PAYAM Ashena: October 2014 by Leanne Pedante

ASHENA

PAYAM P. O. Box 60613 // Ir vine, California 92602 // USA Tel: 949.451.1440 // www.Ashena.com // Payam@Ashena.com

Volume 26

// Issue 308 October 2014

“A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.” - Khalil Gibran

IN THIS ISSUE p. 04

Publisher: Javad Mostafavi email: payam@ashena.com Senior Editor: Newsha Mostafavi email: newsha@ashena.com Contributing Editor: Ginny Jeffery Published By: Negaresh Business Services, Inc. Address: P.O. Box 60613, Irvine, CA 92602 ISSN 1528-6061 Phone: 949.451.1440 Fax: 949.451.1830 www.Ashena.com payam@ashena.com

p. 20

Payam-e-Ashena is Southern California’s Persian Community Magazine since 1989 Payam-e-Ashena is an independent, bilingual, non-political, non-religious journal. Its contents include world and local news, business reports, cultural, social, and economic affairs of the Persian Community in Southern California. Payam-e-Ashena is non-partisan, unbiased, and the choice of affluent and well-educated Persians. It is published on the 15th of each month and mailed to subscribers and businesses in the Persian Community in addition to wide distribution in Persian centers and markets.

YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION ASHENA MAGAZINE P.O. Box 60613, IRVINE, CA 92602

Name: Address: City: State: Zip: Country: Phone: For First Class U.S. Mail, please send $36.00 for U.S., $65.00 for Canada and $100.00 for Europe Payment Info: Check # O CCard T O B E# R 2 0 14 \\ P AYA M - E - A S HDate: ENA 2Credit Expiration p. 38

OCTOBER 2014 04 IRAN: APPETITE

DIVISIONS- AND COMMONALITIES- IN THE MIDDLE EAST

06 OBAMA’S FAILED FOREIGN POLICY COULD HE HAVE PREVENTED THE RISE OF ISIS?

10 IRAN PREPARES FOR A LEADERSHIP TRANSITION A NEW SUPREME LEADER MAY SOON REPLACE KHAMENEI

12 A ROYAL HAREM IN PARIS AN INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST BOZORGMEHR HOSSEINPOUR

14 BREAKING THE LAW TO GO ONLINE IN IRAN FOR IRANIANS, USING THE INTERNET CAN BE A CRIME

16 MY STRUGGLE WITH IRANIAN PRIDE A DAUGHTER’S CONFLICTED VIEWS OF HER PARENTS’ HOME COUNTRY

18 IRAN CLERIC: THEY USED TO SAY LOUDSPEAKERS WERE FORBIDDEN

TWO CLERICS’ OPPOSING VIEWS ON THE INTERNET

19 UK HAS PROGRAM WHERE YOU HEAR AND TASTE PERSIAN CULTURE

WOMAD FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS ETHNIC FOOD AND MUSIC

20 A WOMAN IS WORTH A THOUSAND QUESTIONS: ALTERNATIVE MEDIA IN IRAN AN ART EXHIBIT OF ALTERNATIVE MEDIA IN IRAN

24 LA/ ISLAM ARTS INITIATIVE COMES TO LOS ANGELES EXHIBITIONS TO CELEBRATE ISLAMIC ARTS AND CULTURE

28 IRANIAN SNAPSHOTS: RIOT IN THIEVES ALLEY, PART TWO AN ANTIQUE SHOPPING EXPEDITION GOES DANGEROUSLY WRONG

30 9 AFFIRMATIONS FOR STAYING POSTIVE THOUGHT PAT TERNS TO PROMOTE A STRESS-FREE LIFE

32 3 QUICK TIPS TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR WEEKEND IDEAS TO KEEP YOU ON TRACK UNTIL MONDAY

34 IRANIAN NAMED UTAH TEACHER OF THE YEAR MOHSEN GHAFFARI TO COMPETE FOR THE NATIONAL TITLE

36 NOWRUZ: LOST AND FOUND

WE INTERVIEW K-VON ABOUT HIS NEW NOWRUZ DOCUMENTARY

38 SOCAL’S SCARIEST

WE HIGHLIGHT THE BEST LOCAL HALLOWEEN FUN

40 SAVE MONEY “IMMIGRANT STYLE” K-VON’S FUNNY FRUGALIT Y ADVICE

is hilarious to see the world media paint the Islamic State (IS) as the worst thing on Earth.    For crying out loud, the Ayatollahs and their brigades of horror are so much worse.   In fact, if anything, the IS has stood up to the Shi’ite horror, with just the potent, disgusting attitude the Ayatollahs will not only understand, but respect.   The Iranian opposition, in contrast, is led by non-violent, extremely sophisticated intellectuals. That is why the Ayatollahs have remained.    When I graduated from Princeton in 1981 and moved into my dad’s place in London, I asked him, what in the world do we have to do to resolve the situation in Iran? He looked at me quite seriously, took his glasses off and said that 500,000 people needed to be changed.   The word “changed,” is the wrong word to use it seems. In Persian we say “avaz beshand.” So either you mean you need to remove them from the scene, or change their minds.    A little while later I worked for the ex-ambassador of South Africa in the days of Apartheid, and he gave me a different answer. He said, “Ali, we in South Africa waited for nature to do its thing, and remove the people naturally.”  The reason the Iranian Opposition (IO) has not assembled in their ranks on the borders of Iran is because we don’t want to have blood on our hands. The IO does not want to be

happy that someone has stood up against them. But no one wants to be responsible for killing Muslims.    In serious political terms though, whatever happens, the Sunni tough guys have stopped the Shi’ite tough guys. This is the new balance of terror of the Middle East. It used to be the case that the Lebanese would praise the Shi’ite tough guys because they stood up to the Israelis and fired off missiles, or dug tunnels first and then fired off missiles.    Yes, we will get Sunni tough guys in the south of Iran. The Shi’ite power in Iran has no power. The Ayatollahs will have to tell off fellow Muslims for the first time. This division is a great blessing for the non-violent opposition in and out of Iran.    More and more, if not all, of Iran has moved away from political and religious discussions. Even the die-hard Shi’ites are ashamed of discussing the divisions in Islam. And just like the Christians lost power when Protestants were formed, so will Islam be weakened as the Shi’ites and Sunni argue amongst themselves.   The more divisions we get in Islam, the better. Each will have its own small power base unique to the land they

e t i t e p p A :

n a r I

an IS.   Yes, the US did intervene in Iraq, and stopped the horrible IS. They could have done the same and stopped the murderers in Iran in 1979. But they did the opposite. They made the National Army of Iran look like demons. They made the IRGC, who are worse than IS, look like the Crusades, marching for a good cause.   Khomeini was a Trojan Horse that has spread its virus all across Iran, and has made Iran a pariah state. That is what every Iranian will tell you. Some are very 4

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

Mostofi i l A : y B

are in. As such, the national and ethnic boundaries will be more powerful than the religious divisions. It will then be very easy for Iranians to change or Avaz Beshand.   It will be a case of asking a person, are you a Kurd first or a Sunni first? The answer is Kurd. In Khomeini’s time it was the other way around.   The same will be true of all the ethnic groups of Iran. The Baluch is Baluch first. The Lur is Lur first. The Bakhtiari is Bakhtiari first. And they all have a common ancestor that was the first civilized human being on Earth when he settled in the Fertile Crescent and the Zagros mountains some 20,000 years ago. We are all Iranian first. We all have the same appetite. P

