Is This Ta'arof?

Makeup tips for visiting an Iranian coffee shop

2012-01-07T01:41:00.000-08:00

Two girls explain how to get your look right when visiting an Iranian coffee shop:

Video tour of Mashad's Arab quarter

2012-01-04T04:34:00.000-08:00

Jadid Online has an interesting video tour of the Arab quarter of the Iranian city of Mashad. It's only 5 minutes long, with Persian commentary and English subtitles. It covers the enduring clan system, funeral rites, sport, religion, family and identity.

Interviews with two Iranian women escaping forced marriages

2011-12-27T09:08:00.000-08:00

VICE magazine continues it's strong international reporting and focus on the people affected. There's a shortish online interview with two Iranian women who left Iran to become "mail-order brides" in Scandinavia, only to regret it (almost immediately).

When I arrived in Sweden I understood that every word my husband and his family had told me was a lie, and that’s when hell began. He didn’t even come to meet me at the airport. When I finally got to his house, he treated me like I was his dog.

Conflict in Balochistan, Pakistan

2011-12-20T01:32:00.000-08:00

The Guardian reports on the conflict in Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province, between Balochs and the Pakistani military and intelligence forces.

If you have not heard of this epic killing spree, though, don't worry: neither have most Pakistanis. Newspaper reports from Balochistan are buried quietly on the inside pages, cloaked in euphemisms or, quite often, not published at all.

This conflict, whilst under-reported, has lots of intrigues: mineral deposits underground, separatist/nationalist groups targeting their own side for not being 'Baloch' enough, police/politicians/military not investigating killings, torture and mutilation.

Iranians imprisoned for playing indie-rock

2011-12-19T13:23:00.000-08:00

There's an oldish clip from 2009 of British late-night news show Newsnight about the Iranian band Font going to the UK to play music. They had previously been imprisoned in Iran playing their style of music.

Iranians imprisoned for playing indie-rock

Nazanin Rafsanjani explains ta'arof on This American Life

2011-12-15T05:27:00.000-08:00

Nazanin Rafsanjani was a guest on popular NPR radio show This American Life with Nancy Updike, during which Nazanin explained ta'arof. Someone took the time to put together a slideshow of Iranian scenes to accompany her words. It's both funny and insightful at the same time.

Politeness, pretence and ta'arof in Iranian culture

2011-12-12T15:30:00.000-08:00

Here's a nice extended quotation that gives some great examples of ta'arof in Iranian culture. It explains the pretence of being humble and the complicated bluff and counter bluff that can ensue. This is the kind of dilemma that leaves foreigners, and even Iranians, not knowing whether their taxi ride was really free, are they really being invited to dinner and if so, will they be able to get through an evening meal without causing offence to their host.

Good Persian culture is peppered with politeness and a pretense at least of being humble. Iranians have a complicated list of things that are considered good and polite in social situations, and not different from those of other cultures. Generally, you want your child to marry into a good family. You want the families to be educated and wealthy and you want your children to be upstanding and polite. You also want to be looked upon by family, friends, and neighbors alike as a gracious, hospitable and welcoming host. “Taarof” has deep roots in the Iranian tradition of treating your guests better than your own family and being great hosts.

Taarof is a verbal dance between an offerer and an acceptor until one of them agrees. It is a cultural phenomenon that consists of refusing something that has been offered to you even though you want it, out of politeness. On the giving end, it is offering something that may cost a lot in order to be polite, but not really wanting to give it away for free.
Some examples may clarify taarof. You go over to your aunt’s place and she makes a great Ghormeh Sabzi dish for lunch, which is your favorite. You help yourself to a healthy serving and at the end of it find that you are still hungry. Your kind, loving aunt will offer you another serving and you politely refuse. In this case you are taarof’ing because you would really like to eat more but you are too polite to say yes. But, alas, the Iranians have a solution for this. Your aunt will offer the food a second time and you refuse and then on the third try you can accept without looking like a glutton. Iranians tend to be very sensitive of what others will think of them so this sort of behaviour is expected, although annoying and perhaps antiquated, it is an inherent part of the culture.

Another example is when you go to buy a dress at the store and ask for the price. If it is a small boutique in Iran, the shopkeeper will inevitably, out of politeness, say it is worth nothing. What he is trying to say is that you are worth so much more than the dress and have put him to shame for asking. In reality, he would like to be paid for the dress and is just being polite. After a second or third inquiry, the shopkeeper will probably give you the correct price and offer to accept payment.

The art of taarof in the end becomes a ritual or a game that both participants are aware of playing. Some find it annoying, stupid, and a waste of time, asking the guest not to Taarof (“Taarof Nakonid”) when he refuses something. This is a double-edged sword because maybe the offerer is taarofing himself. This is where taarof can be misleading and land you in very sticky social situations. You never know the true intention of either party and you may not be sure if they really want to offer/take something or not. For example, if you are full and your aunt thinks you are taarofing, you are left having to eat the second serving of her food. And if you don’t eat it, you may insult her and her cooking.

... It is truly one of the greatest distinctly Persian social behaviours that we can think of and is worth experiencing first hand.
From: Persian Mirror

Hey Ayatollah, leave those kids alone!

2011-12-11T02:03:00.000-08:00

Classic Pink Floyd song Another Brick in the Wall remade as Hey Ayatollah, leave those kids alone! by Canadian band Blurred Vision:

U.S.-Iranain power relations, politics and conflicts in the early 1970s

2011-12-10T07:35:00.001-08:00

Andrew Scott Cooper, author of a the book The Oil Kings: How the U.S., Iran and Saudi Arabia Changed the Balance of Power in the Middle East, was interviewed on the excellent Conversations With History series.

The hour-long interviewed covers a range of interesting topics and sheds light on some previously unknown aspects of the U.S.-Iranian political alliance at the time.

just how essential the Shah (personally) and Iran were to U.S. foreign policy goals in the Middle East and Asia from the late 1960s through the 1970s
how Nixon personally gave the green light for Iran to raise it's oil prices
how the OPEC oil embargo and rising price of oil shifted the balance of power in the Shah's favour
the Saudi role in worsening Iran's economy and weakening the Shah's position
the personal relationships between the Shah, Nixon, Kissinger and surrounding figures

Reza Abedi's greatest escape

2011-05-14T03:55:00.000-07:00

Wrestler Reza Abedi's life story is full of escapes - from wrestling moves, tricky situations and ultimately, death at the hands of the Islamic Republic of Iran. OC Weekly has a 4,000 word feature, Reza Abedi's greatest escape that describes how he got into wrestling, found himself at the front line of the Iran-Iraq war, outsmarted his enemies and escaped to freedom.

He eventually found his way to American and became a high school wrestling coach running one of the toughest wrestling programmes around. His full life story is coming out in a new book American Wings, Iranian Roots by Kristin Orloff.

American Wings, Iranian Roots
by Kristin Orloff

Hichkas - Iranian rapper

2010-12-17T17:19:00.000-08:00

Here are a handful of videos from Iranian rapper Hichkas. You might know him from the film Nobody Knows About Persian Cats

Hichkas - Ye Roozeh Khoob Miad

Hichkas - Bunch of Soldiers

Hichkas - Ektelhaf

It's great to see that rap music in Iran, as everywhere else in the world, involves standing around on street corners in large overcoats. However, Hichkas looks great, has some interesting lyrics and certainly shows some of the real Tehran in his videos. Some of his homies look distinctly baby-faced/like they're wearing their sister's coats/they're bank clerks or engineering students.

صفر دو یک

Mohsen Sazegara on BBC's Taking A Stand

2010-12-15T14:15:00.000-08:00

Mohsen Sazegara (محسن سازگارا), Ayatollah Khomenei's press attache, former head of Iran Radio and Revolutionary Guard founder, was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Taking A Stand. He made the journey from revolutionary true believer and regime mouthpiece through to reformist newspaper publisher. In the interview though, he fudged a few of the hard questions: particularly those around why he did nothing when political opponents were being executed in prisons.

Interviews like this are supposed to be where people say how sorry they are, if they could go back they would change things, etc. Maybe it is better for people to show no remorse, to avoid giving a straight answer and to simply move on to the next question.

The interview was reminiscent of "Abu Jandal" in I Was Osama Bin Laden's Bodyguard. Jandal is quite clearly still in agreement with al-Qaeda/Bin Laden's critique of the West, goals and up to a certain point, attacks on military targets, methods.

Iranian ambassador to the USA... 100 years ago

2010-12-14T14:15:00.000-08:00

From the Library of Congress Flickr page.

Google adds Yiddish translation - is it good for the Jews?

2010-06-03T02:22:00.001-07:00

Some time ago Google Translate added Yiddish to their list of supported languages. Try it out with the Yiddish version of Forward. This potentially opens up troves of Yiddish history and literature to people with a limited grasp of the language. But is it good for the Jews? Or for anyone to have this happen to their language? Does machine translation help preserve a language or does it amerliorate the demise of a language?

Language preservation online

There are two interesting takes on this issue. The first, entitled The Challenges of Language Preservation, gives a good background to the problem and explains how globalisation is merely a step along a long path towards homogenisation of language but the author hopes the internet will be a useful tool for preserving minority language.

The second is a presentation from the TEDx conference, embedded below.

Language Use And Preservation Online

View more presentations from Tadej Gregorcic.

Needles in haystacks vs. needles in very large piles of needles

2010-06-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows the saying 'Like finding a needle in a haystack'. You take something very small and put it into something very large and hope it stays hidden because it's too difficult to find. In fact, this is the metaphor implied by the laudable Haystack Network (although it's not exactly how it works!).

The needle (secure communications) is wrapped up in a larger (haystack) of communications. There are lots of ways to can make the needle harder to find. You can make the needle smaller. You can make the haystack larger. But, sometimes someone comes along with a metal detector. They're very good at finding little bits of metal in a very large haystack.

Secure communications are more complex - it's not so much the needle that you're hiding as what's inside the needle. Someone scanning your haystack for needles isn't after the needle, but what's inside. And, when your barn is filled with hay, just one ping on their metal detector (deep packet inspection) lets them know you're hiding needles in there somewhere.

