Dear All,

Greetings from St. Louis, Missouri. I hope you are all well and looking forward to a happy and relaxing summer. Let me start with a bit of personal news. As you know, I have been on leave of absence during the spring semester. I am now looking forward to resuming full academic duties.

Personal News:

Before opening window 49,  I would like to share a good news with you: A Peabody Award for "The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi."

Many of you listened to the episode of Speaking of Faith called "The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi."  I was a featured guest in this hour-long program which was aired on NPR once in March and once in December of 2007. I am delighted to report that the show has received the prestigious Peabody Award. You can read the details and also listen to the show at: http://www.payvand.com/news/08/apr/1304.html.

Political:

* The news you will read below is arguably the most important recent piece of information on Iran's "interference" in Iraq. In my public speaking engagements, I am often asked if indeed Iran supplies weapons to Iraqi insurgents. My answer usually is "I won't be able to give you a definite yes or no answer because if indeed Iran has such plans, it will not make them public. What I can say is that all reliable historians of the region believe that a calm and stable Iraq is in the interest of Iran. Furthermore, the government of Nuri al-Maleki has strong friendly ties to Iran."

* Well, it appears that I can now say more on the subject. Released three days ago, the news quoted below calls for serious attention: The weapons used in Iraq were not made in Iran...after all! Please read the L.A. Times article and share it with others: "In a sharp reversal of its longstanding accusations against Iran arming militants in Iraq , the US military has made an unprecedented albeit quiet confession: the weapons they had recently found in Iraq were not made in Iran at all." The rest is available here: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19908.htm.

Young Iranian American Scientist on CNN:

Young Iranian American physicist, Nima Arkani-Hamed, believes the universe possesses no less than 11 dimensions. Read this CNN special on Nima who is viewed these days as a Physics genius: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/05/09/physics.nima/index.html.

Harvard Scholar wishes to be buried in Isfahan

The distinguished Harvard Scholar, Iran Specialist, Richard Frye has asked to be buried in Isfahan, Iran: http://www.searchles.com/channels/show/2908.

A Cypress Tree more than 4,000 years old!

News coming out of Iran often includes things much more interesting than political conflict. Here is one. In the historic Iranian city of Yazd, a cypress tree has been identified as one of the world's oldest living organisms. According to scientists, this tree which continues to stand graciously, is now over 4,000 years old. Take a look: http://www.cais-soas.com/News/2008/April2008/25-04.htm.

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Congratulations to Dr. Trita Parsi for the Award given to his Wonderful Book on Iran!

Iranian Americans are becoming major contributors to the important debate surrounding Iran's role in the Middle East and the world. Not so long ago, I recommended to you a great book on this subject, recently published by Yale University Press. It was Treacherous Alliance: the Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and United States by Dr. Trita Parsi.  You can look up the book on Amazon.com. I do, however, want to share a great piece of news about Trita's book. It has just won the Silver medal of "Council of Foreign Relations 2008 Arthur Ross Book Award." Congratulations to Dr. Parsi for his excellent work and for this significant recognition: http://www.cfr.org/publication/16231/.

Visual Delight

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In Iran, pomegranate is a very popular and relatively cheap fruit. Pomegranate gardens are beautiful from the time the blossoms are out to the time that the fruits hang from the branches ready to be picked. To close this window on a delicious and colorful note, let us visit the the pomegranate harvest in a village in Iran. Click here to join the pomegranate harvest: Pomegranate Harvest in Iran. Enjoy.

Hope to be able to open the next window on Iran soon.

Best,
Fatemeh
===================================
Fatemeh Keshavarz, Professor and Chair
Dept. of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures
Washington University in St. Louis
Tel: (314) 935-5156
Fax: (314) 935-4399
==================================

Yesterday, after getting all our onward visa business sorted, we finally left Tehran on the night train to Yazd. We arrived at 5am and went straight to the hostel that we had called beforehand in order to reserve some rooms, the Amir Chakmak Hostel, which has a fantastic rooftop view of the Amir Chakmak monument. After sleeping for a few extra hours and going for a whlesome brekkie at the Vali Traditional Hotel (buffet with cheese, eggs, veggies, fresh bread, jams, tea and juice all for $1.5!), 4/5 of us embarked upon the Lonely Planet's 'Get lost in Yazd tour'. Di stayed in the hotel because she was feeling unwell after.

Sleepy, dusty,yellow Yazd is a world away from bustling and sprawling Tehran. The houses in the old town are made of stone and mud, and wandering through the capillary alleys that snake between them is like being transported back over 1000 years in history. It reminded me of an intact version of the ancient old town of Siwa, the oasis in the desert of Western Egypt near the Libyan border, which was destroyed in a freak thunderstorm in the 1960s and now frames the new town like the melted backdrop of a Dali painting. And though the old town of Yazd is still very much inhabited, its streets are quiet and deserted, the stillness only infrequently disturbed by a passing motorcycle or a fleeting gaggle of kids on bicycles or running with a football.

Yazd is famous for its badgirs, or windtowers which represent the earliest form of air conditioning. They are cuboid structures that exceed the height of the building by over 5 metres, with slits on the side to channel air in and out of the house via different compartments. One compartment funnels the air from outside downwards, past a basin of water which cools the air before it arrives in the house, thereby colling the house. But when the air inside the house is heated, it rises through a separate channel which expulses it back outside. They are structures that leave me in awe of the brilliance of the pre-industrial, pre-technological human mind, mostly because of its ability to benefit from nature without destroying it. Why can't modern air con be as eco-friendly?

Another interesting characteristic of Yazd is its history of providing water to a settlement in the middle of the desert. The Yazd Water Museum has an interesting collection of tools and photographs that illustrate the traditional methods used to channel water from the surrounding mountains down into the valley. These consist of underground waterways called qanats, which were dug as a slight incline so as to produce a natural flow downwards. The qanat are made to lead to an underground reservoir, which is built with a domed roof and some badgirs so as to cool the water. Some of the photos in the museum are very impressive and humbling, and show little old men dressed in white caps and shrouds (burial outfits in case the channel collapses and they are buried underground) scrunched in these minuscule channels, with only a hand-held, fat-fueled candle for light.

Scattered throughout the town are magnificent mosques with turquoise-tiled domes and minarets which stand out in striking contrast to the mud-walls and roofs that surround them. The Jameh mosque is particularly exceptional, with its minarets that tower 48m above its majestic entrance. The walls and ceiling of the carpeted prayer area under the dome are equally astounding, covered in mosaics of various shades of blue, white and green, which alternate between abstract geometric and floral designs to calligraphical spreads of the 99 names of Allah.

At one point on the walking tour, you come to a building called the Hosseniya. It is not distinguishable from those around it, an unless you were told it was there, you'd probably walk by without a second thought. But if you enter its nondescript metal gate and climb up through the crumbling arches and stairways, you find yourself on a rooftop from which you can savour views of the whole old town. Various minarets and mosque domes sparkle above the rounded rooftops, interspersed by badgirs and framed by the mountains in the distance.

Unfortunately, when we returned to the hotel, Di was still in a dodgy state, and getting progressively worse. She hadn't managed to keep any food or drink down all day, and combined with the heat and stress of travel, was risking dehydration. We convinced her that it would be a good idea to call a doctor, who came and after a single looked at her decided to hook her up to an IV drip. This took Di quite some convincing, as she has a veritable phobia of anything needle- or syringe-related. But when faced with the prospect of potentially having to be checked into a hospital if she didn't improve by noon the next day, she relented and accepted the treatment. The manager of the hotel and his brother were of unparalleled help through the entire ordeal, offering broken but thorough translations between us and the doctor, who didn't speak any English. Without an instant's hesitation, they nailed a nail above her bed from which the IV bottle would hang, collected all 3 Persian-English dictionaries in the building in order to assist with the translation, and, after the doctor left, cooked her a huge dish of rice and potatoes (which she unfortunately vomited up not long after).

