Leila Zand's blog

Dear Campaigner for Peace with Iran,

The  Tehran Peace Museum and the Society for Chemical Weapons Victims Support (SCWVS) are planning a candlelight vigil at 19:00 local time (10:30 EST) on September 21 to commemorate the UN-designated International Day of Peace. The organized event is a historic first in Iran, where tensions with the United States are causing serious anxiety.

Arash and Kamiar Alaei are Iranian physicians whose lives and activities have been dedicated to honoring Iran.  Arash and Kamiar are experts on HIV/AIDS and have worked for many years on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment activities in Iran and internationally.  

They have been detained by the Iranian government with no explanation since June.  We, people of faith and conscience, are looking forward to seeing Arash and Kamiar back with us as soon as possible. 

Physicians for Human Rights has created a petition calling for their release.  Please click here to read and sign the petition now.

In May 2008, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb became the first woman rabbi to visit Iran. She was one the two leaders of the 7th Civilian Diplomacy delegation of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

The following is a poem written by Rabbi Lynn. In addition to being one of the first ten women rabbis in Judaism and a leader in the Jewish Renewal movement, she is the co-founder of both the Shomer Shalom Institute for Jewish Nonviolence as well as the Muslim-Jewish Peace Walk for Interfaith Solidarity.

Did you know:

In an interview with ABC during his recent 10-day visit to the region, Vice President Cheney downplayed the NIE: "We don't know whether or not they've [the Iranians have] restarted." Cheney also said Iran was seeking to build missiles capable of reaching the United States sometime in the next decade.

If this is the truth, how come we in the United States with more advance military equipment couldn’t do that so far. If we, the leader and most technologic country in the word could do that, just imagine, we didn’t have to send our boys and girls to Iraq to kill Iraqis and get killed by them. Rather we could use our missiles and kill Iraqis without losing our own kids.

"Triumph of Triumph" is knowledgeable observation written by Hamid Dabashi, Professor of History at Columbia University. You can download this file here.

I would also recommend reading Mark Johnson's review of Dabashi's latest book Iran: A People Interrupted, published in the Spring 2008 issue of Fellowship magazine (pages 40-41, review not available online).

Campaign for a New American Policy on Iran

Tell Congress You Want Direct Dialogue, Not War with Iran

National call day

The same people who called for attacking Iraq now are raising the drumbeat for military action against Iran. Despite the November 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate concluding that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program, the Bush administration is bolstering its case for war by labeling Iran one of the greatest threats to American security.

March 20, 2008 was the spring equinox and the Iranian New Year, known as Norooz (or Norouz, Nowruz, No Ruz, etc.). My family and I sat around our traditional and spiritual table at 1:48:46 a.m., at the exact moment of the equinox.

This week, the Middle East Times published an Op-Ed article I recently wrote on U.S.-Iran relations. I am so excited and want to share this with all the supporters of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Here is how the article begins:

Earlier this month, I was so happy to learn of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report on Iran’s nuclear program and ambitions. I thought the time had come for open conversation between the US and Iran. I thought that through direct dialog between these two powerful countries, tensions could be calmed in the Middle East and even in Pakistan.

Following is the text of my speech delivered on October 27, 2007 at the national anti-war mobilization in New York City organized by United for Peace and Justice.

I am an Iranian-American who loves both Iran and America.

I am Iranian enough to be worried for my people, their cultural heritage, their history, and above all the path towards democracy that they have taken for the past 100 years. I see that today they are closer than ever to reaching this dream: the Iranian women, students, workers, and other groups have worked hard to get here and are willing to even work harder to achieve this dream.

What I feel my fellow Iranians are saying now, and they hope that everyone hears them, is that they are intelligent enough to make their own decisions. I hear their cry, loud and clear, when they say, “Please do not destroy our dream that we have worked so hard for.” I hear them say, loud and clear, “Please let us determine our own future by ourselves.”