How can you hide your needle (secure communications) when someone is using a metal detector (deep packet inspection, national-scale network snooping)? It's always going to be pretty tough to find out what's inside of the needle. You could find a way to make your needles look more like straw, so it's harder to find them - but, straw-like needles sound like they'd be easy to open. By making your needles more straw-like you're making it easier for someone to get the messages out of them.

A metal needle.

If you know they're using metal detectors, you could switch to ceramic or plastic needles. But science might have already invented a a ceramic detector or plastic detector. Or maybe you try to encourage other people to start putting more needles into the haystack hoping that as more needles are added to the haystack it becomes harder to find the needle you're looking for.

What is that point I am getting to here? It's that Google is turning on SSL encryption for search. That's right - Google just replaced lots of straw with needles. You needles are mixed in with everyone else's - making it much harder to someone to find your needles and whatever is inside of them. If needles are always hard to open, adding more needles is the safest way to protect all needles. You can turn your hay into needles even if your not bothered about people snooping. It just makes everything a little more secure for those people who do need to hide their needles in a hay/needlestack.

And because Google cache lots of pages (search for cache:http://www.website.com/page.html) hopefully you'll be able to securely access a lot more of the internet.

Many people have criticised Google (rightly) for privacy invasions and lots of caveats apply here - there are many potentially weak links in the chain, but SSL encryption for search is a very good thing and it is great to see Google doing this. Many people are more likely to entrust their privacy and security to Google than some other nefarious or weaker-willed companies, organisations, secretive government bodies, etc.

Visit https://www.google.com today!

Build your own cellular network

2010-05-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

In some countries the existing cellular network providers just aren't reliable. Either the whole network mysteriously fails when you need it most, or you're just not in a position to trust the network providers not to pass on lists of your calls (or even full recordings) to government agencies, phoney lawyers or rival companies. If you value privacy or you are interested in a robust and independent cellular network you might consider building your own.

Looks simple enough, right?

The good thing is - you can do this with some straight-forward commodity computer parts. If you're wanting to provide a (free?) cellular network for your neighbourhood, because of a sudden loss of network connectivity or because you've got a special event happening, you can do that. Want to make sure nobody is snooping on your SMS messages or calls? Route your calls through you own cellular provider!

OpenBTS is an open source Unix application that helps you build a low-cost, flexible cellular network. Field-tested networks have been built with a 10-mile radius for connectivity. That'd be enough to cover... say... downtown Tehran, or Shiraz, or Tabriz. Link up a few of these, making sure they're high enough up and you've got your own city-wide cellular network, capable of routing calls all over the world.

You can buy the kits online. Or, you could follow some instructions and put together your own. The only downside to this is that you'll need an internet connection to plug your cellular network into (which can be a drawback if your country's internet connections are as unreliable as SMS/mobile).

Here are some links to get your started:

Turkish short film about folk music

2010-05-28T18:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a great Turkish short film about the government's attempts to stifle folk music and encourage the Westernisation of Turkish culture many years ago.

Encrypted SMS and voice calls for Android phones

2010-05-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

People using Android-powered mobile phones can now get encrypted SMS and voice calls. WhisperSystems (www.whispersys.com) has two apps in beta, available in the Android store.

TextSecure allows you to encrypt your SMS messages and stores all your SMS messages in an encrypted database. It works as a drop-in replacement for your existing Android SMS app.
They've also created RedPhone, an app that provides end-to-end encrypted voice communication. This app has a few neat features: it's difficult for snoopers to work out who you're calling (they'd need to be able to monitor a massive amount of network traffic), your calls go via Wifi or 3G and not your cellular plan (great if your cellular network provider is unreliable) and the apps are going to be open sourced (so you can be sure there's no backdoor).

There are both great apps for people concerned about their privacy or the security of the channels they're communicating over. Worried that your phone provider won't keep the contents of your SMS messages secure or that someone might be snooping on your calls? These two apps will give you some peace of mind. US-only, but coming for international Android phone users soon.

Peer-to-peer SMS mesh for Iran

2010-02-13T09:59:00.000-08:00

Iran has notoriously bad SMS networks. They're always dropping out when you need it most. Iranians in the cities love using Bluetooth to send messages and pictures to each other, and many have sophisticated mobile devices.

A more robust system for SMS could bypass the carriers and use a peer-to-peer mesh network in cities to send SMS messages. Everyone running the SMS software could forward messages and, in a large city, with lots of mobiles, it could get to the recipient quickly.

That's the idea, anyway. Some very smart Iranian computer scientists (and there are enough working away on open-source projects and new solutions to the network access problems) could find this an interesting problem to solve. Heck, they could even bake-in encryption from the get-go.

Iran bans Gmail

2010-02-10T14:59:00.000-08:00

News reports are coming out that the Iranian government are banning access to Gmail (WSJ, TechCrunch). Maybe this has something to do with Google turning on HTTPS as a default setting for all Gmail users (and making it harder for snoopers to find out what's in the emails users are sending). That was in response to Chinese hackers (government backed?) snooping on Chinese activists using Gmail. Everyone using secure communication makes it harder for for snoopers to find the needle in the haystack.

The ban on Gmail will probably be as successful as the ban on Flickr, Twitter and the bans on Facebook. Iranian Gmail users can take heart in knowing the Iranian government will be launching its own email service. I'm sure the web-based service will have all the same innovative interface features that have made Gmail so successful such as threaded conversations, keyboard shortcuts and sophisticated filters. I doubt they'll be data-mining the content of emails for targeted adverts, either.

Iranians who do decide to use the government's email service can take some simple steps to ensure secure communications over an insecure service. Tools like FireGPG help you encrypt the content of your communications. Details on how to use it here. It needs a smart Iranian Firefox user to integrate it, in Persian/Farsi, with the email service.

If secure communication channels are criminalised, only criminals will use secure communication channels.

Moronic search terms

2009-12-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

The Ruh of Brown Folks has a great blog post about some of the moronic searches and searches and keywords that have brought people to their blog.
The problem/beauty of the internet is that any idiotic, moronic question that should never been asked out loud, can easily be typed into a search engine. And something... something... will inevitably show up.
Here are some of the keyword searches bringing people to this blog (and may they bring many more!)...

Who is K-Von dating?
utube iran comedy - The right place, but very lazy!
translate juan to farsi script
saudi babes youtube - Good luck
nono are you stay
lentil kibbeh
islamic religion shi'ite jokes
is patrick monahan of puerto rican descent - No
bald iranian comedian - Omid Djalili

Help Michael J. Totten write his book

2009-12-12T07:41:00.000-08:00

Maybe you've read Michael J. Totten's blog? Now you can help support him as he writes a book.

Two blogs I've been reading

2009-12-11T07:39:00.000-08:00

Tabsir

Group blog about the Middle East and Islam. There's a great blog post about the long-running role of women in Iranian political activism.

Brian's Coffeehouse

An interesting blog that has been dealing with Iran. Bookish in places it also contains this great quote about the election unrest in Iran:

[A comment by Rafsanjani] also contributes to a weakening of the aura surrounding the office of the Supreme Leader, and sends a strong signal that the Green Wave is not over, even if it's path to victory is not yet apparent.

The quote is probably even more relevant re-reading it months after the election. Change is still coming to Iran.

Iran tech support

2009-12-10T07:25:00.000-08:00

I am constantly surprised by the technical skill levels of ordinary Iranians. Necessity is the mother of innovation, as they say, but it's always reassuring to find that people want to get online and bypass government filtering.

The Haystack network is a new way for Iranians to enjoy their online activities unhindered. It's the kind of things your friends in Iran can make use of.

Tehran: Another side

2009-12-09T12:54:00.000-08:00

Here's the trailer for documentary that aims to show another side of Tehran. This is not the Friday prayers crowd, but young people trying find their way in the world.

Life as a Basiji

2009-12-08T07:32:00.000-08:00

Around election time in Iran lots was made of the life, values and motivations of basij members. Some were recent additions to the force who, despite their actions, were unprepared for what unfolded. Others were happy to crack a few skulls:

"The revolution and Islam need me. I will give my life in a heartbeat if the regime asks me," Mr. Moradani said in an interview earlier this year at a shop in central Tehran, where he sells Islamic and revolutionary paraphernalia, including key chains, T-shirts and CDs. "Our society is now at the verge of sin and filled with antirevolutionary people."

The founder of Ansar-e Hezbollah weighed in with his views too.

Small insights into pieces of the Iran puzzle

2009-12-07T06:57:00.000-08:00

Some small insights into pieces of the Iran puzzle appeared on Sidewalk Lyrics:

After the elections - what now?
Mousavi during the 80s
Rafsanjani and Mousavi - their relationship (maybe dated now Rafsanjani has quietened down)
The aeroplane crashes in Iran
The nerd
On Zizek
Ahmadionomics

Tehran - the boring and the mundane in photos

2009-12-06T06:45:00.000-08:00

Mightier Than has two galleries of everyday photos from Tehran. They include the boring and the mundane, the usual and the occasional - sights from around a city of more than 7 million people.

Iran was already a misunderstood place before this election captured the world’s attention, and as much as the world has now learned about Iran from witnessing these past few weeks, the experience might still lead to an even greater misunderstanding unless we take the time to look deeper. Lost behind the chants of inspiring crowds, the images of bloodied faces, or the grainy chaotic videos, is an Iran much of the world has likely never made the effort to notice.

Highlights include:

a night-time view of Melli tower
an aerial view of housing
fast food restaurants
a bowling alley
an ATM
snow on a car
people on the Metro

A great selection of photos that show there is more to Iran than conflict, demonstrations and protests.

Choga Zanbil - ziggaurat in Iran

2009-12-05T08:17:00.000-08:00

Chogha Zanbil (چُغازَنبیل) is an ancient Elamite ziggaurat complex in the Khuzestan province of Iran. I stumbled across this great set of photographs of the fascinating site on Flickr.

Iranians are the world's worst drivers

2009-12-04T06:03:00.000-08:00

Iran has the highest mortality rate due to road traffic in the world. As a pedestrian, passenger or driver you are more likely to die if you're involved in a road traffic accident in Iran than anywhere else.

The map below shows Iran being 10 points higher than Iraq and Angola, almost 30 points higher than Niger and almost 60 points higher than the USA.