Di was hooked up to the IV drip for about 3 hours, and suffered from severe bouts of dizziness and nausea throughout. It was worrying seeing her in such an ill and distressed state, and knowing that the whole experience was rendered more stressful by her being in a cheap hostel with communal toilets some 20 metres down the hall from her room (very far for one suffering from diarrhea and vomiting) and in a foreign country where none of us was proficient in the language. Alhamdulillah, by the time the second bottle of glucose was flowing through her, she was feeling better and starting to nodd off. The manager came to remove the IV from her arm, assuring us that he had had adequate training in basic medical tasks during his time as a soldier in the Iran-Iraq war. He was incredibly gentle when removing the tape from her arm, repeating the words 'sorry, sorry, sorry' each time a single hair was pulled taught by the tape. Afterwards, he took her blood pressure, offered us some dates, and told us not to hesitate if we needed anything throughout the night, he would be awake to help us.

Today, Di is a million times better that she was yesterday. We have come to the Silk Road Hotel to chill in their beautiful shaded courtyard, drink some mint tea and feed Di some rice, so that she regains her strength. This communal space is much lovelier than the sun-exposed rooftop of our hotel and the bathrooms cleaner. But the hospitality of the staff here does not come near the diligent, caring attitudes of those back in the Amir Chakmak. It is truly thanks to them that she is as well as she is now. They serve as a valuable reminder for every budget traveler that the measure of a hostel should not be judged by its gardens or furnishings, but by the extent to which you are made to feel as at home as possible, despite the unfortunate eventualities and strangeness that results from roaming far from home.

Hi All,

Earlier today I sent out a special window urging you to write to your
representatives in an attempt to stop our country from getting one
step closer to a war with Iran. Many of you wrote back within the hour
to let me know that you have shared the message with others. Thank
you.

With that, let us move on to Window on Iran number 37 which opens with
a good piece of news.

Major Iran/IAEA Agreement on Additional Measures on the Nuclear Issue

* The following news should be hailed as a significant diplomatic
success, a step toward cooling things down. On Tuesday Iran and the
UN Atomic Energy Agency agreed on a timetable for Tehran to clarify
outstanding concerns about its contested nuclear program, amid Western
threats of further UN sanctions. International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) deputy director general Olli Heinonen and top Iranian national
security official Javad Vaeedi announced the agreement after two days
of talks in Tehran. "We have now in front of us an agreed working
plan, how to implement it and we have a timeline for the
implementation. We talked about the details and the steps to be
taken," said Heinonen. Here is the rest of the article if you like to
read (thanks Paul Appell for sharing this)
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/295302/1/.html

* The current U.S. administration, however, has so far acted as if it
never happened. The same week that Iran and IAEA signed the above
agreement, former CIA Director James Woolsey appeared on CNN with Lou
Dobbs to say an attack on Iran is a bad idea but allowing Iran to
obtain a nuclear weapon is worse. And in today's New York Times
(August 29), Elaine Sciolino quoted unnamed officials from "Western
governments" describing the plan as a "new and dangerous strategy by
Iran to drag out the process." Further down the article explains that
"Details of the timetable will be included in a report" that will be
released later. It is not clear how a plan that is not yet released,
that includes a clear timetable, and that has been described by the
IAEA officials as a "breakthrough" is faulted and branded as a
dangerous plan even before it is released.

Tell the Networks Not to Follow Fox

Why does the American news media not scrutinize significant news items
concerning Iran? Why, concerned friends such as Nadir Sadeqi and Matt
Miller ask in their e-mail messages, while the FOX news works on the
American public to convince them that war with Iran is the only
option, do the other networks not respond? All they need to do is
following the tradition of sound reporting. Christine Amanpour,  is
quoted to have said - concerning bad reporting on Iraq - that her
network was silenced and intimidated by FOX. On behalf of Nadir and
Matt, I share the following information with those of you who are
interested in telling the networks not to follow FOX down the road to
war: http://foxattacks.com/iran (or watch the video below)

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Is the War on Iran Still a Strong Possibility?

* Some argue that a war on Iran is not an option for practical reasons.
A fantastic piece on this is an interview that David Barsamian has
done with the renowned historian of contemporary Iran, Ervand
Abrahamian (City University, New York). The interview is short, very
perceptive, and readable. It has a very interesting title too: The
Mullahs Face Off: Washington Versus Tehran (San Francisco, City
Light Books, 2007).

* Others are still very worried about the possibility. In his site
www.AntiWar.com, blogger Philip Giraldi writes: Anyone who doubts that the
war party is firmly focused on Iran need only take note of the Aug. 21
lead editorial in the Washington Post, which had the heading "Tougher
on Iran: The Revolutionary Guard is at war with the United States. Why
not fight back?" The Post, which regularly features neocons like
Charles Krauthammer on its editorial page, was a principal cheerleader
for the Iraq war. Giraldi criticizes the Post for accepting Washington
claims that Iranian special forces are in Iraq training the Shiite
militia. "Why is the U.S. army not been able to arrest a single one of
them or provide any evidence of this" is his question. It is a very
good question. I would add that this claim is not just refereeing to
an unsubstantiated hypothesis but a very unlikely one. Any number of
Iraqis who survived the rule of Saddam by taking refuge in Iran could
have been trained sufficiently to return and train their Iraqi country
men. But the point is not how logical or provable these claims are.
The point is the poisoning effect they have on the American public.
You can read the rest of Giraldi's article at:
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/giraldi.php?articleid=11509

American Peace Delegation to Iran

All right, we need a little antidote to offset the alarming bells of
war. Let me tell you about this delightful five person American
delegation who visited Iran this past July. Organized by Phil Wilayto
and sponsored by the Virginia Anti-War Network and The Richmond
Defender newspaper, the five-member "People's Peace Delegation to
Iran" visited Tehran, Shiraz, Yazd, Esfahan and Qom, plus several
villages and towns. The Following are interesting excerpts from Phil
Wilayto's interview with CASMII about the trip:

On our first day, in the capital city of Tehran, we attended the
Friday noontime prayer service at the University of Tehran. This is
the big weekly religious gathering for this metro area of some 14
million people, and around 10,000 men and women attend. We had heard
that they finish the service with a rousing chant of "Death to
America!" so we thought that would give us one cultural pole for the
trip. Actually, we were two hours into the program when we had to
leave, and still no anti-U.S. chants. So we had to settle for a lot of
warm smiles and handshakes.

Also, I'd like to anticipate the question, "But you probably only saw
what the government wanted you to see." One evening in Qom – it was
about 9 p.m. – I walked to an Internet cafe to send an e-mail to
family members and friends back home. I stayed till 11 p.m., then got
lost on the walk back to the hotel. So there I was in the holy city of
Qom, lost – on the eve of a major national religious holiday, no less
– wandering the streets and trying unsuccessfully to change some
Iranian bills into coins so I could call our guide from a pay phone. I
wound up meeting two brothers, one of them a theology student. They
brought me back to the hotel in a taxi. So I was out on my own for
about three hours. Two other members of the delegation walked back one
evening to their hotel in Esfahan, and in 45 minutes they were stopped
by three groups of Iranians who wanted to talk with them. On the
streets and public places we talked with anyone we wanted. One
afternoon while driving from Esfahan to Qom we stopped by the side of
the highway and had tea with a family of goat herders. I learned to
smoke a hookah, or "hubble-bubble," in a 5,000-year-old town about
4,000 feet up in the mountains. We photographed anything we wanted,
except military installations. I made a point of trying to speak with
people from as many social classes as possible. I'm not saying we
became experts on Iran, but I think we got a pretty fair look at the
country and its people.

