My spouse established an online newspaper and I start to write! I am pretty excited about writing again. Although it is in Persian, I am satisfied, because writing especially about Iran and the surroundings, help me to think about them more rational and also makes me to feel calm.

I finished "Veiled Sentiments" by Lila Abu-Lughod, an American Egyptian anthropologist. I liked the book. Her main interpretation is focused on sexuality and all about it in an Egyptian tribe.

I tried to grow Sabze for new year but unsuccessful!

I sent the first part of my work and Deborah was totally satisfied with it.

These Days

These days I am busy a little bit. I am working on the small job and I have finished half of it. I will send it to the boss(!) and get her feed backs. I hope she will be satisefied with my job.
I went to a concert last night for the first time in my life!
I am writing more on my Persian weblog. Today, I have an idea to write my "confessions" in my Persian blog. I don't know what I will do but sounds interesting for myself.

My instructor in my anthropology course is wonderful so that I decide to apply for Anthropology for PhD! She is great really. At this moment, I have read 9 full books and about 15 articles for this course without any pressure or sense of bothering...

Convincing in English!

Deborah, who I am starting my first work in Canada with, told me today: Do you know why I chose you for this position? There was a special self-confidence in your voice which I did not hear from other applicants'. Although English is not your first language, you could convince me that you are the best candidate for this position! Wow!
I said: I am always good at convincing people in my own language but I did not think I am able to do it in English too. She said: You did. I am working in the business and negotiation is my professional. You could convince me! You did it!
I became delighted! hahahahah!

First Job Position in Canada! Wow!

I received my first job offer in Canada as a research assistant!
Deborah, who is studying on empowering women in the North America decide to hire me today!
It was a job posting from the past week and because she mentioned that call me for phone interviewing, at first I gave this email up and thought oh my God, who can answer to some questions by phone and in English?! But, suddenly, last night I decided to send me resume to her email. She called me at the morning, though I didn't put my phone number! She said as I review your resume you seem qualified. Tell me about your research interests and what you have done. I said I have presented three papers in international conferences...
When she was explaining about the research and the qualified candidate for the position, she mentioned it is very important the candidate is able to search very well in order to gathering some data. I said I have an experience in this regard when I was working as a chief consultant in a news agency where my exact responsibility was searching for appropriate related organizations in order to be connected with them, negotiate with them for fundraising and assistance to hold some workshops for regional journalists...
When she said the core of the research is the empowerment of women in the North America, I described about my experience in empowering some Iranian housewives for writing in their local publication...
She asked me how old are you? When I answered I am 27, she was surprised and said that I seemed more mature according to the resume. I said if you live in Iran and desire to progress, you have to work hard and really run!

She called me around 1 p.m and said: I decide to hire you. Congratulations!
So, I will start my first Canadian experience as a research assist in the field which I am really interested and curious about with $20 per hour!
Sounds great and unbelievable. I planed after finishing this semester I go for working even as a volunteer to gain some Canadian job experience.
Better than I expected

My New Love!

I finally bought a new laptop for myself! It's the first "new" laptop we have ever bought, indeed it is the third laptop we have bought but both two previous was second-handed. It's an Acer Aspire model with 8.9 inches screen! It's so funny, I particularly love the small nice white keyboard which encourage me to type always! It is also the first big purchase in Canada via Internet. I was totally satisfied with online shopping. I actually love this new sweet creature!

I have discovered www.digg.com recently and I am addicted to it.

I finally completed my PhD proposal. It just needs some edits nothing more. I hope I can submit it before Norouz but I don't think it will be approved before the Iranian year. Anyway, the topic is approved, I will be relieved!

Full of Disgust

When I was living in Iran, especially in the recent years, my mind was full of disgust and I could not behave or judge in a logical way. Everything made me nervous and angry; in the street, in my work, in shopping, in traffic, in television shows, in news broadcasting… I just was frustrated so much… I just wanted to escape… I felt that everything in this country is created just to bother people heavily… the religion, the government, the cars, the veiling, the polluted air, the traffic jammed, the stupid president, the dictator supreme leader, the foolish Cabinet, the university, the professors and all and all… Everything for torturing you…
So, at first I decided to escape to somewhere just to “breathe” for a while and then “create” some reasons for my immigration!
I am here but my disgust is not finished yet... Unfortunately...

Not OUR Language

Even when we are talking in our mother tongue, the “pressure” of translation in English never leave us alone! Indeed, the shadow of English language as a language which is not “ours”, which is “weird” to us and which is “far” from us, imposes its existence heavily in the entire context of our conversation.

Notes on Love in a Tamil Family

The book I am reading in recent two weeks is Notes on Love in a Tamil Family by Margaret Trawick. She lived for a time in the midst of one large South Indian family and sought to understand the multiple and mutually shared expressions of love. This family performed before the young anthropologist's eyes the meaning of love through poetry and conversation, through the not always gentle raising of children, through the weaving of kinship tapestries, through erotic exchanges among women, among men, and across the great sexual boundary. She communicates with grace and insight what she learned from this Tamil family, and we discover that love is no less universal than selfishness and individualism.

What I am looking for is that how the anthropologist expresses herself through telling the story of her research. In this case, the author explains that her approach to the study of this feeling has been through feeling. “I have tried throughout the course of my research and writing to remain honest, clear-headed, and open-minded, and to follow the dictates of reason and empirical observation in my descriptions and analyses of the events I have sought to comprehend. But I have not attempted to be "objective" in the common sense of this term. I have never pretended to be disinterested or uninvolved in the lives of my informants, and I have never set my own feelings aside. Only by heeding them have I been able to learn the lessons that I try, in this volume, to pass on.”

Then she presents Western expectations of India which are included some stereotypes as India is "more spiritual" than the West, its people "impoverished," "non materialistic," "fatalistic," and "other-worldly," its society structured according to a "rigid caste hierarchy," its women "repressed" and "submissive," its villagers "tradition-bound" and "past-oriented," their behavior ordered by "rituals" and constrained by "rules" of "purity" and "pollution."

Then she confesses that one thing she had learned in India was that “these words are just words, our words, to refer to certain scattered events occurring in South Asia. The propositions they imply are partial truths, half truths, and anyone going to India who expects all of Indian life to confirm to them will find herself merely deluded and confused. It would almost be better, I think, if we could abandon such words, all those words that imply explanation and understanding of such a large place as India.”

She has tried, anyway, in her own narrative not to lean on such words too much. Another interesting thing for me is that how the anthropologist as a woman, compare herself to other women whom she is working and studying on them. She expresses about this concern: “The women I knew there, for instance, were more aggressive than me, more openly sexual than me, more free in their criticisms of their men than me. Here in America I often get in trouble for arguing, losing my temper, speaking my mind.”
She honestly discloses herself in her book when she talks about one of her Indian women friend’s question: "is it your habit to bow and defer to everyone?" She confesses that:

My personality in Tamil Nadu was no more sweet and obliging than it is in America; if anything, I was more short-tempered there. As for Anni, she was milder than many Tamil women I knew indeed, she was known for her patient and loving nature. But when she accused me, through her question, of excessive deference, she was not being sarcastic. Compared to her, I was a little mouse. The notion of the repressed and submissive Indian woman simply did not apply to the people among whom I lived-and yet in some ways it did. Anni would not have been Anni without her fidelity to her men and her ability to endure hardship for their sake, to do without while they did with. She was proud of these qualities of hers and wore them fiercely. They entitled her to speak freely and to walk with her head held high...."