Recently I was invited by a friend in Munich to a reading of poetry by an Iranian writer, who died much too young in 1967, only reaching 32 years of age. Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-1967) was exceptional among woman in modern Persian literature, since only an extremely small number of Iranian women in general have achieved anything outside of the home… (more…)
Here we have the two finalists of a competition that went largely unnoticed in the west. No, I am not talking about the super-bowl of American Football, I am talking about a competition that has less media coverage and which I call “The World got hypocrisis”: Two of the most hypocrite characters that came into political power by highjacking the… (more…)
Nahid Persson-Sarvestani, a former activist of the student branch of the Tudeh party and in the late 70s among the demonstrators against Shah Reza Pahlevi, now lives in Sweden as a film-director. In her 3 parts documentary, she interviews Farah Diba, the last empress of Iran, who now lives in exil in Paris. part 1 part 2 part 3 Farah… (more…)
Dear Michael, It is no secret that many Iranian woman do not value their impressive, arian noses very high. In contrast, they tend to follow a very questionable beauty picture that more and more seems to be coined by the Japanese manga figures. For them, a nose is merely anything more than a small ridge to hide the nostrils. The… (more…)
Dear Michael, you wrote some articles here at your blog and at Iranian.com about the modern Iranian cinematography. I’d like to add a movie by the young Iranian filmmaker Maryam Kesharvarz onto your list , called “Circumstances” (“Sharayet” in its persian original). I saw it recently with friends who got it on DVD, since it is not yet shown in… (more…)
Hi Michael, I was happy to hear that the EU is not only very generous in finacially supporting our life-science research and keep our genetic and mutagenesis projects running, but they at the end also became aware of the human rights situation in Iran. They gave this years “Andrej Sakharaov Price for Freedom of Thought” to two Iranians who are… (more…)
Ghazal my Dear, you might have asked why I wrote this recent critical post about an Indian guru (Yogananda), and why I suggested that a modern singer like Maryam Akhondy is a much better interprete of classical Persian poetry by Omar Khayyam. Here is an example of an original Omar Khayyam rubbayat and the silly Yogananda interpretation. Also, at the… (more…)
Ghazal my Dear, you might have asked why I wrote this recent critical post about an Indian guru (Yogananda), and why I suggested that a modern singer like Maryam Akhondy is a much better interprete of classical Persian poetry by Omar Khayyam. Here is an example of an original Omar Khayyam rubbayat and the silly Yogananda interpretation. Also, at the… (more…)
On the occasion of the finissage of the “Servus and Salam – an insight to Iran” exhibition here in Munich, the great music singer Maryam Akhondy with her ensemble Barbad gave a concert in the Maximilian church. A strong voice, for which the term Diva would be approbiate, also she is anything else than diva-like. Her music and her very… (more…)
Dear Michael, three years after the 2009 post-election movements in Tehran, Swedish TV broadcasted a long documentary about the situation of human-rights in Iran (what means “situation” ? One can only see a complete absence of any human rights). The documentary seems to be an extended version of the one you posted recently about the murder of Neda Agha-Soltan. It… (more…)