Arabic lessons.

It is highly predictable that after the collapse of the Islamic regime, Iranians will enthusiastically develop a popular trend of both de-Arabisation and de-Islamisation of whole Iranian space, including our language. The words, names, items, numbers, symbols, and all those which remind us of an era of invasion, subjugation, humiliation by Islam will be spontaneously replaced with non-Islamo-Arabic words. In my view, not only in Iran, but all over the Arabo-Islamic world, the inadequacies (or backwardness) of this Islamised language has been a debilitating factor in cross-cultural understanding of necessity for a culture of modernisation.

To avoid any linguistic chaos after the fall of the Islamic regime, we need appropriate reforms to free our language from the long Arabio-Islamic domination. A modernised language not only can fit our pre-Islamic civilised culture, but also can effectively push back the backward effects of Islamic influence among our grassroots. An adaptive language to our modern needs has psychological effects to stop people from creeping back into archaic way of thoughts, obscurantism, and backwardness.

While many languages around the world, including in some Islamic countries, can be permanently and adaptively reformed and modernised, our current language, Farsi, has been used since the invasion of Islam as a cloak for the safeguard of Islamic culture. Since the advent of Islam in Iran, not only Islam has been a launch pad to attack our past identity, but also has been practically crippled our normal attempts toward freedom, progress, gender equality, and modernisation.

No wonder, in a spirit of growing civil disobedience in Iran against the Islamic backward regime, a trend of language reform spontaneously grows among the Iranian youth. It challenges the unpopular Islamic influence in our language. As spontaneous reactions, the young generation in Iran chooses non-Islamic names for children, learns Western languages instead of the institutionalised Arabic, wears T-shirts with Latin writings on them, use a Latino-Persian writing called finglish on the internet. All these “renegades” show the trend for an adaptive language than the current Farsi or in fact an Islamised Parsi.

Once Iran is free from Mullahs’ clutches, a secular state will certainly pass legislative proposals to ensure the task that our current language will be reformed, modernised, and useful to our new society. On the other hand, modern-day methods of instantaneous communication and globalisation require fundamental need in a range of modern languages in order to create and maintain vibrant activities. Therefore, after the fall of the Islamic regime, parallel to restoration of Farsi, Parsi or whatever it will be called, a modern international language as the second language will be be highly promoted nationwide. It will be a solid support for advanced education, research, computer use and any use of modernisation in Iran. Both (Farsi / Parsi /Persian) and the international language open common doors of the continuing struggle for secularisation, democratisation and modernisation.

Let me emphasise, the reformed language has nothing to do with disregarding a part of our classic literature. In fact, no reformed language has taken away the worth of its classic literature. After modernisation of our language, our classic literature will be respected as a patrimony of our literature, but let me emphasise again that Islamic culture behind it has little chance to resist in a free and secular Iran. A modernised language finds effective ways to sustain its literature and heritage. This is not the problem. The problem is the religious influence which couple with our language. A trend I call “Pan Islamo-nationlism” wants to keep Islamic influence at any cost.

It is clear that some people with religious or traditional backgrounds will likely attempt to block or delay the process of language reforms. The 1400-year-domination of Arabo-Islamic language over our country has left its mental debris behind. Nevertheless, free people can no longer bow to the indoctrination of religious values with the aim of such a mental retardation. Thanks to the Islamic regime, our people require a complete revamping and can choose their way of life including their means of communication.

Those Iranians who speak modern languages know better that our current language, in its current stagnation, is scientifically poor. A scientific transformation must be mandatory for educational, industrial and business communities in a free Iran In many domains of modern sciences; it is not sufficiently expressive under “Farsi”. Developing a modern language in high levels of proficiency, particularly in higher education, will require significantly greater resources than are fortunately at hand. Our linguistic experts in a secular Iran can focus on the study of development of our modern languages. They may change or modify the words, proper names, verbs to the pre-Islamic synonyms or a simpler way of linguistic use.

