Iranian People placed flowers and candles outside the French embassy in Tehran to pay tribute to the victims of the deadly attacks in Paris November 13. The ISIS terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Related article: Iran’s reaction to 9/11 as covered by global media
Sources: realiran.org, imgur.com
“Iran’s sympathetic response to the American tragedy has been exceptional for a country under US economic siege for two decades. Only hours after the Sept. 11 attack, President Muhammad Khatami condemned it, as did Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Other officials have sent sympathetic messages, including one from the mayor of Tehran to the mayor of New York – the first public official contact between Iran and the US since the 1979 Iranian revolution. […]
More important, 60,000 spectators observed a minute of silence during a soccer match in Iran’s Azadi Stadium, and hundreds of young Iranians held a candle-lit vigil in Tehran.”
Source: The Christian Science Monitor | US and Iran must work together against Taliban by R. K. Ramazani – September 24, 2001
“Iranian women light candles in Tehran’s Mohseni Square in memory of the victims of the terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC. [see first picture above] […]
Even the most hardline Islamic clerics, who despise the United States, have been shocked into silence by the attacks. President Mohammad Khatami set the tone for Iran’s reaction with a statement that in Persian rang with deep compassion: ‘On behalf of the Iranian people and the Islamic Republic, I denounce the terrorist measures, which led to the killing of defenseless people, and I express my deep sorrow and sympathy with the American people.’ […]
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the attacks which have been blamed on Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. […]
‘Why should Americans deserve this? That’s a sick thought. They are just ordinary people like us,’ said Massoud Moshiri, as he bought cigarettes at a juice stand.” […]
Source: Times.com | Photoessay | Iran mourns America’s dead – September 18, 2001
On Tuesday, Ayatollah Khamenei, in his first public remarks on last week’s attacks, markedly failed to brand the United States an enemy. ‘Islam condemns the massacre of defenseless people, whether Muslim or Christian or others, anywhere and by any means,’ he said, adding pointedly: ‘And so Iran condemns any attack on Afghanistan that may lead to another human tragedy.’ […]
On Tuesday, more than than 3,000 mostly young people held a candlelight vigil in Tehran for the victims of the terror attacks, closely watched by security forces.
One reformist member of Parliament, Ahmad Borghani, even went to the United States interest section at the Swiss Embassy on Tuesday with a wreath of white flowers to sign the memorial book in sympathy with the family’s of the victims. ‘This tragedy has brought the two countries closer,’ he said. ‘But the United States must not expect Iran to cooperate in a military attack — considering our past relations.’
Source: The New York Times | World | A NATION CHALLENGED: TEHRAN; Iran Softens Tone Against the United States by Nazila Fathi – September 21, 2001
“IRAN — President Mohammad Khatami condemned ‘terrorist’ attacks on the United States”
Source: The New York Times | US | Reaction from around the world – September 12, 2001
“Leaders of Middle Eastern nations, including U.S. foes Libya and Iran, have condemned the terror attacks on the U.S. […] Mohammad Khatami, the Iranian president, said he felt ‘deep regret and sympathy with the victims.’ ”
Source: CNN.com | World | Attacks draw mixed response in Mideast – September 12, 2001
“Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, a moderate who is struggling for power against the country’s hard-line Islamic leaders, expressed ‘deep regret and sympathy with the victims’ and said ‘it is an international duty to try to undermine terrorism.’ ”
Source: FoxNews.com – September 12, 2001
“And in Iran, Tehran’s main football stadium observed an unprecedented minute’s silence in sympathy with the victims. Iran’s Ayatollah Imami Kashani spoke of a catastrophic act of terrorism which could only be condemned by all Muslims, adding the whole world should mobilise against terrorism.”
Source: BBC News | World | Americas | Islamic world deplores US losses – September 14, 2001
“Even in Tehran, where anti-American chants are all too common, thousands of people attending a World Cup qualifying match between Bahrain and Iran observed a moment of silence.”
Source: The New York Times | US | AFTER THE ATTACKS: THE VIGILS; Surrounded by Grief, People Around the World Pause and Turn to Prayer by Dan Barry – September 15, 2001
“In Iran, antipathy toward the United States was set aside as 60,000 spectators and players observed a minute of silence at the Tehran soccer stadium before a World Cup qualifying match.”
Source: Spartanburg Herald-Journal | REACTION ABROAD | World grieves along with America by Audrey Woods from Associated Press – September 15, 2001
“Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has strongly condemned the suicide terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. ‘Mass killings of human beings are catastrophic acts which are condemned’ he said ‘wherever they may happen and whoever the perpetrators and the victims may be’. ”
Source: BBC News | World | Middle East | Iran condemns attacks on US – September 17, 2001
“Last week, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran, one of the most conservative and anti-American Muslim clerical leaders, called the fight against terrorism a ‘holy war.’ He joins a host of learned Muslims who have loudly condemned terrorism as forbidden in Islamic law in the wake of the attacks on Sept. 11.”
Source: The New York Times | Opinion | Islam and the opposition to terrorism by Roy Mottahedeh – September 30, 2001
“After news of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks spread to Tehran, hundreds of Iranians, students, merchants and housewives joined in a candlelight vigil in a downtown square. Many were crying. Three weeks later, I am still approached by ordinary Iranians, in restaurants, Internet cafes and on the street, telling me how sorry they are, and how worried they are about the ‘American war’ that is about to begin, just next door.”
Source: NBC News | Inside Iran, a nation conflicted by Jim Maceda – October 7, 2001
“On the evening of September 11, 2001, about two hundred young people gathered in Madar Square, on the north side of Tehran, in a spontaneous candlelight vigil to express sympathy and support for the United States. A second vigil, the next night, was attacked by the basij, a volunteer force of religious vigilantes, and then dispersed by the police. […]
The statement that Mohammad Khatami, Iran’s popularly elected President, made was extraordinary — extraordinary to American ears, at least. ‘My deep sympathy goes out to the American nation, particularly those who have suffered from the attacks and also the families of the victims,’ he said. ‘Terrorism is doomed, and the international community should stem it and take effective measures in a bid to eradicate it.’ ”
Source: The New Yorker | Letter from Tehran | Shadow Land by Joe Klein – February 18, 2002
“Iranian Students are calling for pro-american demonstrations, marking 9/11
A Public Call For Rememberance of the 9/11 Tragedy […]
Now, with the first anniversary of 9/11 tragedy upon us, as SMCCDI expresses its sympathy to the families of the victims and survivors of that ungodly event, and the honorable nation of America; it invites all free spirited Iranians to honor the memory of the victims of that day by gathering and lighting a candle in front of the main entrance of the Tehran university and major public squares in Tehran, and the main squares in other cities and townships, from 6:00 PM till 9:00 PM, on Wednesday 11 September.”