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

OBAMA’S FAILURE

ON IRAN AND ISIS BY SLATER BAKHTAVAR

THE TERRORIST GROUP ISIS, the

Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (or Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, for those who prefer the acronym ISIL) can be traced at least as far back as 2004, when founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi pledged his allegiance to the infamous al Qaeda group and its then-leader, Osama bin Laden. The two organizations found themselves compatible, as both were devoted to Salafist Sunni Islam, which

preaches a return to traditional Islamic values and practices. Originally known as “Jamat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad,” Zarqawi changed the group’s name to “al Qaeda in Iraq” when ties with bin Laden were solidified. Zarqawi himself was killed in 2006, his successors meeting their own fate later in 2010, and today the group is led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In the aftermath of the United States’ ill-advised troop withdrawal from Iraq, the group prospered, eventually divorcing itself from al Qaeda and declaring itself an Islamic caliphate, so that it is now most commonly known as ISIS. The growth of ISIS has been as impressive as it has been alarming, with well-armed militants spreading across Iraq (where even that nation’s second largest city, Mosul, has fallen to the power of ISIS and is now administered by them) and into Syria, sustaining themselves with funding from captured financial institutions, oil fields, and sympathetic radical Muslims in other Arab countries. They are brutally totalitarian in their adherence to their flavor of Islamic doctrine, having instituted flogging as punishment for the sale of alcohol or tobacco, hand amputation for stealing, and death for failure to convert to the “true” Muslim faith. What is perhaps most terrifying of all is the fact that blame for the rise of ISIS can be laid squarely at the feet of United States President Barack Obama. In the aftermath of the American invasion of Iraq, conducted under then-President George W. Bush, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled and a power vacuum was created in the nation. This is significant, because it was precisely Hussein’s brutality and repression that kept radicals like those driving ISIS in check, and allowed a secular government to function. Without this apparatus, only the presence of armed US soldiers carrying out antiinsurgency operations was able to restrain a beast that would otherwise break its leash. Sadly, that leash was broken when Barack Obama made the decision to call back American troops and abandon the nation of Iraq, leaving to its own devices a country fundamentally destabilized by American action, and ignoring the United States’ moral responsibility there. Of course, claims were made that the newly instituted democratic government under Nouri alMaliki would now step up and hold back the insurgents, but in reality this young administration, still finding its legs as a governing force, had no hope of standing up to the well-oiled machine of ISIS. Alarming – and, frankly, embarrassing – stories of regular Iraqi military units being routed and sent fleeing by terrorist bands hit the headlines, and the stage was set for ISIS to enter primacy. And now, sadly, Iraq and Syria are only the beginning. ISIS is ambitious indeed, aiming to capture Turkey, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine. The potential nightmare that the Middle East now faces cannot be overstated. P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

Recently, having instigated the problem and allowing ample time for it to become much worse, Obama has announced a campaign of air strikes aimed at decaying and ultimately destroying ISIS. One wonders, of course, whether it will be too little and too late, and even if it is eventually successful, what the price will be in innocent Iraqi and Syrian blood. By abandoning America’s moral responsibility to Iraq and necessitating deadly military action, Obama has tarnished the image of the United States around the world and proven once again his own incompetence in foreign policy. Obviously the first step to preventing this calamity was to allow US troops to continue their peacekeeping role in Iraq, but Obama’s blunders actually run deeper than this. His consistent failure to support democracy in Iran has once again proven disastrous. In 2009, responding to the highly suspicious reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Green Movement

began in Iran, flourishing despite the displeasure of the Ayatollah’s regime in that country. While initially marred by isolated incidents of violence, the core of the movement has always been peaceful and dedicated to bloodless change for the dignity of the common people. Calling for the institution of fair and meaningful democracy – something Iran currently does not enjoy, with an elected “president” who holds little or no actual power in government – Iranians hoped and believed that the freedom-loving United States of America would support them in their strife. Unfortunately, the American government under Barack Obama called the Green Movement an internal affair of Iran not to be otherwise commented upon, and with these few, heartless words, left countless Iranians to suffer and toil on their own. Nevertheless, they pressed on, their action more sporadic since 2011 but never losing their focus on peace and representative government. And it is

precisely this sort of institution that could have positioned the great nation of Iran to be an opposing force again the tyranny of ISIS. The people of Iran are modern and tech savvy, utilizing the Internet to help bring about change, which is altogether unsurprising considering that Iran’s population is actually comprised in the majority of youth. They are also mostly Persian by ethnicity, in contrast to the Arabs of Islamic fundamentalism. These are people of the 21st century, and a government representing them could have no tolerance for religious extremism and persecution. This government could have been a reality. When the Green Movement began, the military theocracy in Iran was unstable, and the support of the United States for the Iranian people might have been just the push needed to make it fall. This could have been accomplished without the use of disastrous military action or economic sanctions, by peacefully encouraging

the continued and expanded use of technology to advance communications and the exchange of ideas. If successful in changing the Iranian government – and there is every reason to believe this would have been the result – the world today would know a free Iran ruled by its own peaceful, progressive people. The stabilizing value of such a state – particularly a powerful one such as Iran – in so turbulent a region as the Middle East would have been vast. As a mostly Shiite nation (as opposed to the more fundamentalist Sunnis of ISIS), Iran would have been concerned with using its considerable influence to help the people of Iraq keep dangerously extreme elements from power. Even Syria may have benefited, as Iran could have helped to establish democracy there as well, again undermining the environment that gave rise to the so-called Islamic State. The people of Iran are heavily supportive of the West and its ideals of freedom and representative gov-

ernment. If Obama had only shown solidarity with these natural allies in an otherwise hostile region, the results for the Middle East and potentially the world would have been brilliantly encouraging. Instead, Barack Obama has consistently demonstrated his commitment to abandoning American moral obligations in the Middle East. This was most plainly done by withdrawing troops from Iraq when it was precisely American military action that gave rise to the instabilities seen in that nation and that had the power to hold those instabilities in check. But Obama’s negligence has been even more egregious in the case of Iran. The United States of America claims to be a nation of people who love freedom and treasure democracy, and who even are willing to stand with those elsewhere in the world who strive to achieve what Americans have the luxury of taking for granted. Ask any American patriot why blood was spilled in World Wars I and II,

or Vietnam, or any of the other conflicts in which the United States has taken part, and the unanimous answer will always be “freedom.” But where was this commitment to the liberty of man when real people facing real struggles needed it the most? The men and women of Iran needed Barack Obama’s support, and he turned a blind eye and a deaf ear on their plight. Now, stemming partly from that failure, we have ISIS, a powerful terrorist organization threatening to continue its cancerous spread across an already volatile region. Large parts of Iraq and Syria have already fallen, with other nations sitting squarely in the crosshairs. How many will die the next time President Obama ignores the American creed? P

Slater Bakhtavar is an attorney, journalist, author and political commentator. He is author of Iran: The Green Movement.

Iran Prepares FOR A

Leadership Transition Though Iran has been broadcasting pictures and videos of top state officials and noted foreign dignitaries visiting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the hospital, the health of the man who has held the most powerful post in the Islamic Republic remains unclear. The unusual public relations management of what has been described as a prostate surgery suggests Tehran may be preparing the nation and the world for a transition to a third supreme leader. Iranian efforts to project an atmosphere of normalcy conceal concerns among players in the Iranian political system that a power vacuum will emerge just as the Islamic republic has reached a geopolitical crossroads.

Analysis Any transition comes at the most crucial time in the 35year history of the Islamic Republic due to unprecedented domestic political shifts underway and, more importantly, due to international events. Pragmatic conservative President Hassan Rouhani’s election in the June 2013 elections led to a social, political and economic reform program facing considerable resistance from within the hard-right factions within the clerical and security establishments. The biggest issue between the presidential camp and its opponents is the ongoing process of negotiations with the United States over the Iranian nuclear program.

Nuclear Talks and Syria After an unprecedented breakthrough in November 2013 that saw an interim agreement, the negotiation process has hit a major snag, with a final agreement not reached by a July 20th, 2014 deadline, though the deadline for negotiations was extended to November 24th. Some form of partial agreement had been expected, with talks kicking into high gear ahead of the opening session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York on September 18th.

A mood of pessimism in Tehran has since been reported, however, with senior Foreign Ministry officials prepping the media for the eventuality that the talks might fail. The risk of failure comes from the fact that Rouhani can only go so far in accepting caps on Iran’s ability to pursue a civilian nuclear program before his hawkish opponents will gain the upper hand in Iran’s domestic political struggle. Stratfor sources say Rouhani did not want to attend this year’s General Assembly, but Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif reportedly convinced the president that his visit might help the negotiating process. As if the negotiation itself was not enough of a problem for Rouhani, the U.S. move to support rebel forces in Syria that would fight both the Islamic State and Iran’s ally, the Assad regime, is a major problem for Tehran. U.S. and Iranian interests overlapped with regard to the IS threat in Iraq. But in Syria, the United States must rely on anti-Iranian actors to fight IS and the Obama administration seeks to topple the Assad regime. Accordingly, less than a year after the two sides embarked upon a rapprochement, tensions seem to be returning.

A New Supreme Leader On top of this stressor, uncertainties surrounding Khamenei’s health have shifted Iran’s priorities to the search for a new supreme leader. The unusual manner in which Tehran continues to telegraph Khamenei’s hospitalization to show that all is well — while at the same time psychologically preparing the country and the outside world for the inevitable change — coupled with the (albeit unverified) 2010 release by WikiLeaks of a U.S. diplomatic cable reporting that the supreme leader was suffering from terminal cancer, suggests the political establishment in Tehran is preparing for a succession. Khamenei himself would want to prepare a succession before he can no longer carry out his official responsibilities.

