Great cover picture! Omigod, I laughed so hard. Did you arrange it with computers or is it for real? I could not believe that "home alone" pose on president Khatami. It was so funny :o)
Maral B., via email.

I think you are jumping the gun a little bit when you proclaim on your front cover that Iran is "next", presumably as the target of US military action. First of all, Iran does not have and has not been accused of harboring chemical weapons of mass destruction. In fact, Iranians were the sad recipients of such horrendous tactics by Saddam and his U.S. backers. Second of all, Iran is a democracy. Yes, it is not a perfect system, it has flaws, but look at the last American Presidential elections? If voter turnout has been low, the only ones to blame are those reformists led by President Khatami with their empty promises and their tearful reciting of poetry! Third of all, we Iranians, though we may be divided among ourselves will rally together in a split second faced with a common enemy. Just look at what happened when Saddam sucker-punched us in the middle of our revolution. So I definitely think your cover was overblown and meant for ratings not reality!
Sincerely
Dr. K. Kaveh, San Francisco.

Hulloh?????? When are you going to have your mag online? Come on get with it!
Siavash, via email.

Editor's reply: Salam Worldwide's website at www.salamnews.com is currently under construction and will be up and running shortly.

I am really shocked to open the paper and see all this filth and garbage about sex, (Kama Sutra & tantra for better sex) as well as those distasteful pictures of so-called comedian Ali G with naked women. You advertise yourself as an Iranian newspaper with politics on your mind, but then we open the pages and see you definitely have a one track mind. Please, if I want to see that filth, I can open up the Playboy. Keep our culture clean!!!
Azam N., via email.

Wow, how cool for an Iranian magazine to openly discuss sex. I really loved your article about tantra and kama sutra, not so much for its contents, because it didn't really offer any new information, but the fact that you would publish it is a daring new step and a breath of fresh air among politically correct Iranian media. We are not in Jomhourie Islami so we may as well take advantage of it and discuss issues of real interest to everyone!
Rose, Calabasas, CA.

The pictures of those Iranian soldiers let out after 15 years in the prisons of the Butcher of Baghdad were heart-wrenching, I lost my brother in the War. He was killed in action but we never recovered the body. All this time, there has never been closure, always hoping he is alive. I hope that families of those men find the solace that I never could.
Anonymous.

Haha!!! I love your Samanisms. Can you print them bigger next time?
Reza T., UCLA

I was struck by the news that Kaveh Golestan died on the battlefield.
What a sad sad way to go for such an immense talent. I noticed that one of your earlier covers ("the day Saddam gassed his own people") featured one of Kaveh's amazing series on the gassing of the Kurds, at a time when the whole world looked the other way. Thank you Shirin Sadeghi for your heartfelt obituary of this artist and humanitarian.
Sam G., Hollywood

Wow, I never knew Iran ever had a Jewish Queen? ("Esther, the Jewish
Queen of Persia"). Any other prominent Jewish figures in Persian history?
Maziyar, Sherman Oaks.

WILL YOU STOP PUBLISHING THIS GARBAJJE ABOUT HOMOS IN ISLAM? I AM
TELLING YOU TO STOP BECAUSE NO GOOD MOSLIM WOULD EVER DO "HAMJENSBAZI". IT IS DISGUSTING AND UNNATURAL!!!!!
"KERM", via email

Thank you H. Tavakoli for your informative article on the persecution
of gays and lesbians in Muslim countries. Another facet of the tyranny of the mullahs. I am glad I live in the West, although discrimination and violence exist here too, at least there are organizations that speak out for our rights and interests.
Anonymous