Iran begins arrests and intimidation of bloggers & journalists, prior to parliamentary elections in March
The arrests of the journalists and bloggers, including two prominent women whose blog posts are widely read in Iran, have not been reported by the official news media. […]
Friends of the two arrested women, Parastou Dokouhaki and Marzieh Rasouli, have started a Web site to publicize their situation. Ms. Dokouhaki, a rights activist whose blog, Written by a Woman, attracted a wide following, has been held in Evin Prison in Tehran since Jan. 15, when agents raided her home and confiscated her laptop computer and other items. […]
A third journalist, Sahamoddin Bouraghani, who was the national press director for the Ministry of Culture during the tenure of a former president, the reformist Mohammad Khatami, was arrested Jan. 17 as well, rights activists said.
At least three more journalists were arrested the previous week, activists said, including Fatemeh Kheradmand, a freelance health and social reporter; Ehsan Houshmandzadeh, an ethnic researcher; and Said Madani, a former university professor who edited Social Welfare, a quarterly journal. The Committee to Project Journalists, a New York-based advocacy group that has called Iran one of the most repressive countries for press freedom, with at least 42 journalists imprisoned in 2011, said last week that it had documented the arrests of at least seven journalists there since Jan. 7.
The moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.
Salman Rushdie (via apoplecticskeptic)
That’s precisely the point, my dear Salman.
Source: apoplecticskeptic
Look at Iran. Through the power of our diplomacy, a world that was once divided about how to deal with Iran’s nuclear program now stands as one. The regime is more isolated than ever before; its leaders are faced with crippling sanctions, and as long as they shirk their responsibilities, this pressure will not relent. Let there be no doubt: America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal. But a peaceful resolution of this issue is still possible, and far better, and if Iran changes course and meets its obligations, it can rejoin the community of nations.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary, William Hague, gives details of Iran sanctions.
![manpodcast:
Shirin Neshat, Ramin, 2012.
This week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast features New York-based artist Shirin Neshat, who joins me to discuss the art she’s made in response to Iran’s Green Revolution and to the Arab Spring. “The Book of Kings,” an exhibition of Neshat’s work is on view at Barbara Gladstone Gallery in New York through February 11. A detail from Neshat’s My House is Burning Down (2012) is featured in this week’s banner.
Neshat has been the subject of major survey exhibitions at museums in Spain, Germany, England, Italy, Mexico, Canada and the United States. Among many other honors, she won the Silver Lion at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival for “Women Without Men” and the First International Award at the 1999 Venice Biennale. Next year the Detroit Institute of Arts will present a major retrospective of her work.
To download or subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes, click here. To download the program directly, click here. To subscribe to The MAN Podcast’s RSS feed, click here. You can stream the program through the player below.
In our conversation Neshat and I discuss:
The passion she feels for her homeland of Iran even after having lived abroad for 37 years;
The challenges inherent in making art for audiences in Iran and the Middle East when Neshat lives and shows in the West;
The ways in which her art is seen in Iran today;
How the uprisings in the Persian and Arab worlds motivated her newest work; and
Why metaphor is such an important strategy for her. […]
For images of the works discussed on this week’s program, click here.
More Neshat.](http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly255yxmO41r5tlawo1_400.jpg)
Shirin Neshat, Ramin, 2012.
This week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast features New York-based artist Shirin Neshat, who joins me to discuss the art she’s made in response to Iran’s Green Revolution and to the Arab Spring. “The Book of Kings,” an exhibition of Neshat’s work is on view at Barbara Gladstone Gallery in New York through February 11. A detail from Neshat’s My House is Burning Down (2012) is featured in this week’s banner.
Neshat has been the subject of major survey exhibitions at museums in Spain, Germany, England, Italy, Mexico, Canada and the United States. Among many other honors, she won the Silver Lion at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival for “Women Without Men” and the First International Award at the 1999 Venice Biennale. Next year the Detroit Institute of Arts will present a major retrospective of her work.
To download or subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes, click here. To download the program directly, click here. To subscribe to The MAN Podcast’s RSS feed, click here. You can stream the program through the player below.
In our conversation Neshat and I discuss:
- The passion she feels for her homeland of Iran even after having lived abroad for 37 years;
- The challenges inherent in making art for audiences in Iran and the Middle East when Neshat lives and shows in the West;
- The ways in which her art is seen in Iran today;
- How the uprisings in the Persian and Arab worlds motivated her newest work; and
- Why metaphor is such an important strategy for her. […]
For images of the works discussed on this week’s program, click here.
(via 3rdofmay)
Source: blogs.artinfo.com
We would like to formally congratulate Iranian film director Asghar Farhadi. We applaud his achievement; it’s a testament to the richness and the resilience of Persian culture.
![thepoliticalnotebook:
Iranian journalist Marzieh Rasouli (pictured above) has been arrested with fellow journalist Parastoo Dokouhaki and photojournalist Sahamoddin Bourghani and taken to Iran’s infamous Evin prison. She was reportedly arrested on charges of “acting against national security,” which is sort of a generic, catch-all charge frequently used to imprison activists and journalists.
[via]](http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly0tjgFsZK1qchhhqo1_500.jpg)
Iranian journalist Marzieh Rasouli (pictured above) has been arrested with fellow journalist Parastoo Dokouhaki and photojournalist Sahamoddin Bourghani and taken to Iran’s infamous Evin prison. She was reportedly arrested on charges of “acting against national security,” which is sort of a generic, catch-all charge frequently used to imprison activists and journalists.
[via]
Source: thepoliticalnotebook
Golshifteh Farahani, 29, nominated for If you die, I’ll kill you, by Hiner Saleem
The Iranian actress, blacklisted in her country for not wearing the veil on the red carpet in Hollywood, now lives in exile in Paris. She will be found this year in Just Like a Woman, by Rachid Bouchareb alongside Sienna Miller, and Syngué Sabour, by Atiq Rahimi, whose adapted novel won the Prix Goncourt in 2008.
Guardian: Iran's Nuclear Scientists Are Not Being Assassinated. They Are Being Murdered.
Killing our enemies abroad is just state-sponsored terror – whatever euphemism western leaders like to use.
Critic John Powers reviews the Iranian film A Separation: He says: ‘I’m not kidding when I say that it’s better than any of the Hollywood films being touted for the Oscar.’
Source: NPR
