Politics of Iran

The politics and government of Iran takes place in the framework of a republic with Islamist ideology. The December 1979 constitution, and its 1989 amendment, define the political, economic, and social order of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It declares that Shi’a Islam of the Jaafari (Usuli) school of thought is Iran’s official religion.

Political parties and elections

The first round of the election was a very close race with minor differences in the number of votes won by each candidate which led to a run-off a week later with Ahmadinejad and ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani participating. There were seven people running for the post out of more than a thousand initial candidates, most of whom were disqualified by the Guardian Council, which holds veto power over all political candidates in Iran. Rafsanjani, who had been regarded as the front-runner and had positioned himself as a centrist, was defeated by Ahmadinejad in the run-off, while reformist candidate Mostafa Moeen fared poorly and finished only fifth in the first round.

This was the first presidential runoff in the history of Iran. Before the run-off took place, it was compared to the 2002 French presidential election, where the splintering of the left-wing vote similarly led to a run-off between the moderate Jacques Chirac and the far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen. The comparison was made because of the unexpected votes in favor of Ahmadinejad, the very close race, and the comparability of the political standings of Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad to those of Chirac and Le Pen. But after the results for the run-off were made public, the comparison was considered void due to the loss of the moderate candidate Rafsanjani, and the inability of Ahmadinejad’s opponents to form a majority alliance against him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Iran#Political_parties_and_elections

انجمن زبان

انجمن دانشجويي زبان بر آن است كه در راستاي تقويت سطح زبان دانشجويان دانشكده قدم بردارد كه بحمدالله گام هاي نخستين با تلاش اعضاي اصلي اين انجمن و استقبال دانشجويان به استواري برداشته شد. اين انجمن پايگاهي است براي آنان كه به زبان انگليسي علاقه دارند (خواه در اين زمينه اطلاعات داشته باشند يا نه) و يا آناني كه تنها براي پيشبرد اهداف تحصيلي خود به اين زبان روي مي آورند. از اين رو اعضاي اصلي اين انجمن از طريق انتخابات و از ميان دو گروه نام برده انتخاب مي شوند. كه تعداد اين افراد بين 4 تا 5 نفر مي باشد و 2 نفر نيز به عنوان علي البدل انتخاب مي شوند.

فعاليت هاي انجمن زبان :

1- Free discussion : جلسات عمومي براي بحث در مورد موضوعات پيشنهادي به زبان انگليسي.

2- News Listening & Comprehension : نمايش اخبار از شبكه هاي خبري انگليسي زبان و تمركز بر روي مهارت هاي شنيداري و نيز دايره لغات.

3- Movie Analyzing & Comprehension :‌ نمايش فيلم و گفتگو در مورد فيلم به همراه نگاهي به مهارت شنيداري، ساختار جملات و كلمات.

4- Vocab Papers : با همكاري تعدادي از دانشجويان گردآوري اصطلاحات و كلمات پركاربرد و نصب آنها بر روي ديوارها و بردهاي دانشكده.

5- Tech Papers : گردآوري لغات تخصصي رشته هاي مختلف و توزيع آنها بين دانشجويان همان رشته.

6- Magazine : با تلاش مسئولان اين بخش مجله انجمن زبان آماده می شود.

The World Wide Web vs. the Library

On the surface, the Internet may seem like a large database of information that can be compared to a library. The Internet does contain much information, and the Internet is up to date. However, Library Information Studies, hereafter referred to as LIS, is a scholarly field that grounds itself in logical organization of and ease of access to information. Compared to LIS, the Internet falls short to a great extent. The most evident of these shortcomings are cataloguing and accuracy (Descy, 1997).

A library has a very systematic way in which information is catalogued to enable searchers to locate the desired information. The information is organized and categorized under the Library of Congress or Dewey Decimal System and is recognized by scholars worldwide (Dennis & Harrington, 1990). The Web, on the other hand, has no system for consistency. Different search engines such as Yahoo, Infoseek, and Webcrawler add information to their databases in different ways. When a search string is entered into these databases, different results are derived depending on the search engine that is utilized. Descy (1997) conducted a search for “educational technology” in the three search engines mentioned above. Yahoo returned no matches, Infoseek returned the “best 100 matches”, and Webcrawler produced 87,987 matches. The resulting information was very different.

Accuracy is another area where the Internet information and library information are dissimilar. Before information reaches a library, it is filtered in three ways: (a) it is written and/or issued by an authoritative source such as the federal government or a reliable organization; (b) it is authenticated as part of an editorial or peer review process by a publisher; or (c) it is evaluated by experts, reviewers, or subject specialists/librarians as part of collection development (Brandt, 1996). In a library, the information is then selected, reviewed again, evaluated, and catalogued. The information is selected for specific purposes and specific reasons to be included in a section. Information on the Web has no evaluation criteria. Anyone can publish anything on the Web. It is important that teachers and students do not take information found on the Web at face value. Facts and figures should always be cross-referenced with other resources.