Source: daneshjoo.org | Post 1873 by SMCCDI Political Committee – September 10, 2002
“Finally, I’ve found a pro-American country. Everywhere I’ve gone in Iran, with one exception, people have been exceptionally friendly and fulsome in their praise for the United States […]. Iran is also the only Muslim country I know where citizens responded to the 9/11 attacks with a spontaneous candlelight vigil as a show of sympathy. ”
Source: The New York Times | Opinion | OP-ED Columnist: Those Friendly Iranians by Nicholas D. Kristof – May 5, 2004
“Ordinary Iranians have long had a softer stance toward the West than their leaders; after the Sept. 11 attacks, Iranians held a spontaneous candlelight vigil in Tehran.”
Source: Chicago Tribune | News | Contenders for Iranian presidency talk up U.S. by Evans Osnos – June 12, 2005
“In Iran, vast crowds turned out on the streets and held candlelit vigils for the victims. Sixty-thousand spectators respected a minute’s silence at Tehran’s football stadium.”
Source: BBC News | Middle East | Iran-US: Gulf of misunderstanding by Gordon Corera – September 25, 2006
“Mourners held a spontaneous candlelight vigil as thousands of people took to the streets of north Tehran chanting, ‘Death to terrorists.’ Iranian soccer fans observed a minute of silence before a match with Bahrain. Even Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the attacks: ‘Mass killing is wrong, whether it’s in Hiroshima, Bosnia, New York, or Washington.’ During Friday prayers at Qom, Ayatollah Ibrahim Amini said that the Iranian people grieved with the relatives of those killed, and the traditional slogan ‘Death to America’ was absent from the crowds’ mantras.
Source: Command Posts | Focus on: 9/11, Iran | After 9/11: The United States and Iran by David Crist – September 11, 2012
“Iranians mourn 9/11 victims”
Sources: shabhaft.blogfa.com | Post 134 and LiveLeak.com | Forgotten fact: night of 9/11, Iran – Spontaneous candlelight vigil to express sympathy and support for the American people
Other must read Iran-USA news: The other Iran | Tag | USA
Thousands of Iranian Armenians rallied in Tehran on Friday, protesting in front of the Turkish Embassy to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
Many in the crowd, who marched from the Armenian Church in Tehran to the Turkish Embassy, held signs in Farsi and English asking the international community to recognize the genocide, while others chanted slogans calling for justice and the downfall of the Turkish government. “What Armenians demand now is that the Turkish government recognize [the massacre] as genocide and accept its legal consequences,” Karen Khanlari told Iran’s Press TV during the protests.
There were different events organized to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on April 23 and April 24. In Tehran were the religious ceremonies held at the St. Sarkis Cathedral.
Following sovereign countries have officially recognized the Armenian Genocide: Argentina (2003) , Austria (2015), Belgium (1998), Bolivia (2014), Canada (1996), Chile (2007), Cyprus (1975) was the first country to raise the issue to the UN General Assembly, Czech Republic (2015), France (1998), Germany (2015), Greece (1999), Holy See (2000), Italy (2000), Lithuania (2005), Lebanon (1997), Netherlands (2004), Poland (2005), Russia (1995), Slovakia (2004), Sweden (2010), Switzerland (2003), Uruguay (1965) was the first country to recognize the events as genocide, Venezuela (2005). On Apr 24, 2015 the Bulgarian parliament approved a resolution using the phrase “mass extermination of the Armenian People in the Ottoman Empire”. The United States of America, Israel, the United Kingdom, Australia or Spain do not use the term genocide to refer to these facts.
Robert Beglaryan and Karen Khanlaryan, MPs of Armenian origin, have also had speeches in Iran Majlis concerning the Armenian Genocide Centennial. “We call on the government and the President Rouhani in particular to call the real facts by their name. That will make it possible to support the security in the region,” Robert Beglaryan said in his speech.
Iran has been conducting a moderate and cautious policy regarding the Armenian Genocide over the last years. Remarkably, though, the MPs of the 6th Majlis of Iran condemned the Armenian Genocide. Seyyed Mohammad Khatami, then President of Iran, visited Tsitsernakaberd during his official visit to Yerevan on September 9, 2004. Vice president of Iran, Hamid Baghaei, pronounced the word ‘genocide’ during the conference ‘Iran: The Bridge of Victory’ in August 2010. “The government of Ottoman Turkey committed genocide in 1915; and a certain number of Armenians fell victim to it,” he said although the statement was refuted not to aggravate the relations with Turkey.
However, both the political and religious elite of Iran, as well as ordinary citizens admit the fact of the Armenian Genocide, as according to the Iranian sources, the Ottoman Turks have not only perpetrated genocide against the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks, but also have slaughtered many Iranians in Urmia Region in 1918.
In Iran there are Armenian Genocide Memorials in Abadan, Ahraz, Arak, Isfahan, Tehran and Urumieh, all of them on Armenian Churches ground. In Abadan the Genocide Memorial was renovated since it was next to the church damaged during the Iran Iraq war.
Other Commemoration events worldwide:
1. Los Angeles Times | Armenian Genocide Anniversary Apr 24, 2015
2. The Huffington Post | Poignant photos from around the world show Armenian Genocide has not been forgotten
Sources: www.hyeli.com, Wikipedia | Armenian Genocide recognition, armenian-genocide.org | Recognition countries, Mehr News Agency (MNA) 1, MNA 2, IRNA 1, IRNA 2, ISNA 1, Tasnim News Agency, panorama>>am | Asory Genocide, panorama>>am | Rouhani letter, armenian-genocide.org | Genocide Memorials in Iran, uacla.com | Armenian Genocide Memorials, team-aow.discuforum.info | Monuments Commemoratifs du Genocide Armenien
The start of a new year is associated with dreams and new things we would like to achieve.
Iranians wrote down what they wish of this New Year and were photographed holding their written wishes and an element of the haft sin. Enjoy the photo gallery!
Click on a photo and see the translation of all the wishes:
Learn more about the Iranian New Year (Nowruz), its traditions and food:
The other Iran | Nowruz
Sources: Mehr News Agency
As Christians around the world celebrate Christmas, the holiday season is also observed in Iran, a predominantly Muslim nation where Christians make up less than 1% of the country’s approximate population of 77.5 million.
Christmas trees decorated with red, green and gold gift boxes placed behind shop windows or at the entrances of different shopping malls and hotels can be seen, especially in the Christian neighborhoods of Tehran.
Decorated trees, along with Nativity scenes of the Virgin Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, can also be seen in shops along Mirza Shirazi Avenue and Ostaad Nejatollahi (Villa Avenue) and its surrounding neighborhoods in central Tehran, where many Iranian Christians reside.
