Persia

Enter The Gate: Celebrating The Declaration Of The Bab

Shastri Purushotma | Posted 05.21.2012

Read More: Baha'i Faith, Baha'i, Shiraz, Persia, Declaration of the Bab, Baha'u'llah, Messiah, Religion News
Shastri Purushotma

On the night of May 22 this year, Baha'is around the world will hold celebrations to mark the 168th anniversary of that first evening in Shiraz when their Faith began.

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Music, Exile and Trauma

Mena Mark Hanna | Posted 04.12.2012

Read More: Palestine, Persian Exiles, Abbas Kiarostami, Theodor Adorno, The Bricklayer, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Arnold Schoenberg, Persia, Farnoosh Moshiri, Houston Grand Opera, Culture News
Mena Mark Hanna

During the performance, I detected shifts of uneasiness and stifled sobs emanating from an audience largely comprised of Persian émigrés; the premiere was met with an irrepressible standing ovation.

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The Cyrus Cylinder And A Dream For The Middle East

Jacob L. Wright | Posted 05.06.2012

Read More: Video, TED Talks, Middle East, Judaism, Persia, Biblical Scholarship, Purim, Cyrus Cylinder, Middle East Peace, Religion News
Jacob L. Wright

The values of tolerance that the Cyrus Cylinder has come to represent today must be held high. Yet in doing so, we must also heed the voices of those who opposed Persia's imperial reach.

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Baha'is Commemorate The Martyrdom Of The Bab

Rothwell Polk | Posted 09.07.2011

Read More: Martyrdom of the Bab, Persia, Baha'u'llah, Babi Faith, Haifa, Baha'i Faith, The Bab, Crucifixtion of Jesus, Baha'i, Religion News
Rothwell Polk

When the smoke cleared, the crowd gasped in astonishment and fear. Muhammad-'Ali still hung suspended by the ropes, but was unharmed and the Bab had disappeared!

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July 9, 1850: The Martyrdom of the Bab

Jonathan Gandomi | Posted 09.07.2011

Read More: Baha'i Faith, Religious History, Martyrdom of the Bab, Baha'i, July 9, Religious Martyrs, Persia, Iran, Bahai Holidays, Religion News
Jonathan Gandomi

Each year on July 9, members of the Baha'i Faith commemorate the Martyrdom of the Báb, an event which -- according to Baha'is -- witnessed the execution of one of God's divine messengers to humanity.

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On The Imprisonment of Iranian Filmmakers: A Moral Option For Iran and Any Government Presuming to Silence Its Artists

Michael Vazquez | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Cinémathèques, Zhang Yimou, World Cinema, Beijing Olympics, The Circle, Czechoslovakia, The Shop on Main Street, The Color of Pomegranates, United States, Mohammad Rasoulof, Farideh Gheirat, Milos Sethlik, Soviet Union, China, Michael Vazquez, Sergei Paradjanov, Cannes Film Festival, Peter Sellars, Translators Wanted, Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Crimson Gold, Russia, To Live, Facets.org, White Balloon, Jan Kadar, Persia, Jafar Panahi, Offside, The Twilight, Egypt, Alexandria, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Hosni Mubarak, Yemen, Cairo, Algeria, Arts News
Michael Vazquez

I've asked film curator Milos Stehlik, of Chicago's Facets.org to write a guest essay in the earnest service of furnishing a dually historical and mor...

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Afghanistan Is About Perpetual War

Harvey Wasserman | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: 1984, Rome, George Orwell, War, Ussr, Perpetual War, Obama, A People's History of the United States, Peace, Norman Solomon, Athens, The Bomb, David Swanson, Howard Zinn, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Persia, Politics News
Harvey Wasserman

The war in Afghanistan is about perpetual war, not Afghanistan. It's about preventing democracy in the United States, not bringing it to Southwest ...

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Egyptian Group Seeks to Ban One Thousand and One Arabian Nights

Firas Al-Atraqchi | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Arab World, Islam, Prince of Persia, Arab Literature, Naguib Mahfouz, Media Censorship, Thief of Bagdad, Rasheed El-Anany, Almasry-Alyoum, Ancient Egypt, Egyptian Press, Abu Nawas, Egyptian Pharoahs, Mu'allaqat, Cairo, Egypt, Islamic Radicalism, Sinbad, Omar Khayyam, Baghdad, Islamic Fundamentalism, Arabian Nights, Censorship, Brothers Grimm, Taliban, Buddha, Hans Christian Andersen, Bamyan, World News, Wine, Poetry, Religion, Literature, Ancient-Egypt-Temple, Sir Richard Burton, Jake Gyllenhaal, Entertainment, Books, Sex, Arab Culture, Persia, Hollywood, Religion News
Firas Al-Atraqchi

In the latest effort to censor texts considered to be "offensive to the public good", an Egyptian NGO is attempting to ban the popular book One Thousand and One Arabian Nights.