Before Khamenei was elected supreme leader in 1989, the idea of a collective clerical body was in vogue among many clerics. The country’s second-most influential cleric, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, on several occasions has proposed a “jurisprudential council” consisting of several top clerics as an alternative to the supreme leader’s post. His proposal has not gained much traction, but with succession imminent, it might seem more attractive as a compromise should the competing factions prove unable to reach a consensus. Constitutionally, an interim leadership council takes over should the incumbent supreme leader no longer be able to carry out his duties until the Assembly of Experts elects a successor. Considering the factionalized nature of the Iranian political elite, it is only normal to assume that the process to replace Khamenei will be marred by a major struggle between the various camps that make up the conservative establishment. After all, this is an extremely rare opportunity for those seeking change and for those seeking continuity to shape the future of the republic. For the hardliners, already deeply unnerved by what they see as an extremely troubling moderate path adopted by Rouhani, it is imperative that the next supreme leader not be sympathetic to the president. From their point of view, Khamenei has given the government far too much leeway. For his part, Rouhani knows that if his opponents get their way in the transition, his troubles promoting his domestic and foreign policy agenda could increase exponentially.

Possible Successors The country’s elite ideological military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, will no doubt play a key role in who gets to be supreme leader. Likewise, the religious establishment in Qom will definitely have a say in the matter. The revolutionary-era clerics who have long dominated the political establishment are a dying breed,

and the Assembly of Experts would not want to appoint someone of advanced age, since this would quickly lead to another succession. Stratfor has learned that potential replacements for Khamenei include former judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, a cleric close to Khamenei and known for his relative moderate stances. They also include Hassan Khomeini, the oldest grandson of the founder of the republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He is close to the president’s pragmatic conservative camp and the reformists, but pedigree may not compensate for his relatively left-wing leanings and his relatively young age of 42. Finally, they include current judiciary chief Mohammed-Sadegh Larijani, the younger brother of Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani who some believe is the preferred candidate of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The key problem that has surrounded the post of the supreme leader since the death of the founder of the republic is the very small pool of potential candidates to choose a replacement from: Most clerics lack political skills, while those that do have political savvy lack requisite religious credentials. Khamenei was a lesser cleric to the status of ayatollah shortly before assuming the role of supreme leader, though he has demonstrated great political acumen since then. Khomeini was unique in that he had solid credentials as a noted religious scholar, but also had solid political credentials given his longtime leadership of the movement that culminated in the overthrow of the shah in 1979. Since Khomeini fell out with his designated successor, Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, in 1987, no one has had both qualities. Whoever takes over from Khamenei will be no exception to this, even though he will need to be able to manage factional rivalries at one of the most critical junctures in the evolution of the Islamic Republic. P

A ROYAL HAREM IN PARIS: AN INTERVIEW WITH BOZORGMEHR HOSSEINPOUR BY SHIMA SHAHRABI 12

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

“It came to me that Naser al-Din Shah was Iran’s very first nude photographer,” says Bozorgmehr Hosseinpour, an Iranian art director and cartoonist from Tehran. “He made the women in his harem stand naked in front of the camera.” Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, who presided over Persia as one of the Qajar dynasty’s most iconic kings until his assassination in 1896, and his royal harem are the subject of Hosseinpour’s new exhibition A Cartoonist Inside a Royal Harem at the Nicolas Flamel Gallery in Paris on September 18th. Naser al-Din Shah was the first Iranian king to visit Europe repeatedly, and those trips, which he recorded in detail in his journals, document Iran’s early encounters with the technological innovations and social

customs of the West. He also dined with Queen Victoria, who appointed him a Knight of the Order of the Garter. But his affection for the modern world was equally infused with a love for ancient Persian traditions, and this is what drew Hosseinpour to organize the exhibition. The Shah’s wives, all of whom were concealed within the royal harem and attended to by eunuchs, were also ordered to wear short skirts modeled on the tutus he had seen in a ballet on a trip to Paris.

graphs taken by Naser al-Din Shah that alluded to the monarch as being Iran’s first nude photographer.

Hosseinpour said that it was this contrast- the fact the King’s wives wore both the Islamic veil and the tutu-style miniskirts- that piqued his interested.

Hosseinpour read numerous history books and undertook extensive research on Naser al-Din Shah’s harem before he was able to sketch the drawings. “This wasn’t just something I could find in a one single book,” he says. “I had to put it together bit by bit from different sources and pictures to find out what had really happened and to portray a realistic image. One thing I read was that he’d bring in blindfolded musicians so the women in his harem could dance to the music. Then he’d watch them whilst sitting down and smoking a water pipe.”

Hosseinpour was further enthused by the project when he came across an unpublished collection of photo-

The exhibition was well received in Tehran, and now, like Naser al-Din Shah himself, it travels to Paris. P

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

When

Anthony Bourdain posted a cryptic message on Facebook at the end of May that he and his television crew would be off the social media grid for the next ten days because they were “truly going to #PartsUnknown,” his fans around the world were intrigued. Was he shooting his CNN show (titled Parts Unknown) in a remote desert or on top of a snowy Himalayan peak?

Ten days later, Mr. Bourdain posted a picture of himself sitting with a small glass of tea at a traditional Iranian teahouse in Isfahan, and it was immediately clear why the famous chef and TV show host had had no other option but to maintain radio silence. In Iran, the government officially blocks access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and almost all other social media platforms. Any attempt to bypass this block by using a virtual private network (VPN) connection or other software solutions is illegal. Numerous reports indicate that Iranian authorities restrict access to thousands of American and European websites, particularly those of international news sources, and even throttle down Internet connections to limit the ability of Iranians to surf the rest of the Web. “Internet speeds are incredibly slow in Iran, which ranked 164 out of 170 countries in a recent study,” says the latest “Freedom on the Net” report from the humanrights organization Freedom House. The report lists Iran as last in the world in terms of Internet freedom. And that was before an Iranian court banned Instagram last month. 14

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

This suppressive approach, zealously pursued by hardliners and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, was ridiculed two weeks ago by none other than the minister of culture, Ali Jannati. Addressing members of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Jannati criticized the practice of blocking websites, social media and popular messaging apps. “In social media and the virtual world, we still do not know if we are supposed to block Viber and WhatsApp or not,” Mr. Jannati said, according to the news site Al-Monitor. “There was a time we had problems with video. There was even a time we had issue with the fax machine,” he said. “Apparently we have to confront every new phenomenon and after time has passed, then accept it,” Mr. Jannati continued. “We always want to have a 20-year distance with the world. Let’s at least move along with the world.” Meanwhile, several top Iranian officials enjoy what they deny to their citizens: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani and the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, apparently have accounts on Facebook or Twitter, with Mr. Zarif attracting nearly 900,000 Facebook followers to his page in Farsi. Mr. Rouhani has staked his reputation on the success of Iran’s talks with the so-called P5-plus-1 countries — the permanent United Nations Security Council members Russia, China, Britain, France and the United States, plus Germany — on a possible nuclear deal before July 20th. A deal would ease international sanctions on Iran and allow Western companies to return, giving the struggling Iranian economy a long-needed boost. The reintegration of Iran into the world economy would also

BREAKING THE LAW TO GO ONLINE IN IRAN By Setereh Derakhsheshjune; Courtesy of Voice of America Persian Service

require allowing unfiltered access to the Internet and international satellite television broadcasts. According to The Iran Primer, a website and publication of the United States Institute of Peace, “Iran is one of the most tech-savvy societies in the developing world, with an estimated 28 million Internet users, led by youth,” the site says. “Iran boasts between 60,000 and 110,000 active blogs, one of the highest numbers in the Middle East, led by youth.” The Iranian authorities admit, reluctantly, that it is almost impossible to rein in Iranians who are eager to know about the outside world and know how to use alternative means to gain access to the web. “Four million Iranians are on Facebook, and we have restricted it,” Mr. Jannati said in a speech in March in Tehran. “The preservation of Islamic values cannot be used as an excuse to stop the growth of something in the country.” Mr. Jannati also cited the 71 percent of Tehran residents who have satellite dishes and watch foreign television, which is also illegal. “This means that millions in the capital are committing a crime every evening,” he said. Here at the Voice of America Persian Service, we are familiar with this situation firsthand. Even though all of our satellite TV and radio programs, our website, our social media and our mobile apps are officially banned in Iran, our on-air and online audience numbers have shown steady growth, especially after the start of the P5-plus-1 talks with Iran.