Chart showing: Mortality caused by Road Traffic Injury by Country

This high mortality rate could be caused by a range of factors:

congestion meaning emergency services unable to get to road accident sites in time
distance between accident sites and hospitals contributing to a low survival rate
lack of airbags other modern innovations in Peykans
no obvious hard shoulder on expressways where broken-down vehicles can wait
lack availability of hydraulic rescue tools to free people from wreckages

Some of those are probably contributing factors. But the main cause has to be Iran's driving culture and Iranians' bad driving. Driving in Iran is marked by a selfishness that is rarely seen publicly elsewhere in Iranian culture. Not everyone is a technically bad driver, but even good drivers in Iran have bad habits and are forced into dangerous manouveres by the actions of other road users.

With the evidence above and personal experience, I will say it clearly: Iran has the world's worst drivers. They kill themselves, their families, their friends, their colleagues and they kill pedestrians and other drivers.

Iranians crash into each other and just carry on driving. They don't bother exchanging numbers or getting witness contact information. Nobody gives way to let user drivers into the flow of traffic, so they have to squeeze their cars into tiny gaps. They don't wear seatbelts. They have no lane discipline so on a 3 lane expressway you find cars drifting all over the road. On Vali Asr Avenue in Tehran you find cars five-abreast on a three-lane road as everyone pushes forward an inch at a time, constantly changing lanes and surging forward three metres only to brake sharply behind the car in front or career into the back of them.

Things Iranians can do to reduce their number of road deaths

As many Iranians don't know what it is like to drive in another country, here are some steps Iran could take to reduce the number of road deaths.

WEAR SEATBELTS - This is essential as Iranians refuse to wear them. It should be illegal to drive without wearing one. Taxi drivers are supposed to wear them, but they only pull them across their chests when they see traffic police. All Iranians should encourage their families, friends, colleagues, etc. to wear them. "We only drive slowly" is not an valid excuse.
Stop motorbikes driving down streets the wrong way, on pavements and through the bazaars, stop them weaving through traffic in front of cars.
If you miss the exit on an expressway, do not reverse back along the road (sometimes for 2 or 3kms!) carry on and take the next exit. Do not overtake other cars whilst reversing.
Lane discipline - stay in your lane, don't just drift around the road. Don't keep switching lanes. Don't have more cars across the roads than there are lanes.
Don't drive the wrong way up a one-way street.
Stop talking on mobile phones or sending text messages whilst driving and riding motorcycles.
All motorcyclists should wear helmets. Fleece headbands do not provide sufficient protection.

All simple steps that can help improve Iran's driving culture and, most importantly, save lives on the road.

Photo: Philipp C Jahn on Flickr.

Interview with K-Von from Persianesque Magazine

2009-11-10T03:35:00.000-08:00

There's a short interview with Iranian-American comedian K-Von in Persianesque Magazine:

The often-monikered “Bad boy” of Persian comedians, K-von whosename means: “Saturn”, in Persian, is by far one of the smartest andfunniest Iranian comedians coming out of the West Coast. While he didgrow up in Las Vegas, we assure you, you will not sense even an inklingof teardrop-drought while enjoying his side-splitting and constantlyoverflowing fountain of stand-up.

However, being able to send you into aroller-coaster of laughter via his hilarious comedy sets is notthe witty Persian comedian’s only talent. Kayvon Moezzi (his real fullname) is half Scottish, but he can also cook and teach you how to make ”Zereshk-polo with Joojeh Kabob” - thanks to his ammeh (aunt: dad’s sister) – on a budget.

Real, good-looking,fresh, and hilarious are just a few words that come to one’s mindwhen watching K-von’s authentic and unquestionably rare comedic style...

"No, no, you must stay." - 30 years on

2009-11-04T14:56:00.000-08:00

The NIAC blog has a link to a video which includes a great exchange between US Ambassador Limbert (at the time a hostage in the US embassy in Tehran) and Ayatollah Khamenei. Here's the money quote:

For non-Farsi speakers, the exchange between Limbert and Khamenei here is incredibly interesting. To paraphrase: Limbert politely welcomed Khamenei, who was being treated as a guest since he was visiting the hostages at their “residence” where they were being held. Limbert remarked about the Iranian cultural quirk known as “taarof,” which characterizes the uniquely Iranian version of hospitality, saying: Iranians are too hospitable to guests in their country, when we insist that we must be going, you all tell us “no, no, you must stay.”

Tehran Bureau website moved and relaunched

2009-10-06T01:33:00.000-07:00

Tehran Bureau has been a unique and interesting source of news and information from Iran. During the election unrest it carried a lot of insightful coverage from within Iran, much of it translated from Persian. The website has been relaunched with the backing of PBS Frontline in the States.

Iranian comedians - helping you find the right one

2009-07-21T06:05:00.000-07:00

From time to time I go through the referrer statistics to find out what people coming to this blog from search engines are looking for. Many people have landed here following searches for Iranian comedians. That's good because this blog has the ultimate list of Iranian comedians.

Looking for 'Persian comedians in Los Angeles'? You'll be wanting Peter 'The Persian' Shahriari.

'Iranian comedian who does accents'? - that's probably Omid Djalili. He does some great accents ranging from his normal London 'geezer' and his wife's most refined English, Nigerian English (particularly a Nigerian parking attendant), Turkish, Indian, through to his career-defining high-pitched Arabic accent. Maz Jobrani, Ali Salimi, Elham Jazab all do accents too.

'British Iranian standup commedienne' (or 'shappi khorsandi hot', I'm sure she'd be happy to know that's what you think), 'comedy Iranian women UK' would all be looking for Shappi Khorsandi. Here's a snippet of Shappi Khorsandi on BBC Persian.

'Tissa Hami on YouTube'? You'd actually do better to search on YouTube, but this is the Internet, so I've done it for you! You want this, this and this.

'Best comediennes list' - might feature Shappi Khorsandi, Tissa Hami, Sheila Vossough, Mona Mahani, Elham Jazab, Negin Farsad who are all 'Iranian standup female comediennes'.

'Iranian comedian at the Laugh Factory'? I thought that was Kinner Shah, but I think I was wrong about that.

'Gay Iranian comedian'? Ali Mafi.

'Iranian comedians in the UK' - Patrick Monahan, Jody Kamali, Omid Djalili, Shappi Khorsandi and her brother Payvand Khorsandi. Matthew Nouriel has a British accent and links too. So add him to that list.

'Iranian comedian on Comedy Central'? Probably Maz Jobrani.

Looking for an 'Jewish Iranian comedian' or 'Iranian Jewish comedian'? That could be Dan Ahdoot, Marvin Karrazi or Matt Kazam.

'Middle Eastern 3 comedians'? Probably the Axis of Evil comedy tour with Ahmed Ahmed, Aron Kader and Maz Jobrani. Other comedy tours in a similar vein include Allah Made Me Funny (with Preacher Moss), Negin Farsad's Bootleg Islam, Co-exist? featuring Tissa Hami.

'List of Arabic comedians'? Not yet.

Real-time Google Translate for Twitter

2009-06-19T06:20:00.001-07:00

Following on from my previous post about how to use a Greasemonkey script in Firefox to auto-translate Persian tweets in Twitter here's another way to get Persian tweets into English. The Google System blog has a good overview of how to do this but you're here, and this can be a little clearer.

Go to Google Translate and copy the following string of text http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23iranelection&lang=fa (it's searching for tweets with #iranelection in Persian) into the search box...

Twitter's front-end interface doesn't give you the option of searching only Persian/Farsi tweets, but the search does seem to support it by adding lang=fa to the query string.

Sadly the AJAX updater won't tell you if new tweets have come in since you've been looking at the page, but you can just refresh your browser and it should pull out any new ones.

And you can get a Google Translate button for your web browser here. Once you've got the button, just click it whenever you have Persian text on a page and it'll translate it for you.

Translate Persian Twitter messages with Google Translate... automatically!

2009-06-19T03:11:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Cyrus Farivar has refined this quick tutorial. Having trouble with this? Follow his instructions on How to use Google Translate to translate Twitter messages from Persian.

Twitter is being used to provide real-time updates about what's happening in Iran. Following the exciting news about Google Translate now supporting Persian it's now possible to automatically translate Persian tweets into English (or any other Google Translate supported language).

Quick overview

To be able to automatically translate Persian Twitter messages, you will need...

The latest version of the Firefox web browser
Greasemonkey plugin (a Firefox plugin that allows you to customise web-pages with little bits of Javascript)
Google Translate user script for Twitter messages (add Google Translate button to your Twitter page)
Make some minor tweaks to the user script (because Twitter switched to HTTPS and the script was written before Google Translate supported Persian)

Step by step guide

1. Download and install the latest version of Firefox. Skip this step if you already run Firefox.

2. Install the Greasemonkey plugin for Firefox (you may need to restart Firefox after this step). Visit the page and click Add to Firefox...

3. Install the Google Translate user script. Visit the page and click Install...

4. Update the user script. It was written before Google Translate supported Persian and before Twitter ran on HTTPS. Do this via the form that appears when you install the script, or select Tools > Greasemonkey > Manager User Scripts. Or right-click the little monkey-face icon in the bottom-right corner of Firefox and choose Manage User Scripts.

5. Add in support for HTTPS by selecting Google Translate and then add in https://twitter.com/* and https://*.twitter.com/* to the list of Include Pages...

6. Edit the user script by clicking Edit in the bottom-left corner on the bottom right (above). Or you can edit google_translate.user.js. Add a new line at line 88 with fa: 'Persian',

7. Save your changes to your script and close the Manage User Scripts box

8. Check Greasemonkey is switched on (you may need to restart Firefox first) by going to Tools > Greasemonkey > Enabled...

9. Go to your Twitter page and login.

10. Find a tweet in Persian from one of your (new?) Iranian friends. Hover your cursor over the tweet and you'll see the favourite and reply icons appear, along with a new friend a lowercase 't'.

11. Click on the 't' icon and your friend's tweet is automatically translated from Persian into English!

Extra

If you don't speak English or want to translate into another language, you can set another language as the default.

This script doesn't just work for Persian/Farsi, it works for all Google Translate supported languages. And it auto-detects them. So, you can add new friends from around the world to your Twitter friends list!

Google Translate's Persian very far from perfect. Bear that in mind when you're using this script!