Sean Penn's Reference to Iran

Actor/activist Sean Penn felt the same warmth visiting Iran in March.
Jaine Benson, one of my many friends through these windows, has
forwarded this very interesting letter which I had almost forgotten
about. Thanks Jaine. The letter is long and mostly focused on Iraq,
below I quote the paragraph on Iran which remains relevant today:

"You want to rattle sabers toward Iran now? Let me tell you something
about Iran, because I've been there and you haven't. Iran is a great
country. A great country. Does it have its haters? You bet. Just like
the United States has its haters. Does it have a corrupt regime? You
bet. Just like the United States has a corrupt regime. Does it want a
nuclear weapon? Maybe. Do we have one? You bet. But the people of Iran
are great people. And if we give that corrupt leadership, (by
attacking Iran militarily) the opportunity to unify that great country
in hatred against us, we'll have been giving up one of our most
promising future allies in decades. If you really know anything about
Iran, you know exactly what I'm referring to. Of course your
administration belittles diplomatic potential there, as those options
rely on a credibility and geopolitical influence that you have
aggressively squandered worldwide." If you are interested in reading
the whole letter, here is the link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-penn/an-open-letter-to-the-pre_b_44172.html

Iranian American Named Dean, Harvard School of Design

Mohsen Mostafavi, an international figure in the fields of architecture and urbanism, will become the dean of the Faculty of Design beginning in January 2008, President Drew Faust announced today (Aug. 10). The news was forwarded by my cousin Abe Massoudi, and my friend Farimah Companieh, thank you both! You can read more at:
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/08.23/99-gsdean.html

Iranian Women in Sports

Time for more fun and for seeing images from Iran which are almost impossible to see in the American media. It is rather unfortunate any negative news on Iranian women will make it to the front page here almost immediately. But images such as these are missing. Iranian Women Canoe Polo players in action:
http://www.shirzanan.com/spip.php?article68

Visual Delight

Last week I was showered with your loving messages about the wonderful
paintings of the Iranian Assyrian artist Hannibal Alkhas. Thank you! I
can't agree  more. I'll promise to make more slide shows of his
exhibits whenever new ones appear. This week, I bring you the works of
two Iranian women artists, Elham Nafisi Farr, a young and up-coming
painter and Mansoureh Hussaini a much more experienced
painter/calligrapher. Unfortunately, I did not find much personal
details on them except they are both graduates of Tehran School of
Fine Arts. Click here: Nafisi Farr-Hussaini painting.Enjoy!

Till our next window, have a great week!

Best,
Fatemeh
===================================
Fatemeh Keshavarz, Professor and Chair
Dept. of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures
Washington University in St. Louis
Tel: (314) 935-5156
Fax: (314) 935-4399
==================================

La mattinata e' partita subito bene, con un bel risveglio su letti duri, ma piacevoli, una giornata splendida e ancora fresca dentro le mura del cortiletto, e una colazione abbondante con frutta, marmellata, uova, succhi, datteri e caffe.... caffe.... caffe... ma quando caspita ci porta il nostro caffe?!? Dopo aver atteso i 5 minuti yazduiani (che sono circa una mezzoretta comune), attraverso la moschea principale, decorata con molto gusto a maioliche e con i due minareti piu' alti dell'Iran (si narra),  ci siamo addentrati nel labirinto del centro storico fatto di muri di fango e paglia che nascondevano i cortili e le case. Casualmente (che strano....) siamo arrivati nei pochi luoghi di interesse segnalati: la presunta prigione di Alessandro Magno, la presunta tomba del XII Imam e un alberghetto protetto dall'Unesco, e tanti altri piccoli angoli e locali.

Yazd offre soprattutto una gran pace e tranquillita', l'entrata nel deserto e una selva di torri del vento (precursori dei condizionatori d'aria) sui tanti tetti del centro storico. E' mirabile anche la piazza principale col suo palazzo del museo dell'acqua.

Nel pomeriggio, visto che tutto era chiuso fino alle 18.00 (la tranquillita' non vale solo per i turisti), siamo andati al Tempio del Fuoco, dove la sacra fiamma zoroastraina arde ancora dietro ad una teca di vetro che protegge il fuoco (mantenuto a legna) dai tentativi di fotografarlo.

Dopo le 18.00, un iraniano ci ha dato un passaggio fino in centro, dove siamo andati a fare un po' di shopping al bazar. Tra sete e ricami, abbiamo speso una fortuna (iraniana) e conosciuto tre romani arrivati in moto dalla Turchia.

Cena tra manipoli sparpagliati di francesi e sonno rilassante. Purtroppo il volo era stato gia' prenotato da Esfahan per il giorno dopo, altrimenti saremmo rimasti ancora magari per fare un giretto in cammello nel deserto. Il motivo di tanta fretta, erano i tanti dubbi sul viaggio per l'Azerbaigian, di cui non avevamo informazioni abbastanza attendibili.

notte

Dopo una mattinata assolutamente inutile, in cerca di un bazar chiuso (non lo sapete che venerdi' e' festa di Allah?) e di sconfiggere la censura iraniana nell'internet point, ci siamo accorti alle 13.45 che in un quarto d'ora sarebbe partita la nostra corriera.

Corsa a prendere le borse. Balzo in taxi. Lancio dei soldi (per la precisione, abbiamo pagato 2000 Toman, con la sorpresa del taxista che ne voleva solo 1000). Ritiro biglietti. Balzo sul pulman in partenza. Avevamo una tale voglia di rimanere a Shiraz.....

Il viaggio e' stato solitamente noioso, se non per il paesaggio desertico, interrotto ogni tanto da montagne brulle (la catena dei monti Zagros), e paesetti di sabbia e mattoni. Per tutto il viaggio, Checco si e' perso nel suo ennesimo tentativo di raggiungere il Pulizer, scontrandosi coi vetri polarizzati (unici in tutto l'Iran!) accanto al nostro posto.

Superata la prima parte desertica, abbiamo attraversato i due passi che dividono l'ovest dal deserto di sabbia. All'interno della catena montuosa, brulla e sontuosa, c'era la cittadina di Taft, che a parte per il traffico, assomigliava piu' ad una citta' araba, colle sue case color sabbia.

All'imbrunire siamo entrati a Yazd, al confine col deserto.

Appena scesi, siamo stati rapiti da un taxi e siamo arrivati in pieno centro storico. Il tassista si e' fermato in uno spiazzo completamente raso al suolo, dietro la moschea principale della citta'. In un angolo sotto un lampione a luce senape, una scritta rosso ocra un po' sbiadita ci prometteva il Silk Road Hotel. Non prometteva tanto meglio di Shiraz...

Scesi dalle scale siamo arrivati in un cortile interno, con un giardino orientale al centro e tanti baldacchini, coperti da tappetti e cuscini. Pace.

Doccia nella stanza, ancora piu' pittoresca del cortile, e finalmente ci siamo distesi sui baldacchini a mangiare e a berci una birra gelata!

birra al gusto di fragola per Checco e di Melograno per Titta. Birra?

Notte

Dear All,

I hope you are doing well. Please publicize the information provided
through this window as widely as you can. While the information coming
out of the media here is alarming, in Iran the atmosphere is calm.
There is even hope that a joint proposal by Russia and Iran would find
a way to would to the lifting of the U.N. Sanctions and the halting of
the enrichment. Despite celebrating the anniversary of the revolution,
the Iranian government has been sending a conciliatory message
basically: give us a chance and we will negotiate.

Let me share a fun discovery I made only last week! Iranians are one
of the top ten blogger nations in the world.

With that, let us attend to our Window on Iran - 19.