Shermin, an Iranian Christian, told Al-Monitor, “Like other Christians in the world, we celebrate Christmas at home along with our family and friends, exchange gifts and party.” She added, “There are a lot of good things to eat at this joyful time of the year.”
Some Iranian Christians celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25 and New Years’ on Jan. 1, while Armenians celebrate Christmas at the same time as the Epiphany on Jan. 6.
Despite being a minority, Iran’s Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians are recognized as established religious minorities and are represented in parliament, and also enjoy freedom to practice their religions and perform their religious rituals.
“You can’t celebrate Christmas in any Islamic country the way we do in Iran,” Rafi Moradians, an Iranian Armenian in Tehran, told Al-Monitor. Referring to the community’s exclusive sport and cultural club, Rafi said, “Authorities don’t impose any restrictions on us. We attend church services and there are also special celebrations at the Ararat Club.”
The festive mood, however, is not just limited to the Christian neighborhoods of Tehran, as some shops, especially those in the northern parts of the city, dedicate at least some section of their shop windows to decorations such as candy canes, snow globes and Santa Claus figures.
In recent years, municipal authorities have also put up banners celebrating the birth of Jesus on many main streets and at the St. Sarkis Armenian Church on Villa Avenue, where a service is held every year.
Unlike other countries in the region where public celebration of Christmas is limited to hotels frequented by foreigners, there is no such restriction in Tehran. The sale of Christmas ornaments, which during the first years of the Islamic Revolution was limited to Christian districts, can now be seen around town.
In fact, festive Christmas decoration and celebration take place throughout the country, specifically in major cities such as Esfahan, Shiraz, Tabriz and even religious cities such as Mashhad.
Over the past decade, celebrating Christmas has become increasingly popular among young Iranians, regardless of their religion. Of course, the trend has a partly religious basis, as Muslims acknowledge the birth of Jesus Christ and recognize him as one of God’s holy messengers. But another reason for taking part in Christmas celebrations seems to be rooted in the Iranian youth’s desire to “keep up with the rest of the world.”
“I get so excited when I see shops decorated with Christmas trees. It gives me the same good feeling and joy that I get during the Persian New Year, Nowruz,” Venus, a Muslim student who studies Iranian art at one of Tehran’s universities, told Al-Monitor.
Ordinary Iranians are not alone in the holiday celebrations and in exchanging greetings at Christmas time. This year, President Hassan Rouhani sent season’s greetings to Pope Francis and world leaders. Through his Twitter account, Rouhani reached out to ordinary Christians around the globe, as well as those in Iran.
“May Jesus Christ, the prophet of peace and love, bless us all on this day. Wishing Merry #Christmas to those celebrating, esp #Iranian Christians,” he tweeted.
Also, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif used his 100th tweet to express hope for a more peaceful 2015.
The Twitter account belonging to the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also featured a series of messages on the occasion of Christmas. One of the messages read: “It’s time for all caring Muslims, Christians & Jews to obey the prophets & truly honor #Jesus’ birthday by standing up against Israeli crimes.”
Covering Christmas and New Year’s events has also become routine for Iranian media in the past decade. For instance, the state news agency IRNA published a photo report of celebrations across the world this year. A similar photo report was published by the conservative Tasnim news agency and videos of Christmas celebrations around the globe were broadcast on state TV channels.
“As an Armenian, I’ve never felt any discrimination and I’ve been treated just as other Iranians,” said Rafi, who is a Western-educated Armenian and has worked in various government organizations, including as a senior adviser in one of Iran’s ministries.
“If I had any problems living as an Armenian in Iran, I would have left the country a long time ago,” he told Al-Monitor.
This year’s Christmas coincided with a mourning period for Muslims, Shiites in particular. But Iranian Christians say they have not encountered any restrictions on their celebration of Christmas or their preparations for the New Year.
Source: AL-Monitor, MEHR, IRNA
by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson for npr
What do you get when three Israelis, two Iranians and a German walk into a room? A Berlin-based world music ensemble known as Sistanagila, named after an Iranian province — Sistan and Baluchestan — and the popular Jewish folk song “Hava Nagila.” (courtesy of Sistanagila)
Like many Iranians, Babak Shafian cringed over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, his country’s former president, rhetoric about Israel. The 33-year-old computer scientist says the diatribes ignored thousands of years of shared history between Jews and Persians.
“The main thing which annoyed me really is that Ahmadinejad was presented in the Western media as the main voice of Iranian society,” says Shafian, who moved to Germany 14 years ago.
He decided the best antidote would be a musical collaboration with the alleged enemy. The problem, however, is that he didn’t know how to play a musical instrument. So three years ago, Shafian talked to friends and scoured the Internet to find Israelis and Iranians living in Berlin who did.
Yuval Halpern, a 34-year-old lsraeli composer there, recalls getting Shafian’s invitation through couchsurfing.org, a website that connects travelers with locals offering a place to crash.
“At first I thought he’s a terrorist wanting to kidnap me, as most Israelis think when they think of Iran,” Halpern says. “But then I thought I would just meet him and see how it is because I thought the idea was a nice one, and that is how it started.”
Shafian, his German wife, two other Israelis and two Iranians now form the band Sistanagila, which plays what members describe as world music with improvisations and a folksy flair. The name, like the group, is a mix of Israel and Iran, combining the names of an Iranian province and a popular Jewish folk song played at bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs and weddings.
Source: NPR
Iran-cabinet members with Ph.D. degrees from U.S. universities
“Take, for example, Rouhani’s chief of staff, Mohammad Nahavandian. He spent many years in the United States and has a Ph.D. in economics from George Washington University. Or Javad Zarif, the foreign affairs minister and chief negotiator in the recent nuclear deal between Iran and six global powers. He studied at the University of San Francisco and completed his doctorate at the University of Denver. For five years, he lived in New York and was Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations. Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, has a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from MIT. Mahmoud Vaezi, the communication minister, studied electrical engineering at Sacramento and San Jose State Universities and was enrolled in the Ph.D. program at Louisiana State University (he ultimately earned a doctorate in international relations at Warsaw University). Other cabinet members have advanced degrees from universities in Europe and Iran. Abbas Ahmad Akhoundi, the transportation minister, has a Ph.D. from the University of London, while President Rouhani got his from Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland. The new government in Tehran, in other words, might well be one of the most technocratic in the world.”
Source: The Atlantic | The Case for Giving Iran’s Scholar-Diplomats a Chance
Other surprising articles regarding Iran and the US: The other Iran | Tag | USA
Roberto Toscano – Italy’s ambassador to Iran, 2003-2008
In 2004, when I was Italy’s ambassador to Iran, I had the occasion to tour the country together with a couple of American friends, at the beginning rather hesitant to come and visit, but then overwhelmed by the hospitality and politeness that are so typically Iranian and even more by the “extra” of both hospitality and politeness that came out when people realized that they were American.