Google Translate, Facebook and iPhone now support Persian/Farsi

2009-06-16T03:02:00.001-07:00

Google Translate adds Persian

I started writing a blog post just before voting began in the Iranian presidential election about the lack of a Persian option in Google Translate. With so much content on the web in Persian, it would have been great to be able to do a quick and rough machine translation into English.

Searching Google brought up no news about any new languages coming up in Google Translate. There are questions on mailing lists asking if it was going to happen, but those asking were always redirected to this FAQ saying large volumes of bi-lingual texts were needed.

But now Google Translate supports Persian (even though it's a very rough alpha version):

We feel that launching Persian is particularly important now, given ongoing events in Iran. Like YouTube and other services, Google Translate is one more tool that Persian speakers can use to communicate directly to the world, and vice versa — increasing everyone's access to information.

Being a machine translation, it's not perfect. It will certainly lose some of the flavour of Persian, the flourishes and idioms (which always lose something in translation), but it's a start. Cyrus Farivar has more on the accuracy, but seems glad it's finally here (as am I!). You can use Google Translate to translate BBC Persian into English, translate Persian tweets into English and now, the entire Persian blogosphere!

YouTube relaxes rules to help Iranians

Google also relaxed its rules on classifying videos on YouTube after graphic videos of violent attacks by Basij members on demonstrators were removed. Google lived up to its "don't be evil" motto (especially after the hurdles Iranians had to clear in order to upload their videos in the first place).

Facebook launches a Persian interface

hanks to the work of 400 Persian-speaking volunteers Facebook now has a Persian interface that automatically detect browser language and displays accordingly. The company says...

Since the Iranian election last week, people around the world have increasingly been sharing news and information on Facebook about the results and its aftermath. Much of the content created and shared has been in Persian—the native language of Iran — but people have had to navigate the site in English or other languages.

Great news and a triumph of collaborative working from those involved.

iPhone 3.0 supports Persian

People in Iran were some of the first to get jailbroken iPhones. With the highly anticipated version 3.0 of the iPhone OS, they've now got a legit Persian interface!

Pic taken from Cyrus Farivar's blog

Twitter switches to HTTPS for added security

Twitter switched over to HTTPS to ensure extra security for its web-based users. It could just be a coincidence, but I suspect its also a response to the popularity of the #iranelection hashtag and coverage the service has been getting. I'll be uploading a user guide to getting Google Translate and Twitter to work together.

Iranian presidential elections - from the blogs

2009-06-10T08:32:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow sees the culmination of Iran's presidential campaigns. Millions of Iranians will go to their polling stations and vote. Millions won't. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians in the diaspora will vote too.

The BBC does have a review of a documentary about Iranian teens and their lives, Mousavi and women's rights, a background to the election, questions about Ahmadinejad and how much support he still has, on the campaign trail (although it describes Ahmadinejad's supporters as salt-of-the-earth types and Mousavi's as internet nerds), the economy and rural communities versus debauched urbanites. New York Times has a video about the election. POMED is doing a good job keeping track of the election news in the Western press (more, more and more).

The opinion from a lot of Iranian English-language blogs has been there people should vote...

If even for one day, for one hour, for one minute over the past four years you have worried about a possible attack on Iran, if you have felt shame about things that have happened in Iran, about the way Iran has been represented to the world, or for words that were said by someone else but whose weight you have carried, consider participating in the elections and showing that you care. (source: From Berkley)

For many, this election is more than a renewal of allegiance. It's something with a real, tangible outcome. Maybe not the end of the Islamic Republic, but certainly an opportunity for a shift in power. And that's why the different factions are competing so fiercely and will stop at nothing to win.

Tehran has painted itself green. Mousavi voters are showing their support. And the support for Ahmadinejad from the trendy young people who've suffered so much (for fashion) under his presidency, boggles the mind.

Mousavi and Karroubi are not the ideal reformist candidates. They may have been able to pass the Guardian Council, but both have history.

Mousavi's political transformation from the President at the time of the 1988 massacres of political prisoners to becoming the hope and aspirations for a more open society is impressive. Azarmehr reminds us who Mousavi's (current) supporters were back then. Even giving Mousavi the benefit of the doubt, maybe he was weak, isolated, unable to interfere... he's still surrounded himself in his campaign with some disreputable thugs.

Blogs seem to be doing a better job than larger media outlets to give some insight into what's happening in Iran and also Iranian opinions on the election.

Hairy is back in Iran and looks at the elections, lies and woman, the green wave sweeping Tehran, Shiraz and the Ahmadinejad/Mousavi debate.
Ali looks at the small window of freedom that opens up around election time, everyone's new favourite colour and Dr. Sadeq Zibakalam's defence of Obama's first 100 days in office.
Ali covers Rafsanjani's letter to Khamenei, the BBC's poorly written documentary about Ahmadinejad and some of the candidates that never made it past the Guardian Council.
Pedestrian sees this election as Mousavi's second chance. He's changed, Iran has changed and Islamic Republic has changed. There's that colour again, too.
From Tehran Live, more green fashion.
Shahrazad asks who really won the Mousavi/Ahmadinejad debate. It was certainly the most important and talked about of the debates. How are Iranian bloggers picking their candidates? And this election belongs to the people of Iran.
Tori finds the election campaign has given Iranians their mojo back, might help stop the brain drain and maybe people who once backed reformist candidates can be coaxed back to voting, if only because there's something eerily familiar about those cranes holding Ahmadinejad's campaign pictures.
Kamran is reminded of the importance of this election, but he's a realist and not a fantasist.
Change has come to Iran and a quiet, non-velvet, revolution is already underway.
See also Elections and nostalgia.

The daily news updates on the Iranian election campaigns from Iran Tracker have been really useful, especially for giving a flavour to the press coverage inside Iran.

Swedish-Iranian stand-up comedians

2009-06-07T12:42:00.000-07:00

It seems that stand-up comedy is popular in Sweden too. With several Swedish-Iranian stand-up comedians. And, even in Swedish, you can tell what the first joke is...

Maz Jobrani explains ta'arof

2009-06-06T06:37:00.000-07:00

Looking for a good, quick introduction to the Iranian concept of ta'arof? Starting at 8:10, Maz Jobrani explains ta'arof...

The ultimate list of Iranian stand-up comedians and comics

2009-06-06T04:14:00.000-07:00

This list probably isn't definitive, but hopefully it's a start. Following the series of blog posts, for all Wikipedia contributors, lazy newspaper journalists, other bloggers and comedy fans, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you... the ultimate list of Iranian stand-up comedians.

This list of 28 comedians, stand-ups, jokers and comics, male and female, is almost entirely people in the Iranian diaspora and includes people who are half Iranian, have maybe never set foot in Iran and maybe don't know a single word of Persian. So some of them are only vaguely Iranian. And some may have only ever done one stand-up gig, but thankfully someone posted it to YouTube. Some have had their own TV shows, other merely bit parts. Some have crossed the globe and others merely become famous in their city's Iranian community.

Disclaimer: If you know of other Iranian or Persian stand-up comedians or other good videos of Iranians doing stand-up comedy then add them to the comments. Most of this information was found using Google and YouTube.

Photos from the Iranian presidential election campaign trail

2009-06-05T04:13:00.000-07:00

From The Los Angeles Times

Plus a gallery of photos from the National Geographic looking at Iran's historical sites.

Response on the streets of Tehran after the Mousavi/Ahmadinejad debate

2009-06-05T03:55:00.001-07:00

The response on the streets of Tehran after the Mousavi/Ahmadinejad televised debate. A typical Tehran scene... A traffic jam.

More traffic jams...

Full presidential debate timetable

Air time: 1800-1930 GMT on IRTV3

2 June: Karoubi-Rezai
3 June: Ahmadinejad-Mousavi
4 June: Mousavi-Rezai
6 June: Ahmadinejad-Karoubi
7 June: Karoubi-Mousavi
8 June: Ahmadinejad-Rezai

Source: ISNA news agency.

The continuing problem of Guantanamo Bay

2009-06-03T08:23:00.000-07:00

The US prison facility at Guatanamo Bay continues to be a thorny problem. Almost two thirds of Americans surveyed recently opposed closing the prison there. That's despite allegations of torture, the facility continuing to provide fuel for jihadi nutcases and suicide bombers and Barak Obama's promise to close the facility.

Those being detained at Guantanamo Bay are not going to be charged with any crime. For many, there's no evidence other than hearsay reports. Others have been tortured and their trials would reveal just to what extent. There's also the small problem that some of those detained and subsequently release have gone on to become involved in terrorism.

People detained for five years, tortured, never charged let alone convicted of a crime, held in solitary confinement, subjected to routine humiliation, unable to see their families, etc. may go home, get a job, keep a low profile. Or they may write a book about what they've been through. Or they may find they actually have a reason to be pissed off with the United States military and a government that allowed (or, if you like, encouraged) it all to happen.

Guantanamo will cease to be a problem for the US when it's closed. If they've not got enough evidence to charge the people there, they should let them go. And expect law suits to follow.

Iranian comedian - Ebrahim Nabavi

2009-06-02T12:04:00.000-07:00

Ebrahim Nabavi is an Iranian satirist and researcher. Not really much of a stand-up, but interesting nonetheless.

Short clip in Persian

Short clip in Persian 2

Iran elections news and blog roundup

2009-06-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

The upcoming presidential elections in Iran are getting lots of media attention. Add in several terrorist attacks inside Iran, the current US-Israel deadlock and attempts by Barack Obama's administration to take a more productive track with Iran, and the stakes are probably higher than they have been for an Iranian elections any time in the last twenty years.

The Economist takes a look at the campaign and expects the return of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad due in part to his support from outside Tehran. Much has been made of his bribes of potatoes for the poor, but I doubt the poor Iranian electorate will forgive a crumbling economy for a few days of food. Ahmadinejad can make better use of the terrorist attacks, defiance in the face of international pressure and his own conservative politics to rally his base. However, a high turnout, particularly from Tehran, could unseat Ahmadinejad. As could a strong showing from Iran's ethnic and religious minorities.

Everyone in Iranian politics is trying to spin current events to their advantage. All candidates have been working hard to convince the different powerful factions that they will not destabilise the Islamic Republic or disrupt the current arrangement.

