Is the only good filmmaker a dead filmmaker? After years of being censored and banned by successive Iranian governments, Abbas Kiarostami's coffin was greeted with a red carpet in his homeland.

Iranwire English

Finally, after years of ‪#‎censorship‬, Iranian officials are honoring in death the artist they ignored in life. ‪#‎Abbas_Kiarostami‬ is finally getting the recognition he deserves in his home country.

An interesting article about life for teenage girls in Iran. They can basically do everything as long as they're not caught. But if they're caught...

This year's World Population Day focuses on teenagers. So what's it really like to grow up in the Islamic Republic? We asked three young women to share their memories of gender segregation, wearing the hijab — and being an activist without even knowing it.

I know you shouldn’t interview your colleagues. But when we were discussing how to report “Investing in teenage girls,” the theme of this year’s United Nations’ World Population Day, I thought, why not just turn my chair around and talk to the three young Iranian women I’ve been working with for a w...
en.iranwire.com

Friends, like most of you I'm saddened and appalled by recent shootings and killings in Baton Rouge, Dallas and other cities around the US. What frustrates me is the waste of energy and human resources that could be used to make a better society for all of us. But selfishness, dogma and, more important than all of them, lack of education have thwarted growth in many areas around the world and the United States. In the past few months, our team has been working with the African-American community in Harlem on Not a Crime project, an awareness raising campaign on denial of education to Baha'is of Iran. We've been in Harlem to learn from African-American civil rights struggle, and so far it's been a rewarding experience for everyone involved in the project. Here's Village Voice's review of our campaign:

On a recent summer day in East Harlem, Alexander Keto stood on a ladder above a group of sixth graders playing basketball, aerosol can in hand. Keto is spray-painting turquoise blue paint on P.S. 7’s brick exterior. The wall turns into an image of a West African woman up to...
villagevoice.com|By Anita Abedian

An Iranian legend died today. Abbas Kiarostami was called one of the best filmmakers in the world by great directors such as Martin Scorsese, Michael Haneke and Ken Loach. This is a short review of one of the true film artists.

56,393 Views
56,393 Views
Iranwire English

An Iranian legend died yesterday. Abbas Kiarostami was called one of the best filmmakers in the world by great directors such as Martin Scorsese, Michael Haneke and Ken Loach. This is a short review of one of the true film artists.

A legend has died. Earlier today, Abbas Kiarostami, the great Iranian filmmaker and one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, died in Paris. In his honour I'm going to watch his film Close-Up for, may be, the 20th time. I suggest watching anything by him, especially: 1- Close-Up 2- The Traveller 3- The Wind will Carry Us 4- Through the Olive Trees 5- Taste of Cherry.

Iran's most acclaimed filmmaker, Abbas Kiarostami, has died aged 76. He had been suffering from gastrointestinal cancer.

Kiarostami won some of the top honors i...n cinema. He received the Palme d’Or for Taste of Cherry at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.

He also received acclaim from cinematic giants including Martin Scorsese, Jean-Luc Godard and the late Akira Kurosawa.

http://en.iranwire.com/features/7330/

See More
Abbas Kiarostami, Iran’s best-known filmmaker, died today. He was 76. In recent months, Kiarostami has undergone a series of surgeries for gastrointestinal cancer. Kiarostami has won some of the top honors in cinema. He received the Palme d’Or for A Taste of Cherry at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.…
en.iranwire.com
Maziar Bahari updated their cover photo.
Maziar Bahari's photo.

ABC7NY caught up with us in Harlem today and reported on ELLE Street Art mural. Elle started her amazing mural this morning. Watch this space for the report on the completed mural.

ABC7NY caught up with us in Harlem today and reported on ELLE Street Art's mural as it emerged on the wall of ‪#‎PS154‬. Elle started her amazing mural this morning. Watch this space for the report on the completed piece!

There are a several murals going up with strong messages about human rights and education across Harlem, all part of a campaign started by a journalist who was once imprisoned in Iran.
abc7ny.com|By Lauren Glassberg

One of the most beautiful and telling cartoons that I've ever seen. Trees are cut with unprecedented ferocity in Tehran. Touka Neyestani depicts the desperate battle of the environmentalists to protect the last remaining trees. The title is borrowed from Raymond Chandler.

In Iran, environmental campaigners continue their good work -- against the odds.

by Touka Neyestani

en.iranwire.com

You shouldn't lie to anyone, except to your wife when you want to have sex with her. "Promise her anything. Jewelry? Done. A trip to Mecca? Done. America? Done. Say anything just to have sex with her." Interesting article and animation about why some Shia clerics promote lying especially in order to have sex with your wife(ves).