However, the Internet and the Web should not be disregarded as valuable research tools. With proper training and cross-referencing, both can be highly effective and efficient means by which students locate information. As computers are becoming more common in schools and homes, students and teachers are becoming more computer literate and Internet literate.

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~nguyen/web/literature1.htm

Mum always told you not to talk to strangers, but should you still follow this advice as an adult? It seems that most of us do. A famous survey on social anxiety published in the New York Times in 1984 showed that people’s biggest fear was walking into a room full of strangers. The fear of dying only came third on the list! Would you rather die than meet new people?

1. If you have to make the first contact with a stranger you prefer to:
   • Phone them
   • Text them
   • Email them
   • See them face-to-face
2. You pass someone practically every day. When would you say hello?
   • The 2nd or 3rd time I saw them
   • After I’d seen them 5-10 times
   • After I’d seen them 10-20 times
   • I’d wait for them to say it
3. The person next to you on a long haul flight smiles warmly at you as you sit down. Do you:
   • Smile back
   • Smile back and say hello
   • Start to make small talk
   • Ignore her as politely as possible
4. How old are you?

   - 131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899

5. Which one are you?
   • Boy
   • Girl

http://uk.tickle.com/test/holdback/start.html

Marriage Laws and the Disabled 

A Comparison between the United States, ADA, UN, and Iran

Marriage, What is it? 

1: the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a legal, consensual, and contractual relationship recognized and sanctioned by and dissolvable only by law  

History on how laws have changed… 

Eugenics 

• First eugenic law: Indiana, 1907
• Forced Sterilization was legal in 18 States, WITHOUT consent of the individual.
• “The U.S. practice of neutering “mentally defective” individuals was backed by most leading geneticists and often justified on grounds that it would relieve the public of the cost of caring for future generations of the mentally ill.”
• U.S. ended its practice with eugenic laws in the 60s.

Why get married?  

• Love, Religion, Starting a Family
• Tax Benefits- i.e. a shared income, lower tax liability, credits for education, and dependents.
• HOWEVER, many people with disabilities lose much of their funding from their new legal status.

Marriage and the Constitution  

• Marriage is not mentioned in the United States Constitution.
• Amendment 14 states that “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States”

State Marriage Laws 

• “When the legal capacity and consent of both parties is present, establishes their relationship as husband and wife and which is recognized by the state as a civil contract”

What is Legal Capacity? 

• What is reason?
• There is no universal legal test of mental capacity or incapacity.
• Normally a two part test.
• 1. Some type of disability must be verified.
• 2. There must be a finding that the disability prevents the person from performing activities essential to take care of his or her personal needs or property. 

Can they or Can’t they?  

• Depends on if the person is under guardianship
• If not, then the heterosexual couple can marry.
• If under guardianship, the court that determined the need for the guardian must be petitioned.
• Why?

Universal Declaration of Human Rights- Article 16 
 

• Men and Women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and its dissolution.
• Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending individual.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights Continued…. 
 

• No marriage shall be legally entered into without the full and free consent of both parties, such consent to be expressed in person after due publicity and in the presence of the authority competent to solemnize the marriage and of witnesses, as prescribed by law.

Marriage in Iran 

• Marriage is a type of business contract for the selling of a woman’s body for the production of children
• Children are often a stipulated clause of these contracts, which can be long term or temporary arrangements.
• A dower system continues to be in effect.
• While Iran’s marriage law does not specifically address disability, their “dissolution” statues do….

History of Law in Iran 

• Islamic Law, constitutional law, legislation, and informed sources such as customs.
• Applicable legislation on Marriage law comes from Iran’s Constitution, the 1989 Family Protection Act, and Iran’s Civil Code, which specifically addresses disability when discussing permissible grounds for the dissolution of a marriage.

The Hard Laws of Iran- the Constitution 
 

• Article 10: Since the family is the most basic unit of Islamic society, all rules and regulations regarding family should serve the purpose of preservation of family and its relations based on Islamic rights and morals.

1989 Family Protection Law 
 

• “leaving men’s absolute rights to divorce intact but stipulating that men are required by law to provide a sound argument to the court, which the court can reject if it does not comply with sharia. The result is to give women greater power over marriage contracts.”

• Women and men continue to have unequal divorce rights in Iran- men have absolute divorce rights so long as they “provide a sound argument to the court” whereas women’s divorce rights are limited to contract violations.

• “Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allaah has made one of them to excel the other, and because they spend from their means” [al-Nisaa 4:34]

 
 
 
 http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:qtX78gRBSXgJ:courses.washington.edu/lsj434/presentations/Iran.ppt+marriage+laws+in+IRAN&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9
 
 
 
 

What would you be doing tomorrow if you retired today?