One episode has remained marked in their memory (and in mine too): at the end of a visit to the tomb of the poet Saadi in Shiraz a mullah, who had been listening to the English translation of our guide, and had asked him where those tourists were from, went up to my friend, shook his hand, said (in English) “God bless you” and left.
[…] Most people who have seen the recent movie Argo […] are convinced that what they see is contemporary Iran: still hostile, still radical, still violently and massively anti-American. The truth is rather different. Certainly the regime finds in anti-Americanism a sort of marker of identity […] What is interesting, however, is that anti-American rhetoric is not focused on what America is, but on what America does. […] the 1953 Anglo-American coup against Mossadeq or the support given to Saddam in its 1980 aggression against Iran.
The fact is, however, that this regime narrative, and the hostility toward the U.S., is not really shared by the majority of Iranians. […]
Iran — and this will surprise the average American — is not a closed country, and its citizens can travel abroad, if they get the necessary entry visas, of course. In the second place, educated Iranians (not a narrow minority, differently from other countries in the area) have access to reliable information about the world and also about the U.S., in spite of the attempts of the regime to filter “subversive” material in both TV programs and internet traffic. […]
Actually, I found that in Iran there is a lot of admiration for America: not necessarily for its policy, but for its economy and for its culture, wildly popular especially among Iranian youth. […] A strong proof of the fact that America is not hated by Iranians came with September 11, when thousands of Iranians went spontaneously to the streets for a candlelight vigil in homage and solidarity to the victims of the attack on the Twin Towers.
The lack in Iran of the generalized and often virulent anti-Americanism that characterizes Middle Eastern populations is something that Americans traveling in Iran, even in the present tense political situation, can testify. Not only is there no hostility toward American citizens, but instead we see curiosity and friendship at the same time, though often combined with criticism for specific U.S. policies and behavior.
Definitely crowds chanting ‘marg bar Amrika’ (death to America) are today both very rare and not very much convinced: they tend to be formed by activists bused to the demonstrations. […]
Many, if not most Iranians, may be fed up with the regime, especially in its present incarnation in President Ahmadinejad, but they are a proud, patriotic people. They have problems with their leaders, but not with their country, especially in the event of an external attack.
The full article: The Huffington Post | Roberto Toscano | No, Iranians don’t hate you
Audrey hanging with a group of Iranian women in Masouleh.
Traveling to Iran as an American citizen may sound complicated and dangerous. It’s not. We’re here to dispel the myths and answer the questions piling up in our inbox based on our visit to Iran just a few weeks ago.
Our aim in the following Q&A is to answer actual reader queries and to help demystify the process of traveling to Iran.
Are American citizens legally allowed to visit Iran?
Although the United States has imposed sanctions against Iran, there are currently no restrictions on American citizens visiting Iran as tourists. Currently, about 1,000-1,500 Americans visit Iran each year. […]
As an American, how will Iranians treat me?
Iranian people were often shocked to discover that we were American and that we were able to get a visa to their country. Once this fact set in, they often went over the top in welcoming us — everything from cordial greetings, to smiles, hugs, gifts and invitations to homes — especially when our guide was out of sight. We joke that it’s the closest we’ve felt to being rock stars.
Read the whole article if interested in details about getting a visa and organizing the trip:
Uncornered Market – Travel and Life Adventure | Traveling to Iran as Americans
Anyhow the blog is just great:
Uncornered Market – Travel and Life Adventure | Travel | Iran
Maryam Mirzakhani is the first woman to ever win the Fields Medal – known as the “Nobel Prize of mathematics” – in recognition of her contributions to the understanding of the symmetry of curved surfaces. […]
Mirzakhani was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. As a young girl she dreamed of becoming a writer. By high school, however, her affinity for solving mathematical problems and working on proofs had shifted her sights. […]
She became known to the international math scene as a teenager, winning gold medals at both the 1994 and 1995 International Math Olympiads – she finished with a perfect score in the latter competition. Mathematicians who would later be her mentors and colleagues followed the mathematical proofs she developed as an undergraduate.
After earning her bachelor’s degree from Sharif University of Technology in 1999, she began work on her doctorate at Harvard University under the guidance of Fields Medal recipient Curtis McMullen. […] —By Bjorn Carey for Stanford University
Interesting Interview with Mirzakhani by The Guardian:
G: What are some of your earliest memories of mathematics?
I grew up in a family with three siblings. My parents were always very supportive and encouraging. It was important for them that we have meaningful and satisfying professions …
In many ways, it was a great environment for me, though these were hard times during the Iran-Iraq war. My older brother was the person who got me interested in science in general. He used to tell me what he learned in school. My first memory of mathematics is probably the time that he told me about the problem of adding numbers from 1 to 100. I think he had read in a popular science journal how Gauss solved this problem. The solution was quite fascinating for me.
G: What experiences and people were especially influential on your mathematical education?
I was very lucky in many ways. The war ended when I finished elementary school; I couldn’t have had the great opportunities that I had if I had been born 10 years earlier. I went to a great high school in Tehran – Farzanegan – and had very good teachers. I met my friend Roya Beheshti during the first week of middle school. It is invaluable to have a friend who shares your interests, and it helps you stay motivated.
Our school was close to a street full of bookstores in Tehran. I remember how walking along this crowded street, and going to the bookstores, was so exciting for us. We couldn’t skim through the books like people usually do here in a bookstore, so we would end up buying a lot of random books. Also, our school principal was a strong-willed woman who was willing to go a long way to provide us with the same opportunities as the boys’ school.
Later, I got involved in Math Olympiads that made me think about harder problems. As a teenager, I enjoyed the challenge. But most importantly, I met many inspiring mathematicians and friends at Sharif University. The more I spent time on mathematics, the more excited I became.
G: Could you comment on the differences between mathematical education in Iran and in the US?
It is hard for me to comment on this question since my experience here in the US is limited to a few universities, and I know very little about the high school education here. However, I should say that the education system in Iran is not the way people might imagine here. As a graduate student at Harvard, I had to explain quite a few times that I was allowed to attend a university as a woman in Iran. While it is true that boys and girls go to separate schools up to high school, this does not prevent them from participating say in the Olympiads or the summer camps. […]
G: What advice would you give those who would like to know more about mathematics – what it is, what its role in society has been, and so son?
This is a difficult question. I don’t think that everyone should become a mathematician, but I do believe that many students don’t give mathematics a real chance. I did poorly in math for a couple of years in middle school; I was just not interested in thinking about it. I can see that without being excited mathematics can look pointless and cold. The beauty of mathematics only shows itself to more patient followers.
