Author Archive | Martha Shelley

In the previous post, the reader learned that an uncanny premonition warned me that my left ankle would be broken that day–a message from??? I will never know. But wrapped in the plaster cast I wore post surgery were two gifts: *          *          * Upon returning to work I discovered that it was extraordinarily difficult […]

Do actors still use the expression “break a leg” to wish their fellows success before going on stage? I don’t know. But one day I did break a leg, and it changed my life. *          *          * For seven years I’d been in a relationship where both of us had settled, after previous romantic disasters, […]

Over the years, I’ve been blessed to meet quite a number of courageous women. Elizabeth Feng was one of them. She was the mother of Alex Feng, my martial arts teacher in Berkeley, and did the bookkeeping for his school and acupuncture clinic. I would chat with her sometimes after an acupuncture session, and she […]

I don’t remember the incident, maybe a rape in our neighborhood, that prompted me to bring up the subject of self-defense lessons. But when I did, Anat lit up. She was seven at the time, with honey-colored hair and liquid brown eyes that could melt granite—a spunky kid with a passion for painting and drawing […]

This is the last of the series. I’ll start by quoting some of the rhetoric political leaders have used to stir up outrage against those they label enemies, and drum up support for wars. Then, let’s look at what those leaders really do—what deals they make with the devil. The Great Satan Shortly after the […]

Why Women Supported Khomeini The Iranian monarchy presented itself as having made great strides towards equality between the sexes. Then why did the majority of Iranian women support the Islamic revolution? As always, there were a number of factors. Women’s progress under the Shah wasn’t nearly as large as depicted by the Pahlavi regime or […]

Where we continue with the historic and economic background to current events in Iran: Where the Oil Money Went As I wrote in previous posts, the workers who pumped out Iran’s oil wealth in the 1950s were paid 50¢ per day. Most of the proceeds, at least 82.5%, went to England and America. Iran was […]

We’ll see what happens in Iran, once the dust settles from the current uprising. Meanwhile, some economic and historical information may give us a better understanding of how we arrived at a place of widespread and violent protests. All About Oil Iran ranks fourth in the world in terms of proven oil reserves—157.5 billion barrels—after […]

Iran has been in the headlines for the last three and a half weeks, and pundits are speculating on a second revolution, this time sparked by the murder of a woman by the government’s morality police. Her crime? She wasn’t wearing her hijab “properly.” These events stir up memories of the first Iranian revolution. Forty-three […]

A short follow-up to my recent posts. I’m quoting from yesterday’s article in the Guardian: “The FBI has declassified its file on Aretha Franklin…which shows the bureau extensively tracked the singer’s civil rights activism and her friendships with Martin Luther King Jr and Angela Davis.” The file was 270 pages long and “includes close documentation […]