Today is Purim – the holiday ostensibly commemorating the salvation of Persian Jews, following the intercession of the Queen of Persia, Esther, and her guardian, Mordechai. It’s in the news right now because of Netanyahu’s inflammatory Congress speech drawing parallels between one version of Purim; and current Iranian government policy and the purported threat to …
The Rouhani-supporting newspaper Mardom-e Emrouz featured a photo of actor George Clooney alongside Clooney’s message of support for Charlie Hebdo and its staff – and was then shut down following the outraged demands of many more conservative media outlets in Iran. As Iranwire reported: “The closure also points to a wider problem: Rouhani’s failure to …
Nafise Motlaq has explored stereotypes about men and women in Iran by photographing fathers and daughters from a range of social classes: “There are a lot of successful Iranian women in universities, business, art, science, and industry and we should understand most of them have very supporting fathers and male friends in their life.” Here …
This is one of the better books I’ve read on Iran. But It drove me mad with all: – the lists (actual, and cleverly disguised by stringing them together with commas / semi-colons). It’s great to do research, but maybe he didn’t need to put all of it in? – the whining about cab drivers …
Ziegler & Company was the first company to produce handmade Persian carpets while catering to European tastes and needs – even accepting designs from Western retailers. What are considered as ‘Iranian’ patterns in carpets were “often affected by European imperialism and process of globalization”. Kimia Maleki has described how Ziegler was “instrumental in shaping how …
A Iranian peep-box (shahre-farang) is being held by Canadian customs as contravening Canadian trade sanctions – even though the Canadian government funded it an artwork. This has got to be one of the dumbest sanctions ever. Please show your support for the artist, Sadaf Foroughi, by e-signing her petition here. Shahre-farang were traditionally made of …
Here’s a cute Russian film of Iran – from 1969. Tehran is bustling. Isfahan has all the Safavid architecture we all know so well. Persepolis is populated by some .. well, look for yourself. Click here for 4 and a bit minutes of fun!
There are said to be more Jews in Iran than any other Muslim country- although many more are recorded by the local Jewish authorities than in the Census. Here’s a video peek inside some of the synagogues in Iran. Plus a link to a Jewish view of the local Jewish community.
Last week, IHF ran a great conference on the Natural Heritage of Iran. There were speeches and discussion on water, air, forests, wildlife and some fascinating presentations on community development. I thought the most interesting tension was between the demands for large-scale, coordinated national plans and programmes (a great idea, but … do they ever …
I’ve been reading Roger Bulliet’s fascinating book on agriculture and trade in early Islamic Iran. Bulliet suggests that the Muslim Arabs didn’t only bring Islam to Iran – but also the money and will to dig qanats and build villages to house workers to grow cotton as a cash crop. Khurasan, and the central plateau …