Mehdi Karrubi has made it clear that despite being one of the left-wing revolutionaries, he's no threat to established power bases in the way that Khatami's 1997 campaign threatened to be.

Mohsen Rezai, making least use of technology, and with the lowest chance of winning the election, has been vocal about cleaning up corruption, criticising reconciliation with the West but making a public stand on discrimination against minorities. (Khatami did himself no favour being caught making jokes about Azeris.)

Photos of some of the children Mr. Mostafaie has defended. (Newsha Tavakolian/Polaris for The Wall Street Journal).

The Wall Street Journal's daily collection of news photos has included a photo essay about human rights, health and education in Iran, along with an article on child executions and how different presidential candidates have reacted and how those responses have been used by supporters of rival candidates.

Bloggers have been promoting their candidates using different campaign colours. As have people on the streets (more).

Mousavi, who has been criticised for being too ordinary and who has Khatami's backing has been using the internet wisely and getting backing from many bloggers. Much has been made of Facebook getting blocked for a few days and SMS text messaging being used as a campaign tool.

Probably for the first time since the founding of the Islamic Republic, presidential candidates' wives have been under scrutiny. Zahra Rahnavard, Mousavi's wife, has been praised as has the couple's hand holding in public. Pedestrian looks at touching and it's place in Iranian politics and the upcoming election. And Mousavi is apparently a secret Mossadeghist.

The Tehran Bureau blog has a great series five posts looking at different aspects of the upcoming election:

Part I: The Political Landscape in Iran -- described the political and economical landscape in Iran.
Part II: Political Groups in the Iranian Election -- provided a brief history of the important political groups in Iran after the revolution, their place on the political spectrum and their present position on the issues.
Part III: The Candidates in the Iranian Election -- profiled the four candidates, their history and chances.
Part IV: The Campaign Trail -- described the latest developments.
Part V: the Hard-Liners in a Panic -- as the campaign heats up, different groups start attacking each other.

As the campaigns come to a head, different parts of the Iranian state and it's the support bases of the different candidates have clashes. The Iran Expediency Council issued a statement criticising Ahmadinejad's comments about the country's nuclear negotiations with the West.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp have been warned not to get involved in the election and the Basij (who have previously campaigned for Ahmadinejad) have also been warned.

A mosque in Zahedan was bombed and three men have already been hanged for the attack. One of Ahmadinejad's campaign headquarters has been attacked, allegedly by Jundallah (a Sunni insurgent group). The attacks have variously been blamed on Israel, the United States, Pakistani intelligence services, Jundallah and Iran's own security forces trying to rally support for hardline conservatives.

Tony Karon talks about how Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to derail Barack Obama's plans to resolve the conflicts in the Middle East. He also looks at what Netanyahu's faction in Israeli politics is willing to do to provoke Iran and why. The bottom line: Bibi and his friends needMahmoud and Mahmoud and his friends need Bibi and his friends.

Iranian comedians - a wordy introduction

2009-06-01T05:44:00.000-07:00

This blog has been running a series of posts about Iranian/Persian standup comedians, but has tended to just let their comedy speak for itself. The New Statesman magazine in the UK ran an article on British Iranian comedians featuring Shappi Khorsandi, Omid Djalili, Patrick Monahan and Jody Kamali. It gives an introduction to the four and a bit of background to their comedy. Worth a read!

Robert Baer on Iran and America, their joint futures

2009-05-30T12:48:00.000-07:00

Robert Baer is a respected former CIA case officer turned author. In this video below he gives a frank account of Iran's grip on America's future. Recorded in November 2008, the video shows Baer describing Shia significance and Iranian influence in the Middle East, why Iran is a powerful and necessary player in the region and how the USA can and must engage with Iran.

It's a lucid and realistic analysis.

Iranian comedian - Ali Mafi

2009-05-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Openly gay, Muslim and very funny, Ali Mafi was keeping a blog/vlog of his stand-up performances, but it hasn't been updated since the middle of last year. YouTube has some more recent performances...

Performing at SF Comedy College

SF Comedy College (part 2)

Iranian comedian - K-von

2009-05-29T13:58:00.000-07:00

K-Von has an Iranian Muslim father and Scottish-American Presbyterian mother and he's toured with Maz Jobrani on the "Brown and Friendly" comedy tour. He holds a weekly show at the Laugh Factory.

K-von's standup material touches on everything from being raised in a Las Vegas based multi-cultural family to some of his more absurd observations regarding the perils of internet dating. A comic who is prepared to perform in any venue and often works with children in the audience, K-von makes an extra effort to keep his comedy clean with a little edge to it.

K-Von's website list upcoming shows, video clips and more info. He's also a fitness and swimming coach, and K-Von has a blog!

From Comics Without Borders

Talking about his dad

Persian men

Trash-talking

Has there been a change of course in US-Iran relations?

2009-05-28T14:50:00.000-07:00

Two years ago two former high-ranking American policy experts argued that the US had secretly been preparing for war with Iran. That war hasn't happened yet and the Obama administration has been publicly, and no doubt privately, trying to construct a way for meaningful dialogue with the US. The hawkish Republican officials are gone, but does their planning remain?

Iranian comedian - Eslam Anthony Shams

2009-05-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

Eslam Anthony Shams is an Iranian-American comedian and successful actor. His comedy routine switches between English and Farsi and he's got some harsh words for those Iranians in America who go to his shows and don't enjoy the 40% of it that's in English. Here's an interview with him.

Stand-up

More of Eslam Anthony Shams

Iranian comedian - Peter Shahriari

2009-05-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

Better known as Peter the Persian, Peter Shahriari is one of the most established Iranian comedians in America. Born in Tehran, he's been performing around Los Angeles for over 10 years. He's a regular at the Comedy Store there and is no stranger to improv and just getting onstage to do his thing. He studied political science and law at UCLA and as a self-described comediologist he brings a great deal of insight and intelligence to his onstage act. He was also a part of the Sultans of Satire comic relief project. He's also a practicing attorney!

Taking on stereotypes at USC

An interview with Voice of America

In Persian with some English.

More stand-up

Iranian comedian - Pardis Parker

2009-05-27T12:03:00.000-07:00

Pardis Parker has an Iranian father and a Sri Lankan mother, so he makes it onto the list. He's a quick-witted, sharp stand-up comedian, actor and music video director. He's had nationwide exposure on several all-black comedy jams and will be touring his native Canada in 2009.

His stand-up routine focuses less on his ethnic make-up and culture and more on general observation, the problems with fitting into society caused by his unique personality and you can tell by his big smile in the last video that he's just riffing and enjoying himself onstage.

His handicapped friend

His lack of social skills

Pardis Parker onstage

Iranain comedian - Ali Sadooqi

2009-05-26T12:10:00.000-07:00

Ali Sadooqi is a Persian comedian who does stand-up, comedy songs and more. All videos below are in Persian.

Iranian comedian - Matthew Nouriel

2009-05-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

Matthew Nouriel was born in London, England to Iranian parents. In his teenage years he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he lives to this day. Matthew has worked in television, film, and theatre, and more recently, been performing stand-up comedy. His Iranian heritage, along with his British sensibilities and American influences result in a unique point of view in life, and ultimately result in very funny comedy. Matthew Nouriel is on MySpace and has his own YouTube channel.

Live at the Comedy Store

Talking about hair, manicure and machismo

Back at the Comedy Store

Iranian comedian - Yashar Kafi

2009-05-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

Yashar Kafi is an Iranian import to the US, speaks Persian as his first language and studied at Oregon University. Yashar Kafi has his own YouTube channel with all his videos. And he's on MySpace. He's a great stand-up comedian who's just starting out and has already become a regular at places like the Comedy Store. His act focuses on stereotypes, perception and the comedy of politics and necessity. He's particularly sharp when it comes to the clash between political ideology and reality, showing how politics can make for great comedy.

Talking about employment and terrorism

More stand-up from Yashar Kafi

Most recent stand-up video

The loneliest cupcake

Yashar Kafi also stars in this very odd short video...

Tehran bazaar, what's changed?

2009-05-24T06:47:00.000-07:00

This photo from LIFE magazine's Flickr archive shows that in the last fifty years, something have changed very little. Stepping into the Bazaar-e Bozorg/Grand Bazaar in Tehran today would be like stepping into this photograph. Some of the vendors would have changed and the products, but the hustle and bustle and influence of the bazaaris on Iranian life would still be the same.

Iranian comedienne - Negin Farsad

2009-05-23T12:21:00.000-07:00

Negin Farsad is a critically acclaimed director, writer, actor and producer who helped bring MC Frontalot to the world's attention. She's also a stand-up comedienne and . Her successful comedy tour 'Bootleg Islam' was:

... a comedy about a California-raised Iranian-American girl gallivanting around the streets of Tehran, Iran. She travels to this Middle-Eastern hotbed for a cousin’s wedding and discovers how ridiculous oppression can be, how delicious the third world has become and how hard it is to keep a chador on.

Her website www.neginfarsad.com is full of info about all her projects, upcoming events, links so you can follow her on Twitter, etc.

On visiting Iran

Talking about her film Nerdcore Rising

On Ahmadinejad's visit to Colombia University

Here's Negin Farsad interviewing lots of people who can't even pronounce Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's name without having to think about it for 2 minutes. Whether or not Ahmadinejad should have been invited to speak at a prestigious American university the people who want to protest against it could have at least had a clue who he was, his politics, etc. You can't just answer the call from a political action committee, go out there, get interview and sound like a dolt.

Appearing in "Don't call me that!"

Negin Farsad has her own channel on YouTube (currently only 2 videos on there), which includes this short documentary about a bakery helping immigrant women in New York.

Karim Sadjadpour on Iran, politics the nuclear issue

2009-05-23T05:26:00.000-07:00

Karim Sadjadpour, an analyst for the International Crisis Group, is always lucid and insightful. In this 2006 video he looks at:

US-Iranian relations
the two "ticking bombs" of the nuclear programme in Iran and regime change
changes in US policy
internal conflicts in Iran
why Ahmadinejad provokes Israel and how it benefits from Israel's response
the prospects for a richer democracy in Iran

Iranian comedian - Max Amini

2009-05-22T12:11:00.000-07:00

Max Amini was one of the "Iranian guys" in the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour. He's also had a bit part as a taxi driver in Heroes. His physical, facial stand-up comedy routine is a laugh a minute and his comedy sketches for TV are also great. His website www.maxamini.com is up to date with all his upcoming performances, video clips and sketches, stand-up clips and more.