Lying is always a hot topic where Iran in is concerned. Part of the debate centers on the attitudes of the country’s Shia clergy. Shiism is the minority sect i...n Islam, and Shia Muslims have, at various times throughout Islamic history, had to lie or “dissimulate” about their faith to avoid persecution by other Muslims. Since this dissimulation, or “taqiyya” as it is known, has become entrenched in Shia theology as an exception to the faith’s general proscription against lying, the image of the lying mullah has become a figure of fun among Iranians, as can be seen in IranWire's animation [see article] based on a bawdy sermon by the late Ayatollah Ahmad Mojtahedi Tehrani. Tehrani seems to suggest it is “permitted” to make one’s wife false promises in exchange for sex.

See More
.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } The heated question of lying rarely goes off the...
en.iranwire.com

A good review of four Americans who loved Iran and played important roles in its development in the early 20th century.

In the midst of exchanging insults, Great Satan, Axis of Evil, etc, it's easy to forget that many Americans have loved Iran and have done their best to help the country and its people. Here, we present short stories of four Americans who played important roles in Iran's modern history.

Jordan Street, on any given Thursday night in Tehran, is a stage for the city’s youth. Groups of friends cruise up and down in everything from battered Kias to the shiny expensive car of the day, listening to music, flirting at red lights, and watching one another be young and lively. It is also a p...
en.iranwire.com

I'm very happy that my former cell mate (albeit for only two days) reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh is finally freed and is at home with her family. He joined the revolution as a young man, but has since questioned many actions of the revolutionary government in the past four decades.

Reformist Mostafa Tajzadeh was released late last night after seven years in Evin Prison. Tajzadeh was accused of being a leader of the Green Movement in 2009, ...and was tried in a show trial in the summer of that year. He is a former revolutionary student who became deputy interior minister during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami. Tajzadeh has been an influential figure in Iran's reform movement in the past two decades.

See More
You can hear laughter and rejoicing over the phone. My five-minute conversation with Fakhrosadat Mohtashamipour, wife of just-released political prisoner Mostafa Tajzadeh, can hardly be called an interview since it is interrupted time and again by the hellos and goodbyes of her guests. But hearing l...
en.iranwire.com

We are honored to have our last mural on the walls of Storefront Academy in Harlem, NYC. Our brilliant project manager, Saleem Vaillancourt and the brilliant artist Rone had a conversation with the students at the academy and told them about our Not a Crime campaign.

41,272 Views
Education Is Not a Crime
June 3

‪#‎Rone‬'s mural at the Storefront Academy gave the Education Is Not a Crime team a chance to start explaining why we're painting murals in Harlem of all places... – and what we hope to achieve. "The project is about education," we say, "and about how eduction is for everybody, and that anybody who doesn't have access for one reason or another, whether they live in a country that tells them that they're not allowed to go to university, or because they live in a place where they have unequal or unfair access to decent education. ... Harlem is a place that stands for civil rights."

See More

Another iranwire.com project to brag about: an interactive map of Syria explaining different sides of conflict. Yes, the civil war in Syria is tragic and confusing, but this map allows you to have a better understanding of different sides, their backgrounds, their objectives and their supporters. You can see the interactive map here: http://multimedia.iranwire.com/…/Syria…/Syrian_conflict.html

Confused about Syria? From Hezbollah to Al Abbas Brigade, the Free Syrian Army, Jeysh al-Islam and ISIS, our interactive map will help you figure out who's who -- and see what countries have intervened the most.

The Syrian civil war began as a revolution with simple demands, but very quickly turned into a conflict of such complexity it baffled even the most experienced Middle East analysts. Today, there is almost no major power in the world that is not directly involved in this civil war. Syria, which perha...
en.iranwire.com

A good interview about the tragic kidnapping of an American in Iran. As the article indicates whatever messages the kidnappers wanted to get across and whatever political uses this kidnapping could have had are not valid anymore. So, the kidnappers (most probably a group within the Iranian government) should just tell Levinson family what happened and somehow ease their pain.

Iranwire English's photo.
Iranwire English
June 1

In 2007, a former FBI agent turned CIA contractor named Robert Levinson disappeared on Kish Island, an Iranian free trade zone in the Persian Gulf. While initia...l reports suggested he had gone there as a private investigator looking into counterfeit cigarette smuggling, he had in fact gone to meet Dawud Salahuddin, an American fugitive wanted for the 1980 murder of Ali Akbar Tabatabai, a former spokesman for the Shah of Iran. Salahuddin, who had lived in Iran since fleeing the US that year, had claimed to know about illicit financial dealings involving former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and to have other insights into Iran’s political scene. He specifically suggested that Levinson meet him on Kish.

See More

Our latest Education is not a Crime wall in Harlem was painted by Franco the Great, the Picasso of Harlem. He's an amazingly charming man, and a legend in Harlem.

Education Is Not a Crime at Custom Fuel.