In my opinion, for the use of scientific terms, it seems more practical and easier to use the most common international words and terms, what most languages do in advance or developing countries. In this perspective, the pivotal point is how to form a useful and productive language freed from the traditional burden and unnecessary complications. We have rich sources of pre-Islamic Persian and international common terms to reform the language, but in the field of science, we should not complicate the language by too much attaching to the past.

In fact, a language is not only a coding system of communication, but also a bridge between thought and action. In other words, the way we talk can in turn influence the way we think—psychological effects of language. A rich and modern language can considerably improve our cognitive faculties, memory, mental ability, emotional expressions, and behaviour.

In my view, language, before anything else, is a set of arbitrary symbols through which we communicate. The symbols appear and disappear with time and material conditions; they are not sacred and eternal. The culturally determined patterns and values of these symbols alongside with many languages and dialects will permanently appear and disappear during the course of social evolution. Since language is a medium of our thoughts, feelings, and especially ideas, it must be permanently adapted to our realities and immediate needs otherwise can easily be abused by the totalitarian regimes or a belief system like Islam. Nazi Germany also imposed its own racial terms in its short-12-year domination. Islam has down worse in a very longer period of its domination. Germany reformed the language after the fall of Nazism; we can do the same after the fall of Islamism.

All experiences show that the language we use because of its shortage gives way to Western languages. For example, the Iranian communities in the US or Europe can expect that only a small percentage of their children will be fluent in Persian. It is not however the case for Westerners living in Iran-- their children would speak their original language fluently. The reason is not only due to their own mother language but the fact that our language is not adapted to modern life. For example, we cannot use our script on the internet or for many other means of written communication which appear on the market. The goal of language reform is to introduce a language which should be modern, precise and easier to learn.

The alphabet we use is mainly Arabic; it does not cover all the sounds we pronounce. Apart from some regions in Khuzestan and Kurdistan, most Iranians cannot phonetically pronounce all letters of the alphabet-- this is also one of the main reasons we have so many different accents and dialects within Iran. Furthermore, apart from some ignored signs, we have no letters clearly representing some vowels. All of which turn the language more difficult and imprecise -- a great number of Iranian high school students cannot write and read correctly.

Regarding the various problems of today’s language, a reform in alphabet seems to be necessary, one which phonetically adjusts to the verbal language. The only solution is the introduction of an accessory alphabet for computer which is the language of sciences, researches and a spirit of modern and secular life. As mentioned, such a transformation is of course a long process; it might last one or several decades but should not be considered an overdue reform.

In my view, such reforms will necessarily require adoption of Latin type alphabets in order to facilitate and enhance the ease of cross-cultural communications. An accessory alphabet should be worked out so that it harmonises the phonetic part to the written part. That is to say, we need an alphabet which correctly relates sounds to the written words. The new alphabet must solve the problems of vowels and consonants which are not phonetically pronounceable because they have Arabic origins that cannot be pronounced by the majority of Iranians.

In essence, the new alphabet must be simple and avoid composed letters and irregularities which appear in the history of any language. It should consider two main elements:

• The modernisation and adaptation of the society to the modern needs.
• The purification of our language from too much influences of Islam.

During the period of transformation and maybe after that the old alphabet must be kept for those who need it.

In a free and secular Iran, our future democratic establishments should take care in rending language modern and attractive. Meanwhile, there should be little need for speakers or writers to waste time looking for words, terms, and expressions to mean objects or ideas. What is to be made of all of this? To ensure that a language remains the predominant way of communication, learning, and development we have to accept all necessary reforms. What I rather attribute to any language is its aspect of intercommunication which in turn affects our mental faculties and social efficiency. Therefore, morphology and semantics of language is more important for me than the historical part and only in this perspective a language must be permanently and adaptively reformed. This is the case of modern languages and only so they can be called "modern"--German language has been twice reformed since the fall of the Third Reich.

