When I was twelve, thirteen, I used to have to chaperone my sister, who was four years older, to an ice rink near Vanak Square. There was a girl there with long blond hair whose name was Soghra. I had a big crush on her though I didn't stand a chance. My sister used to go and do what she wanted when we got to the skating rink and I would spend the afternoon swooning over this girl Soghra. A few years later, when I was sixteen, I had my first relationship with a girl called Kobra. It had just started to cool off a bit when I discovered that the blonde girl from Vanak Square had moved in just around the corner from my school. She had moved in right next to where I used to stand and wait for my next-door neighbor, who used to give me a lift home from school. And one day I saw her walk down the path next to me and I thought – now where did SHE come from? She didn't know it was me. It was a few years later and I looked a lot different. Then we played a soccer match with our neighborhood team and she saw me playing and decided she fancied me. By this time she was that much older and a big buxom thing – and eventually I started seeing her. She invited me in one day when I was waiting for my lift and I was in heaven. So I went out with her for a couple of months but I didn't stop seeing Kobra. I thought I was being smart – I had gone from being a total loser to being a two-timer. And I remember my sisters used to give me a hard time because they found out and they really liked the first girl. But I started another relationship with a girl called Roghieh without finishing the one with Soghra. It all got a bit complicated. Soghra found out about her and got rid of me. The whole time I thought I was being cool, being this two-timer, but there really wasn't that much emotion involved. I did feel guilty about the first girl and I have seen her since. We danced a lot but I knew that she knew, and it was finished. I showed the guilt felt by a man over an affair, and my acknowledgement that my partner had found out. In the end, both women departed and I found myself all alone.
At 12:00 PM on Saturday, October 28, 2023, in honor of Cyrus the Great Day, you are invited to our unveiling of a monumental statue of Cyrus the Great at the Millennium Gate dedicated to liberty, justice and peace. Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid empire, upon liberating Babylon, freed the slaves, established racial equality and rights for women, declared that all people had the right to choose their own religion and returned their various gods to their shrines. He also helped the Jews build The Second Temple. According to the Book of Isaiah, Cyrus was anointed by God as a messiah for these actions, the only non-Jewish figure to be revered in this capacity. Iranian and Jewish peoples share an ancient bond of friendship that modern Islamic fanaticism has tried (and failed) to destroy. Remembering the past is a powerful perspective for shaping the future; one where diverse peoples and cultures live together in freedom and harmony. Cyrus the Great’s decrees wer
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