Culture

PayvandNews – Ashk Dahlen was born in Tehran in 1972 and has lived most of his life in Sweden. He is Associate Professor in Iranian Languages at Uppsala University and his field of study covers Persian literature, Iranian history of religion and philosophy. Ashk Dahlen is the author of several books and articles on Iranian history and among his recent …

CHRI – “Authors have learned that they cannot write about things that are against the country’s official religion, or against national security, or anything that promotes ‘moral corruption’ and ‘indecency.’” State censorship of the publishing industry in Iran is intensifying and increasingly arbitrary, causing book publishers in Iran to become more cautious than ever, according to Alireza Behnam, a journalist, …

hyperallergic.com — Niloufar Talebi’s Self-Portrait in Bloom, a hybrid memoir of prose and poetry with some photos thrown in, delves into the author’s childhood in Tehran, the Iranian revolution, and her move to the United States as a teenager. But most compelling of all is her underlying journey to becoming a translator and multi-disciplinary artist through her love of the influential poet Ahmad …

NYT – Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, an Iranian artist whose mirror-encrusted geometric compositions drew on both Islamic architecture and the abstractions of the postwar New York avant-garde, died on April 20 in Tehran. She was 96. The death was confirmed by a grandson, Aziz Isham. Ms. Farmanfarmaian (pronounced far-mahn-far-MY-ahn) emerged as a key actor in the worldwide development of abstract art …

PayvandNews- The Fajr International Film Festival announced the full lineup of winners at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall for their 37th year of celebrating independent, art house, alternate, fiction, documentary and animation films from across the globe.  Iranian and international officials, dignitaries, filmmakers and guests attended the closing ceremony on Thursday, April 25. Addressing the ceremony, Festival Director Seyyed Reza Mirkarimi said …

PayvandNews – Tehran Municipality is in talks with Baghdad’s urban planners and authorities to restore a number of aging monuments in Iraq including Taq Kasra, which is an architecturally-important Sasanian-era Persian monument. Related Article: Taq Kasra, A Sasanian-Era Persian Monument, Partially Collapses Tehran Mayor Pirouz Hanachi arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday evening upon an official invitation from his Iraqi counterpart to …

PayvandNews – Persian literature aficionados and literati from across Iran came together at the mausoleum of Persian poet Sadi in Shiraz on Sunday to celebrate Sadi National Day. Sadi(artwork by Bozorgmehr Hosseinpur) The director of the Center for the Study of Sadi, Kurosh Kamali Sarvestani, delivered a speech, which was followed by recitations from Sadi’s poetry.Sadi enthusiasts also visited exhibits of …

VOA – Prominent Iranian artist Monir Farmanfarmaian has died in her home in Tehran at the age of 97, the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported Sunday.Farmanfarmaian, known for her mirror mosaics and reverse glass paintings, had her first solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2015.The Monir Museum, devoted to her life and work, opened in the …

CHRI – Iranian actress Maryam Moghaddam (also referred to as Moqadam), has written an open letter to Iran’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Abbas Salehi asking why she was suddenly barred from working on a movie. “Mr. Minister! This is the state of the film industry you are in charge of: I was pulled from a film project on the …

Al-Monitor – A supervisory body affiliated with Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has imposed a sudden ban on “Rahman 1400,” a satirical movie that has achieved extraordinary box office success in the past few weeks. The decision was made after the ministry found the movie in breach of common censorship rules that include strict script-vetting procedures.  In a series of witty …