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Hollywood (Finally) Gives Us Positive Persians

Mojgan Sherkat | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Iran, Iranian-American, Jake Gyllenhaal, Prince of Persia, 300, Persia, Los Angeles News
Mojgan Sherkat

After decades of portraying Iranians as terrorists and villains, Hollywood has taken the first step toward giving my community its due by creating a blockbuster fantasy/action epic film.

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Iran To Cut Ties With British Museum Over Loan Of Cyrus Cylinder

AP | ALI AKBAR DAREINI | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: British Museum, Hamin Baqaei, Babylon, British Museum Iran, Iran, Persia, Cyrus Cylinder, World News

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran said it will cut ties with the British Museum on Monday because of the museum's failure to lend Tehran an anc...

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'Water' by Steven Solomon: The Rise and Fall of Civilizations, a Water World Prequel

Charles Taylor | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Grand Canal China, Kevin Kostner, King Xerxes, Steven Solomon, Grand Canal, Water Steven Solomon, Persia, Books, Water, Water Crisis, Athens, Water World, Books News
Charles Taylor

Steve Solomon's new book on "Water" is the real world prequel to Kevin Kostner's "Water World." No fiction here, but nonetheless a multitude of wonderful stories and insights brilliantly told.

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The Guardian: Ahmadinejad Not Jewish, Family Didn't Convert

The Huffington Post | T.J. Ortenzi | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Shia, Ahmadinejad Converted, Anti-Semitism, Daily Telegraph, Antisemitism, Jewish, Ahmadinejad Jewish, Iran, The Guardian, Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud Sabourjian, Sabourjian, Israel, Ahmadinejad Jew, Persia, Un, Shia Islam, Ahmadinejad Ancestry, Tzitzit, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Tallit, World News

Just a couple weeks ago, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took to the podium inside the U.N.'s grand hall and suggested that there was a worldwid...

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India: Mumbai's Parsi Community Remain Split On Intermarriage

GlobalPost | Hanna Ingber Win | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Parsis, India, Mumbai, Zoroastrians, Persia, Parsi Community, World News

MUMBAI, India -- A group of about a dozen young Parsi professionals gather around a table at the Parsi Gymkhana or social club at Marine Lines in Mumb...

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Notes on the Iran/Persia Conflict: A Travelogue -- Part Six

Eric Lurio | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Islam, Iran, Iran Travel, Travel, Middle East Politics, Persia, World, Traveling, World News, World News
Eric Lurio

Having a national currency worth "less than nothing" is embarrassing. So the Persians invented the Thumm. Inflation is beginning to ravage the Thumm the way it ravaged the Ryal.

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How Obama Can Further U.S.-Iran Relations

Eric Margolis | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Baghdad Bombing, Russia, Islam, Obama Iran, Central Intelligence Agency, War With Iran, Washington DC, Iran, Bush Iran, Anthrax, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, British, Iran Nuclear Weapons, Iraq War, Gordon Brown, London, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Oil Price, Iranian Women, Ayatollah-Khomeini, Poland, Persia, Oil, Baghdad, Iranian Oil, Hillary Clinton Iran, Iraq, Ahmad Shah Massoud, Iran Nuclear Program, Soviet Union, World News
Eric Margolis

President Barack Obama, who says he wants to open serious talks with Iran and establish better relations will have his work cut out for him. His first step is to read Iran's modern history.

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Notes on the Iran/Persia Conflict: A Travelogue -- Part Five

Eric Lurio | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Islam, Iran, Iran Travel, Travel, Middle East Politics, Persia, World, Traveling, World News, World News
Eric Lurio

In the year 185 BC, the Pharaoh Chaonnophris was captured by the forces of Ptolemy V, ending the last Egyptian state to be actually ruled by Egyptians for over two thousand years.

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Notes on the Iran/Persia Conflict: A Travelogue -- Part Three

Eric Lurio | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Islam, Iran, Iran Travel, Travel, Middle East Politics, Persia, World, Traveling, World News, World News
Eric Lurio

When people think of Iran, they think of evil Ayatollahs with nukes, when people think of Persia, they think of a lost world of biblical mystery.

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Notes on the Iran/Persia Conflict: A Travelogue -- Part Two

Eric Lurio | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: World, Traveling, World News, Iran, Travel, Middle East Politics, Persia, Iran Travel, Islam, Adolf Hitler, World News
Eric Lurio

Palace museums aside, everything is up to date in Tehran. McDonalds is nowhere to be seen, but a trip to the shopping mall shows that underneath officially required outerwear, women like sexy.

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Notes on the Iran/Persia Conflict: A Travelogue -- Part One: "Tourist" is not a Dirty Word.

Eric Lurio | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: World, France, Hong Kong, England, Middle East Politics, Rome, 9/11, Italy, Travel, Iran, London, Paris, Flights, Backpacking, Traveling, Persia, Flying, China, World News
Eric Lurio

Let's discuss why anyone in their right mind would travel half way around the world and back and spend a quarter-year's salary (minimum wage) to go to Iran for two weeks.

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