Apart from an expected resistance from some traditionalists, pan-post-Islamic Islamists, and those who love the classic literature more than the future of country, there are some relics of the Islamic regime who under any guise and trick will attempt to harm the process of such a language reform. Contrary to the first group, the second one has belief and interest to rescue Islam even after the collapse of their regime under any colour or nickname. For them a fundamental reform of our language remains synonymous to a sinful violation to the values of Islam, even if their argument opportunistically hides this point behind a fake nationalism.
Considering all the problems with the Islamic Republic of Iran and the reality of the origin and conditions under which Islam was imposed on the Iranian people, it is legitimate to raise the question: how do we best bring an end to Arabo-Islamic ills in Iran after the fall of its political regime? Here, the question is not only about political secularism, but about de-Arabo-Islamisation of Iranian culture.

This must be fulfilled through a democratic process. It should not only be a turn of leaf in our history, but open a whole new chapter in our evolution so that we can free ourselves from the long and pernicious influence of Islam. Only through democratic process would it not only signal a new beginning and bring forth a new era for Iran, but also signify a Renaissance for the Islamic world. Our fullest Renaissance will officially start when we get rid of the plague of the Mullahs’ regime.

However some seeds of the Renaissance have spontaneously budded. One of them deals with our or language. Since such a democratic state does not exist yet, as much as we can, we, Iranians with some sense of responsibility, should try to restore Persian / Parsi / modern Farsi in our writings and verbal conversations. We have engaged and responsible people who do their best to use and teach this. The conditions are at hand for Iranians, inside or outside, to start to introduce the demanded reforms into the realm of our language. Thanks to the vast internet communication, facebook, twitter and etc., we can help each other to modernise and secularise our language.

Islam disturbs Iranian evolution.

Our human species evolves in long-term; our people in Iran could have continued evolving into their advanced culture if the process had not been inhibited by the Muslims’ invasion 1400 years ago. The protagonists of the invasion are today the current Islamic authorities who can never be in harmony with the evolution of moral and democratic views of today’s man.

This 1400-year old belief system was politically re-grafted on our society after the 1979 revolution. During the anti-Shah revolution, people were looking for a quick demise of the Shah’s dictatorship while were not aware of a totalitarian state which could flick out of Islam -- a bitter ignorance for which we are today paying a colossal price. The politicised Islam under the Mullahs’regime has since 1979 committed the most hideous crimes. On its black records, one routinely sees torture, rape before execution of many thousands political prisoners, application of Sharia by stoning, amputation, lashes, state terrorism (chained killings, kidnappings, mass killings in / out of the country). All these crimes are well-documented.

Of course some non-Semitic religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucius, Baha’i or nature religions in some African tribes reflect their direct cultures and are the outcome of their daily lives, wishes, and ideals. For them, the faith is tending towards the emergence of their needs. They qualify their faith as a source of morality what consists in acting and living in such a way. They understand their human conditions because faith suggests a supreme being(s), a pathway to an ideal life here and after. All these aspects of these religions cannot objectively explain Iranians’ belief in Islam. We see the faith as a false patch imposed on our culture. The reason is that Islam has never been intellectually or morally discussed by any Iranian intelligentsia. From 1400 years ago on, the Muslim men of sword prohibited such contemplation.

The evolution cannot be accepted by Islam because it considers itself as the only and last valid religion to guide mankind for all time. The 1400-year-old imposed Islam demands omnipresent role in daily attitudes of Iranians whose ancestors were once forced to believe in it and today are forced or mesmerised to follow. Islam with its dictates-teachings on murder, rape, torture, enslavement, humiliation, misogyny is today the legacy of the Islamic regime. All these immoral commands of 1400-old- religion show deteriorations, but contain no impulse of evolution for any Muslim community. Little scientific progress in the Golden Age of Islamic Caliphates was not because of Islam, but despite of it. Indeed the Islamic rough credo constrained the scale of a normal evolution.