There an interview with Max Amini on Persianesque.com from last year where he talks about his upbringing, comedy and career.

From the Axis of Evil tour

Just after Obama's election victory

Talking about clubs in LA

On Maryland

Latinos and Persians

Getting attacked by a dog

Clips from the House of Blues

Bad dancing and Riverside, CA

Iranian comedian - Reza Peyk

2009-05-21T12:14:00.000-07:00

How to describe Canadian Iranian stand-up comedian Reza Peyk? Reza Peyk is badass. He's young, hip, edgy, vulgar and incredibly funny. Born in Tehran in 1982 to a former colonel and housewife, his family emigrated to Canada. He's relatively new to the comedy circuit, but he's working hard to get himself established and is constantly pushing boundaries and breaking taboos with his comedy taking his audience out of their world and into his own. He's recently been on tour with Maz Jobrani and will be out promoting his new DVD a lot in the summer.

He's got his own website and a new DVD out. He's also got lots more videos on his site.

Early stand-up video

More Reza Peyk

Trita Parsi videos on Iran, Israel and their conflicting interests

2009-05-20T07:24:00.000-07:00

Nobody interested in Iran could be surprised that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked outrage with his comments at the UN anti-racism summit. Nor would they be surprised that most Iranians find such outbursts embarrassing and out of touch with their own views. What's surprising is that Ahmadinejad keeps doing it. A typical response from Israel is Binyamin Netanyahu's:

Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said that while Israel would be commemorating 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis, "in Switzerland the guest of honour is a racist and a Holocaust denier who doesn't conceal his intention to wipe Israel off the face of this Earth".

If Trita Parsi is to be believed, both Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad represent the rejectionist, anti-conciliation wings of their own domestic political scenes. Where both countries were once perilously close to reaching an understanding (based on being pariah states in the Middle East and the need for mutual security) they have since moved much farther apart in the past fifteen years.

There are a few reasons why Ahmadinejad continues to provoke Israel:

it plays well on the "Arab street"
it gives the Iranians credibility in the Middle East to be seen as a staunch opponent of Israel and defender of the Palestinian cause
it shows up those Middle Eastern regimes and leaders that ally themselves with Israel
it offers a way for the Iranians to disguise their otherness in a homogenous region (being non-Arab and non-Sunni)

Trita Parsi on Iran-Israel relations

In this video Trita Parsi gives an insight into the relationship and vying for power between Iran and Israel. Essentially both countries have conflicting interests in the Middle East, both want a close relationship with the US in order to avoid being shut out of power in the Middle East, but at the moment: Iran is on the outside, Israel is on the inside. He also covers the Israeli relationship with the Kurds and how that gives Iran's genuine enemies of Israel power within the Iranian domestic political scene.

Trita Parsi and Barbara Slavin

In this video Trita Parsi and Barbara Slavin discuss how the Iran-Israel tensions affect the internal political dynamic in Iran (strengthening radicals and weakening moderates), the suppression of civil society in Iran, how the US policy to Iran could be improved and provide an insight into internal politics in Iran.

Ali Khamanei - his politics and influence in Iran

2009-05-20T06:49:00.000-07:00

With the Iranian elections coming up very shorly, it's a good time to look at the role of the Supreme Leader and the politics of the man who currently occupies that role. Ali Khamanei, as Supreme Leader, is the most powerful person in Iran. However, he relies on a complex network of patronage and influence, and is himself constrained by other powerful interests. Little of known of his personal politics outside of Iran and Karim Sadjadpour, in this video, outlines some consistent themes from his speeches and actions.

Khameini, a fairly low-ranking cleric, got the job of Supreme Leader over other more qualified choices. Ayatollah Montazeri was often considered Khomeini's successor, but in the end Khameini was chosen. That much everyone knows. But how did Khameini get there and how has he kept his influence? Sadjadpour gives some insight into that.

Update: Mehdi Khalaji looks at Khameini's history and his role in the 2009 Iranian presidential elections.

America's obsession with Iran

2009-05-19T03:07:00.000-07:00

Seymour Hersh has an interesting article about America's obsession with Iran. The article covers the possible moves towards peace between Syria and Israel but constantly comes back to Iran. Peace between Syria and Israel is, for both the United States and Israel, a way to either break Syria off from Iran (and reduce the influence of a combined Syrian-Iranian support network for Hizbullah and Hamas) or a way to open a dialogue between Iran and the West. The best quote in the article, for comedy value, must be from the Syrian Vice-President in explaining why minority-governed secular Syria could become allied with religious revolutionary Iran:

Farouk al-Shara, the Vice-President of Syria, was, as Foreign Minister, his nation’s chief negotiator at Shepherdstown. When he was asked whether Syria’s relationship with Iran would change if the Golan Heights issue was resolved, he said, “Do you think a man only goes to bed with a woman he deeply loves?” Shara laughed, and added, “That’s my answer to your question about Iran.”

Iranian comedian - Maz Jobrani

2009-05-18T12:05:00.000-07:00

Maz Jobrani is probably the best-known Iranian American stand-up comedian and actor. He appears on TV in the US regularly and tours the nation's comedy clubs on his own or as part of a large troupe. His stand-up is really diverse from talking about the small, hidden aspects of Persian culture, international affairs and politics, through to staples of American life and stand-up. Maz is regularly credited with working hard to break down stereotypes and encouraging inter-cultural dialogue.

Peace

Persians vs. Arabs

Iran and the Axis of Evil

Iran calls America

Maz Jobrani's life

Maz Jobrani on Al Jazeera

American torture

2009-05-18T02:33:00.000-07:00

With no sense of shame, American politicians and the political pundits close to them, have sought to exculpate themselves from the torture of prisoners of war, suspected terrorists and "enemy combatants". The evidence is stark (thanks to the tireless work of the ACLU and others):

members of the administration actively sought ways to avoid the United State's obligations under international law, the Geneva Convention, etc. and George Bush's public and personal promise to prosecute torturers
in practice, those people torturing detainees and suspected terrorists went further than the criminal guidance they had already been given
Colin Powell and William Taft understood the necessity of keeping to the rules of the Geneva Convention, but were ignored - realising that once America abandoned those rules, they put their own people at risk
the FBI were against it and complained about it

Despite the fact that Japanese torturers were executed at the end of the Second World War for the very crimes that have been permitted and committed;

blowhards claim either "water-boarding isn't torture..." (which is clearly is - visit any European museum of torture and you can see the same devices that were being used hundreds of years ago)
or by revealing these memos the United States' enemies will know the limits of what the US will do (which should have already been clear from treaties signed, the Constitution and what the President has said to the world)

Why has Barack Obama said he won't prosecute the people who have violated so many laws? Because he is weak and unwilling? Or because he does not feel any public pressure to prosecute these people? The recent example of Somali pirate hostage-takers being killed ought to offer a counter-balance. With safety and security for detainees, POWs and prisoners and a strong stance against torture the US ought to be able to say to its enemies, those interfering with American citizens abroad, etc. "If you fight us, you will be killed. If you surrender, you will not be harmed."

Iranian comedienne - Elham Jazab

2009-05-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

Born in Shiraz, Tehran, but now living in America Elham Jazab is a bug-eyed, big-haired Iranian standup comedienne. Her comedy revolves around the American culture and her experiences in it. She used to be an actress, but now she's working on her stand-up.

Eyebrows, husbands and students

Hairy Persians

And we're talking about people, not cats!

Hairy Persians @ Yahoo! Video

At the movies with Elham Jazab

At the Movies @ Yahoo! Video

Hijab and casting, being mistaken for a Mexican

Iranian comedian - Matt Kazam

2009-05-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

Matt Kazam has an Iranian father and a Jewish mother from New York. But, as he says, he came out Puerto Rican. He's a hilariously funny stand-up comedian who's totally at home onstage and in front of a live audience. He's been on Comedy Central, Last Comic Standing, has worked as an MC for Fortune 500 companies and regularly performs in America's top comedy clubs. He's a veteran of the US comedy circuit with almost 20 years in the business. His act covers every aspect of his life, his heritage and American life - Walmart, sex toys, American cities, kids, Denny's and much more. He's quick, funny and comes across as a really nice guy.

From his website www.mattkazam.com you can get onto his Facebook, MySpace and YouTube sites. You can also buy his stand-up CD featuring two of his live routines.

Life begins at 40

Suburban gangstas

On being Jewish and Iranian

What are you waiting for? Subscribe to Matt Kazam's YouTube channel already!

Tehran 2008

2009-05-17T06:12:00.000-07:00

Tehran 2008 photos by Kamshots on Flickr.

Iranian comedian - Marvin Kharrazi

2009-05-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Marvin "Krazy" Kharrazi is a Iranian-American Jew who (I'm not making this up) quit law school to follow his dream of being a stand-up comedian. His act goes through his identity as a Jew, an Iranian, his religion and it's history, plus lots of sex jokes.

An article from Forward back in 2005 talks about and interviews Dan Ahdoot and Marvin Kharrazi. Marvin is interviewed as "the other Iranian Jewish comedian" in a Jewish Journal piece.

Krazy Kharrazi has his own YouTube channel. And he's on Facebook.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Carry on watching... Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Part 8.

Short dirty jokes

Persian Perversian - Short, Dirty Jokes by Marvin Kharrazi - watch more funny videos

Matzah and Passover

Tehran 2006

2009-05-15T06:02:00.000-07:00

Tehran 2006 photos by Kamshots on Flickr.

Iranian comedian - Peyvand Khorsandi

2009-05-15T05:57:00.000-07:00

Brother of Shappi Khorsandi, son of Hadi Khorsandi and comedian in his own right. His comedy is high-brow, but with a smattering of accents and misunderstandings.

Three kings visit Jesus

Talking about Andre Agassi

On Persian culture (or not)

Bit of an awkward interview about Persian/Farsi, Iranian/Persian. Not very funny, either! You have to feel a bit sorry for the guy interviewing him.

