Images from my new novel Hazarnameh Abarqu by the Iranian artist Babak Germchi in Tehran. It will be published shortly.tly.

Czechoslovakia -- now divided into Czech and Slovak republics -- is probably one of the rare states that has suffered at least three name changes in the last century. It has been dominated almost entirely by foreign forces throughout its 1000-year history, most recently being a communist satellite for some forty years.

Abarqu

A narrative about an ancient town on the periphery of the salt desert in southern Iran.

باغ (in Farsi)

For the past three years I have been writing a novel based on the life of a desert city.  The story is being published monthly in "Par" journal (in Farsi) in Arlington, Virginia.  This section is about the convivial getting together of friends in an orchard.  A reader suggested that I might have been inspired by Plato's "Symposium," which is likely, but it is not a dialogue on love, rather about the pre-revolutionary Iranian life and politics.

People of Oraman

Based on my trip to the pristine Ormanat, the furthest western part of Kurdistan, this narrative portrays the life style and the great soul of the Kurdish people.  The pictures add to the  understanding of this beautiful part of  Iran.  I was delighted to see this narrative is reposted by PDKI,  a Kurdish journal publishing in Canada.

Tehran

This narrative is based on my trip to Tehran in the Summer of 2001.  I like the pictures I took on this trip, specially the long line of women hikers.

Nazi Abadism

A narrative based on the life of an Iranian migrant- worker who had lived and worked in Japan.

Taleqan

In my visit to Iran in 1999 I was invited to Taleqan by a kind family.  The temperature was so different from Tehran that I became sick on arrival; nevertheless, the magic of  this valley town is still with me.

Palaces

This narrative is based on my visits to Pahlavi palaces in Tehran.  Once a forbidden city to us commoners, now the palaces hosted me as a museum.  The impressions left on me by these abandoned palaces are the leitmotif of this story.  I received a good share of abuse in email after publishing this piece!