Current Issues

* A chilling article Charging Iran with Genocide before Nuking it, Gary
Leupp, Professor of History at Tufts writes predicts a U.S. nuclear
strike on Iran by this April. "Within weeks from now," he writes
quoting a Russian military analyst, "we will see the informational
warfare machine start working. The public opinion is already under
pressure. There will be a growing anti-Iranian militaristic hysteria,
new information leaks, disinformation, etc."  My comment:  there will
be visual warfare as well using images of flag waving Iranians
celebrating the 27th anniversary of the 1979 Revolution  as proof of
national support for Ahmadinejad and evidence of mass anti-western
hysteria. Leupp's article is available here: An Existential Threat: Charging

Iran with Genocide before Nuking It by Gary Leupp.

* All the flag waving youth will line up behind President Ahmadinejad if
there is a war on Iran. Take a look at this article in the Guardian
"Only the US hawks can save the Iranian president now" sent to me by
Jamal Rostami:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2001703,00.html

* The American Public still wants the government to directly talk with
Iran, say 71% of the Republicans and 81% , a wide ranging analysis by
WorldPublicOpinion.org of polls from numerous organizations reveals.
According to a wide range of polls, there is substantial agreement
across party lines on many of the most contentious issues facing
policy makers today:
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/295.php?nid=&id=&pnt=295&lb=hmpg1

* Certain tendencies within the media work to change the above
consensus. An unlikely contributor to that is he History channel. On
Friday, Feb. 9, the History channel aired a program called "Iran : The
Next Iraq?" Adding disclaimers such as "perhaps" and "may be," the
show described Iran as "perhaps  the most clear and present danger to
American security." The program "explored" claims as laughable as
Iran's attempt "to gain a place among the world's super powers." And
looked at "evidence" for Iran's secret pursuit of a nuclear weapon
which it "may intend to use on the United States or its allies." The
fact is that Iran is nowhere close to becoming a World's super powers,
the IAEA reports reveal no evidence for any weapon's program . All
they say is that the absence of such a program cannot be proven
(sounds familiar?).
* Very important: Last week, Iranian authorities arrested two al-Qa'idah
suspects who were trying to cross Iran on their way out of Pakistan.
Shouldn't this be a positive sign?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/09/AR2007020902294.html?referrer=emai

Finally please note that  the Iraqi government has distanced itself
fully from the American accusations against Iran's involvement in
Iraq, the major newspaper asharqalawsat  reports (in Arabic)
http://www.asharqalawsat.com/details.asp?section=4&issue=10303&article=406005

Cultural/Social/Aristic

We all need a break from all the above, don't we? Here is a second
slide show of the small, ancient, and beautiful city of Yazd in
central Iran. Please circulate the slide show as widely as you can.
Bleak and frightening images of Iran are distributed, to present the
country as a suitable target. Click here: Ancient and Beautiful City of Yazd. Enjoy!

Here, I have another break for you from political myth making and scare mongering: The Iranian Annual Film Festival Fajr. The award for the best director went to my favorite director, one of the grand ladies of the Iranian Cinema: Rakhshan Bani Etemad.  Bani Etemtmad is most outspoken screen writer and director whose films highlight the problems of poverty, gender, and social inequality. She became known with Nargis the story of a young girl from a disadvantaged family who got involved with a trio of two thieves and a prostitute. For slide show of the final night of the Fajr Festival, click here: Iranian Annual Film Festival Fajr.

Scientific

No, it is not about nuclear technology. On Monday February 5, Iranian Scientists at the Spinal Cord Injury Treatment Center announced the use of a new technique in treating spinal cord injuries. According to Houshang Saberi, director of the center, while in case of full paralysis the recovery has been about 15 percent, in partial injuries up to 85 percent recovery has been achieved: http://tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=2/5/2007&Cat=5&Num=001

Have a great week!

Best,
Fatemeh
===================================
Fatemeh Keshavarz, Professor and Chair
Dept. of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures
Washington University in St. Louis
Tel: (314) 935-5156
Fax: (314) 935-4399
==================================

Dear all,

I hope you are all doing well. Our semester is coming to an end here at Washington University in St. Louis. The weather has taken a turn for the better, and most of the city finally has power back. I hope to be able to start working on archiving these windows on line with help from Mr. Sina Noorazar the friend who has offered kindly to help. I will keep you posted on this.

And now on to Window number 15 about Iran.

Current Issues:

* upcoming midterm elections are on the way in Iran. On December 15,
a good turn out can give a credible chance to moderates to seize
power. The hardliners play down the significance of this election
in the hope that a boycott by the moderates will result in their
victory just as it did in the election that brougth Mr.
Ahmadinejad to power. My sociologist/historian friend Behrooz
Ghamari warns that it is really important that Iranians don't stay
home and don't boycott this election.
http://www.iranian.com/Ghamari/2006/December/Elections110/index.html

* Perhaps to take attention away from the above election which can
go very badly for the regime, the Iranian Foreign Ministry's
Institute of International Studies hosted a two day conference
which it has described as "The Global Vision" on the Holocaust.
According to the organizers, people from 63 countries have
participated and all sides are represented including CDs of
survivors speaking about their experience. Europeans and
Americans, including members of the orthodox Jewish community,
have attended. The conference is supposed to be a response to the
western relaxed attitude toward the cartoons about the Prophet and
to demostrate that the west's claim to freedom of speech is
hypocritical and selectively applied. My heart goes out to the
Iranian Jewish Community which has to witness the plight of its
community as the subject of this ridiculous east/west political
slanging match.

* My heart also goes out to the rest of Iranians who despite having no hostility to Jews, through such political events as this conference make it to the American national news two days in a row, but their healthy and courageous opposition to Mr. Ahmadinejad's government does not recieve the slightest publicity in the same media. I bet you have no idea that yesterday President Ahmadinejad's presentation was interrupted by students in Amir Kabir University in Tehran. The students shouted "liar" and "dictator" and burned Mr. Ahmadinejad's pictures as he spoke. Since you are very unlikely to see these images in American media, I have put a very small collection of them together. Click here to see: Students protesting against Ahmadinejad.
This opposition wishes for no outside interference but would appreciate
respect and recognition.

Cultural/artistic

* Time for something good to counter the discord emanating from the
news and to heal hurt feelings! I attach a slide show of
delightful images from the desert city of Yazd which I promised
last week (images sent by my friend Bahar Bastani). Yazd is no
Tehran or Isfahan in that it does not have the tall buildings and
very large residential complexes. In fact, its population is only
about half a million. But Yazdi's are known for their gentle and
sweet temper, and artistic abilities particularly in architecture
and textile industry. Furthermore, they are nationally known for
the sweets they make. Click here to see the pictures: Beautiful desert city of Yazd. Enjoy!

* Iran's graphic designer Abedini heads for Amsterdam to receive
the Claus Award http://www.payvand.com/news/06/dec/1096.html

Have a great week!

Best,

===================================
Fatemeh Keshavarz, Professor and Chair
Dept. of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures
Washington University in St. Louis
Tel: (314) 935-5156
Fax: (314) 935-4399
==================================

Dear All,

Greetings! I hope you all had a very nice Thanksgiving. Mine was extended by the snow storm that followed the holidays. Many people in Missouri suffered extensive power outage late last week. My family were to get it back on Sunday. There were close to 200,000 people still without power as of this morning. On a much more exciting note, last week at Washington University we hosted Orhan Pamuk the talented Turkish writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature this year. Later in the same week we hosted Shabana Azmi, the Indian actress/activist and her poet husband Javed Akhtar.

And now to Window number 14 on Iran. Please note that the current issues
are a few days older due to the delay in sending this window to you.