As an omnipresent, omniscient, Islam has continued to remain for many centuries as a pivot character formation, mindset and moral pattern of our mesmerised Muslims without being any impetus for their evolution. The entire evolution in programming causes and effects have strategies of temporal changes, what actually would be considered un-Islamic for the two following reasons:

1-feeling that a change is highly appropriate for each phenomenon, including people’s thoughts, feelings, morality and faith seem to discord major teaching of Islam as a totalitarian social order;

2-furthermore it opposes its anti-evolutionary behaviour.

Concretely, formation of institutionalised morality in a level of the international institutions like the Human Rights Organisation, Amnesty International, The Hague Court etc., step up worldwide moral evolution. Such a morality protects our national interests and sovereignty which are today jeopardised by the Islamic regime. Iran is not the only country with a crisis of totalitarian regimes, but the only one with a totalitarian regime which is also characterised as an occupying force. Iran needs more international support than other Arabic oppressed nations because Iranians do not fight against their totalitarian regime, but they want to free themselves from an Islamic occupier force.

We know that, unfortunately, a number of factors stand over humanitarian factors. Historically meant, the “civilised” world is not that civilised and so evolved to avoid sacrificing its humanitarian values for the lucrative interests, but our species could only survive if it is adaptive to the basic humanitarian values. However after all, in a clash with religion, the West created these humanitarian institutions. Their values trigger our integration into international community and make us more vigilant to protect ourselves. The more isolated we are, the more we can be trampled by aggressors of inside or outside of our country.

My issue is that Islam and evolution are like fire and water, two complete opposites. I do not mean that Islam can eternally stop the motion of evolution, but can disturb, slow down and charges it with huge human casualties. I am not evoking the clashes between creationism and evolutionism help Iranians, what another topic is. What seems to me important is the fact that all Semitic religions propagated their credo based on the mindset of people. These are more or less formed in a historical process by the interaction of people’s cultures and psychological needs, let alone the fact that none of them proves a source of divinity and all of them have been historically fooling masses.

Those old cultures which shaped up religions are not representative today, therefore all Semitic religions, expect Islam, had to be reformed and updated. Because of its multifaceted nature of a totalitarian social order, Islam cannot be reformed; otherwise it loses all its sense. It is incompatible to our today's criteria and the philosophy of life, especially for conscious Iranians who feel themselves today as the 1400-year-old hostages of their captor, Islam, what represents today the Islamic regime.

Islamic Iran praises martyrdom

Following photo shows wrestler Tommy Rowlands of US, right, fights with his Iranian competitor Mohammad Hadi Pour Alijan on left in Iran, Aug 1, 2010. But I am not interested in the free style wrestling, well, not this one in particular. I am interested in the two posters on the right side.

Top right poster quoted Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: "Martyrs are symbol of power in Iran". Top center poster quoted late revolutionary founder, Ayatollah Khomeini: "Martyrs are candle for circle of humanity".

In Islamic teachings, defending homeland or Islam is considered a sacred religious obligation for all Muslims. Throughout history of Islam, Muslims have been taught that they should sacrifice their lives for their religious believes or homeland and their sacrifice considered as the most generous act for Islam. The sacrifice called martyr and martyrs have been important figures throughout Islam.

In Islamic Iran, martyrdom regarded as the most worthy act that a Muslim can accomplish. Children has systematically taught the value of sacrificing their lives for religion and/or homeland. Children textbooks has been teaching the very fundamental value of "killing for defending your own belief" and media conveying the same values.

Islamic Iran has spent steadily on propaganda since the beginning of revolution in 1979. People have bombarded by the Islamic fundamental values since then, and when I saying this is Islamic fascism because I  see with my eyes and I can identify key characteristics of fascism in society.

See also:
Basij: Iranian radical martyrs
Iranian Combatant Clergies register volunteers to fight Israel


Photo courtesy of daylife

Stone her to death !

In an interview broadcasted on Iran's state Television, she confessed to adultery and involving to murder her husband. Authorities claimed, she is Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman who sentenced to death by stoning.

I watched the interview in native language and there is at least 3 issues within this this televised confession:

1. Her face was obscured so we do not know who exactly the confessor was.

2. I noticed she reads the confession from a printed paper. Why there was a need to read the confession from a printed paper? Couldn't she confess to what she has done without double checking on paper?!