Source: The Guardian
Excerpts of an article by Erica Klarreich published in Quanta Magazine that shows some other interesting aspects about her personality:
With her low voice and steady, gray-blue eyes, Mirzakhani projects an unwavering self-confidence. She has an equal tendency, however, toward humility. Asked to describe her contribution to a particular research problem, she laughed, hesitated and finally said: “To be honest, I don’t think I’ve had a very huge contribution.” And when an email arrived in February saying that she would receive what is widely regarded as the highest honor in mathematics — the Fields Medal, which will be awarded today at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul, South Korea — she assumed that the account from which the email was sent had been hacked.
Other mathematicians, however, describe Mirzakhani’s work in glowing terms. […]
As a child growing up in Tehran, Mirzakhani had no intention of becoming a mathematician. Her chief goal was simply to read every book she could find. She also watched television biographies of famous women such as Marie Curie and Helen Keller, and later read “Lust for Life,” a novel about Vincent van Gogh. These stories instilled in her an undefined ambition to do something great with her life — become a writer, perhaps. […]
In her first week at the new school, she made a lifelong friend, Roya Beheshti, who is now a mathematics professor at Washington University in St. Louis. As children, the two explored the bookstores that lined the crowded commercial street near their school. Browsing was discouraged, so they randomly chose books to buy. “Now, it sounds very strange,” Mirzakhani said. “But books were very cheap, so we would just buy them.”
To her dismay, Mirzakhani did poorly in her mathematics class that year. Her math teacher didn’t think she was particularly talented, which undermined her confidence. At that age, “it’s so important what others see in you,” Mirzakhani said. “I lost my interest in math.”
The following year, Mirzakhani had a more encouraging teacher, however, and her performance improved enormously. “Starting from the second year, she was a star,” Beheshti said. […]
In 1994, when Mirzakhani was 17, she and Beheshti made the Iranian math Olympiad team. Mirzakhani’s score on the Olympiad test earned her a gold medal. The following year, she returned and achieved a perfect score. […]
After completing an undergraduate degree in mathematics at Sharif University in Tehran in 1999, Mirzakhani went to graduate school at Harvard University, where she started attending McMullen’s seminar. […]
She started going to McMullen’s office and peppering him with questions, scribbling down notes in Farsi.
“She had a sort of daring imagination,” recalled McMullen, a 1998 Fields medalist. “She would formulate in her mind an imaginary picture of what must be going on, then come to my office and describe it. At the end, she would turn to me and say, ‘Is it right?’ I was always very flattered that she thought I would know.”
Read on here: Quanta Magazine
Other interesting articles on Mirzakhani in iranianroots.com:
http://iranianroots.com/?s=Mirzakhani
On the morning of January 1 2009 I took a ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia in Uruguay. This would be the first of many border crossings as I embarked on what I knew would be the biggest adventure of my life: the Odyssey Expedition, the first surface journey to every country in the world. It would take me to more than 200 countries, 60 islands and six continents. I thought I could do it in a year. It took the best part of four.
…
One place that will always stick in my mind is Iran. Instead of the stern, joyless place I expected, it turned out to be the warmest and most hospitable nation in the world. I was treated like an honoured guest by everybody I met. On an overnight bus, an old Persian grandmother smiled at me and passed me her mobile phone. I took it from her, a little nonplussed, and put it to my ear. The guy on the other end told me in perfect English that I was sitting behind his grandmother and she was concerned about me. When I asked why, he told me that the bus got in very early the next day and she was worried that I wouldn’t have anything to eat. She wanted to know if she could take me home with her and cook me breakfast.
What I have learnt from this adventure is that there are good people all over the world; people who will go out of their way to help out a stranger in need. I have learnt that people wherever they live are not that different: we all just want a fair deal. My faith in humanity has been restored, although my faith in politicians is even lower than it was when I started.
Read the blog and enjoy Silvia’s descriptions and pictures. Here are the links to the posts on Iran:
http://www.heartmybackpack.com/blog/backpacking-solo-through-iran/
http://www.heartmybackpack.com/blog/kafka-cigarettes-tehran/
http://www.heartmybackpack.com/blog/isfahan-iran/
If you are lazy just read some quotes here and go to the links to enjoy the pictures:
“I mean, Iran is home to one of the world’s oldest civilizations, hosts thirteen UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and boasts beautiful landscapes stretching from dense rain forests to snowcapped mountains to desert basins. Plus, so many travelers whom I met in Central Asia absolutely raved about Iran. The hospitable people, delicious food and historic sites – how could I not add Iran to my travel itinerary?”
“My first Couchsurfing hosts in Tehran, a young Ph.D. student and her roommate, said they were so excited to be hosting an American girl, and that they hope more tourists will start to come to Iran. They were incredibly warm and welcoming hosts, cooking delicious Persian food and asking me countless questions about Norway and the U.S. and foreigners’ impressions of Iran.”
“The thing is, I haven’t felt alone once since I landed in Iran. The receptionist at my first hotel took me in as her daughter, accompanying me to breakfast and lunch and suggesting sites for me to visit, my Couchsurfing hosts were like cool older sisters, chatting with me about religion and politics as well as the plot twists of Lost and J-Lo’s divorce (I’m so out of touch), and Rana truly has adopted me as her sister, with an invitation to lunch turning into a trip to visit Esfahan and then several days with her family in Tehran.”
“So far my experience in Iran has only been one of warmth and hospitality, and really, really amazing food! Though, in a few hours Rana and I are heading to Marivan, a small Kurdish city on the border to Iraq. So you know, maybe I’ll have some more eventful things to share from there! (Kidding, family, Kurdistan is of course totally safe.)”
“My stay in Tehran was far too short and left much of the city unexplored, but I did leave with an overwhelming crush on a city so full of life and passion. Shopkeepers greeted me with warmth (if also a degree of surprise), and the discussions I had with people there were always filled with genuine interest and reflection. ”
“While now a bustling modern city, Isfahan was once one of the largest cities in the world as it sat on a major intersection of the main north-south and east-west routes crossing Iran. We seemed to stumble on reminders of Isfahan’s past glory around every corner, from impressive squares and tree-lined boulevards to covered bridges, palaces and mosques.”
“Moreover, while Isfahan might be dominated by Islamic architecture, the city is also home to important Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian sites. Rana and I visited the Church of Saint Joseph of Arimathea, built by an Armenian community that settled in Isfahan in the early 1600s.”
Ok if you read so far, just make sure to visit the links above
All must read USA – Iran posts: The other Iran | Tag | USA
The game was an exceptionally fair game and both teams received the 1998 World Cup FIFA Fair Play Award “for the two countries’ good sportsmanship surrounding the World Cup match between their teams, despite their mutual political tensions for nearly 20 years.”
