Tehran: Another side

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

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

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

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

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

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.

1. 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.
2. Stop motorbikes driving down streets the wrong way, on pavements and through the bazaars, stop them weaving through traffic in front of cars.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Don't drive the wrong way up a one-way street.
6. Stop talking on mobile phones or sending text messages whilst driving and riding motorcycles.
7. 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

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

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

However, being able to send you into a roller-coaster of laughter via his hilarious comedy sets is not the witty Persian comedian’s only talent. Kayvon Moezzi (his real full name) 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 mind when watching K-von’s authentic and unquestionably rare comedic style...

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

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

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

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.