3. At the end she accused her lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei for publicizing her case and said "I sue Mostafaei for damaging my reputation". But the fact of the matter is, Sakine Mohammadi Ashtiani's children, Fasride and Sajjad have appealed to the world to save their mother's life and according to her children, she is very well aware of this.

4. Probably I had to put this above all mentioned items; the lady is already sentenced to death and its confirmed by the Islamic supreme court, why on earth did she come to confess on TV? It is not like that's going to make any difference in her fate. There is no reason on earth that would possibly justify this confession except torture, threats to her children's life or it may be a show confession filmed by someone else.

Islamic Iran is trying to justify its own medieval injustice system by this televised confession and I'm afraid they are going to execute Sakineh soon. After all, these bloody Rotten Gods need human sacrifices, executions and stonings.

Even Mohammad Mostafaei, Sakineh's lawyer had to run for his life and leave the country. In a country that a human rights lawyer is not safe to practice his job, how ordinary people would be able to defend themselves and fight for their right?

In case if you don't know what is stoning, take a look.

Guards commander wishes to eradicate immorality

When a Quds force commander asked; what he would do if he ever become President? he replied: "I will eradicate immoral activities that have afflicted our young people with development of an Iron Brigade organization."

The mentality I see here is the mentality of Islamic fascism which is the mainstream ideology among IRGC members. For those who don't know, Quds force is a special unit of Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) responsible for extraterritorial operations.

Divine death sentences in Islamic Iran

Following photo reads: "Do you know that General Prosecutor's Office and Islamic Revolution court has carried out the divine death sentences for 18 corrupted and criminal people in Ahvaz last year." This photo was taken in Ahvaz city in Iran in past two months.

Following photo announces two separate executions on different times and locations:

It reads:

"Execution Event
Execution of drug trafficker [s]
Date: Wednesday March 10, 2010  Time: 4 pm
Location: Ramadan alley

Execution of armed thief [or thieves] and enemy of God and His Prophet (Pbuh)
Date: Saturday March 13, 2010  Time: 4 pm
Location: Naseri sq"

In above announcements were not specified that they were going to execute one or more people.
 

Last photo courtesy of Haghighatnews

Protest against American imprisoned hikers

I share your pain and I really hope Islamic Iran releases your kids and all other prisoners asap but it appears Iran wants to exchange them but I suspect Islamic Iran favours a visit from a high profile US official to secure release of the hikers, like the case of Bill Clinton visit to North Korea and meeting with North Korean leader.

A protest in front of IRI Mission in New York on July 30, 2010

On the right side of photo the placard reads "Shame on you Iran". I wish someone would have wrote "Islamic Iran" instead Iran. Also I know it doesn't make any difference for an American but it makes different for an Iranian.

Update: Iran wants to exchange American hikers with 11 imprisoned Iranians in the USA. In a website called BarackObama.ir asks "Will Obama make three American mothers happy by releasing 11 Iranian prisoners?"
Iran didn't take three hikers to court since they have been arrested so definitely they are trying to pursue American government to take one step towards Iran and meets Iranian government demands.

I covered the news of three american mothers visited hikers in Iran in two posts:
1. The mothers of three American hikers jailed in Iran
2. Islamic republic of double standard


Photo courtesy of daylife

Islamic outfit not fair for female athletes

I wrote before that Islamic outfit is not fair for Muslim girls in sports, I am not even arguing how illogical it is. In following photo it is obvious that one with longer shirt would have less opportunity in the game.

The Iranian women's national rugby sevens team competed against Italy on July 30, 2010. Italy beat Iran 10 - 0.

Mullahs have opposed to participation of women in sport specially on international scenes. i.e. Back then during Beijing Olympics 2008, a mullah said: "Iranian women athletes presence is against Islamic values". So female athletes have not much of a choice here.


Photos courtesy of daylife: 1 & 2