Below more photos from the match and the episode “Breaking Barriers: USA vs. Iran, 1998” from Fox Sports’ “Rise as One Series”:
In 1939, Poland was invaded by Germany and the Soviet Union. The war and the destruction caused by heavy bombardment resulted in the displacement of millions of Polish civilians. Most of them were sent by Joseph Stalin to Russia as prisoners in labor camps in Siberia and other parts of the Soviet Union. It was not until Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 that Stalin freed the Poles and agreed to the creation of a Polish army to fight the Nazis, and that’s when the great journey started. Iran was chosen as the rendezvous point of the now-free Polish prisoners in Russia. […] Every day, more ships came from Russia bringing more Poles to Bandar-e Anzali. Some Poles also entered Iran from the north-eastern city of Mashhad.
The healthy men and women were organized in an army and were sent to join the war effort. The rest were sent to Tehran and Ahvaz. The sick were treated in hospitals in Tehran, and the American and British Red Cross donated clothes and food. Additionally, Polish language classes were established for the kids. The orphans were sent to Isfahan. Ryszard Antolak claimed that Iranian civil authorities and certain private individuals vacated the premises to accommodate the children. Schools, hospitals and social organizations sprang up quickly all over the city to cater to the growing colony. The new Shah took special interest in the Polish children of Isfahan. He allowed them the use of his swimming pool and invited groups of them to his palace for dinner. […]
After the war was over, many Polish men, women, and children who lived in Iran went back home. The Poles who lived in Iran, even for a little while, however, always remember Iran as a great host. As said by Ryszard Antolak, “The deepest imprint of the Polish sojourn in Iran can be found in the memoirs and narratives of those who lived through it. The debt and gratitude felt by the exiles towards their host country echoes warmly throughout all the literature. The kindness and sympathy of the ordinary Iranian population towards the Poles is everywhere spoken of.” In the summer of 2008, the Polish postal service issued a stamp commemorating the role of Isfahan in caring for Polish children. Source: www.mypersianspeakingfriends.org
In all, between 114,000 and 300,000 Poles are thought to have made it to Iran. […] “The friendly Persian people crowded round the buses shouting what must have been words of welcome and pushed gifts of dates, nuts, roasted peas with raisins and juicy pomegranates through the open windows,” wrote Krystyna Skwarko, a schoolteacher who came with her own two sick children to take charge of a growing orphanage in Isfahan. Skwarko’s book, “The Invited,” recounts a journey from Anzali, through Persia and on to New Zealand, where she and 700 orphans were eventually resettled. She died in 1995. More than 13,000 of the arrivals in Iran were children, many orphans whose parents had died on the way. In Russia, starving mothers had pushed their children onto passing trains to Iran in hopes of saving them. Skwarko’s impossible task was to wipe the scars of war from children who had been robbed of their childhood. […] Jewish orphans were cared for by a Jewish organization in Iran and later sent to Israel. Others went on to new lives in the United States, Britain, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and elsewhere. Source: Cornell University Library
Book on this topic: The Children Of Esfahan – Polish Refugees in Iran by Abolqasem Jala
Iran’s Vice President and Head of the Department of Environment Masoumeh Ebtekar has won the Energy Globe Foundation award for her long-term efforts in the field of environment protection.
Wolfgang Neumann, the Austrian founder of the Energy Globe Foundation, took a trip to Iran to present the prize to Ebtekar, who is the first women ever receiving the award.
Some more info about Masoumeh Ebtekar from Wikipedia:
Ebtekar was born in Tehran as Niloufar Ebtekar in a middle-class family. Her first name translates to “Innocent Water Lily” in English. Ebtekar’s father studied at the University of Pennsylvania, and she lived with her parents in Upper Darby of Philadelphia. During her six years in Philadelphia, she developed “near-perfect, American-accented English.”
[…]
Ebtekar has served as faculty member at Tarbiat Modares University, which is a post graduate academic center located in Tehran. As an Associate Professor in Immunology, she has taught, supervised and advised PhD and MSc students. Ebtekar currently teaches cytokines, viral immunology, HIV vaccines, aging, immunology of the nervous system and psychoneuroimmunology. She has currently filed 41 ISI scientific articles in the field of immunology in her name. In her speech to the Eleventh International Congress of Immunology in Tehran, she mentioned the detrimental effect of sanctions on the advancement of science in Iran and noted that sanctions should not be directed against nations. Ebtekar is a member of several research board committees and a reviewer for two international and four national immunology journals.
Check my reply to this post to read my comment.
Check the photos here: Payvand Iran News
Abdol Hossein Sardari: Iranian Schindler
An Iranian official risking his life to save Jews? This scenario, while implausible nowadays, actually happened during the Holocaust.
Meet Abdol Hossein Sardari, a diplomat at the Iranian mission in Paris during the 1940s. Known as the “Iranian Schindler,” he helped thousands of Jews escape certain death – by turning the Nazi race ideology on its head. […]
Born into a privileged Iranian family, Sardari was a junior diplomat at the Paris embassy who enjoyed fine dining and the company of pretty women. After the Germans invaded France and the Iranian ambassador left the capital and went to Vichy to reconstitute the embassy there, Sardari was put in charge of consular affairs in Paris. When the Nazis started implementing anti-Jewish decrees in occupied France, Sardari made it his mission to protect his fellow Iranians in the region, regardless of their religion. […]
Writing on the letterhead of the Imperial Consulate of Iran, Sardari tried to convince the authorities that according to “an ethnographic and historical study,” the members of the Jewish communities of Persia and central Asia were not Semitic but rather Aryan, like the Germans themselves. […]
Sardari’s plan actually worked. When Jews were forced to wear the yellow Star of David, a directive was issued that Iranian Jews should be exempt. In addition, Sardari gave out between 500 and 1,000 Iranian passports, without the consent of his superiors. This saved 2,000 to 3,000 Jewish lives, as passports were issued for entire families.
Sardari never took any credit for what he did. When Yad Vashem asked him in 1978, three years before he died a poor exile in London, about his wartime activities, he responded: “As you may know, I had the pleasure of being the Iranian consul in Paris during the German occupation of France, and as such it was my duty to save all Iranians, including Iranian Jews.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and other Jewish institutions have posthumously honored Sardari for his actions.
Read more: Beating the Nazis at their own game | The Times of Israel
The BBC adds:
When Britain and Russia invaded Iran in September 1941, Sardari’s humanitarian task become more perilous. Iran signed a treaty with the Allies and Sardari was ordered by Tehran to return home as soon as possible. But despite being stripped of his diplomatic immunity and status, Sardari resolved to remain in France and carry on helping the Iranian Jews, at considerable risk to his own safety, using money from his inheritance to keep his office going. […]
Fariborz Mokhtari, the author of “In the Lion’s Shadow: The Iranian Schindler and his homeland in the Second World War,” a new biography about Sardari states:
“Here you have a Muslim Iranian who goes out of his way, risks his life, certainly risks his career and property and everything else, to save fellow Iranians,” he says. “There is no distinction ‘I am Muslim, he is Jew’ or whatever.”