The feedback we get from viewers, listeners and website visitors also confirms strong interest from Iranians to know what is really happening in the country they have been taught to call the “Great Satan” — whether we report on President Obama’s speech at West Point, or a recent visit by American Catholic bishops to Qom to start an interfaith dialogue with top Iranian ayatollahs on the need to restrict nuclear weapons, or Goldman Sachs’s predictions for the Iranian national soccer team at the World Cup. We have to tweak our web content to accommodate low download speeds in Tehran, Mashhad or Shiraz, and we look for ways to help Iranian students win a cat-andmouse game with authorities over the use of VPNs and other anti-filtering tools. Our experience confirms what The Iran Primer finds: Despite the Iranian authorities’ efforts to shield them from Western influences, “Iran’s young are better educated and more worldly than any previous generation” and “most are exposed to global media, ideas and culture through satellite television and the Internet.” Before leaving Iran, Mr. Bourdain tweeted: “Never would have guessed that of all countries in world, my crew and I would be treated so well everywhere, by total strangers in #Iran.” It’s a pity that Iranians weren’t able to read these kind words about their own hospitality on Twitter without breaking their country’s law. P Setareh Derakhshesh is the director of the Voice of America Persian Service.

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

My Struggle with

Iranian Pride By: Sabrina H

v e r y mor ning without fault my father opens Google (or rather, he uses another search engine to search for Google), types “Iran” into the search bar, and sits back in routine desolation as the day’s news blackens the screen. Every morning my father succumbs to a vague sense of hope and withering nationalism, practically nursing a fantasy of receiving an evite from President Rouhani inviting all IranianAmericansand President Obama, of course- to a reconciliatory kabob feast at his Tehran residence. My father topples over in enthusiasm over any non-catastrophic report with the keyword “Iran” included, desperate to instill in me some sense of what he embarrassingly refers to as “Persianality,” or pride for my Persian heritage. A few inspired Sunday mornings during my childhood my father dragged me, stuffed animal and cereal in hand, to the computer screen to show me a Yahoo slideshow of a fossil found in Iran, a relic

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

of King Cyrus’s legacy, or an article about Shirin Ebadi’s latest effort to advance Iran’s human rights. Most mornings, however, my father eventually surrenders to the harsh reality of his homeland’s government and comes a microscopic step closer to accepting that the Shah’s Iran he knew and nostalgically yearns for may very well be kissed “khodahhafez.” In light of the contradictory news regarding Amer-

ica’s future relationship with Iran (reports of a future alliance are interrupted by the detainment and interrogation of two Iranian-American journalists in Tehran), my Iranian-American community is left conflicted and, in my experience, increasingly impatient. My parents, who escaped to Sweden at the height of the Iranian Revolution, left behind remnants of their childhoods and early adulthoods in their bombed villages and towns, and more importantly sacrificed relationships with beloved friends, cousins, and even siblings for the refuge and perceived opportunities of Sweden (and later, America). In fear of the Islamic Regime’s apparent vendetta against American travelers (evidenced by Amir Hekmati’s baseless 10-year sentence in Tehran), my parents’ only correspondence with their lives in Iran since their escape 25 years ago has been through telephone, an occasional email (when the Internet is not cut off), and blurry, albeit extremely emotional, video chats. In turn, Iranian immigrants like my parents live in what seems to

{

“Despite my best efforts, I have often felt a void in my developing identity that I know to be the absence of a defining culture or ethnicity

be a state of perpetual nostalgia for the better days, and scour the radio, television, and print and digital medias for any indicator of a shift in gears that will help restore their connection to their home country.

t was in the midst of this frustration and deep yearning to return home that I, along with many other first-generation Iranian-Americans, was born, and my parents inherited the difficult task of educating me about what would turn out to be an increasingly controversial country. While my mother and father mourn the loss of basic freedoms, personal relationships, and human lives brought on by the extremist government, they

also harbor an immense, and seemingly inherent appreciation for Iran that they struggle to relay to me--mainly because, as a first-generation American and native Californian, I lack any emotional ties to the country that would compensate for the controversy. Without the romantic nostalgia for a spring evening spent at a Borujerd park or a distant memory of my first snowfall at the ruins of Persepolis, my perception of Iran largely remains the American media’s perception of Iran. And in an already liberal age, one in which I can instantly stream Jon Stewart’s opinions on a number of devices, I have not grown fond of the Iranian government’s seemingly constant infringement upon human rights. My father struggles to explain to me the merits of the Persian Empire knowing that I will eventually read about the murder/arrest/teargasing of some activist or another with whom I identify more. And the magnificence of Rumi’s verses fails to resonate when followed by reports of institutionalized misogyny and homophobia. While I have developed the capacity to educate myself and appreciate from a prospective history major’s standpoint the rich history and culture of Iran, I have not quite grown to identify as a Persian as proudly as my Argentine friends, who for example, proclaim their allegiance to their parents’ homeland. In summary, I have differentiated between government and culture, but I am not drawn to the culture in light of the government.

espite my best efforts, I have often felt a void in my developing identity that I know to be the absence of a defining culture or ethnicity; an enthusiasm to share Persian food with the class or write about the history of Iran for a Social Studies report, a reluctance to belong to such a hated region of the world. In elementary school, I struggled with the very pigmentation of my skin and hair, wishing that they validated my Americanism rather than dub me a stigmatized “Middle-Eastern.” I have pondered to no avail how I would have gone about navigating the tangled path that my parents, and other immigrant parents from Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Syria, Libya, and Ukraine, among others, struggle to traverse. How are we as children or young adults to maneuver the construction and development of our identities while being bombarded with graphic images and videos of “our countries” in utter chaos? P P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

Iran cleric: They used to say loudspeakers were forbidden BY AR ASH K AR AMI

Two prominent clerics have taken opposing views on the issue of high-speed Internet, which is currently being debated in the Iranian media. The issue of high-speed Internet has once again become a hot topic in the Iranian media with two prominent clerics addressing the issue and taking opposing sides. According to Ensaf News, Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Nekoonam, a prominent cleric in Qom, defended high-speed Internet during a question-and-answer session with university students in Tehran. “We have put so much pressure on the Internet that our Internet is at the [speed] of a wagon,” Nekoonam said. “I say that instead of becoming

high-speed Internet is no different from those over the introduction of other technologies. He said it was the same when loudspeakers arrived, and some clerics initially called them haram. Then they said the same thing about the radio, then television, then video, and now there are satellites everywhere. He compared the Internet to “a free mule” in that one should jump on, and told others who don’t know how to use it to get out of the way, adding, “They don’t know how to use the Internet, use Facebook, so they

Customers use computers at an Internet cafe in Tehran; photo by Caren Firou for Rutgers

like snails, let’s get on this world train. I have told my seminary students that it is necessary for you to sell the carpets underneath your feet and go buy a laptop or tablet. I said if you are not able to speak to a billion people, you are not worth anything. A Muslim is someone who is civilized, not someone who is an idiot.” Nekoonam said that the debate over

say all of it is haram.” He warned, “The world has grown, and it is not in our hands, and it will grow more than this.” Ayatollah Ahmad Alamulhudda, a member of the Assembly of Experts and Mashhad Friday Prayer leader, a position to which he was appointed by an institution that operates under the purview of the supreme leader’s office, said that Supreme

Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was opposed to high-speed Internet. “Today the biggest calamity is at the Ministry of Communications,” said Alamulhudda on September 16th. “While the supreme leader has given orders not to increase the speed of the Internet, we are witnessing the trampling of his orders. And the Internet is in the pockets of all the youth, and this issue alone is resulting in the spread of cursing in society.” This “calamity” is the promise of Iran’s Communications Minister Mahmoud Vaezi, who said that the ministry planned to increase Internet speed in the country. He has been summoned to testify in parliament on the issue. In discussing access to social media and videos posted online, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in an interview with The National Interest said, “There is a debate in our societies over how far the government should go to protect the population — particularly the youth — from what people in traditional societies consider obscene: profanity, pornography.” He called it a “debate that is ongoing inside Iran, and it’s a debate that will be settled by various people participating.” Zarif’s “various people” will certainly be both elected and unelected government officials, clerics and to a limited extent the media outlets that will choose based on their editorial inclinations which commentary to highlight and which to diminish. P

UK has program where you hear and taste Persian culture Lots of venues hold concerts presenting the music of other cultures, but a British concert planner has added a new twist—not only do the musicians show you their homeland’s songs, but they also serve up some of the cuisine so you can taste as well as hear the culture. Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat are known in Iran for soaring voices and lovely harmonies—as well as facing down the tough restrictions on public performances by women.

