Culture

CHRI – Before musicians can perform concerts in Iran without the threat of the authorities suddenly canceling them, someone has to convince conservative Shia Muslim clerics that music is not un-Islamic.

CHRI – Rouhani Government and MPs Ignore Hossein Zaman’s Pleas for Help

PayvandNews – The sporting team game of chovgan, which is played on horseback and recognized as a version of the modern polo game, has been added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. During the 12th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, which took place from …

variety – Fereydoun Jeyrani’s elegant black-and-white thriller refracts Iranian gender politics through the prism of a twisty Hitchcockian noir. By Jessica Kiang Director: Fereydoun Jeyrani With: Navid Mohammadzadeh, Elnaz Shakerdoust, Mahaya Petrosian, Pardis Ahmadieh, Poulad Kimiaei, Parviz Pourhosseini 1 hour 48 minutes Official Site: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6486630/ On the international stage and on the festival circuit, Iranian cinema is not immediately associated …

PayvandNews – The Tehran Symphony Orchestra choir and Italy’s World Youth Orchestra will perform “Where Art Thou, Divine Martyrs” composed by Hushang Kamkar, at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome on December 3.  The joint concert is scheduled to be repeated in Tehran on December 6, Iran’s Rudaki Foundation announced in a press release on Monday. Razmik Ohanian …

PayvandNews – Iran’s tourism chief has called for a partnership between domestic travel companies and associated businesses to help organize ‘Tabriz 2018‘, an event which marks the naming of Tabriz as the capital of Islamic tourism. In December 2015, the inter-governmental Organization of Islamic Cooperation selected Tabriz, northwestern East Azarbaijan province, as the capital of Islamic tourism for 2018. “The …

CHRI – Iran’s Intelligence Ministry pressed charges against activist Parastou Forouhar based on a photo of one of her artworks that created a stir on social media, she told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on November 13, 2017. Forouhar was referring to a photo posted online in May 2016 showing human rights lawyer Shadi Sadr holding a …

PayvandNews – Legendary Iranian vocalist Shahram Nazeri and the Kamkars will join together in a concert to raise funds for the victims of the devastating earthquake that hit their homeland Kermanshah in western Iran on Sunday. Symphony of sorrow by Jalal Hajizadeh, Ghanoon daily “The concert is scheduled to be held at the Grand Hall of the Interior Ministry in Tehran, and …

ABC – A movie about a young girl whose fantasy world helps her escape the hard realities of growing up in the countryside near Tehran in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution is Iran’s first-ever submission for the Academy Awards’ foreign film directed by a woman.

RFL/RE – What to call the Persian language in Afghanistan? It’s a question Afghans have grappled with and sparred over for decades. The long-simmering dispute was reignited after the BBC changed the name of one of its local-language Facebook pages to BBC Dari, prompting a backlash from many Afghan Persian speakers who despise the word officially used to describe their language. …