Windows on Iran 24

Esfahan (or Isfahan) (above), click on the link at the end of this 'Window on Iran' to see many more stunningly beautiful pictures of the city of Esfahan, its gardens, and historical sites.

Dear All,

I hope you are well. Window number 24 on Iran comes with a bit of
delay. End of March is the busiest time in the semester. Departmental
responsibilites are growing. Teaching is going on full force. Now, add
public speaking and local outreach. In other words, all is well!

I wish I could say the same for the current news about Iran:

* On Saturday March 27, U. N. Security Council passed its Resolution
1747.  In this resolution, the Security Council builds on its previous
decision to impose sanctions on Tehran by banning exports from Iran
and imposing a freeze on the financial assets of 28 individuals and
entities. After lengthy negotiations, the text takes into account some
of the concerns expressed by South Africa, Indonesia and Qatar, such
as the acknowledgment that all parties to the NPT, including Iran,
have a right to peaceful uses of nuclear technology. The resolution
also includes mechanisms for future negotiation with Iran and
reference to a nuclear-free Middle East. The mood inside Iran is
anxious.

* American mainstream media keeps alive the possibility of an Iranian
“role” in American casualities through roadside bombs in Iraq. Today’s
NY Times (March 27) has an entire page devoted to it, complete with
technical details and images. Buried inside the article are
significant pieces of information that undermine the whole claim:
“most bombing attacks and most American deaths have been caused by
less sophisticated devices favored by Sunni insurgents, not Shiite
militias linked to Iran.” Further down, unnamed experts on military
matters are quoted to the effect that “the weapons could be made in
Iraq.” The article also has hints about some Iranians being positively
” involved in economic and social programs in Iraq.” There is a tiny
refence to the possibility that “other countries in the region, too,
were supplying insurgents in Iraq” and the fact that the current U.S.
administration might be “using the E.F.P. issue to distract attention
from the difficulties in Iraq.”  Alas, what the general readership
will see, yet again, is an image of a “hostile and dangerous” Iran. I
wonder how many will remember, as they read, that we live in the
western hemisphere that owns the biggest military industrial complex
in the world and supplies many countries with weapons.

Come See Us Perform!

Because we must nurture the possibilities of peace which live in our
persons, my friend Dr. Alice Bloch and I have prepared an hour of
dance and reading (I read, Alice is a great dancer) which we will
perform this coming Thursday night, March 29, at 7:30 at the Central
Reform Congregation in St. Louis. It is a two woman (one Muslim, one
Jewish) celebration of friendship, love for peace, and resistance to
aggression of all kinds. If you are in the vicinity of St. Louis, stop
by to see us perform!

"Happy Nowrouz," a beautiful piece of calligraphy by Reza Tanha.

Visual Delight

* If you thought exquisite Persian calligraphy was a thing of the past, think again! Here is one (right) from master calligrapher currently living in Japan, Reza Tanha. Thanks Reza Jan! I hope you don’t mind me sharing this treasure with a few thousand friends! I mentioned last week Iranians send around very interesting Nowruz greeting cards wishing each other a Happy New Year. Since you just viewed one with exquisite calligraphy, I thought to include one with miniature painting. Below is a Nowruz card with a miniture painting from the most important Persian epic Shahnameh, “The Book of Kings,” composed in 10th century CE. The manuscript illustration that you see was done in the 17th century.

Nowrouz Card with a miniature painting from Shahnameh (Book of Kings).

* In the last window, I sent you the link to an excellent critique of
the movie ‘300’ that demonizes the ancient Iranian civilization. The
link does not seem to have worked, sorry. Here it is again:
http://www.iranian.com/Daryaee/2007/March/300/index.html

* Talking about Persian art, here is very interesting information about
the advance knowledge of math by Iranian architects:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070223/sc_nm/architecture_patterns_dc&printer=1;_ylt=AtoYENMhwvtwKSYZKfww5IgiANEAPart

Ahmad Shamlu, one of the greatest Iranian/Persian poets of the twentieth century.

* One of the great poets of twentieth century Iran, Ahmad Shamlu, spent a year at Berkeley, California a number of years ago. He wrote a Safarnameh “travel account” in Persian a part of which has been recorded on tape. Here is the link to a recording in Shamlu’s own voice (for those of you who know Persian):
http://www.peiknet.com/1385/hafteh/01esfand/page/38shamlu.htm

More Visual Delight

Instead of our regular painting exhibit which usually end these windows, I would like to give you a VERY beautiful new slide show of Isfahan. Click here (Isfahan Pictures) for a wonderful series of images from the historic city of Isfahan in Iran, courtesy of my wonderful cousin Abe Massoudi. I tried to get the slides to rotate (unsuccessfully). You can right click on each slide to move forward. Enjoy!

Have a wonderful rest of the week.
Best,
Fatemeh
===================================
Fatemeh Keshavarz, Professor and Chair
Dept. of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures
Washington University in St. Louis
Tel: (314) 935-5156
Fax: (314) 935-4399
==================================

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Windows on Iran 10

Iranian-American Dr. Lily Afshar is considered to be one of the worlds best female guitar players. More recently, she has also began playing the Persian instrument setar (see below for more information).