Current Issues:

* A concerned friend, sent me the T O D A Y ' S   N E W S

"Religious leaders in Iran have started a campaign to end all
university programs that educate men and women together, The
Guardian reported. The push follows the release of statistics
showing dramatic gains for women at Iranian universities, where
they now outnumber men in key programs. The Guardian quoted a
cleric as saying that universities were turning into "fashion
shows." I called Iran, and had a long conversation with a trusted
university professor friend. There is no factual basis to the
above report.  From time to time, there are discussions in Iranian
papers about the disproportionately higher number of women in
Iranian universities (about 70% of the students). No official
comments have been made about an attempt to reduce the number of
women university students.

* Mostafa Tabatabainejad, an Iranian American student at UCLA, was
repeatedly stunned with a Taser by the campus police and then
taken into custody. He had been asked to leave the computer lab
after he failed to produce an ID during a check at around 11:30
p.m. Many terrified students videotaped the incident on their cell
phones. The videos show Tabatabainejad screaming in pain as he was
stunned several times with a Taser, each time for three to five
seconds. He was told repeatedly to stand up and stop fighting, and
that if he did not do so he would "get Tased again." He is heard
screaming on the video "I'm not fighting you" and "I said I would
leave." Carlos Zaragoza, a third year student of English who
witnessed the incident said Tabatabainejed was also stunned with
the Taser when already handcuffed. Zaragoza said. "(He was) no
possible danger to any of the police." One troubling point is
that, according to eyewitnesses, Tabatabainejed was already
leaving when the police entered. The other that according to a
study published in the Lancet Medical Journal in 2001, a charge of
three to five seconds can result in immobilization for five to 15
minutes, which would mean that Tabatabainejad could have been
physically unable to stand when the officers demanded that he do so.

*According to Peter Eliasberg, managing attorney at the ACLU of
South California, "It is a real mistake to treat a Taser as some
benign thing that painlessly brings people under control."
Eliasberg said: "The Taser can be incredibly violent and result in
death."

Second Slide Show of Isfahan

* Time for nice, healing, beautiful images to look at! My good
friend Bahar Bastani has just sent out a gorgeous series of
pictures from the historical city of Yazd in central Iran. I will
turn them into a power point slide show and send them out in the
next window. Here is a sample:

* I do have another slide show for this window from the city of
Isfahan. This is my second slide show of Isfahan in these windows.
I have deliberately blended historical as well as modern scenery,
art work, etc. Click here: Isfahan slide show. Enjoy!

Iranian Annual Book Fair

* The Iranian Annual Book Fair is a major event that brings together
thousands of volumes published in various subjects. Thousands of
people travel to the capital to simply visit the book fair. This
year, the book fair attracted two million Iranians. My good friend
Behrooz Ghamari, who wrote a piece for Illinois International
Review after his recent trip to Iran, has a picture of the people
attending the book fair in June. While critiquing aspects of life
in present day Iran, Behrooz - a historian and sociologist who
takes special interest in Iranian current issues - presents an
overall positive and hopeful view of the country. Do take a look
http://www.ips.uiuc.edu:16080/io/iir.shtml. Click on fall 2006
issue, and go to page 2 and 3.

Iranian Cinema

* Iranian cinema continues to produce internationally acclaimed, often critical, films. A great feature of this cinema is the presence of women before or behind the camera. Nikki Karimi, the actress whose talent was, early in her career, overshadowed by her beauty  (http://www.payvand.com/news/06/oct/1083.html) is now making it big as a director.  Last month, Karimi presented her second long feature film "A Few Days Later," in the Italian film festival at Rome.  Karimi has acted in some the sharpest feminist statements by the prominent woman director, Tahmineh Milani. "A Few Days Later" tells the story of a young  woman who has to make serious decisions about her life.
Have a great week,
Fatemeh
===================================
Fatemeh Keshavarz, Professor and Chair
Dept. of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures
Washington University in St. Louis
Tel: (314) 935-5156
Fax: (314) 935-4399
==================================

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all very well. I have good news -- which is becoming a tradition. A brave soul has offered to archive all the windows on Iran on line. This is fantastic. I won't mention his name yet as he is currently looking into the situation. Only a week ago, a friend asked if I would consider doing this and I said it is just impossible. Well, not so anymore. We might soon have these windows blogged and made available on the internet. The windows are already posted on the online magazine, the American Muslim, courtesy of my friend Sheila Musaji. But this one will be an independent site. I will, of course, make the address available if and when this happens.

Tomorrow, I am off to a very interesting conference in New York called
"Terrorism and the University." I got invited because the organizers saw
a piece I wrote for the Bulletin of the American Association of
University Professors, Academe (Jan-Feb, 2006). This is a relatively
short essay called: "Making the Silence Visible." Since its topic is
very relevant to the significance of access to information related to
the Middle East, and the sensitivity of teaching the subject, I provide
the link here, in case you are interested in reading it:
http://www.aaup.org/publications/Academe/2006/06jf/06jfkesh.htm

Now, window number 12 on Iran!

Current Issues:

* A nasty rumor has begun to circulate again: the Iranian government
is planning to force the Iranian Jews to wear a uniform. This is
part of an attempt to compare Iran to Nazi Germany and is totally
unfounded. The Canadian National Post reported it on May 19.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Israeli Internal Security
Minister Avi Dichter, and the American Democratic Senator Chuck
Schumer all issued strong statements of condemnation, based on
Post's report comparing Iran to Nazi Germany. On May 21, an
offended Maurice Motamed, the Jewish representative in the Iranian
Parliament, said to Financial Times "We representatives for
religious minorities are active in the parliament, and there has
never been any mention of such a thing!" Again, there is no way to
know how many Americans found out that the rumor was unfounded. I
sent information, in previous windows, on the Iranian Jewish
community, their synagogues in Tehran, Yazd, Shiraz, Isfahan, and
other cities (Tehran alone has over twenty synagogues).

* As you can imagine, last night I was totally glued to the TV for
the emerging results of the mid term elections. I guess you were
too. If you like to read about the possible impact of the life
changing mid-term elections on US-Iran relations click on the link
below. The article came out a few days prior to the election but
it is still relevant.
http://www.niacouncil.org/pressreleases/press480.asp

*Last week, Iranian ex-President Mohammad Khatami visited Great
Britain and was given an honorary doctorate at St. Andrews. In
relation to the recent  veil related controversy in England,
Khatami had an interesting message for British Muslims: obey
British law! He validated Britain's fear of extremism in an
interview with the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6108600.stm

Iranian British CEO Lady

* While we are on the subject of Britain, I would like to introduce
you to a grand Iranian British lady: Shirian Dehghan, CEO of UK
telecommunications firm Arieso. Shirin Dehghan took top honors at
the Blackberry Women & Technology Award in London. Dehghan who
runs Arieso, a Newbury UK Company that helps mobile operators
around the world keep their networks running optimally and their
customers connected, was named outstanding woman in technology,
2006. http://www.payvand.com/news/06/nov/1084.html

Visual Delight

* In my last Window I presented a modest homemade slide show on a
handful of contemporary Iranian painters. Well, I am now going to
give you a much more extensive and skillfully constructed slide
show of paintings by Iranian artists - including Iman Maleki -
complete with music in the background. For this wonderful visual
treat, you have to thank my wonderful high school friend Zari
Taheri.  http://www.persianfineart.com/home.asp?domain

* Just so we are not all focused on contemporary issues this time,
let me leave you with another very interesting piece. A home
preview of a documentary called "In search of Sirus the Great" (Cyrus the Great). If you don't mind the slightly over dramatizing soft voice of the narrator, particularly at the beginning, the documentary is in
fact full of very interesting details and more rooted in
scholarship than it appears at first. In case you want to use it
in the classroom, it is about 12 minutes. And, before I forget,
this one too comes to you courtesy of my loving friend Zari Taheri
(Zari currently teaches Persian in Japan.) Here is the link:
http://www.spentaproductions.com/cyruspreview.htm