But last month in the Wiltshire region of southwestern England, Mahsa’s chief preoccupation was the correct sourcing of dried plums. “These are from eastern Iran, from a village near the desert,” she told host Roger de Wolf and the assembled crowd at Taste the World stage at Womad, a festival of traditional music and dance, as she unwrapped the fruit, brought with her from the Middle East. “They’re sourer than others.” Sister Marjan assembled lemon powder, turmeric and saffron for the chicken dish they were cooking, while in the background the stage’s sous-chef and kitchen assistants supplied

saucepans, chicken and rice. Within a few minutes, the sisters step out of the kitchen to present a rendition of their fusion-edged Iranian songs for the crowd. Shortly after that, the meal they had prepared was distributed to the same audience, so they could taste, as well as hear, a little of Iranian culture. This combination of food and song is the culmination of an idea dreamed up by one of the festi-

“

you instantly raises your spirits.” She began asking musicians if they would be prepared to cook a dish from their home country while being interviewed before the Womad crowd, peppering the process with songs. From a strictly culinary perspective, the experiment has not always resulted in Michelin-standard results, Menter said, but that was not the point. It has allowed the crowd to see a wholly dif-

IF YOU’RE AWAY FROM HOME AND FAMILY, WHAT CONNECTS YOU BACK TO THOSE IS FOOD. IT’S A COMFORT THING. IF YOU’RE FEELING LONELY OR OUT ON A LIMB, EVEN A BOWL OF RICE THAT’S TRADITIONAL FOR YOU INSTANTLY RAISES YOUR SPIRITS. val’s organizers, Annie Menter, who set up the Taste the World stage at Womad (the acronym stands for World of Music and Dance) eight years ago. Menter, who had long been involved with the festival in its various incarnations around the globe, had seen how the musicians she traveled with sought out their national dishes on tour as a little taste of home. “If you’re away from home and family, what connects you back to those is food,” Menter said. “It’s a comfort thing. If you’re feeling lonely or out on a limb, even a bowl of rice that’s traditional for

ferent aspect of these musicians. Host de Wolf invited questions from the audience throughout the interview with the Iranians, and they came thick and fast, on food and culture as well as music. “The rationale for me was, what’s life about?” Menter says. “Music, food, conversation. This is an extension of sitting around your kitchen table and cooking for friends. In that situation, you want to share your food, but you also want to share your conversation, your opinions, your ideas, your culture. That’s what’s important.” P

A WOMAN IS WORTH A THOUSAND QUESTIONS:

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

ALTERNATIVE MEDIA IN IRAN

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

COVER: SAMIRA ESKANDARFAR’S I AM HERE, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST THIS PAGE: ALL PHOTOS FROM LOGHMAN KHALEDI’S NESSA, COURTESY OF SHEHERAZAD MEDIA INTERNATIONAL OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP: NIKOO TARKHANI’S THE SCARLETT LETTER OPPOSITE PAGE, FROM LEFT: FIROUZEH KHOROSVANI’S ROUGH CUT, HALEH ANVARI’S POWER OF A CLICHÉ, ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS

On Oct 27th and 28th, Film at REDCAT will present “a woman is worth a thousand questions: Alternative Media from Iran,” two evenings of powerful, eye-opening works that deconstruct and recontextualize women’s complex relationship with Islam in Iranian culture and society. Running the gamut from experimental film to video and performance art, from animation to documentary, the featured projects draw special attention to the ways in which women-and women’s bodies-are posited both within Islam and at its border, with the codes of sexual propriety, veiling and separation functioning as signifiers of a condition fraught with contradiction and hope.

The evening of Monday October 27th will be devoted to experimental media, with a videoperformance by photographer Haleh Anvari, an installation and documentation of a public performance by multi-media artist Jinoos Taghizadeh, an experimental animation by Pooya Razi, witty, poignant and visually compelling vignettes by Samira Eskandarfar and Nassrin Nasser, and body art by Nikoo Tarkhani. On Tuesday October 28th, three documentaries focusing on the bodies of women and their representation will be shown: two shorter pieces by Samira Eskandarfar and Firouzeh Khorosvani, and Loghman Khaledi’s award-winning Nessa (2011). P

LAUNCHING THIS FALL, THE LOS ANGELES / ISLAM ARTS INITIATIVE(LA/IAI) BRINGS TOGETHER NEARLY 30 CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS THROUGHOUT LOS ANGELES TO TELL VARIOUS STORIES OF TRADITIONAL AND CONTEMPORARY ART FROM MULTIPLE ISLAMIC REGIONS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANT GLOBAL DIASPORAS. THE CELEBRATION OF ISLAMIC ART AND CULTURE HAS BEEN INITIATED BY THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS (DCA) IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE DORIS DUKE FOUNDATION FOR ISLAMIC ART, THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS, THE CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION, THE CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS (CALARTS), AND THE BARNSDALL PARK FOUNDATION.

LA/IAI is the first-of-its-kind, wide-scale citywide initiative on Islamic arts. Anchoring LA/ IAI are two connected exhibitions, Doris Duke’s Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape, and Islamic Art and the DCA-commissioned contemporary art exhibition, Shangri La: Imagined Cities to be held at DCA’s Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG) at Barnsdall Park. Los Angeles’ substantial populations from areas with strong Islamic roots make LA a compelling location for this initiative. LA/IAI casts a wide net, being inclusive and welcoming, with art as its central focus. The term “Islamic art” includes work created by non-Muslim artists from Muslim-dominant countries, work by Muslims creating art in non-Muslim dominant countries, and work by artists culturally influenced by Islam.

Designed to build a greater understanding of the role of Islamic arts, LA/IAI seeks to stimulate the global conversation in connection to cultural, political, and social issues. Through December, DCA is collaborating with nearly 30 partner institutions and community organizations throughout Southern California to present an innovative and inspiring mix of complementary cultural programs. Among them are: TheGetty, CalArts, REDCAT, the Goethe-Institut, Japanese American Cultural Community Center, Islah LA, and Discostan which will host video installations, scholarly symposia, films, concerts, theatrical productions, and other activities. “Los Angeles is a global city, and we’re proud to showcase Islamic Arts through this citywide ini-

LA / ISLAM ARTS INITIATIVE COMES TO LOS ANGELES Citywide Exhibitions and Public Programs Celebrate Islamic Arts and Culture DORIS DUKE’S SHANGRI LA: ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE, AND ISLAMIC ART AND

SHANGRI LA: IMAGINED CITIES ON VIEW AT LOS ANGELES MUNICIPAL ART GALLERY OCTOBER 26TH TO DECEMBER 28TH

PHOTO: COLLECTOR DORIS DUKE, CIRCA 1939

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

“LOS ANGELES IS PERHAPS ONE OF THE EPICENTERS OF VISUAL CONSTRUCTIONS REGARDING ISLAM AND THE MIDDLE EAST, THROUGH BOTH ITS FILM INDUSTRY AND ITS LARGE MIDDLE EASTERN AND ISLAMIC POPULATIONS,” tiative,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti. “TheLos Angeles / Islam Arts Initiative will offer engaging exhibitions and programs that showcase our city’s cultural richness and spark dialogue.” LAMAG is the fifth and final mainland stop on the national tour of a major traveling exhibition chronicling how tobacco heiress Doris Duke came to amass an impressive collection of Islamic artworks from throughout the Islamic world. Doris Duke’s Shangri La also showcases how she went on to commission architect Marion Sims Wyeth to build her Shan-

ALL IMAGES FROM SHANGRI LA: IMAGINED CITIES, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST, GEORGE AWDE

gri La, the five-acre estate in Honolulu to house the collection. Organized by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Doris Duke’s Shangri La was masterminded by curators Donald Albrecht and Thomas Mellins, who interwove architectural documents and vintage photographs along with more than 60 objects from the collection including ceramics, textiles, jewelry, paintings, tile panels, and full-scale architectural elements, to demonstrate a distinct balance between the house and its collection. Interspersed among these artifacts are works

by eight former artists-in-residence at Shangri La, who blend Islamic tradition and 20thcentury modernism. A book of stunning new color photographs of the home and gardens taken by nationally recognized Los Angeles photographer Tim Street-Porter accompanies the innovative exhibition. The DCA-commissioned companion exhibition, Shangri La: Imagined Cities, provides a critical juxtaposition to Doris Duke’s Shangri La through the presentation of contemporary works that produce a multiplicity of worlds, interpretations, and investigations without ignoring the implications of organizing around particular geographic or religious lines. The exhibition is produced by Baghdad-born Rijin Sahakian, a guest curator selected by DCA for her intimate knowledge of the contemporary

art scene and pioneering work in the Middle East. Ms. Sahakian’s ambitious curatorial project, along with a companion catalogue, explores issues of travel, mobility, and collection making while reflecting on the journeys that inspired and ignited Doris Duke’s Islamic Art collection. The exhibition provides a powerful framework for discussions around the politics of production and acquisition, and the mechanisms of global capital, power, and violence in the circulation and “making of” individual identities and aesthetics. “Los Angeles is perhaps one of the epicenters of visual constructions regarding Islam and the Middle East, through both its film industry and its large Middle Eastern and Islamic populations,” says Ms. Sahakian. “This makes LA a ripe environment to examine these narratives and