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16190541
“Though the world’s attention has focused on Iran’s advancing nuclear program, Iranian scientists have moved to the forefront in embryonic stem cell research, according to a recent joint study by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”
—Source: The Washington Times
“Thirty years after the toppling of the Shah in Iran, the nation is undergoing another revolution of sorts. Iran is investing heavily in stem cell research, and despite researchers working with limited access to laboratory equipment and resources, the country may emerge as a scientific force to be reckoned with in the stem cell field.”
—Source: The Scientist
“The reactions I received as an American traveling for 10 days in Tehran, Isfahan and Qum mirrored Iran’s politics and posture in this moment — there is a serious, even eager, interest in reconnecting with the West, even as Iranians struggle with three decades of poisoned relations. […]
One important voice in advancing that transformation is Grand Ayatollah Youssef Saanei. […] He endorsed the nuclear deal and said that, “today the people in power in Iran and the people in power in the United States should forgive each other, should forget the past and start the friendship.”
Source: The New York Times | What Iranians Say Now About ‘the Great Satan’ by Carol Giacomo
http://www.payvand.com/news/13/dec/1175.html
“Pouya Idani of Iran won the World Youth Chess Championship 2013 held in Al Ain, the United Arab Emirates on Saturday. ”
Also: “Pouya Idani grabs the trophy in Khazar Open 2012”
http://www.chessdom.com/pouya-idani-grabs-the-trophy-in-khazar-open-2012/
“Now, when I go over my memories of that exceptional trip after having stayed in Iran for a few days, I see that the most prominent part of those memories is warm and honest treatment as well as the hospitality of the Iranian people. Everybody there hails you with a polite smile. I, having been born in a country where respectful treatment of others is of high importance, was in a good position to appreciate the respectful treatment of the Iranian people.
What I saw from the Iranian people during my short trip [to that country] was that they are always serene, well-mannered, and ready to offer all kinds of assistance and cooperation. I wondered why I didn’t know anything about the good and well-mannered people of Iran, who are very cultured and take pride in their culture and arts, before this trip?” –Noriko Ogawa
Noriko Ogawa is a Japanese pianist that traveled to Iran on an invitation extended to her by the Japanese Embassy in Tehran. She had musical performances in the cities of Tehran and Shiraz.
Read more at Payvand | Concert in Tehran: Iran from Viewpoint of a Japanese Pianist
“Today, there are at least 600 churches for 250,000 Christians in Iran. A number of Christian denominations are represented in Iran. Many members of the larger, older churches belong to minority ethnic groups – the Assyrians and Armenians – having their own distinctive culture and language…In 1976, the Christian population numbered 168,593 people, mostly Armenians. Due to the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, almost half of the Armenians migrated to the newly independent Republic of Armenia. However, the opposite trend has occurred since 2000, and the number of Christians with Iranian citizenship increased to 109,415 in 2006. At the same time, significant immigration of Assyrians from Iraq has been recorded due to massacres and harassment in post-Saddam Iraq.”
See also: Wikipedia | Armenian-Iranians, Wikipedia | Assyrians in Iran, Wikipedia | Roman Catholicism in Iran
Source: Wikipedia | Christianity in Iran
A number of Christian denominations still live in Iran today and include Assyrians, Armenians, Catholics, Protestants and Evangelical Christians. Although a minority religious group in Iran, Christians of Iran are free to practice their religion and perform their religious rituals. (see article)
Source: Payvand News of Iran
A PhD student from Tehran, she has been nicknamed “a little Schumacher” after the German Formula One champion. She has been given the title of Iran’s best female racing driver. The story is featured in a BBC TV documentary called “Girl Racer”.
The documentary can be viewed here:
She earned international fame by fending off a host of male competitors to become Iran’s national rally champion in 2005.
More infos:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laleh_Seddigh
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/14/international/middleeast/14seddigh.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
The best posts on Iranian women:
https://theotheriran.com/tag/women/
Atousa Pourkashiyan, Iranian chess Woman Grandmaster
Atousa Pourkashiyan (Persian: آتوسا پور کاشیان, born 16 May 1988) is an Iranian chess Woman Grandmaster.
In April 2010 she won Women’s Asian Chess Championship in Subic Bay.
FIDE rating: 2321
Peak rating: 2374 (May 2011)
Other successes:
Asian Games 2006: Bronze
Asian Indoor Games 2009: Bronze
Atousa Pourkashiyan in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atousa_Pourkashiyan
Sepideh Mahabadi received 2011 her B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from the Sharif University of Technology, Iran. That year she moved to the United States to continue her studies. In 2013 she received her M.Sc. and in 2017 her PhD from the MIT.
When she was 18 years old she made history at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) after receiving a gold medal. She was the only female contestant to win a gold medal that year and the second woman to win a gold medal in the history of the Olympiad.
The IOI is one of the most prominent computer science competitions in the world. In 2007 the event was held in Croatia and gathered nearly 300 top students from 75 countries. Sina Sadeghian, Saeed Reza Sedighin, and Hesamodin Akhlaghpor, the other members of Iran’s team, won three silver medals.
Sepideh Mahabadi is a postdoctoral research scientist with an appointment at the Simons Collaboration on Algorithms and Geometry based at Columbia University.
More articles on Iranian successes in science competitions
Sources: Press TV, MIT, Simons Foundation, stats.ioiinformatics.org (IOI 2007)
Mahmud Hesabi (February 23, 1903-September 3, 1992) was a prominent Iranian scientist, researcher and distinguished professor of the University of Tehran.
[…]
At the early age of seventeen he obtained his Bachelor’s in Arts and Sciences from the American University of Beirut. Later he obtained his B.A. in civil engineering while working as a draftsman. After a short period of time he obtained a B.A. in mathematics and astronomy.
[…]
In 1947, he published his classic papers on “continuous particles”. Then he proposed his model of “infinitely extended particles” in 1957. The medal of the commandeur de la Légion d’honneur, France’s greatest scientific medal, was awarded to him for his achievements.
[…]
Mahmud Hesabi was the only Iranian student of Albert Einstein and during his years of scientific research he had meetings with well-known scientists such as Erwin Schrodinger, Max Born, Enrico Fermi, Paul Dirac, Aage Niels Bohr, and scholars such as Bertrand Russell and André Gide.