Have a great week!
Fatemeh
===================================
Fatemeh Keshavarz, Professor and Chair
Dept. of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures
Washington University in St. Louis
Tel: (314) 935-5156
Fax: (314) 935-4399
==================================

Resümee. Ich bin 3000 Kilometer dabei gewesen - von der turkmenischen Hauptstadt Asgabat bis Teheran. Mein Resümee: Ein grandioses Abenteuer, . . . das man in dieser Art wohl nur in der Gruppe machen kann. Man braucht mehrere Autos als Sicherheitsnetz falls etwas passiert. Wie einst bei den Karawanen ist die Seidentraße auch heute noch ohne Gruppendeckung kaum machbar. Außerdem muss man über die entsprechenden Kontakte zu den Behörden verfügen, um die Ein- und Durchreiseerlaubnis fürs Auto zu bekommen. Die Veranstalter David und Yue haben diese aufgebaut. Die Schattenseite einer so langen Gruppenreisedabei: Es ist nicht leicht, zwei Monate lang mit Leuten, die man nicht kennt, von früh bis spät beisammen zu sein. Für manche in der Gruppe war das nicht ganz so einfach. Da gab’s schon ein paar heftigere Diskussionen.

Highlights. Ich habe die Truppe unter anderem gefragt, was ihr bis Teheran am besten gefallen hat. Die einhellige Meinung: landschaftlich Kirgisistan, wegen der traumhaften Berglandschaften, und kulturell der Iran. Mich haben in Turkmenistan die UNESCO-Kulturerbestätten Nissa und Merw beeindruckt, weil man von den 3000 Jahre alten Metropolen an der Seidenstraße noch mehr sieht als ich gedacht hätte. Immerhin sind die Städte ja aus dem nicht gerade robusten Baumaterial Lehm erbaut worden. Der Iran hat mich wegen der weltoffenen Menschen und den unglaublich schönen Moscheen, Basars, Plätzen und Städten wie Isfahan und Yazd begeistert. Da fahr ich sicher noch einmal hin. Erste Bilder auf flickr. Einen bisschen einen Eindruck können meine Bilder vermitteln. Die ersten vom Iran habe ich bereits ins Internet auf die flickr-Seite gestellt. Weitere – auch von Turkenistan – folgen in den nächsten Tagen.

Zu den Iran-Fotos

Zu den Turkmenistan-Fotos

[gallery]

Schöne Innenhöfe. Die Hotels sind verwinkelt mit vielen idyllischen Innenhöfen. Die Fenster der Zimmer gehen in die Höfe, manche Zimmer haben keine Fenster. Die Einrichtung ist einfach, wertvolle Antiquitäten gibt es nicht. Vier Sterne würde ich den Hotels nicht geben. Sie haben ein gehobenes Mittelklasse-Niveau, sind aber wegen der schönen Atmosphäre zu empfehlen. Die UNESCO zeichnete die Kette immerhin mit einem Preis für vorbildliche Restaurierung aus. Zimmerpreise: 40 Euro bis 180 Euro für die VIP-Suite. www.mehrhotel.ir

Yazd ist das Zentrum der Araber-Pferdezucht in Persien. In mehreren Gestüten am Stadtrand wird die edle Rasse gezüchtet - für die Rennbahn, aber auch zunehmend für den Freizeitsport. Durch Zufall bekam ich die Gelegenheit, mit Züchtern und der Familie des Besitzers des "Mehr Taditionel Hotels"einen Morgenritt durch die Wüste zu machen. Es war ein fantastisches Erlebnis.

Im glänzenden Licht der ersten Sonnenstrahlen donnerten wir über den feinen Sand. Zwischen uns Reitern tollten frei mitlaufende Fohlen im Alter zwischen fünf und fünfzehn Monaten. Auch Frauen waren mit dabei – und da diese auch beim Reiten das Kopftuch tragen müssen, war das Bild besonders exotisch. Ich kam mir vor wie Lawrence von Arabien.

Das "Mehr Traditionel Hotel" bietet Reittouren an. Ein Zwei-Stunden-Ausritt kostet 50 US-Dollar. Das Hotel ist übrigens ein historisches Haus im Zentrum von Yazd, gleich neben dem Basar. Für die vorbildliche Restaurierung gab es eine Auszeichnung von der UNESCO. Heute abend treffe ich mich mit dem Besitzer, der noch sechs weitere historische Hotels in Yazd betreibt. Dann kann ich mehr berichten. Offensichtlich beginnt man in Yazd die denkmalgeschützten Häuser zu restaurieren und teils in Hotels umzubauen. So wie vor Jahren in Marrakesch. Mal schauen, was der gute Mann so erzählt.

Das Catering fürs Abendessen übernehmen der örtliche Bäcker und ein junger Holländer, der in den Lehmruinen ein Haus restauriert hat und darin eine kleine Pension betreibt. Jetzt hofft der Außteiger, dass öfters Touristen vorbeikommen. Immerhin: An diesem Abend hatte er vier Gäste, darunter ein Österreicher, der schon zwei Jahre durch die Welt reist.

Prachtige sights, ingenieuze eeuwenoude windtorens die de huizen verkoelen en verdwalen in steegjes in de oude bazaar... Genieten van thee of een versgeperst vruchtensapje in een van de vele theehuizen, romantische restaurantjes of prachtige hoteltuinen en binnenplaatsen, bij gerestaureerde traditionele huizen en caravansara's, wat wil het oog nog meer!

Veel mensen die we tegenkwamen waren ook bijzonder vriendelijk -we kregen zelfs bloemen uit eigen tuin aangeboden- en het zijn volgens een onzer gastheren in ons hotel zelfs de vriendelijkste en meest betrouwbare mensen van Iran -al stelde hij ons gerust dat  Isfahani en Shirazi het ook niet slecht deden. Allicht heeft deze vriendelijkheid een en ander te maken met het zoroastrisme, het oude geloof van Zarathustra, ooit de belangrijkste religie van Iran. Bij het Zoroastrisme staat de voortdurende innerlijke strijd tussen het goede en het kwade bij elk mens centraal en de reinheid wordt betracht in de (goede) gedachte, woorden en daden, de drie gebieden die terug komen in het belangrijkste figuur en symbool, Ahura Mazda. 

Hoewel Islam de staatsgodsdienst is, heeft het geloof nog steeds haar invloed in Iran, zoals bij de viering van het nieuwjaar in de lente en het midwinterfeest Yalda. De meest zichtbare invloed is echter in Yazd, het hart van de Zoroastrische gemeenschap, waar de Torens van de Stilte, de atashkadeh (met de heilige eeuwige vlam) en de zoroastrische begraafplaats pelgrims uit de hele wereld trekken... 

Natuurlijk kwamen we tijd, oren en ogen tekort.. ik zou graag nog eens teruggaan om me meer te verdiepen in het Zoroastrisme... Dit eerste bezoek zal dus zeker niet de laatste zijn!

1)  Trying to explain to a driver why Americans think Iranians are terrorists - explaining that Americans think Iranians are Arabs was just the start of a long, interesting conversation.

2)  Old city of Yazd - whoever invented the windtower was smart.

3)  Dried apricots - the best dried fruit you will ever eat.

4)  Form-fitting manteaus - it's as good as it gets.

5)  Persepolis - world-class ruins.

6)  Bazaars - Tehran's is the world's largest and the bazaar does 1/3 of the country's retail transactions. 

7)  Date milk shake - clearly.