Franco the Great Harlem's Picasso (Official) is a Harlem legend who's been painting street art in the community for almost 40 years. Most of us on the Not A Cri...me team haven't even been alive that long! Franco graciously agreed to paint a mural for Education Is Not a Crime – and he must have been visited by a hundred or more people over the course of a few days. Franco's message? Simple: "Knowledge is power" – and it should be available to everyone regardless of their background. Go check it out at Frederick Douglass Boulevard and 123rd Street!

See More

I'm very proud of our new project The Cost of Discrimination about what happens when there's systematic discrimination against a group of people in a country, whether it's South Africa, Iran or any other part of the world. In a series of videos we'll hear from South Africans who went through apartheid African, Bantu, education system. You can read more about the project here: http://en.iranwire.com/features/7264/

Education Is Not a Crime
May 27

Iranian Baha'is are denied access to higher education. Not A Crime's 'The Cost of Discrimination' video series tells the stories of another country - South Afri...ca, which barred "non-whites" from educational opportunities equal to those for 'whites" during apartheid - to connect that history to the current persecution of the Baha'is in Iran.

At school, Peter received Bantu education. This was the term used for second class education given to non-white people. “Our education was to create slaves for the white people. People who could not create jobs for themselves,” explains Peter. “The reason we were taught Afrikaans was for the white bosses to be able to communicate with the blacks.”

Peter originally studied in Tswana, but in the middle of his schooling the taught language changed to English, making his studies far more challenging. Peter wished to be an accountant but he was not allowed to take the necessary subjects for this field. Instead he took history and agriculture which led to a career in teaching. “The purpose of the regime was to limit our subject choice, to limit our life choices.” Many of his teachers had only completed up to Grade 8, taken a crash course in teaching and returned to teach the younger years. The quality of teaching in the "non-white" schools was substandard.

Peter made it to university. On arrival he was told he did not have the relevant subjects for accounting and that the course for his second choice, law, was full. Peter never intended to become a teacher, but in the end, this was the only option available to him.

“To draw water and to collect wood, was what the devisers of apartheid wanted to create from the Bantu system. Now, south Africa is a country lacking in skills and high unemployment amongst young people.”

Read more about 'The Cost of Discrimination' video series here: http://en.iranwire.com/features/7264/

‪#‎humanrights‬ ‪#‎southafrica‬ ‪#‎iran‬ ‪#‎educationisnotacrime‬ ‪#‎education‬ ‪#‎equality‬ ‪#‎nelsonmandela‬ ‪#‎freedomofeducation‬ ‪#‎BIHE‬ ‪#‎Baha‬'i ‪#‎discrimination‬ ‪#‎hope‬

See More

A short video about censoring fashion, of course, in Iran, but also, in other parts of the world for a variety of reasons.

3,201 Views
3,201 Views
Journalism Is Not a Crime
May 27

Iranian censors love to strike out at originality, creativity, and anything a little bit unorthodox. So it's natural that the fashion industry would come under ...fire – usually for promoting unIslamic values.

But Iran's not the only country to lash out at models and the goods they promote. Around the world, everyone's at it, telling the public what they can and can't see – including the country that claims to promote free speech as one of its core values.

See More

A short video introducing our murals for Education is not a Crime campaign in Harlem. Many friends have asked me why New York? Why Harlem? The longer answer will be coming soon. But in this video, we briefly discuss the reasons behind choosing Harlem for this round of the campaign.

Education Is Not a Crime at Faison Firehouse Theater.

Meet George Faison – Tony Award winner, founder of the Faison Firehouse Theater – and Maziar Bahari as they celebrate Ricky Lee Gordon's mural for the Education... Is Not a Crime campaign in Harlem. "Anytime that you can give inspiration," George says, "just subliminally … it'll process, you'll forget about it, and then it'll come back to you. And that's what art does."

George and his business partner Tad Schnugg welcomed us with such enthusiasm and warmth that we felt instantly at home in Harlem. And of course everyone loves Ricky's work. The idea of this campaign – to support education equality around the world, and to tell people about the denial of this right to tens of thousands of young Baha'is in Iran – is quickly picking up speed in this iconic part of New York. Keep watching as we paint a dozen more murals over the next three months.

Thanks as ever to our curators Street Art Anarchy for doing the impossible in record time!

‪#‎educationisnotacrime‬ ‪#‎art‬ ‪#‎streetart‬ ‪#‎mural‬ ‪#‎muralist‬ ‪#‎harlem‬ ‪#‎iran‬ ‪#‎humanrights‬ ‪#‎bahairights‬

See More

Iranian revolutionary guards recently blamed Kim Kardashian for corrupting Iranian youth and forced a model to confess against herself and her friends and colleagues. But the Guards are not the only monsters who've tried to use fashion to control people's mind. Here's a review of a number of authoritarian regimes and dictators who've tried to interfere with how people are dressed, and failed:

5,109 Views
5,109 Views
Iranwire English

Iran has accused a group of models of being involved in a weird "plot" involving Kim Kardashian. Of course, Iran is not the first country to call in the fashion police. Here's a short history of fashion oppressors.