Greetings everyone,

I hope you have all had a great weekend. Many thanks for all your kind notes and for joining the listserv. I received enthusiastic comments about the calligraphy exhibit that I sent in window number 9. I am glad you enjoyed them and will keep an eye open from more calligraphic works I can send.

As usual, please give me about two weeks to get back to you if you have any questions. If you send me a kind note of support or ideas for future windows, I might not be able to respond simply because of the volume of correspondence. Please forgive me. I do read all your e-mails with great interest. If you signed on during the past two days, you will get this window (and the previous windows, if you asked for them) with a day or two delay. Again, that is because it usually takes JoAnn and I a couple of days to process new requests.

Current Issues:

* I did not find Iran in the headlines (itself amazing news).
Instead, I attach an informative interview with Dr. Trita Parsi
the US-based scholar on Iran (and the current President of NIAC).
He talks about the position of Iranian politicians, the executive
powers of the Iranian President, and possibilities of diplomatic
solutions to the nuclear standoff, among other things:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1543504,00.html

Iranian Americans:

* The prominent Iranian American I would like to introduce to you
this week is again a musician. This is, in fact, one of the top
female classical guitar players in the world, Dr. Lily Afshar.
Born and raised in Iran, Lily Afshar completed her graduate work
in music at the Boston Conservatory. She has been teaching in
University of Memphis since 1989 and, at the same time, has been
performing internationally. More recently, she has started the
Persian instrument setar. To see a picture of Lily Afshar and read
about her achievements, click on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Afshar
Isfahan Slide Show:

* As you can see I have not forgotten the slide show I promised last
week on the historic city of Isfahan. After I sent my slide show
on Shiraz, a friend wrote that he included the topic of Shiraz in
one of his lectures so he could share the slides with his
students. I hope you find the slides of Isfahan equally beautiful
and usable in the classroom. Just click here: Beautiful and Historic City of Isfahan, Iran.

Naqsh-e Jahan Square in the historic city of Isfahan.

A Major Contemporary Persian Ghazal Writer:

*Reference to Persian poetry usually evokes thought of classical figures such as Omar Khayyam, Hafez and Rumi. From time to time, the modern verse of Forough Farrokhzad, Ahmad Shamlu and others of their generation becomes available in English. Twentieth century Iranian poets are known almost exclusively for their reformist tendencies that transformed classical genres into what Iranians now call ‘shi’re now,’ literally “new poetry.” In this poetry, figures such as Farrokhzad introduced wonderfully fresh ideas which were not considered fit for poetry before. In the poem “From darkness,” for example, Farrokhzad wrote:
I  called you
my whole being held in my hands
like a bowl of milk
the moon glanced blue on the panes
The fact that is almost entirely unknown outside Iran — because
very little translation has been done — is that twentieth century
Iran has great ghazal writers some comparable to Sa’di and Hafiz
only writing their ghazals in a new poetic language. Houshang
Ebtehaj with pen name Sayeh (b. 1927) is one such master poet. For
a recent photo of Ebtehaj during a poetry reading click on
http://saamhouse.co.uk/gallery/archives/000029.php#000029 . Despite
the imposing look, and his reputation as a poet with political and
social comittment, Ebtehaj has a vast quantity of gentle lyric
poetry in ghazal form (as well as many in modern poetry). To my
knowledge, there are no English translations of these ghazals. If
you read Persian click on
http://www.easypersian.com/houshang_ebtehaj/sineh_sardan.htm to
see a couple of the ghazals in Persian (and a short and basic
biography in English).

* On the topic of classical persian poetry, if you are interested in
reading stories from Firdowsi’s classical epic Shahnameh/The Book
of Kings as comic books, click on:
http://www.hyperwerks.com/series/rostam_chara1.html (courtesy of
Ladan Foroughi).

Iranian Cinema:

* Iranian women’s most recent international achievements have
included the movie “Friday Evening,” Mona Zandi’s directional
debut, which won the special jury prize in Cologne film Festival
last week: http://www.payvand.com/news/06/oct/1170.html.  In fact,
the festival dedicated an entire section to Iranian women film
makers. On the topic of cinema, another Iranian (this time male)
director Azizollah Hamidnejad won the Tegernsee Award for his film
“Tears of Cold” in the Mountain Film Festival held in Germany,
Oct. 18-22.

Visual Delight:

* I leave you with two oil paintings by the young painter Adel
Younesi. The theme of both is street side peddlers. I find them
both delightful: http://www.elahe.net/photo.php?picid=3474 and
another one on the same theme
http://www.elahe.net/photo.php?picid=3473

Have a great week.
Fatemeh
========================
Fatemeh Keshavarz, Professor and Chair
Dept. of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatuares
Washington University in St. Louis
Tel: (314) 935-5156
Fax: (314) 935-4399
========================

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