8)  Swimming in Persian Gulf with dolphins - the Persian Gulf is like a giant swimming pool, warm and bright green.

9)  A hospital visit to get 10 stitches from a doctor wearing Armani for only $24.42 - our insurance wasn't accepted, but we raised the cash and haven't had any problems with the cut since.

10)  Rayen fortress - one can only imagine what Bam looked like before the earthquake.

1)  Register for a tour of Iran. Americans need to be registered with a tour to go to Iran. If you are adventurous enough to want to go to Iran, you will cringe at the thought of going on an organized tour. You don't have a choice, so there is no reason to fight it. Here's how you can make this work for you. First, arrange for a private tour - we did this at a 5% mark-up to the cost of a group tour without negotiating. Second, once you get there, inform your tour guide that you want your afternoons free. While you are supposed to be accompanied at all times by your tour guide, no one in Iran actually cares and police/military personnel never checked our passports or credentials - they were much more interested in meeting an American and saying hello. Third, arrange to have dinner or home-stays with Iranians. If you don't know any Iranians, try www.couchsurfing.com and similar sites. Fourth, pay as little for the tour as possible; negotiate hard. Iran is very cheap compared to the United States. To give you a sense of the underlying costs when you are negotiating: A good hotel room will be $20 per night per person with breakfast included, lunch and dinner will be no more than $5 per person for each meal, domestic plane flights are $45 and long-haul bus rides are about $1 per hour of travel. Don't let the tour agency take a spread on food, travel and lodging - isolate the cost of the tour itself and haggle this down. Make sure to get in writing exactly how much is budgeted for daily activities, lodging, travel and meals.

Note that you have to go with a tour agency that can host Americans.  Not all tour agencies are equipped to do this, so you do need to search around.  We used www.key2persia.com.  It was OK; they did a good job with the logistics, but we can't recommend their tour guides.

2)  Once you pick your tour agency, get a reference number. What is a reference number? The Iranian government issues you a reference number once they decide that they want you in their country. You then use the reference number to pick up a visa. The tour agency will help you secure a reference number as part of the price of the tour. The reference number will be for use at a predetermined Iranian consulate or embassy that you designate in the reference number application form. In order to get a reference number, fill out the form that the tour agency gives you. Once the form has been submitted to the tour agency, you will have to wait about 40 days to get the reference number. We got our reference number after 30 days.

3)  Once you have a reference number, you have to go to the Iranian embassy or consulate that you designated to get your physical visa for your passport.  There are rumors and speculations on the internet regarding which reference number pick-up locations are most likely to yield a reference number/visa. We have heard that the Iranian consulate in Istanbul is very likely to give you a reference number/visa, so we arranged for it there on our way to Iran (note that arranging for a reference number in the US is supposed to be the most difficult).

We only have experience in getting a physical visa in Istanbul - so we can only speak to that experience. (One of us initially tried to get the visa in Madagascar and that proved totally impossible and the reference number had to be transferred to Istanbul last minute.)  The Istanbul details are as follows:

The Iranian embassy in Istanbul is in Sultanahment on Ankara Caddesi.  Go to where the guards are standing on Ankara Caddesi.  The door is closed and there are two guards standing there, so it is an unlikely entrance, but this is it!  Expect that one of the guards (in a suit) will pat you down.  When you walk into the Iranian consulate, wait in line where there is a set of ropes in front of a counter.  There are other counters in the consulate, but they are not for visas (all signs are in Farsi, so things won't be obvious once you get there).  Give the person at the window your reference number and passport.  They will check your reference number and give you another visa application to fill out and a slip with the amount that you have to pay for the visa.  For Americans, the visa is 65 Euros.

Fill out the visa application form.  You will need to photocopy this application form along with your passport and have two passport photos ready for submission as well.  There is a photocopy shop close to the consulate.  To find the photocopy shop, make a right out of the consulate and walk a block up the street, there is one on the left side of the street.

You cannot pay for the visa in the consulate itself.  You need to go to the Ziraat bank across the street from the consulate and pay there and bring the receipt of payment back to the consulate along with your visa application form and photocopies.  The Ziraat bank operates like a DMV, where you have to pick a number from a machine depending on what service you want.  Unless you speak Turkish, this is a hopeless enterprise.  Instead, walk up to a teller and explain to them that you are trying to pay for an Iranian visa and show them your slip.  They get hundreds of people like you a day; they will take care of you.  You can pay in Dollars, Euros or Turkish Lira.

With your photocopies, pictures, forms and payment receipt, stand in line at the counter with the ropes again and submit these items with your passport.  The standard wait time for a physical visa after you have submitted all of your materials is 2 business days (so if you submit on Monday, you can expect to get it back on Wednesday). They rushed it the same day for one of us, but this required a lot of pleading and some luck the day of.

The Iranian consulate opens at 8:30am and closes at 11:30am.  It is open Monday through Friday (the Lonely Planet is wrong on this point - the consulate is not closed Fridays and open on Saturdays).  The consulate sets out some baklava and other sweets at the main counter at about 10am everyday.  We can only recommend that you help yourself before everyone else does!

4)  With your visa in your passport, you can now board a flight into Iran (you can try going overland, but we were unable to find a tour agency that would pick us up at the border). On arrival in Imam Khomeini airport, there is a passport control area like in all other airports. Here, Americans are treated differently from other foreigners. After showing your passport to the officer behind the glass window, you will be shown aside to a desk to the left of the passport control area. An officer will give you a piece of paper for fingerprinting. The fingerprinting procedure is similar to those you might encounter in the US. Provide a print of your individual fingers from the right pinkie to the left pinkie, then provide a print of all your fingers together on the bottom of the page and another thumbprint at the bottom as well. After being fingerprinted, you will have to take a seat for about half an hour while someone comes down to pick up your fingerprints and takes them upstairs. After this time, they will come back and give you the OK to continue to the baggage claim area.

We go into so much detail because all the forms are in Farsi and the officers do not really speak English, so the whole process can be very confusing.  Understand that the officers are just trying to fill out the necessary forms and are not trying to cause you trouble.  If they doubt anything that you are saying, repeat it over and over again and they will relent.  For example, when one of us was asked about our profession - he replied "investor", which is what he had used for his visa application.  This response was not understood by the officers and several intervened to figure out what was going on.  He continued to talk about an example of what an investor does and just kept talking until they got bored and wrote something down on my fingerprint form.  He used a similar technique for the address of the tour agency - he had written the address using the roman alphabet, which the officers could not read.  So he read it over and over to them until they just wrote something down.

5)  After getting the thumbs up to go to the baggage area from the man who takes your fingerprints, you will probably be the last one getting your baggage, so make sure to tell the tour agency to make the driver that will pick you up wait longer to account for this delay. When we arrived in the airport, our contact had left the airport!

6)  Change money in the airport. Tehran is a big city and changing money is not easy. The rates offered at the airport are competitive for most international currencies and the offices are open 24/7. ATMs don't work for foreigners in Iran, so make sure you have cash.

7) A last word on your arrival. Imam Khomeini Airport is about an hour drive from Tehran.  If you have to catch a domestic connection, you will have to drive about 45 minutes to an airport that handles domestic connections. 

If you have any questions feel free to contact us at newtomefeedback@gmail.com. Safe travels!

Però altres anaren a instal·lar-se a les remotes i eixorques terres entre Yazd i Kerman, al centre geogràfic de l’actual Iran, on estigueren menys exposats a la pressió social que acabava portant a l’adopció de l’Islam. Així se’ls va trobar a 1903 Abraham Valentine Jackson quan va escriure el seu bell informe Persia: Past and Present i, sense enormes alteracions, així podríem trobar nosaltres els més de 20.000 zoroastrians que encara segueixen habitant aquestes terres a hores d’ara.
Convertits en una minoria amb una certa protecció legal, tot i que sotmesos a subtils dissuasions, com les discriminacions laborals, el relegament econòmic, la submissió a la llei corànica i l’estigmatització de la llengua dari, a la xarxa hi ha abundant informació de qualitat sobre la seva vida passada i present, i els zoroastrians de l’Índia fins i tot es beneficien d’un programa de conservació patrimonial de l’UNESCO.

