The Subjunctive in Persian

Hi All!

I apologize for my absence over the last week. Today I'm uploading some notes on the use of the subjunctive in Persian. The subjunctive is used to make sentences with auxiliary verbs like 'want,' 'should,' 'can,' and 'must,' etc. As always, learning these rules will allow you to make increasingly complex and expressive sentences in Persian!

News Post June 16, 2013 (Rouhani's Victory)

Yesterday Iran's interior ministry announced that reformist minded cleric Rouhani won the Iranian presidency with 50.7 percent of the popular vote (law stipulaes that if one candidate doesn't eceive 50% the two top candidates must participate in a run-off).

I honestly was extremely surprised! I had kind of expected that a run off would be forced and that a conservative candidate would ultimately succeed.

It will be interesting to see what, if any, changes occur in Iranian foreign policy now.

News Post June 11, 2013 (Aref withdraws in favor of Rouhani)

اعلام حمایت خاتمی و هاشمی رفسنجانی از روحانی

Three days prior to the presidential election, the reformist/moderate camps have consolidated behind candidate Hassan Rouhani.

Competing reformist candidate Mohammad Reza Aref has withdrawn from the race with the hope that Rouhani's chances for victory will increase.

After Rouhani became the clear choice for previously disillusioned, reformist minded voters, former presidents Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami endorsed his candidacy.

The above headline is from this BBC Persian article.

Translation and Vocab:

"Khatami and Hashemi declare support for Rouhani"

 اعلام: Declaration
حمایت: Support

News Post June 11, 2013 (Haddad Adel Withdraws from Presidential Race)

An interesting development occurred yesterday in the run up to Iran's Presidential Election on Friday. One of the conservative candidates, Haddad-Adel, withdrew his name from contention. Below are some excerpts from the BBC Persian article. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/2013/06/130610_ir92_hadad_election.shtml)

او همچنین در مورد احتمال کناره‌گیری وی به نفع سعید جلیلی، از دیگر نامزدان انتخابات ریاست جمهوری ایران گفته بود: "در شرایط فعلی بنده هیچ ضرورتی برای کناره‌گیری به نفع هیچ کاندیدایی احساس نمی‌کنم

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 غلامعلی حداد عادل، مشاور رهبر جمهوری اسلامی است و از ۱۳۸۷ تاکنون به عنوان نماینده تهران در مجلس ایران حضور داشته و در دوره ای ریاست آن را به

عهده داشته است  

 

 

 Translation and Vocab:

He (Haddad Adel) had also said about the possibility of withdrawing in favor of Saeed Jalili,

 or one of the other candidates in the election for the presidency of the Iranian Republic: "In the current conditions I don't feel it is necessary to withdraw in favor of any candidate."

(Haddad Adel) is an advisor to the leader of the Islamic Republic, and since 1387 (2008) has been a representative from Tehran in the Majlis (Iranian Parliament). During this period he has been the president of that body.

همچنین: Too, as well
در مورد: About
احتمال: Possibility
کناره‌گیری: To withdraw
وی: His (Soheil pointed out that this word is commonly used in Iranian print and is more formal/respectful)
به نفع: In favor of
 از: From (one of)
دیگر: Other
نامزدان: Candidates
انتخابات: Election
ریاست جمهوری ایران: President of the Iranian Republic
گفته بود: Had said (past perfect tense)
شرایط: Conditions
فعلی: Current
بنده: Servant (Instead of using 'I' here, Haddad calls himself servant. It's kind of a ta'rouf way of referring to oneself)
هیچ: Any, nothing
ضرورت: Necessity
حساس کردن: To feel 
مشاور: Consultant, advisor
رهبر: Leader
جمهوری اسلامی: Islamic Republic
 ۱۳۸۷: 1387 (The current year by the Iranian calendar is 1392)
تاکنون: Until now
به عنوان: As (position)
نماینده: Representative
مجلس: Iranian Parliament
دوره ای: Period of time
آن: That
به عهده داشتن: To be in charge of

News Post June 10, 2013

The Last Iranian Presidential Debate

The last debate before Iran's presidential election was held this past Friday, and the event was certainly more spirited than the previous two sessions.

The part I'd like to focus on is the sharp exchange that occurred between Rouhani (a reformist and cleric) and Ghalibaf (current mayor of Tehran and a conservative). It can be seen in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoJJnAi_hzw

After Rouhani made a comment about providing peace for Iranians, Ghalibaf criticized him for his handling of student protests in 2003 when Rouhani was Secretary of the National Security Council. This kicked off an exchange where the two candidates traded remarks about their own versions of how the situation was handled (Ghalibaf was the head of police at the time).

In the clip, Ghalibaf says Rouhani denied granting the students in question permission to protest in 2003. Rouhani counters by saying he was concerned that if the he granted them permission and they left campus, the police under Ghalibaf would arrest all of them. Rouhani goes on to say that he wasn't concerned about the students because he felt they would dissipate in a few days time.

The exchange continued in this manner, with the candidates giving conflicting accounts of events, neither of which can really be verified. Hopefully the high energy of this debate will help capture Iranian interest, which had been low, in the elections which are now just 4 days away.    

 

Conditional Sentences in Persian

Hello All!

The lesson I'm uploading today provides an overview of the structural formats conditional sentences can take in Persian. Understanding these rules will allow students studying Persian to make more complex sentences as they practice.

 

News Post June 3, 2013

The first Iranian Presidential debate occurred three days ago and featured all eight candidates. The debate was not without controversy, though, as several of the participants called the format into question. The following articles discuss the debate and the aforementioned controversy.

The first article comes from the BBC's Persian language site, www.bbc.co.uk/persian.


Article Points:

• The author starts by pointing out that Tehran is often called the world's (دنیا) cosmetic surgery capital (پایتخت جراحی زیبایی). He then uses cosmetic surgery as a metaphor for the issues the candidates are discussing. The author feels they're superficial and don't address the real challenges facing Iran.

 

The second article comes from ghanoondaily.ir.

 

 

The title translates: IQ Test (تست هوش) in First (نخستین) Debate (مناضره) 

The subtitle in red translates loosely as: The candidates (نامزدها) prescription (نسخه) for healing(شفابخشي) the country's (کسور) economy (اقتصاد) was not given (تجويز نكردن)


The full article in Ghanoon is much longer, but it essentially describes part of the debate's format which was structured as multiple choice questions. Candidates were prompted with a question by the debate moderator, and asked to respond with one of three answers (hence the tongue and cheek title 'IQ Test.' Several of the candidates called the format childish and refused to participate. 

Some journalists have speculated that the debate was structured in such a way to avoid any explosive confrontations, like the one that broke out between President Ahmadinejad and challenger Mousavi in 2009.   

As a little background, here is a link to the debate between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi. Ahmadinejad, who was facing criticism following the discovery that one of his political appointees had lied about his possession of a doctoral degree, presented a file on Mousavi's wife. Ahmadinejad then claimed Mousavi's wife had falsely obtained her advanced degrees and then illegally secured a position as president of an Iranian university. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Luvx4gwgdSg

Also, here is a link to a collection of scenes from the last debate when things were breaking down and some candidates refused to answer questions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNOVvIbbuBU