Category Archives: Iran

Obama’s Iranian Opening

Anthropology/Sociology, Arab-Israeli Conflict, Election 2008, Iran

by William O. Beeman, New America Media, News Analysis, November 12, 2008

New America Media Editor’s note: Diplomacy between the United States and Iran has been at a standstill. President-elect Barack Obama has a great opportunity to end the cold war between the two nations. NAM contributing writer William O. Beeman is professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota.

President-elect Barack Obama has a serious opening to improving relations with Iran, if he knows how to exercise it. Unfortunately, his transition advisory team is weak on Middle East affairs, and almost non-existent on Iran. This leaves the president-elect prey to the same forces that have tried to sabotage progress on rapprochement with Iran during the Bush administration.

Paradoxically the Bush administration in its last days is flirting with a thaw on Iranian relations. They have been giving serious consideration to establishing a real United States Interests Section in Tehran. Iranians have had an Interests Section in Washington for decades. By contrast, the Swiss Embassy has represented U.S. interests with Swiss personnel. Continue reading Obama’s Iranian Opening →

A Persian Catwalk

Gender and Sexuality, Iran, Shi'a


Iran’s Catwalk Ban Is Only The Beginning

by Farangis Najibullah, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, September 20, 2008

Move modestly. No garish makeup. Don loose and unrevealing clothing. Those are some of the new rules for Iranian models, who have been told not to attract too much attention during fashion shows.

The orders, handed down by the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry and published this month, are intended to promote Iranian and Islamic designs and stave off the influence of Western culture.

Live models “should avoid any behavior that would distract visitors’ attention from the clothes put on display,” according to the eight-part “Guideline For Fashion And Dress Shows.”

“Models are not allowed to show off the curves of their bodies, and their hair should not be seen,” the document reads. “The wearing of tight and body-hugging clothes and types of makeup that are incompatible with Islamic and Iranian culture are prohibited.”

Musical accompaniment must be “well-matched to Islamic and Iranian culture,” and should not prompt models to move or walk in an inappropriate manner.

And the fashion-show runway, better known as the catwalk? That’s been banned altogether, since it’s been deemed a slavish imitation of foreign culture. Continue reading A Persian Catwalk →

Hardliner Repression of Iranians Online

CyberOrient, Iran

Hardliner Repression of Iranians Online

by Elham Gheytanchi, Co-authored by Babak Rahimi, The Huffington Post, September 10, 2008

As Tehran’s nuclear crisis grabs headlines and there is talk of easing relations with Iran by opening an US interest section in Iran for the first time since hostage crisis of 1979, an ominous development is taking place inside Iran: the escalation of state repression against Iranian dissidents online. In the wake of the ninth anniversary of the July 1999 student uprising, which shocked the regime to its foundation, the hard-liner administration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stepped up the arrest of political dissidents, who have used the Net as an alternative medium to express their views against the Islamic Republic. Coupled with their suspicion of the international community, and continued attachment to a dogmatic vision of an Islamist society, the recent developments raise concern over the extent to which hard-liners are determined to muzzle dissent in cyberspace, hence advancing their sphere of influence over the Iranian civil society — especially over women’s rights and human rights groups who have suffered the most in the latest attacks. Continue reading Hardliner Repression of Iranians Online →

Congress is about to pour lighter fluid on Iran

Anthropology/Sociology, Iran, Terrorism Issue

Congress is about to pour lighter fluid on Iran

By WILLIAM O. BEEMAN, Star Tribune, Minneapolis/St. Paul, September 3, 2008

The U.S. Congress may inadvertently lay the foundations for war against Iran when it reconvenes in Washington this month.

Two essentially identical nonbinding resolutions call upon President Bush to “immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities.”

The House resolution has more than 200 cosponsors, including Minnesota Reps. Michele Bachmann, John Kline and Jim Ramstad. The Senate resolution has more than 30 cosponsors, including both Minnesota senators, Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar.

The methods for increased pressure differ slightly in the two resolutions. The House resolution calls for “stringent inspection requirements” of all goods entering or leaving Iran. The Senate resolution does not call for the inspection of all goods but joins the House resolution in calling for an embargo of refined petroleum products to Iran, which lacks the refining capacity to meet its need for gasoline. Achieving either goal would require a naval blockade — a de facto act of war on the part of the United States, though paradoxically both resolutions explicitly exclude authorization for military action. Continue reading Congress is about to pour lighter fluid on Iran →

Have Felix, will travel

Iran, Iraq, Orientalism, Photography, Syria, Travel, Turkey

In 1924 Major F. A. C. Forbes-Leith decided to drive a “motor-car” from London to India, a journey that took almost half a year to traverse ten countries. Overall, a total of 8,527 miles were covered, with 3,000 of them devoid of road or track and 1,500 over desert, not to mention detouring around 150 broken bridges. This was three years before Lindy flew from Mitchell Field (next to the university I currently teach at) to France. The rationale for a ridiculously long auto adventure? That was simple: no one had done it before. As Major Forbes-Leith puts it, “Airplanes had already flown to India on several occasions, airships for a regular mail service were in the course of construction, even one of the submarines of the Royal Navy was on its way, but as yet no effort had been made to bridge the distance by mechanical transport.”

Attempting such an adventure at the time no doubt took a sense of humor. In this case the auto was labeled “Felix” after the cartoon character Felix the Cat. Continue reading Have Felix, will travel →

Ann Lambton

Iran, Scholars

Professor Ann Lambton: Persian scholar
From The Times, July 23, 2008

Ann Lambton, known as Nancy to her friends, devoted the greater part of her life to Iran and the study of Iran. Iranians who knew her thought she was either a saint, a scholar, a spy or all three. She was tough, physically and mentally, and almost an ascetic. She was a walker, a climber, a horsewoman and a squash player. She was a scholar who wrote some of the standard works on Iranian language, agriculture, land tenure and history. She was involved in some of the most dramatic of 20th-century Iranian political events. She was a devout Christian.

Lambton was the second child of the Hon George Lambton, fifth son of the 2nd Earl of Durham; and of Cecily, daughter of Sir John Horner. Her father trained racehorses, including George V’s, at Newmarket, and she was a good horsewoman herself. Her mother did not believe in education and kept her at home. She had almost no formal schooling and spent her youth in her father’s stables until she became too tall to be a jockey (a younger sister, Sybil, died in a riding accident in 1961). Continue reading Ann Lambton →

Hula-Hoop for Peace

Election 2008, Iran

Move over Barack. Lawyer and activist Melody Moezzi is organizing an event to coincide with the Democratic National Convention in Denver and all you will need besides a commitment to peace in the Middle East is a hula hoop. Here is how she describes it.

I am an Iranian-American. I have two homelands: the United States and Iran. I am not half-Iranian. I am not half-American. I am 100% Iranian and 100% American. Thus, peace, particularly between the US and Iran, is not simply a political issue for me: It is deeply personal. Any attack on Iran by the United States would constitute the eruption of an internal civil war within me and so many other Iranian-Americans. It would be a conflict that I am not certain my soul could withstand, and it would be a conflict that would result in the loss of my countrymen on both sides. Indeed, I am not taking up peace as a cause because I am some delusional hippie (far from it) and have nothing better to do (I assure you, I do). I am doing this for unabashedly selfish and painfully practical reasons: I do not want my family, my countrymen, or my generation to die or struggle at the hands of others. I have presented my “home,” which includes all my biases and underlying intentions here, so if this is too much for you, then HHP is likely not your ball of wax, or more specifically, your ring of plastic. Continue reading Hula-Hoop for Peace →