També podem documentar-nos sobre les seves arcaiques pràctiques religioses. La més colpidora de totes, no obstant això, sembla que ha deixat d’observar-se.
Per als zoroastrians els cadàvers són impurs, mentre que la terra i el foc són sagrats. Així que per a preservar-los de la contaminació, els cossos morts no es soterraven o s’incineraven: es deixaven exposats als elements perquè es podrissin i els carronyaires hi fessin festa grossa. Amb aquesta fi edificaren en cingleres aïllades unes torres concèntriques on es dipositaven les despulles fins que eren reduïdes a pols. Heròdot ja va documentar aquest procediment, que en la seva època primitiva tenia un caràcter iniciàtic i secret i que era portat a terme per un cos sacerdotal especialment designat per a la missió.

A principis del segle XX continuava sent el ritu funerari preferent dels fidels d’Ahura Mazda i els més ortodoxes no se privaren fins l’any 1970, quan la llei iraniana obligà a tancar la darrera dema, com s’anomenen aquestes cases de difunts en dari. A occident, però, són conegudes pel nom que va emprar un funcionari de l’imperi britànic a mitjans del segle XIX: torres del silenci.

(Fotografia de Sebastià Giralt a Flickr)

Sobre les elevacions de les planures desèrtiques dels encontorns de Yazd encara s’hi poden contemplar algunes d’aquestes construccions que durant més de vint segles allotjaren una de les cerimònies de passatge més singulars de les quals es servi memòria.

One of our members, Arnavaz Malhotra pointed me to this fascinating feature article that appeared in the Washington Post titled "Among the Zoroastrians" with interviews by Jackie Lyden and photographs by Nancy Andrews.

The article vividly brings out the culture and lives of the few Zoroastrians still living in the desert plateau of Yazd, around 350 miles southeast of Tehran.

With both still images, a flash movie and audio commentary, this piece is worth a visit and 'bookmark'! Check it out by clicking here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73017047@N00/sets/72157603120742054/

 CHAK CHAK, Iran (AP) - Dressed in white to symbolize purity, a priest recited from the Zoroastrian holy book at a shrine as members of this ancient pre-Islamic religion marked what they see as one of the most bitter events in Iran's history: the 7th century Arab conquest of Persia.

The Arab invasion changed history for Persia, the ancient name for non-Arab Iran (re the name "Persia" AP's explanation is incorrect - see HERE and HERE): Islam was imposed as the new religion, replacing Zoroastrianism, whose followers were dispersed.

Thousands of Zoroastrians from Iran's small remaining community and from India, the United States and other countries gathered at this mountain shrine this week for five days of ceremonies that ended Monday, commemorating the event.

Priest Goshtasb Belivani addressed the gathering, standing at the tall bronze doors of the shrine, built into a cliff-side cave where a heroine of the faith, Nikbanou, is said to have fled from the Arab assault. «We have all gathered at this sacred place to pray Ahura Mazda,» he said, using the Zoroastrians' name for God. «We are also here to remember Nikbanou and what happened to our ancestors by the Arab invaders.

Belivani spoke to the crowd in modern Farsi, before reciting the verses from the Avesta, the faith's holy book, in an ancient version of the language.

According to legend, Nikbanou, the youngest daughter of the last king of the Persian empire, took shelter in the mountain and prayed to Ahura Mazda for help from the attackers. Miraculously, the mountain opened up and gave her protection.

Near the shrine, a slowly dripping spring emerges from the mountain, giving the site its name _ «Chak Chak» means «drip drip» (actually drop drop) in Persian. The legend says the spring is the mountain shedding tears in remembrance of Nikbanou. An immense tree stands nearby, said to have grown from Nikbanou's cane.

The legends regretting the invasion that brought Islam to this country highlight the unusual status of Zoroastrians in today's Iran ruled by an Islamic government headed by clerics.

Since coming to power in the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic has tolerated the sect, giving it official status and guaranteeing a Zoroastrian seat in parliament (though it must be noted that, in practice, the Zoroastrian representative has very little to no political or social influence). It also allows its members to practice their rites. For example, while the law forbids mixed dancing, Zoroastrian men and women are permitted to dance together and play music as part of their worship in special places like temples or covered buildings.

Still, the Zoroastrian community's numbers have dwindled to around 50,000, down from 300,000 in the 1970s, with many emigrating to the U.S. - the numbers worldwide are on the rise - HERE

Human rights reports say Zoroastrians like members of Iran's small Jewish and Christian minorities suffer some discrimination, kept out of some jobs. But many Zoroastrians left simply because of the general restrictions on all Iranian society imposed by the Islamic government.

Still, Zoroastrian traditions remain embedded in Iran, where the population of 70 million overwhelmingly Shiite Muslim take deep pride in their pre-Islamic civilization.

Every year, Iranians of all religions mark Chahar-Shanbe Suri, or the Wednesday feast, part of celebrations for the Persian New Year, in March. During the rites, Iranians light bonfires in the streets and jump over them and dance, hoping to put failures behind them and the rite has persisted despite attempts by the ruling clerics to discourage it as un-Islamic.

Zoroastrians are not a big population in Iran but our rituals remain widely respected not only in Iran but other parts of the world, said chief Zoroastrian priest Ardeshir Khorshidian.

At Chak Chak also known by the name Pir-e Sabz, 550 kilometers southeast of the capital Tehran the pilgrims crowded into pavilions set up at the base of the mountain, below the shrine in the cliff. Families sitting on rugs had picnics, while children danced and their parents attended prayers in the shrine.

For many Zoroastrians, summer begins with a pilgrimage to Pir-e-Sabz - (where an important Zoroastrian fire temple is located on a hill 52 km to the northeast of Yazd-Iran. Pir-e Sabz attracts thousands of pilgrims for an annual festival which lasts for 10 days from the beginning of the third month after Norooz i.e. Iranian New Year in March - click on link for more photos & information) - said Pedram Soroushpour. This event is a symbol of Zoroastrians remaining loyal to their manners and rituals.

Videos added to the post: July 11, 2008.  The first video is of Chak Chak (Pir-e Sabz) Iran 2007 (1) - and the second video Chak Chak and Yazd (2).

This is a very good article, Iranian Zoroastrianism, written by a knowledgeable individual who discusses the differences in views and practices of Iranian-Zoroastrians vs. Parsis/Parsees (beginning with those Persians, who "initially" migrated to India circa 10th century CE following the Arab-Islam invasion of Iran in the 7th century CE).Yazd and Kerman (where the ancient city of “Bam” is located - built circa 500 BC), are two key Provinces in Iran with the largest concentration of Zoroastrians (Zartosties). However, Zoroastrians live all over Iran and the fire-temples, even to date, exist in many other Iranian Provinces.

This article is not intended to be divisive; but it is written with a view to outline the roots of Zoroastrianism and give voice to the Iranian-Zoroastrians, where Zoroastrianism was in fact born - it also aims to demonstrate that Zoroastrianism, by the virtue of its core philosophy & the wisdom of its teacher, is a dynamic faith.

I’d like to add that the “Parsi” community in India have been and are very influential. Many times, they have lobbied the IR regime in Iran and have successfully prevented the Mullahs from destroying quite a few historical & ancient Zoroastrian sites and fire-temples.

My thanks to Mazdak Samii for the above photo.