On 300

Iranians in an elevator

Peyvand Khorsandi is on Facebook and he contributes regularly at Iranian.com.

Iranian comedienne - Shappi Khorsandi

2009-05-14T06:25:00.000-07:00

Daughter of the famous, exiled Iranian satirist Hadi Khorsandi, Shappi Khorsandi is a popular and frequent guest on the BBC. She regularly appears on Newsnight, radio panel games and standup shows. There is an indepth profile on the Times website.

Discussing political correctness

Live at the Apollo

On parenthood and pregnancy

(Note - it's Shappi not Shappy, Chappy or Shapi the Iranian comedienne.)

What's happened to Afghanistan?

2009-05-14T05:32:00.000-07:00

Some interesting pictures from Afghanistan.

Fred Halliday once wrote about the Left being on the wrong side of internationalism. He was criticising the Western Left for backing the mujahadeen (and allying themselves with the CIA in the process) against the (Soviet-backed) Afghan government. Looking at the destruction wrought on that country since the fall of the government, the Afghan civil war, Soviet invasion and defeat, rise and fall of the Taliban and subsequent rise of the Northern Alliance (containing many Wahhabi-influenced leaders with views similar to the Taliban) you may be inclined to agree with Halliday.

Iranian comedian - Sean Tahmasebi

2009-05-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

Shahram "Sean" Tahmasebi (or Tamasebi) is a Persian American bi-lingual comedian who seems at ease, and funny, in both Persian and English. He regularly appears in TV in the US and at the nation's top standup comedy locations.

Follow Sean Tahmasebi on Facebook.

NBC's Matt Lauer in Iran

2009-05-13T12:22:00.000-07:00

Turns out Rick Steves isn't the only American to report from Iran over the past few years. Matt Lauer of American news network NBC reported from Iran a couple of years ago. Here are his video clips...

Iranian comedian - Jody Kamali

2009-05-12T13:25:00.000-07:00

Jody Kamali is a half-English, half-Iranian British standup comedian from Bristol, England. He's just getting started in his career, but has a few characters and hopefully that my take him down the Paul Calf/Steve Coogan route.

He's on MySpace and Twitter and denies any rivalry with Omid Djalili in this interview.

Ahmadinejad's presidency

2009-05-12T03:59:00.000-07:00

Jon Lee Anderson sheds some light onto Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's politics and life in his Letter from Tehran. People living outside of the Islamic Republic are unlikely to ever see one of Ahmadinejad's presidential campaign videos, but Anderson details their contents:

The signature videos for his 2005 Presidential campaign were two thirty-minute productions that expertly portrayed him as a man of the people. In one scene, Ahmadinejad is in line for lunch at a self-service canteen; in another, he walks among the poor. The videos were aired on television repeatedly. The campaign tagline was “It’s doable—and we can do it.”

Part of Ahmadinejad's presidential schtick has been his man-of-the-people-ness and simplicity. Whilst he has a personal history that includes many of the key events in the history of the Islamic Republic, he is still to some extent an outsider, frowned upon by the likes of Rafsanjani and the political mullahs:

A European diplomat said that a senior Iranian official had confided to him that before Ahmadinejad became President he was the sort of man whom the official would have kept waiting for thirty minutes outside his office, just to put him in his place.

The complete article that appeared in the New Yorker discusses the upcoming presidential elections in Iran, the different factions and their prospects.

Understanding the differences between Shi'ite and Sunni Islam

2009-05-11T10:52:00.000-07:00

Vali Nasr's The Shia Revival: How conflicts within Islam will shape the future is a fast-paced and readable account of the history and current state of Shi'ite Islam. He covers the original schism between the followers of Ali (Muhammed's cousin) and the ruling Caliphs - a schism which may appear to be about religion now, but was essentially a power struggle. Most importantly, Nasr explains what the differences and animosities are now.

Shi'ites believe that the 12 Imams were able to extract an esoteric understanding of Islam that Sunnis don't believe exists. Sunnis insist that religious sources must be read literally and that the 12 Imams didn't have any deeper understanding than can be achieved by laymen.

Sunnis believe that worldly power, order and control embody a government with legitimacy, whereas Shi'ites believe legitimacy stems from being the best of Muslims (hence their support for Ali as the true Caliph and opposition to the Umyyad and Abbasid monarchies). Being in power and the Imams' failure to take power is taken by Sunnis as evidence against the right of the Imams to rule.

Sunnis don't believe that the Imam's have any better/deeper/esoteric or more insightful knowledge of Islam and don't believe in an intermediary between man and God. Sunnis also believe that the Shi'ite reverence for the Imams and other members of the Prophet Mohammed's family is heretical. For some Sunnis, even the Prophet Mohammed is not to be exhalted above any other Muslim. The Qu'ran is the only direct link to God.

Shia theologians reasoned that the [Twelth] imam's withdrawal must mean that in the interim before his return, political authority could never escape imperfection. Until the end of occultation, there could be no true Islamic rule, and anyone who claimed to be setting up such a regime would by definition be a pretender. Their goal from then on was to keep faith until the imam's return. Vali Nasr, The Shia Revival: How conflicts within Islam will shape the future

Henry Corbin characterised Shi'ism as Islam iraniene. My Iranian friend Kamran explained it to me thus: in order for Islam to consolidate itself as the state religion, it had become "Persianised" rather than the Persians becoming "Arabised". Appealing aspects of Zoroastrianism, rather than being left behind, were incorporated into Persian Islamic thought and practice. Islam colonised Persia and supplanted Zoroastrianism, but Zoroastrianism's revenge has been to fundamentally alter those parts of Islam is came into contact with.

The Islamic conquest of Persia and led to the demise of Zoroastrianism and the rise of Islam in Persia, but Shi'ism only really established itself in Persia when the Abbasid dynasty establish Shi'ite Islam as the state religion.

That is much like Christianity's encounters with animist local religions in Africa and South America, where attempts to completely displace the local gods and religious power-structure were not always successful. Either the missionaries themselves co-opted the local gods to their cause or they allowed the congregationists to take a lunch-buffet approach to their religion: snack on the interesting/meaty bits and leave the religious celery (bland, of no real use) for someone else. Or the Hare Krishna movement in the West (where Krishna has, for all intents and purposes, become nothing more than a blue Jesus).

There are still those aruging that Shi'ites aren't Muslim or wishing "Death to the Shi'ites!".

Iranian comedian - Matin Sabzehroo

2009-05-09T16:33:00.000-07:00

Matin Sabzehroo is an Iranian-American actor, standup comedian and er... rapper? Wikipedia certainly seems to know quite a bit about him. Although there doesn't seem to be much beyond this comedy routine.

Iranian comedian - Patrick Monahan

2009-05-08T16:32:00.000-07:00

Patrick Monahan is a Irish-Iranian comedian. He appears regularly in minor roles on British TV and in comedy clubs nationwide. He has a chatty, story-telling standup routine.

At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2008

Visit his website: www.patrickmonahan.co.uk and watch his showreel.

We can't let the Taliban have the final say

2009-05-07T01:09:00.000-07:00

It is always disturbing to be reminded of the atrocities and brutality of the Taliban (warning: contains images of horrific violence and brutality) in Afghanistan. With the ever-changing allegiances of the different factions and leaders and no discernible difference between the politics and religious views of the Taliban, Northern Alliance and Hamid Karzi's religious extremist bed-fellows, there is no solution to the dismal human rights situation and abject poverty (in material and spirit) in Afghanistan.

Karzi's acquiescence to religious extremism (seen most recently the "Family Code" which disinherits women, legalises spousal rape, child marriage, etc.) shows that groups like RAWA that are fighting for freedom, peace and human rights are firmly shut out of formal politics and still face life-threatening risks.

It is important that the innocent and defenseless victims of the Taliban and other religious fanatics in Afghanistan be remembered. Their stories should be told and kept from being blown away with the dust of history.

Who was this woman murdered by the Taliban on the dirt of a football pitch? How will she be remembered and by whom? What was she like? Was she funny and outgoing or shy? Did she tell jokes? What was her laugh like? What colour were her eyes? What was her favourite flavour of ice-cream? Was she kind to her sisters and brothers? Did she like reading and telling stories? Was she clumsy and apologetic when she knocked over a glass of tea? Did she like cooking or was she lazy but sly and quick to convince her sister that she was a terrible cook who would only ruin an evening meal?

How long did she have to wait, trembling and crying knowing her death was inevitable? Or was she calm and resigned? Did she hope someone would notice? Did she fear that nobody would ever know what happened to her? What "crime" had she committed before having her memories, dreams and fears shot out of the back of her head by a hate-fuelled fanatic? Did she know her killers? Her accuser? Did she have children or elderly parents she had to care for? Who betrayed her and let the Taliban take her? Was she loved? Is she missed?

What was her name?

Maybe her's is a story that can never be told but there must be others and they must be.

Iranian comedienne - Tissa Hami

2009-05-06T15:33:00.000-07:00

Take one look at Tissa Hami and you think Iranian!. And you're right. But she's a fiercely funny Iranian American standup comedienne...

Tissa Hami is one of the world’s few female Muslim stand-up comics. Her unique act and fresh perspective on life as an Iranian-American woman leave audiences in shock and awe. From Islamic fundamentalists to white liberals to good old-fashioned racists, no one is safe from Tissa’s sharp wit. (source)

After the 9/11 attacks on America, Hami felt the need to get active in promoting another view of Muslims in America to the one constantly being shown in the media. Since starting as a standup comic she's worked around the US and taken part in the Randomly Selected and Coexists? comedy tours and featured on a PBS documentary.

A Muslim comedienne and wearing a hijab automatically makes me think of Shazia Mirza from the UK. Their comedy is very different though. Tissa Hami fits in closely with the American standups around the Axis of Evil comedy tour, whereas Sharia Mirza's comedy is more awkward and crude. Shazia Mirza no longer wears a hijab, and for Hami it's part of her act (similar to Omid Djalili starting in mock Persian broken English). Hami has come to be seen as something of a novelty, like Matisyahu (the Hassidic reggae star), in a setting where you'd least expect to find a Muslim woman. In this Australian documentary she talks about what motivates her.

