Yesterday was sizdeh behdar – the thirteenth day of the new year, and a time to go outside and picnic. It’s when you throw your sabzeh (from your Sofreh Haft Sin) into water, to wash away your negativity. And a time for young women and men to get together – tying knots either into the …
Goncheh Ghavami has been pardoned for the ‘crime’ of standing peacefully outside the Azadi Stadium asking to be allowed to watch Iran’s volleyball team play against Italy. Her protest – along with some other activists – challenged the longstanding ban in the Islamic republic against women attending big sporting events alongside male fans. Although she is …
Two Bills currently going through the Iranian parliament restrict women’s rights to be anything but a baby-maker. The Bill to Increase Fertility Rates and Prevent Population Decline includes a ban on education about contraception; the withdrawal of emergency contraceptives; the prohibition of all voluntary sterilisation and the punishment of health professionals who do such procedures. …
We’re spoilt for choice! At the V&A, there are going to be traditional songs, storytelling, sound art and poetry, along with dance performances. Most exciting of all: “Help make a giant pop-up paper carpet for a Persian picnic, create designs for tiles and find out all about the animals, plants and objects that represent spring.” It’s …
It’s Red Wednesday – Chaharshanbeh Suri – the last Tuesday night / Wednesday morning before the Persian New Year: always time for firecrackers and bonfires. The idea is to keep bonfires lit at sunset burning until the early hours of the morning. Read here about the various regime pronouncements against jumping – the number of …
Today is Purim – the holiday ostensibly commemorating the salvation of Persian Jews, following the intercession of the Queen of Persia, Esther, and her guardian, Mordechai. It’s in the news right now because of Netanyahu’s inflammatory Congress speech drawing parallels between one version of Purim; and current Iranian government policy and the purported threat to …
Janet Rady’s artist of this month is Hojat Amani. You can read the Art Radar interview with Amani here. It describes Amani’s newest “Still Life” series and how the artist “deftly blends contemporary Western pop culture with the Persian script and classical motifs”. Best of all, there’s a “proof that angels do exist”. But images …
Parviz Tanovoli is the father of modern Iranian sculpture – and there’s currently a groundbreaking retrospective in the Davis Museum including many of his Heeches (Heech means ‘nothing’ in Persian). Hear more in /see some images from the show here. As Tanavoli says: ““Heech has multiple layers of meaning – in Persian Sufism it has …
The dust in Ahvaz is at a record 66 times greater than the legal limit: with particles in the air reaching 9985 micrograms per cubic meter. It’s been dusty in Ahvaz for some time – the city is the most polluted in the world according to World Health Organization (2013) data. But recently the situation …
This week a sand cat was released from a Bustard trap in Khorasan. The rare cat received immediate medical treatment, and was released back into the wild the same day. Its capture triggered a search-and-destroy mission for other poachers’ traps in the area. Read more, in Persian, here. Sand cats are the only cat found …