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OKCIR strongly condemns, like the majority of Iranian people, the world, and the Muslim nations of the region, the self-admittedly surprising and unprovoked military aggression by Israel on Iran on June 13, 2025, and the violation of Iran's UN Chartered sovereignty by Israel and its supportive US and Western allies. Iran has a legitimate UN-Chartered right to self-defense against aggression by outside forces.

The root of the crisis in the Middle East lies in the continued decades-long occupation of Palestine by Israel and the violation of her right to self-determination. It has now led to the utter destruction of GAZA by Israel's genocidal aggression against its population.

The Middle East crisis and the Palestine-Israel conflict predate the advent of the Iranian Islamic Revolution, and its chain of causes can be readily traced to the US and Western policy of colonial occupation of Palestine by way and in the interest of Israel. Such chains of causes can be best explored and understood in an environment respecting free speech and dissent, especially in universities and schools of learning. The solution to the crisis ultimately depends on solving the Palestinian question in favor of its legitimate right to self-determination.

For further reflections on the crisis in Iranian, regional, and world-historical contexts, please read the selected previously published readings from OKCIR on the subject of imperiality and colonialism whose links are offered at the top of OKCIR's homepage. Other edited collections published by OKCIR dealing with the same subject are also available by way of links on OKCIR'S homepage for further free-access online reading.

OKCIR: Omar Khayyam Center for Integrative Research in Utopia, Mysticism, and Science (Utopystics) (est. 2002) is an independent research and publishing initiative dedicated to exploring, in a simultaneously world-historical and self-reflective framework, the human search for a just global society.

Since the world’s utopian, mystical, and scientific movements have been the primary sources of inspiration, knowledge, and/or practice in this field, OKCIR aims to critically reexamine the shortcomings and contributions of these world-historical traditions—seeking to clearly understand why they have failed to bring about the good society, and what each can integratively contribute toward realizing that end.

The center aims to develop new conceptual (methodological, theoretical, historical), practical, pedagogical, inspirational and disseminative structures of knowledge whereby the individual can radically understand and determine how world-history and her/his selves constitute one another.

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Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian Poet (1941-2008)

“If I touch the Depth of Your Heart … ” : The Human Promise of Poetry in Memories of Mahmoud Darwish

This 2009 (VII) special issue of Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge entitled “If I touch the Depth of Your Heart … ” : The Human Promise of Poetry in Memories of Mahmoud Darwish is a commemorative issue on the life and poetry of the late Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, co-edited by a group of UMass Boston faculty and alumni.

Mahmoud Darwish was and is regarded as Palestine's national poet. He wrote the Palestinian Declaration of Palestine used for the formal establishment of the state of Palestine as declared on November 15, 1988, in Algiers, Algeria.

Other than keynote opening statements, the special issue is comprised of a selected series of longer and shorter poems by Mahmoud Darwish, followed by commemorative poetry and essays/articles that directly or indirectly engage with Mahmoud Darwish’s work and/or the subject matter of his passion and love, Palestine and human rights and dignity.

All section pdfs are freely accessible for reading online by clicking on the section title listed in the table of contents and then again on the large pdf image on the bottom of their respective pages.

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“For My Mother”
by Mahmoud Darwish

I long for my mother’s bread,
For my mother’s coffee,
For her touch.

Childhood memories grow up in me,
Day after day.

I must be worth my life
At the hour of my death,
Worth the tears of my mother.

And if I come back one day,
Take me as a veil to your eyelashes.

Cover my bones with the grass,
Blessed by your footsteps.

Bind us together
With a lock of your hair,
With a thread that trails from the back of your dress.

I might become immortal,
Become a God,
If I touch the depths of your heart.

If I come back,
Use me as wood to feed your fire,
As the clothesline on the roof of your house.

Without your blessing
I am too weak to stand.
I am old.

Give me back the star maps of childhood
So that I,
Along with the swallows,
Can chart the path
Back to your waiting nest.

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“For My Mother” by Mahmoud Darwish, Sung by the Renowned Lebanese Singer and Musician, Marcel Khalife.

Okcir Research Spotlights on Imperiality and Colonialism

OKCIR’S STATEMENT ON THE CRISIS IN THE MIDDLE EAST TODAY

Latest Publications in 2025

Welcome to Okcir

Spotlight on Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian Poet (1941-2008)

“For My Mother” by Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian Poet (1941-2008)

Integrative and Critical Studies on Utopia, Mysticism, and Science

Studies on Colonialism and Social Movements in the World-System

Published Social Theory Forum Proceedings on Liberating Social Theory

Studies on Self, Society, and Self-Transformtive Social Movements

Edited Human Architecture Collections in Education

Published Student Papers: From the Courses Taught by Mohammad H. Tamdgidi and Anna D. Beckwith

OKCIR library Online

Read FREE-ACCESS online all of OKCIR’s publications site-wide in embedded PDF format. | Support OKCIR by ordering its print and downloadable PDF publications.

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