Mahmud Hesabi
Read the complete article:
http://www.payvand.com/news/07/sep/1057.html
Source:
http://www.newsweek.com/surprising-success-irans-universities-87853
In 2003, administrators at Stanford University’s Electrical Engineering Department were startled when a group of foreign students aced the notoriously difficult Ph.D. entrance exam, getting some of the highest scores ever. The surprising thing, say Stanford administrators, is that the majority came from one country and one school: Sharif University of Science and Technology in Iran.
Stanford has become a favorite destination of Sharif grads. Bruce A. Wooley, a former chair of the Electrical Engineering Department, has said that’s because Sharif now has one of the best undergraduate electrical-engineering programs in the world. That’s no small praise given its competition: MIT, Caltech and Stanford in the United States, Tsinghua in China and Cambridge in Britain.
Iranian students from Sharif and other top schools, such as the University of Tehran and the Isfahan University of Technology, have also become major players in the international Science Olympics, taking home trophies in physics, mathematics, chemistry and robotics. As a testament to this newfound success, the Iranian city of Isfahan recently hosted the International Physics Olympiad–an honor no other Middle Eastern country has enjoyed.
[…]
Iranian students are developing an international reputation as science superstars. Stanford’s administrators aren’t the only ones to notice. Universities across Canada and Australia, where visa restrictions are lower, report a big boom in the Iranian recruits; Canada has seen its total number of Iranian students grow 240 percent since 1985, while Australian press reports point to a fivefold increase over the past five years, to nearly 1,500.
[…]
Part of the explanation, says Mohammad Mansouri, a Sharif grad (’97) who’s now a professor in New York, lies in the tendency of Iranian parents to push their kids into medicine or engineering as opposed to other fields, like law.
[…]
Several Sharif alumni point to one other powerful motivator. “When you live in Iran and you see all the frustrations of daily life, you dream of leaving the country, and your books and studies become a ticket to a better life,” says one who asked not to be identified. “It becomes more than just studying,” he says. “It becomes an obsession, where you wake up at 4 a.m. just to get in a few more hours before class.”
Iran’s success, in other words, is also the country’s tragedy: students want nothing more than to get away the moment they graduate. That’s a boon for foreign universities and tech firms but a serious source of brain drain for the Islamic Republic.
This article also appeared in:
http://newamerica.net/node/8873
“Tehran has 11 functioning synagogues, many of them with Hebrew schools. It has two kosher restaurants, and a Jewish hospital, an old-age home and a cemetery. There is a Jewish representative in the Iranian parliament.”
http://www.sephardicstudies.org/iran.html
“There are about 100 synagogues in Iran of which about 26 are in Tehran.”
http://www.iranjewish.com/Essay_E/Essay_e1.htm
“Despite the offence Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has caused to Jews around the world, his office recently donated money for Tehran’s Jewish hospital.
It is one of only four Jewish charity hospitals worldwide and is funded with money from the Jewish diaspora – something remarkable in Iran where even local aid organisations have difficulty receiving funds from abroad for fear of being accused of being foreign agents.
Most of the patients and staff are Muslim these days, but director Ciamak Morsathegh is Jewish.
“Anti-Semitism is not an eastern phenomenon, it’s not an Islamic or Iranian phenomenon – anti-Semitism is a European phenomenon,” he says, arguing that Jews in Iran even in their worst days never suffered as much as they did in Europe.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5367892.stm
[…] Fortunately, UNHCR and MAHAK have worked for more than 10 years in a fruitful collaboration to provide assistance to cancer-stricken refugee children. MAHAK is a non-profit, non-political, and non-governmental charity focused on treating children with cancer. It uses the most up-to-date diagnostic, treatment and prevention methods, with both outpatient and in-patient services. It provides chemotherapy, medication, lab tests, radiation therapy, CT scan, transportation and family counseling – all without regard to religion, race or nationality of patients. MAHAK is supported by fundraising and humanitarian assistance in the form of money, goods, services and technical expertise. Under the joint UNHCR-MAHAK project for 2013, a total of 76 Afghan and Iraqi refugee children under the age of 15 who suffer from cancer will be provided with medical treatment. Under this project, the accompanying parent is also provided with counseling, accommodation and food when needed because they reside outside Tehran and face difficult economic conditions. Iran has generously hosted the second largest refugee population in the world for over three decades — currently more than 880,000 refugees, some 40,000 from Iraq and the rest from Afghanistan. The government of Iran has always provided its refugees with access to the main areas of education, livelihood and health, some of which can be life-saving. MAHAK takes every opportunity to cheer up the children. Javad Nekoonam, a famous Iranian football player, recently joined them for a short game. The staff of MAHAK convey their own hope, enthusiasm and energy to the children. Some are volunteers, families of patients who have themselves survived cancer, and strong believers in what can be achieved. Many refugee families had stories like that of Ali, all grateful for the economic and psychological help the UNHCR-MAHAK agreement has brought to their lives. There were children from 2- to 17-years-old struggling with leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease, cancerous tumors and undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy. About Mahak: About two decades ago a mother who had experienced having a child with cancer and had witnessed first hand the difficulties faced by her child, pledged to set up a center that would act as a refuge for children and their families in a similar situation. With the assistance of the same friends and relatives who had helped her through her own ordeal, a board of trustees was selected and MAHAK Society to Support Children suffering from Cancer was set up as a non profit, non-governmental organization and was registered under number 6567 in 1991. MAHAK has been active from that day on in helping children with cancer and their families. Sources: http://www.unhcr.org/520b65139.html http://www.payvand.com/news/13/aug/1133.html
Read the complete article here:
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/31/sport/football/iran-2014-world-cup-football/
Some excerpts:
[…]
“When we first arrived, we didn’t know how to behave and how to react,” he said.
During his first few months Gaspar didn’t socialize much and rarely left his apartment, except for trips to football practice.
But Gaspar says he steadily started feeling comfortable.
He says he learned his impressions of Iran, created mostly by the media, didn’t quite match reality.
[…]
“When you listen to the news and you read the news, you see things. Sometimes during commercials I step off my couch and look out of the balcony and it’s not what I am seeing, it’s not what I am reading, it’s not what I am hearing.”
Gaspar says what he has observed during his stay in Iran is a nation full of generous people who love their country, their food and their football team.
[…]
But the highlight of Gaspar’s Iranian adventure came on the night of June 18, when Iran’s national football team recorded a 1-0 win over South Korea to qualify for the World Cup for only the fourth time.
The win sparked frenzied celebrations on the field and in the streets of Tehran.
“There were a lot of tears, a lot of hugging. You can’t describe it.”
[…]
“If I would’ve listened to the experts, and my friends, and family, I would have never been here in Iran. It’s been part of my life for three years and the memories will last a lifetime.”
The other Iran 