how they are formed, disseminated, and circulated.” Imagined Cities artists and their respective works will explore these themes through the mediums of video, installation, works on paper, and photography. Artists include: Haig Aivazian, Jananne Al Ani, George Awde, Taysir Batniji, Charles Gaines, Mariam Ghani, Gelare Khoshgozaran, and Adrian Paci. DCA is also collaborating with CalArts to offer Ms. Sahakian an opportunity to develop the Shangri La: Imagined Cities exhibition further as a visiting faculty member at CalArts in the 2014 winter semester. Serving as the LA/IAI Project Director, Olga Garay-English secured the final stop of Doris Duke’s Shangri La in Los Angeles and expanded the initiative by developing the idea of com-

missioning a companion contemporary art exhibition with a prominent guest curator, and creating broader related programming with a wide range of local partners. LA/IAI Project Manager, Amitis Motevalli, combining her experience as an exhibiting contemporary artist with her work in LA’s communities as the director of DCA’s William Grant Still Arts Center states, “Art is a great vehicle to ignite dialogue and ensure the complex voices of the communities are heard, seen, and experienced. With significant Islamic populations in Asia and Africa and their diasporas, Los Angeles is a compelling location for this multi-faceted initiative.”

For a complete schedule and description of the events, please visit: laislamarts.org

Iran Snapshots: Riot in Thieves Alley Part 2 of 3 A family marks its turf by ganging up against a visitor from north Tehran By: Haleh Anvari I was looking up, shielding my eyes against the backlit scene, while Mr. G, the scrap metal dealer, performed his own unique take on an abseil, lowering a huge metal armchair through the air on a rope, deftly guiding it past his shop windows down towards me. I grabbed the hefty piece and maneuvered it onto its four legs on the alley’s tarmac. Taking a step back, I knew immediately this was not going to fit onto my modest balcony. So I shouted to Mr G to hoist it back up and let him know I needed something smaller. And he found it on the second go. I could see an unusually slender but obviously rusty wire chair’s silhouette against the skyline of old, rickety houses that lined the alley, and as it descended towards me I knew I had found what I wanted. Now if only he had the table and the other five chairs. And then someone tapped me on the shoulder. A middle-aged man covered in a winter coat was standing behind me. “Ma’am! That taxi just hit your car!”

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

I had parked in front of a closed shop opposite the garage door of an apartment block. And sure enough there was a taxi waiting for the gates to open. I checked my car and the man was right. The door was dented. I went to the taxi and knocked on the driver’s window. He was alone. He wound the window down. “Excuse me, Mister. I think you’ve hit my car.” The torrent of abuse that rushed out of the window was unexpected. Denial, a sense of injurious righteousness, even a curt dismissal would have made sense – after all, I was a woman in the street and many men in those days felt they were by virtue of anatomy entitled to occupy more space and consume more oxygen in the city than a woman. But my mother’s biology? It seemed a bit extreme to immediately opt for

the most offensive of sexual swear words the language could offer. My mother’s and my own anatomies were swiftly and loudly described for the alley’s benefit, and our moral standing underwent a nano-second-long trial and was deemed worthless and culpable for terrible, terrible offences. “I’m sorry?” I said indignantly, more out of shock than anything else. “Why are you being so rude? I think you should just have a look at my car and we can see how we can use your insurance,” I reasoned. Ah! Right there! The moment that perfectly exemplifies the loss of geography that plagued me in the early years of my return to the gene pool. I had been in Iran three years. I had intellectually understood that the world in which I now lived in no way resembled the world that I had left behind. But there were times, often under stress or in unfathomable situations like this one, I would involuntarily retreat to the logical places I had occupied during 18 years of being raised in the UK. Insurance? Exchanging telephone numbers to settle an accident through insurance?

“What planet are you from?” would have been a fair response from the filthy-mouthed, hairy pressure cooker of a man sitting in that taxi.

We never got round to resolving our disconnect in that conversation, because just then the gate to the building opened and a small troop of screeching, chador-clad women began to ascend the ramp angrily. Their chadors were not black, but the lighter, flowery kind Iranian women wear for less formal occasions, and they were wrapped around the midriff – a common technique used by women dealing with tasks the flow of their veils might hinder. Who called them? How did they know they were required on the scene? This was well before we all had cell phones. I was completely taken aback. They came rushing out of the building like a well-rehearsed chorus in a strange musical repeating a refrain from their lead man’s obscenities, still about my mother’s sexual activities and my own by now well-publicized genitalia, and then all hell broke loose. From various corners extra characters appeared as if on cue. The tiny alley, almost completely empty just moments before, was suddenly full of angry, shouting people. They rushed to Mr. G’s shop and smashed his windows. He was still on the roof, lowering a second chair through the air. They dashed on like a bunch of mad, screeching geese and smashed the windows of the shop next door, which was not even open. By this time I was standing next to my car, intent on showing anyone who cared to see the obvious dent in my door – a futile gesture considering the pace with which events had unfolded. Look at the dent? That time had passed just seconds ago. I think it was the same guy who had tipped me off about the taxi who appeared again and said, “Get in the car, Ma’am. Get in the car and leave. Hurry!” To be continued...

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

9 AFFIRMATIONS for Staying Positive

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

1. I must develop the power of not looking back in the past to read the old chapters of life again and again because I cannot go back to my past to fix things. Whatever has happened has happened. Now is the time to review the lessons learned once and then focus to improve my present and future. 2. I have to stay away from negative souls, which means I have to avoid spending time with people doing backbiting, criticizing, cursing, complaining, conspiring, corrupting and complicating. 3. I have to stop judging others for their actions. I must mind my own business instead of interpreting their actions and commenting in a negative way. Thinking and speaking about others pollutes my thoughts and steals my peace of mind. 4. I must develop the habit of gratitude. Which means that at the end of each day I must reflect on the fact that I am better off than many people in the world. Being healthy, not in debt, sleeping on a bed, eating three times a day and using the Internet are great blessings billions of people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enjoy. People possessing a high level of gratitude strengthen positive powerful thoughts. 5. I must spend time reading good books, visiting websites on positivity, liking Facebook pages containing quotes and reading inspirational stories on a daily basis. This will help remove negative impurities from my personality and empower my positive personality traits. 6. I must stop being explosive and reactive to people and situations. I must stay positive about otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s feelings and respect their opinions because every soul is unique in thinking so I should avoid imposing my thoughts on others. I must confess the fact that I can be wrong at times so understanding otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perspectives by being empathic is very important for me to avoid building stress, reducing my self-positivity-index. 7. I must be positive about my circumstances even if they are not so good. I have to understand the fact that time does not stop so I have to start taking the necessary actions to expedite the change process. One thousand plans cannot be equal to the power of one great step taken right now! 8. I must focus on spiritually awakening acts such as: frequent attacks of smiling, lack of involvement in conflicts, loss of ability to judge others, ability to react to things as they happen instead of living in fear, and so on. 9. I must focus on improving the quality of my thoughts, because quality of thoughts determines the level of peace of mind.

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

3 Quick Tips to Make the Most of us spend the entire week looking forward to the weekend (#TGIF), but sometimes we don’t make the best of those precious 48 hours. I say it’s time we take a stand and say we will take no more of these counterproductive weekends! Are you ready to reclaim your weekends? I’ve compiled a list of top weekend offenders and a few suggestions to help you create more balance and make the most of each and every weekend.

Eating too much on the weekends

The weekend typically comes with more opportunities for eating out, enjoying a few drinks or indulging in dessert, and your waistline may suffer as a result. Taking the weekends “off” from a healthy lifestyle may sabotage weight loss efforts and your health. One Washington University study, published in The Journal of Obesity in 2008, found that dieters who maintained a strict routine of restricting calories and exercising during the week tended to eat more on the weekends, thereby slowing their weight loss. Now I’m not a fan of counting calories, and I love helping my clients to achieve an 80/20 balance (80% of what we do builds our health, the other 20% we can be more lenient with) so it’s imperative we understand that to maintain healthy balance and lose the weight, we can’t check out of our healthy lifestyles from Friday night until Monday morning. Keep your weekend healthier by upgrading your favorite foods (we’ve got a ton of great recipes on the Real Nutritious Living blog) and eating only when you really are hungry (it’s really easy to eat mindlessly at weekend activities just because it’s there). If you eat out pick just one splurge out of the following: one drink, dessert (sharing is best), or starch like sweet potato fries or a slice of sourdough bread.