With Dean Obiedallah

Tissa Hami on Mid-West Travel

Standup : American Muslim Comedians Come of Age

Find out more about Tissa Hami on her website: http://www.tissahami.com/

Today's empires, tomorrow's ashes

2009-05-05T12:13:00.000-07:00

A gallery of photos of lost cities. The tragedy of civilisation is that for a new one to rise, another must be displaced.

Iranian comedienne - Sheila Vossough

2009-05-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

Onstage Sheila Vossough looks like your average college age American woman wearing a baggy shirt and jeans giving off a Roseanne Barr kind of vibe. But she's a great Iranian American comedienne as the videos below show...

During her stand-up routine, Vossough had a warning for Iranian women wanting to come to America: "Women of Iran, please stop trying to get the hell out. Where do you think you're going? If any of these stories about your nightlives are true, stay. I swear to God, when you set foot in the States, all this attention from men stops. Men here are not as horny as you're used to." (source)

The internet doesn't seem to know much about Sheila Vossough at the moment, even though she's apprently had her own TV show and been a moderately successful stage actress.

Middle Eastern graffiti and street art and design

2009-05-01T04:56:00.000-07:00

Cities like New York, London and Tokyo are famous for their street art and ever-changing graffiti. It's also popular in the Middle East. Flickr has a photo pool devoted to collecting pictures of street art in the Middle East.

There's also the gorgeous Arabeque book about graphic design with the Arabic script (both Arabic and Persian). The website has a great gallery of photos of Cairo and the contents of the book.

YouTube generation promoting Iran online

2009-04-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

YouTube user Kamranat has put together an updated series of videos about Iran. It's always interesting to see people from the Iranian diaspora's views on Iran and this is an innovative use of the web to explain the country. All 4 parts are available here.

What do Iran's Jews think?

2009-04-24T12:24:00.000-07:00

Iran's Jews are seen as a source of pride, a forgotten part of the diaspora, a jewel in a crown, a protected minority, a possible Zionist fifth column and a sign of religious diversity in the Islamic Republic, all depending on your perspective. The exodus to Israel and the United States from Iran after the Islamic Republic was founded has left only 25,000 Persian Jews remaining.

Ed Cohen, writing for the International Herald Tribune finds that behind all the rhetoric, official anti-Israel posturing, a Jew can still find himself welcome in Iran:

Still a mystery hovers over Iran's Jews. It's important to decide what's more significant: the annihilationist anti-Israel ranting, the Holocaust denial and other Iranian provocations - or the fact of a Jewish community living, working and worshiping in relative tranquility.

Perhaps I have a bias toward facts over words, but I say the reality of Iranian civility toward Jews tells us more about Iran - its sophistication and culture - than all the inflammatory rhetoric.

That may be because I'm a Jew and have seldom been treated with such consistent warmth as in Iran. Or perhaps I was impressed that all the fury over Gaza, trumpeted on posters and Iranian television, never spilled over into insults or violence toward Jews. Or perhaps it's because I'm convinced the "Mad Mullah" caricature of Iran and likening of any compromise with it to Munich 1938 - a position popular in American Jewish circles - is misleading and dangerous.

Roya Hakakian, author of Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran talks about her experience as an Jewish Iranian at this roundtable with other female Iranian authors, poets and artists.

Top Iran travel writing cliches

2009-04-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

If you're thinking of writing about your journey across Iran, through "Persia" or into the mind of the self-flagellating Shia on the day of Ashura, here are some useful clichés you can use:

it's not what you expect
it's a land of contradictions
taxi drivers rip you off
the people are so hospitable
the women are so beautiful
people drive Paykans, based on the Hillman Hunter, such a quaint old car
there are pictures of martyrs everywhere
people live such contradictory lives with a public face and a private life

... in short? Avoid the clichés, just write about something with real meaning.

Iranian comedian - Dan Ahdoot

2009-04-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

Dan Ahdoot is an American Perisan Jew who's worked with Lewis Black, Dave Chappelle and Jay Mohr. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle he talks about growing up Jewish and Persian in the USA. He's never been to Iran and describes himself as a "comedian who happens to be Jewish", rather than a Jewish comedian. His act is pretty wide-ranging, but does include a few token accents and Middle Eastern stereotypes. Did I mention that he's also an actor?

Email lists

Dating indecisive girls

Find out more about Dan Ahdoot on his website: Dan Ahdoot

Iranian comedienne - Mona Mahani

2009-04-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

Mona Mahani is a Persian American comedienne, actress and poet from Texas. She deals with growing up Persian, dealing with the generation gap, the old family back in Iran and dealing with a traditional father.

Breathtaking photos from Iran

2009-04-20T06:07:00.000-07:00

Lucie Debelkova has a short, stunning selection of photos from Iran. Mainly landscapes, mosques and lighting they capture the beauty of the country.

Iranian comedian - Omid Djalili

2009-04-18T15:16:00.000-07:00

Omid Djalili is a British-Iranian standup comedian. He's been working the comedy circuit in the UK and USA relentlessly for more than a decade. He's starred (normally as a squeaky-voice Arab character) in many films, an HBO special and even in a TV series in the US with Whoopi Goldberg. His stand up focuses on cultural differences, immigration and specialises in flipping, inverting and skewering identity. And of course, the popular subject of being Iranian vs. being Persian. His TV sketch show in the UK was pretty poor, but his stand up is hysterically funny, constantly switching between accents, his identity as both British and Iranian, a Londoner and a fat, bald man.

Jews vs. Christians

Nigerian parking attendant

Omid in America

At the London Palladium

Find out more about Omid Djalili on his website: http://www.omidnoagenda.com/

Obama's victory offers hope to Iranians?

2009-04-17T03:14:00.000-07:00

The BBC, back when Obama won the US election, said his victory would offer hope to Iranians. Hope that US/Iranian relations could change and hope that Iranians could emboldened to make changes in their own country. This is a painfully ironic situation.

Mohammad Khatami was Iran's Barack Obama, way back before Barack Obama was even in the US Senate. A figure from the fringes of politics, with a solid, diverse base, large student backing and seen as a rank outsider against a well organised political machine. With a rag-tag bunch of friends and family he stormed onto the election trail, straight-talking, personable with a catchy slogan about change. Yes, Khatami looked unlikely to win the presidential election. But he did. And he soon found himself powerless to effect any meaningful change, outmaneuvered by a re-grouped opposition and unable to fulfill many of his campaign promises because his position has no real authority.

Geneive Abdo and Jonathan Lyons' Answering Only to God: Faith and Freedom in Twenty-First Century Iran (review from Payvand here) is an account of Khatami's rise to power, the problems he faced, an how he eventually turned on those who had brought him to power. Full of interviews with many of the Islamic Republic's power-brokers and loyalists turned critics, it could almost describe the predicament Barack Obama finds himself in. Unlike Khatami who was made powerless by the Guardian Council, right-wing clerics and the Supreme Leader, Ali Khameni, Obama is made powerless by Congress and the American political system. Unable to fulfill his campaign promises, saddled by economic problems caused by his predecessors and a global recession, Obama's presidency looks set not to offer hope to Iranians but to reassure them that they're not alone in having problems with their political system and the disappointment caused when reality triumphs over mere hope.

YouTube, nationalism and the battle of the babes

2009-04-16T14:49:00.000-07:00

From it's early days YouTube has been a hotbed of competing nationalisms. It's always people insulting or parodying other countries, how they talk, the beauty of their women or making videos promoting the virtues of their country. An interesting phenomenon on YouTube is the babe slideshow video. They're slightly different from the "sexy Arab/Persian girls dancing" home-made webcam videos of teenage girls dancing to either American hip-hop or their native country's pop music (which even have blogs devoted to capturing the most recent clips).

Usually a gallery with Ken Burns effect transitions and title slides of pictures of actresses, pop stars, ex-patriate babes from the diaspora, girls who've had their photos swiped from their MySpace and Bebo pages. Here's a typical slideshow of Iranian women which features in, yes, a playlist of slideshows about Iranian women. It's an interesting take on the "we're the strongest/have the biggest bombs/drive the fastest cars..." to spin it as "we've got the hottest babes!" Some of the videos even try to make Muslims turn away from Islam or promote an anti-war message.

There's probably an interesting dissertation to be written about all of these. It's an interesting, Web 2.0 complement to the "babe theory of revolution".

Iranian/Persian comedians and comediennes - the best standup comedy

2009-04-14T04:33:00.000-07:00

Omid Djalili likes to start his standup comedy routine by saying he is Iran's only standup comedian, which is, technically, 2 more than Germany. It's funny, but it's not true. There are many more Iranian/Persian standup comedians. Most of them are from the diaspora or hyphenated Iranian-somethings. I'm going to run a series of blog posts highlighting as many Iranian-American, Canadian-Iranian, British Iranian, British Persian, Persian, English-speaking Persian, Iranian ex-pat, etc. standup comedians and comedienne's as possible. Wikipedia has it's list... but YouTube has more. I do not accept liability for any of these comedians not actually being funny. I also realise there is a wealth of Persian-language satire out there that I'm not going to be covering.

Here's a taster...

Photo of Ali and Hadi laughing by Vahid Rahmanian on Flickr.

Christmas in Bethlehem last year

2009-04-13T12:27:00.000-07:00

Christmas in Bethlehem last year.

The Oud

2009-04-12T04:23:00.000-07:00

The oud an Arab guitar-like instrument came into Spanish, French and finally English as "the lute". The original source of flamenco and "Spanish" guitar. Whilst the English used it for songs such as Greensleeves others were making much more interesting music.

	Farid Ghosn - Taksim Nahawand

	Found at bee mp3 search engine

More oud music...

The Iranian Revolution 30 years on - the media looks back

2009-04-10T13:32:00.000-07:00

Channel 4's Jon Snow looking back at the Iranian Revolution 30 years on, including his own reporting from the US embassy takeover. Iranian.com photo gallery. Iranian film-maker Maziar Bahari on real life in Iran. (More from Channel 4 on Iran here). Other areas of the media maybe have to look back on their reporting and ask themselves if they were as impartial as they should have been. It turns out, that after much soul-searching, the BBC finds it own's reporting was impartial (even if many in the British establishment at the time didn't think so). The BBC also has two reflections on the revolution. And Rageh Omar gets in on the action again...