Culture

Al-monitor – In a statement Jan. 29, Oscar-winning Iranian film director Asghar Farhadi announced that he will not be attending the Academy Awards ceremony later this month. The reason: US President Donald Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order to ban citizens of Iran and six other Muslim-majority countries. Farhadi’s announcement came as Iran was hosting its own Oscars, the 35th Fajr International Film Festival. AUTHOR Zahra Alipour …

PayvandNews – Cello virtuoso Yo-Yo Ma and his ensemble ‘Silk Road’ of which Iranian Kamancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor is also a member won the Grammy for Best World Music Album for ‘Sing Me Home‘ on Sunday. ‘Sing Me Home’ (watch videos) The 59th Annual Grammy Awards were held Sunday 12 February 2017 at the Staples Center in Los Angele during which top musical …

Guardian – Fifty years after Forough Farrokhzad’s death, Ebrahim Golestan talks about his affair with the giant of Persian literature Forough Farrokhzad Forty miles south of London, in a quiet West Sussex village, lives a 94-year-old Iranian intellectual who has for half a century kept silent about his former lover, a giant of modern Persian literature who was killed in …

PayvandNews – FIDE Women’s World Chess Championship 2017 started in Tehran, capital of Iran, on Friday.  The competition will be held from February 10 to March 5. The knock-out tournament will have the participation of some of the world’s top players, including the former Women’s World Champions Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia), Anna Ushenina (Ukraine), Zhu Chen (Qatar) and Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), …

PayvandNews – The 9th edition of the Fajr International Festival of Visual Arts opened at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art on Sunday. The ceremony started with honoring those active in promoting the festival through the past year including news agencies, publications, and cultural offices. Mehr News Agency, which had an active role in covering the news of the festival, was also among …

RFL/RE – Iran returned to the race for a prestigious Oscar award on January 24 with the psychological thriller The Salesman. The Farsi-language film is by director Asghar Farhadi, who in 2012 earned for Iran its first-ever Academy Award with A Separation. In The Salesman, an Iranian couple’s relationship is strained as they perform the American stage classic Death Of …

Iranhumanrights.org – Well-known Iranian poet and filmmaker Baktash Abtin has been charged with “propaganda against the state” following his arrest on December 2, 2016 at a memorial event in Tehran marking the 18th anniversary of the “chain murders” of dissidents, including writers, in the 1990s by agents of the Islamic Republic. An informed source told the Campaign for Human Rights …

PayvandNews – Iran regards tourism industry a source for generating wealth, and is seeking to make the best use of positive atmosphere created in the wake of the nuclear deal, known as JCPOA, signed in January 2016.   Iran needs to breathe fresh air into the sector in order to achieve sustainable growth and grasp boom in the number of …

Iranhumanrights.org – The authorities of Evin Prison in Tehran are refusing to transfer imprisoned filmmaker Keyvan Karimi to a hospital outside the prison for urgent medical care, his lawyer, Amir Raeesian, told the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. “My client called me this morning (Wednesday, January 18, 2017) and said his pulmonary inflammation had worsened and he had thrown …

PayvandNews – Iran is getting ready to host the 35th edition of its most prestigious cultural event in February, this time showcasing works by women filmmakers and films on women’s issues more than ever before. By Marjohn Sheikhi and Niusha Rouzban, Mehr News Agency Considered Iran’s largest film festival and one of the most prestigious cultural event in the country, Fajr …