Tonight (Thursday November 19th, 6.30 -8.30 pm) -- InsideStorytime IRAN, at Cafe Royale, 800 Post Street. There are so many great Iranian-American authors in San Francisco that we're been urged to put on an Iranian-focused event. Reading tonight will be Shahrnush Parsipur (Women Without Men), Anita Amirrezvani (The Blood of Flowers), Mahbod Seraji (Rooftops of Tehran), Persis Karim (Let me Tell you Where I've Been), and Tissa Hami. Dorinda Vassigh will be our guest MC.
Proceeds will be donated to Amnesty International's Iran campaign.
The last time I blogged about Iran was five months ago. Remember when events in Iran took Andrew Sullivan's mind off Sarah Palin for a whole month? The news coming in from Iran is still astounding. I heard their soccer teams now have to play to empty stadiums -- because if spectators are allowed in, the government can't edit out the sound of their anti-Ahmadinejad protests from the televised matches. Here's another form of dissent the Iranian government doesn't have under control – protests expressed by writing slogans on rial banknotes. Thanks to Tissa Hami for Facebooking this link.
As these examples reflect, Iranians have freedoms in some areas of life, while being subject to extreme repression in others – this combination makes Iran very hard for us Westerners to understand. Hopefully I will learn more tonight.