Yet the official results are not announced, but this time the Iranian officials have a valid explanation for this: against all forcasts, the 2013 ballots were frequented by more than 70% of all eligible voters and thus had to be kept open for an additional 5 hours. It seems that when the counting started at 9 pm CET or midnight… (more…)
The Berlin Academy of Fine Arts helds an exhibition of drawings on paper by Meir Hussein Mussavi. The exhibition opened with a vernisage on Friday, June 7th and welcomes visitors till Sunday, June 23rd 2013. The Academy is located at Paris Square next to the Brandenburg gate. The exhibition flyer describes Mousavis abstract drawings as visual poetry. His oevre shows… (more…)
Yesterday, June 1st during a pre-election campaign of Hassan Rouhani, his mainly young supporters shouted “Honour to Mousavi, Wellcome to Rouhani”. The meeting took place in Tehran’s Jamaran district. Rouhani urged all his supporters to attend the presidental elections. He demands the release of all political prisoners and the end of the securitized atmosphere. He called for a free, prosperous… (more…)
Ghazal dear, the following reply to a post of Bahmani I could have never written without experiencing the tightness of the relationship between you and your family and feeling how much a resistance this provides against any potential intruder (like myself). In Iran, the frequently expressed demand to do something for the community/society is a compensatory reflex to the traditional… (more…)
The idea of Persia has long fascinated Western minds. From the Middle Ages on, knowledge of Persia gradually expanded as a result of increased contact through trade, travel and diplomacy. Writers in Europe, such as Goethe, Chaucer, Dante and Shakespeare, reflected this understanding in the parallels with Persian literature and shared symbolism evident in their plays, poetry and prose. Love… (more…)
The persion feast of Norooz is traditionally a celebration of joy and hapiness about the rebirth of nature and life. Inside the grey and cold walls of the Tehran Evin prison, however, the men and woman arrested there for month or year see little evidence of the awaking nature. Many of them suffer from bad health conditions and are deprived… (more…)
Just cross the road from the Avicenna bookstore in Munich, with its huge assortment of Persian literature, is the old building of the Munich University. Seventy years ago it was in the main hall of this building that the antifascist resistance group “White Rose” spread around leaflets that should reveal and condemn the nazi-crimes against the Jewish population and against… (more…)
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…)
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…)