Staying plugged in Being constantly plugged in can have a number of negative health impacts, from decreased focus and

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

Most of Your Weekend productivity to trouble sleeping and higher stress levels. Taking some time to unplug can be a great way to minimize stress and maximize relaxation. If this sounds scary to you, start small. Try to leave your phone at home when you head out to dinner Friday night or during your Saturday morning workout (both great substitutions for tech time). Work up to one whole day of being technology free or shelve the electronics by a certain time each day. Plan a fun family activity, take a detox bath or have lunch with your bestie instead! This can be a tough one, but I encourage you to give it a shot because the reward you will reap is incredible.

Not planning your weekend This may sound counter intuitive but often if we don’t make a conscious effort to pick a couple of the most important things we’d like to do in a weekend and plan them, the weekend can slide by and we didn’t get that special time with the family, or whatever is most important to you. We suggest picking the top three things you’d like to do over the weekend and plan them so you’re never left feeling as though the weekend went to waste. Just be sure you are not planning every minute. Note: if you’re a really busy person, planning a block of time for rest can be a wonderful idea! I recommend choosing one of these to work on. When you’ve got it mastered, add the next and so on. Before you know it, your weekends are going to feel so much more rewarding! P Melissa Schollaert is a Holistic Health and Nutrition Counselor and founder of Real Nutritious Living. She’s been an on-camera expert for ABC, NBC, and Good Day Live, with her writing published on a number of healthy living and nutrition websites. Melissa also teaches cooking classes and workshops at Whole Foods and other retail outlets. She’s an avid yogi, always-improving surfer, and a firm believer in faith, love, and the healing power of green juice. She’s got a heart for helping others achieve their health goals to attain their healthiest, happiest life. Head over to realnutritiousliving.com for your FREE copy of “The Top 5 Slimming Superfoods for Weight Loss.”

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

Iranian Named

Utah Teacher of the Year An Iranian-born fifth grade teacher has been named Utahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Teacher of the Year and will now go on to compete for that title nationally.

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

ohsen Ghaffari came to the United States at the age of 18 to go to college and become a teacher, despite—or perhaps because of the fact—that neither of his parents ever finished elementary school.

He married a Utah woman he met in college in Delaware and that was what brought him to Utah. But she has not lived to see him honored for his teaching skills. She died in May of multiple sclerosis. Ghaffari’s mother was taken out of school in the second grade to weave carpets. His father didn’t make it past fourth grade. Yet education was viewed as important to both of them. “They were highly intelligent people who did not have an opportunity to become educated,” Ghaffari told the Salt Lake Tribune. “I think they were incredibly smart, and they wanted a better life, so their emphasis was on education.” That emphasis motivated Ghaffari to move to the United States more than 35 years ago to teach. On Friday, the Salt Lake elementary school educator learned he had been named Utah’s 2015 Teacher of the Year. Ghaffari, 55, said he never expected to be recognized for his work teaching fifth grade. At school, he’s known for always wearing a bow tie to work, as well as being the star of the teachers’ soccer team. “He deserves it because he’s not afraid to do things that he knows are good for students,” said Ashlee Ekins, a second-grade teacher at North Star Elementary School who helped nominate Ghaffari for the award. “He just really knows what his students need and he stands up for them.” She said he does a lot of hands-on activities with his students to help them learn material, such as asking them to create models of the earth showing its composition, or to write booklets that they then present at a publishing party. North Star Principal Lew Gardiner said Ghaffari is a natural-born educator, in addition to being a hard worker. “His class is very well ordered,” Gardiner told the Tribune. “There isn’t any wasted time. The kids know what’s expected and they recognize that he cares about them.” Parent Antonia Scott wrote: “He goes out of his way to help the kids reach their goals. Besides teaching the core curriculum, Mr. Ghaffari is excellent at teaching life lessons. Kindness and respect are very important to him.” For a math lesson, he might give small groups of students problems. Ghaffari will have each child take a turn solving the problem while the others watch closely and correct any mistakes. Each child will then have two

minutes to explain his reasoning to the group after taking his turn solving the problem. “I do things based on what their brains are capable of learning,” Ghaffari said. It’s a strategy that can be helpful for both children who speak English at home and those learning the language, he said.

{

“I always wanted to be a teacher and I left Iran to be a teacher,” Ghaffari said. “I don’t know if there’s anything else I can do.”

}

North Star serves many refugee children, and most of the school’s kids come from low-income families as well. Though Ghaffari was never a refugee, he said, in some ways, he can relate to them as an immigrant. When Ghaffari moved to the United States, he spoke very little English. He came to America because he wanted to teach. In Iran, he was accepted for college, but in agricultural engineering. He didn’t want to do that. “I always wanted to be a teacher and I left Iran to be a teacher,” Ghaffari said. “I don’t know if there’s anything else I can do.” Ghaffari met his wife in college in Delaware. She was from Utah, so that’s where they ultimately chose to live and raise their son, now 23. Throughout his career, Ghaffari said, his wife was always his biggest supporter, reminding him of how well he teaches. “She never saw or heard any of these recognitions I’m being given,” Ghaffari said. “She always was the one giving me this recognition.” As Teacher of the Year, Ghaffari wins $10,000 and will advance to the national competition. He also receives an interactive SMART board for his classroom, a laptop computer and a $250 gift card from McDonald’s. Along with the other state winners, he will meet with President Obama in Washington, DC, and get to attend space camp in Alabama in the summer. Ghaffari was selected from among 21 nominations from school districts and charter schools by a committee with representatives of the state Office of Education, the Utah Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), the Utah Education Association, last year’s Utah Teacher of the Year Allison P. Riddle, principals and superintendents. P P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

NOWRUZ:

D N U O F & T LOS If you enjoy comic K-von’s monthly column in Payam Ashena, you won’t want to miss his new documentary NOWRUZ: Lost & Found, which premieres October 18th in Beverly Hills. Here he talks to us about his decision to take on the challenges of film-making, and what he learned along the way.

YOU’RE A BUSY STAND-UP COMEDIAN AND ACTOR. WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO TAKE ON DOING A DOCUMENTARY? It was March. I was about to go on a Nowruz Comedy Tour all around the United States working on my jokes, and at the end of it, film my one-hour comedy special “Tanx God!” in Irvine, California. It then dawned on me that I should film the entire journey and make two separate movies to watch. So that is exactly what we did. TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT HOW YOU CHOSE THIS SUBJECT, NOWRUZ, AND THE OTHER PEOPLE INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT. It’s no secret that Iranians are often painted in a negative light by the media. But one look at a Nowruz party can change that whole perception. The problem is, we don’t really let everyone know about our Nowruz party. I wanted to unveil this tradition and put a huge spotlight on it. Who better to be a part

of that than Maz Jobrani, Andy, The Iron Sheik (wrestler), Rudi Bakhtiar (CNN), Tehran (host), and Firoozeh Dumas (best-selling author), just to name a few? WHAT DOES THE “LOST & FOUND” PART OF THE TITLE SIGNIFY? To make this understandable to non-Iranians I wanted to make sure to start the film showcasing how I grew up in Reno, Nevada. Nothing about my life was Persian. My dad is not the typical Iranian, and his idea for the family was to do whatever it took to fit in with the rest of the neighbors. Many cultures will relate to this message. The documentary then progresses as I take it upon myself to re-discover my heritage for the first time as an adult. The message in the title is an important one: Although you may have lost your culture, it’s never too late to find it again. HOW WAS BEING AN EXECUTIVE FILM PRODUCER DIFFERENT FROM THE WORK

YOU’VE DONE IN THE PAST? WHAT WERE SOME OF THE UNEXPECTED CHALLENGED YOU FACED DURING PRODUCTION AND BEYOND? There is a scene in the documentary where I’m sternly addressing a boardroom. I demand we work hard to book the comedy tour, the flights, the hotels, the rental cars, get the camera crew together, buy the equipment, and produce the best movie on Nowruz ever made. As the camera pulls back, you realize that I’m in that boardroom all by myself. That’s how it feels to write, direct and produce your own project. Anything under a million bucks these days is considered “low budget,” but it sure doesn’t feel that way when you have to keep opening your wallet for these expenses. Now, it isn’t fair to say I did it all by myself, because the viewer gets to see firsthand just how many people assist me in my journey. Many aren’t even Persian. All of these people, both in front and behind the camera, lend a hand making

this a beautiful, funny, and refreshing look at this ancient holiday.

