Culture

radiofarda – Animal rights defenders held a gathering outside Tehran’s municipality headquarters for a second day in a row on August 19 to protest the killing of stray dogs by city officials in Iran’s capital and suburbs. Photos published on social media show a few hundred demonstrators who were condemning the killing of dogs by acid, poison and other methods …

radiofarda – While attacks on Expediency Discernment Council Chief Sadeq Amoli Larijani continue, he has given a strongly worded answer to one of his critics, hardliner Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi. Yazdi had last week accused Larijani of corruption, while also questioning his credentials as a Shiite seminary scholar, saying that he has never been effective in Qom, and his threat to …

iranhumanrights.org : Investigations by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) indicate that dozens of Iranians with large followings on Instagram—including athletes, fashion models and actors—were summoned by security officials in 2019 and in some cases charged with crimes for the content of their posts. Although most were ultimately released on bail, many were forced to hand over control …

payvand.com : Nooshin Jafari’s Supporters Push Back Against Social Media Smear Campaign  Several members of Iran’s film industry have spoken out against the detention of Nooshin Jafari, a film and theater photographer, who has been detained at an undisclosed location in Tehran since August 4, 2019. The authorities have meanwhile refused to provide information about her to her family since …

Radiofarda – A conservative news website in Iran published the leaked contents of a contract between the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and a private company, charging that the Ministry has outsourced book censorship. A copy of the contract leaked to social media on Monday, August 12, has gone viral, embarrassing Ministry officials. Every book needs to receive …

RFL/RE – Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish-Iranian who has been held in an Australian detention center for asylum seekers for six years, has won another literary prize for his autobiography. Behrouz Boochani (center right) Boochani won the Australian 2019 National Biography Award for his book No Friend But The Mountains, organizers at the State Library of New South Wales announced on …

Womex.com – For the mastery and virtuosity of the kamancheh, for the ceaseless innovation and collaboration to create exciting new musical languages and for bringing the Persian classical music tradition to the ears of people all over the world, Piranha Arts, the organisers of WOMEX, are delighted to present the WOMEX Artist Award 2019 to Kayhan Kalhor (Iran/USA).Receiving the prestigious award at …

BBC – A 22-year-old talented pianist is the first Iranian to gain a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music since Iran’s 1979 Revolution.

CHRI – Acclaimed director Mohammad Rasoulof was sentenced to one year in prison in Tehran in July 2019. He has been banned from making films or leaving Iran since 2017. International film festivals including the Cannes Film Festival, as well as two prominent Iranian directors, have condemned the prison sentence issued in Tehran against acclaimed filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof. “Today, we wish to …

Radiofarda – Iran did not allow foreign participants and guests to attend an electronic music festival, according to the official in charge of organizing the event in late July. Speaking to the state-run Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA), Mehdi Jalali said, “For the first time, our prominent foreign guests, including Joachim Heintz (German composer), Dimitri Papageorgiou (Greek composer), Ulrike Brand …