Let’s say you had a blank day staring at you. You didn’t have to work. You could do anything at all (although money is still a limiting factor). What would your perfect day be like?

These questions are more than just hypothetical questions to ask for fun or idleness. It’s an exercise meant to get you thinking about designing your life.

How do you design your life? Well, let’s assume that your life is under your control. Sure, not everything is under your control, but let’s assume that much of your life is yours to do with as you please. Even if that’s so, many of us go through life doing what we do because a series of events have made our life what it is today. We continue to do what we do without giving it much thought, because it’s easier that way.

Designing your life isn’t easy. You first have to dare to ask yourself these questions. You then have to dare to imagine that it can come true. And then comes the difficult task of changing your life so that it is what you want it to be.

Perhaps your life is already just how you like it — if that’s the case, you are to be congratulated. But I submit that many of us, while generally happy, have a life not of our own design — at least not a conscious design.

So today let’s take a look at one way to consciously design your life. It’s not the only way, but it’s a path to happiness that I’d recommend.

Here’s the process:

1. What’s important? Ask yourself what is most important to you. Regular Zen Habits readers know that I ask this question in many articles, but that’s because any process should start with this, whether it’s a process of simplifying, of productivity, of frugality, or of becoming happier. What do you love doing? Who do you love spending time with? Make a short list of 4-5 things.

2. What is your passion? What do you love doing the most? Can it be a way you make your living? If you can make a career out of doing something you love, you will love your day. Dare to imagine that this could come true.

3. Design your day. Start with a blank slate, and design your perfect day. Incorporate the short list of 4-5 most important things above, to ensure that you are spending your day doing what’s most important to you. Also include time spent working at your passion (from item #2). Include an ideal routine, including a morning and evening routine, and everything in between. What time would you wake up and go to bed?

4. Figure out how to get there. What changes would you need to make in your life to make that perfect day a reality? Be willing to consider drastic changes if necessary. Come up with a plan to get there. It might be a plan that will take 6 months, a year, two years or 5, but you can get there eventually, if you want it enough. Dare to make it a reality.

5. Start making some changes immediately. Some of the changes can be done right away, especially if the changes are under your direct control. The time you wake up and go to bed, for example, are probably under your control. Your morning and evening routines are another example of things you can probably change immediately. Spending time doing the 4-5 important things on your list might also be an immediate possibility. Notice the things you normally do that aren’t on the list of 4-5 important things — consider eliminating or minimizing the time you spend on the non-important things to make room for the important things.

6. Start making long-term changes now. Longer-term changes might include things like doing your passion for a living, or where you live, or getting out of big commitments that don’t contribute to your happiness or are not on your short list of 4-5 things. But while these kinds of changes might take longer, they can still be done. Start on them today, set them in motion, and dare to believe that you can change these things. Make a plan, and set it in motion.

7. Keep the end in mind. Print out your perfect day, and keep that in mind as you begin to make changes. This is the life you designed, rather than the one you’ve fallen into. You are in control of your life, and you can have that life, if you want it enough.

http://zenhabits.net/2007/09/design-your-life-what-would-you-do-if-you-had-nothing-to-do/

Q: What letter of the alphabet is an insect?
A: B. (bee)

Q: What letter is a part of the head?
A: I. (eye)

Q: What letter is a drink?
A: T. (tea)

Q: What letter is a body of water?
A: C. (sea)

Q: What letter is a pronoun like “you”?
A: The letter ” I “

Q: What letter is a vegetable?
A: P. (pea)

Q: What letter is an exclamation?
A: O. (oh!)

Q: What letter is a European bird?
A: J. (Jay)

Q: What letter is looking for causes ?
A: Y. (why)

Q: What four letters frighten a thief?
A: O.I.C.U. (Oh I see you!)

Q: What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment but not once in a thousand years?
A: The letter “m”.

Q: Why is the letter “T” like an island ?
A: Because it is in the middle of waTer.

Q: In what way can the letter “A” help a deaf lady?
A: It can make “her” “hear.

Q: Which is the loudest vowel?
A: The letter “I”. It is always in the midst of noise

Q: What way are the letter “A” and “noon” alike?
A: Both of them are in the middle of the “day”.

Q: Why is “U” the happiest letter?
A: Because it is in the middle of “fun”.

Q: What word of only three syllables contains 26 letters?
A: Alphabet = (26 letters)

Q: What relatives are dependent on “you”?
A: Aunt, uncle, cousin. They all need “U”.

Q: What is the end of everything?
A: The letter “g”.

Two cows are standing in a field.
One says to the other “Are you worried about Mad Cow Disease?”
The other one says “No, It doesn’t worry me, I’m a horse!”

A: Doctor, will I be able to play the piano after the operation?
B: Yes, of course.
A: Great! I never could before!