NOWRUZ: LOST & FOUND IS SET TO PREMIERE SOON IN BEVERLY HILLS AS AN OFFICIAL SELECTION FOR THE 2014 NOOR FILM FESTIVAL. HOW WAS THE SUBMISSION PROCESS AND HOW DID IT FEEL TO FIND OUT YOUR FILM HAD BEEN SELECTED? NOOR is a fantastic festival and I had been a few times in the past, each year getting more inspired. I always wondered, “How can I get a project on the big screen like many of these artists have done?” When we started filming, we did not know if by the end of our journey we’d have a legitimate movie, or what looked like one long boring home video! Well, I’m excited to say, it came out even better than expected. It’s a fantastic movie, one you can enjoy with your whole family, and the fact that it is premiering at a historic Beverly Hills theater on a Saturday night is truly a dream come true! WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT NOWRUZ AND ABOUT YOURSELF DURING THIS PROCESS? DID IT MAKE YOU FEEL MORE CONNECTED TO YOUR IRANIAN HERITAGE? I knew nothing about Nowruz going into this. It’s safe to say I’m now a “mini-expert.” There are people who will always know more about the holiday than me, but luckily a few of them are in the movie too! Recently, I was asked to give a TEDx Talk on the subject, and if you see me at a party cornering someone, I am probably talking their ear off about all things Nowruz. It’s such a fun conversation starter, and I was a little embarrassed to find out 300,000,000 people all over the world celebrate the holiday each and every year. HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS!? WHAT DID NOWRUZ MEAN TO YOU BEFORE YOU DID THE DOCUMENTARY, AND

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU NOW? Before the documentary, I knew it was a holiday, it was fun, and Persians celebrated it every year with good food and some dancing, and a table full of fancy items. I now know so much more: the meaning of the items, the fire jumping preparty, the 13th day post-party, and that this holiday is bigger than just Iran. In one of the most poignant moments in the documentary, we discuss the fact that Nowruz was recently banned in Afghanistan… and you’ll have to watch the film to see what happens next. YOU JOKE ABOUT HOW NOWRUZ WASN’T A BIG PART OF YOUR CHILDHOOD. IF YOU HAD KIDS, DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD YOU MAKE IT A BIG PART OF THEIRS? Luckily almost every other holiday already has a hint of Nowruz in it, so it would not be hard to celebrate with my future kids. Why not make kids smile by hiding painted eggs in grass, giving them gifts, buying them new clothes, and making them laugh with a funny man in a red outfit? Plus, it’s a great excuse to get out of the house each year, hang with other beautiful families and eat delicious Persian food while celebrating the birth of a new year. WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU AND THE FILM, AND HOW CAN FANS LEARN MORE OR EVEN HELP? I now have a team of people who have put their hearts and souls into making this documentary for over three years. There are artists that

are part of this film that would love your support. On a personal note, I gave up my condo and have been living in guest rooms and sleeping on couches for two years just to have the money to get the film to be of the highest quality and bring it right to you. Therefore, we just ask that you tell all your friends about NOWRUZ: Lost & Found, go on GoFundMe.com/NOWRUZ and pre-order a copy for yourself, your uncle, and two coworkers today. This will help us spread the word and so more people can have an inside look at what us crazy Persians are all about each year in March. After the Beverly Hills screening, we’ll evaluate which cities we should travel to next for large

screenings, and kick off the New Year with our film in a community near you. We also want to take it to universities and overseas so that it can be shared at an academic and international level. Finally, once our film festival and screening tour is complete, we’ll look to get it distributed, whether it’s on TV, PBS, or Netflix, etc. None of that can happen without your support, so by giving it a vote of confidence with a pre-order, we can show that the demand is there and take it to new heights! Thank you and HAPPY NEW YEAR! P

SOCALâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S SCARIEST

Whether you want to be scared silly or just enjoy some good old fashioned pumpkin picking with the kids, Halloween in Southern California has something for everyone

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

Knott’s Scary Farm, Buena Park

Every Fall, Knott’s theme park transforms into 160- acres of frightening mazes, hair-raising shows, scare zones and roaming monsters throughout the entire park. This year Knott’s Scary Farm will debut Elvira’s new show, “Elvira’s Big Top,” and three new terrifying attractions: “Voodoo,” “Trapped: Lock and Key,” and “The Tooth Fairy.” Along with new attractions there are seven returning mazes: Trick-or-Treat, Black Magic, Forevermore, The Gunslinger’s Grave, Dominion of the Damned, Pinocchio Unstrung and The Witch’s Keep.

known as The Barricades will ensure leaving is unthinkable. And beware of ghosts walking the decks of the Queen

Mary, for these travelers from the past may inhabit any ‘body’ left unattended. Thursday- Sunday nights through November 1st. Info at queenmary.com/ events/dark-harbor/

Wednesday - Sunday nights through November 1st. Info at knotts.com/knotts-scary

This event is perfect for children and adults. The stroll through the gardens will take you about 45-minutes and it is both stroller and wheelchair accessible.

Dark Harbor mazes include: Hellfire, Village of the Damned, The Cage, and new this year, Circus Maze. Performances by bands, food and cocktails, and a demon-filled attraction

Tanaka Farms Pumpkin Patch and Harvest Festival, Irvine

Descanso Gardens Rise of the Jack O’Lanterns, La Canada Flintridge View over 5,000 intricately carved pumpkins in various themes, from TV shows to city skylines as you walk through a rose garden trail lined with these amazing sculptures.

Dark Harbor at the Queen Mary features three shipboard and two onshore mazes along with over 150 monsters to scare you along your way through the port of purgatory.

Extra attractions include a sideshow with a house of mirrors and free psychic readings, a backwards ScaryGo-Round, and the Dark Maze, where guests are given a lantern to help them find the way out. Thursday- Sunday nights through October 31st. Info at losangeleshauntedhayride.com/

Halloween Haunt is not recommended for children under 13; even some adults may be scared. For the younger kids, Snoopy’s Costume Party in Camp Snoopy is included with park admission.

Queen Mary Dark Harbor, Long Beach

old zoo property including a cemetery and old haunted house.

Wednesday - Sunday nights through November 2nd. Info at therise.org

Located a short drive from the San Diego Freeway along University Drive in Irvine, Tanaka Farms is one of the few remaining family operations left in Orange County. During season you will find organic strawberries, tomatoes, watermelon and, of course, pumpkins. Tractor pulled farm tours allow guest to see different fruits and vegetables growing in the fields and even get a chance to taste some of the produce right off the vine. All ages will enjoy the farm tours and they’re a great way to teach kids about where our food comes from.

Guests ride aboard a tractor-pulled hay wagon through the woods of Griffith Park in Southern California’s original Haunted Hayride.

Don’t miss the U-Pick pumpkins and veggies, corn maze, petting zoo and wagon ride. There’s also a Pumpkinmania Giant Pumpkin Weigh-off and Contest on October 26th. At only $2 per person, this is by far the most affordable option on our list!

Monsters and goblins hide in shadows and can jump at the wagon at any time during the 25- minute ride, which goes through different scenes throughout the

Seven days a week until 6pm through October 31st. Info at http://www.tanakafarms.com/

Haunted Hayride, Griffith Park

There’s a stereotype that all Persians are rich. I wish. Whoever made that up never met my family! We are all, however, extremely resourceful. Even if we aren’t rich today, we will do whatever it takes to make sure that the next generation will be better off than we were.

to watch just ask the neighbor, “Can we all come over there and watch with you?”

All of the elders in my family are immigrants and have had to save money by being extremely creative at some point in their lives. It is only fair that I share these valuable money saving tips with you.

-Don’t waste money by buying binoculars. If you go on vacation just have everyone stand closer to the object you wish to view.

-Don’t buy cable. If there is a show you want 40

O C T O B E R 2 0 14

P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

-Clip supermarket coupons. Saving 30 cents here and 20 cents there will quickly add up to $12 by the end of your life.

-Not everyone needs his own bed. You should take pride in how many family members you can fit into each bed.

-Pets are expensive and hard to care for. Instead, if you see a mouse in your home or some fruit flies, just name them. -Save money on water by only using the restrooms and sinks at work or school, never at home. -There will be no air conditioning or heater turned on in the home EVER! If you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like it, move to somewhere that you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need it. -Go to an all-you-can-eat buffet, grab a plate and walk around and eat. They only check

when you sit down at a table. -Buy hair clippers at Walgreens and name someone in your home the permanent barber. Make sure everyone in the family gets the same haircut since this designated person needs the practice. P K-von is a writer, comedian, and actor. He hosts events around the world and performs standup regularly. Be sure to see him live! Anyone who mentions this column will get four free tickets to an upcoming show on www.KvonComedy.com P AYA M - E - A S H E N A

O C T O B E R 2 0 14