Iranian Madness

Come avevo già scritto in inglese, il premio della World Press per la miglior foto del 2009 è stato assegnato a un giovane fotografo italiano, Pietro Masturzo. E mi fa ovviamente piacere che il soggetto sia iraniano, e precisamente un tetto di una casa di Teheran nei giorni immediatamente successivi alle elezioni del giugno 2009.
Un’interessante [...]

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One of the interesting side-effect of the disillusion of the Islamic Revolution in the people of Iran is the tendency to return to ancient Persian roots.
Suffocated by centuries of Islamic domination that only partially managed to change the country’s culture, Persian roots survive and in some cases thrive. By far the most celebrated public holiday [...]

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Non manca la fantasia, in Iran: prima il quotidiano Emrooz, vicino al sindaco di Teheran Mohamed Bagher Ghalibaf, si inventa un logo che ricorda una ballerina stilizzata.
E poi, ovviamente, i bacchettoni conservatori fanno il loro dovere.
L’Iran è bello anche per questo: la battaglia si gioca su molti fronti, alcuni che fanno ridere (amaramente).

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The latest news from the Iranian government, apart from the endless and pointless debate about the nuclear programme, is that they have kicked off laughter classes in Tehran.
The idea may not work, as Robert Tait (perhaps the most competent journalist when it’s about Iran and Iranians) points out. Laughing during Moharram (which will start [...]

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Ecco una bella storia su un giovane qualsiasi, uno dei tanti ingegneri iraniani che pur di scappare da Basij e compagnia non esitano a fare mestieri ben poco consoni alle loro qualificazioni (tassisti, lavapiatti, contadini e via discorrendo).
La storia di Mahmoud, pubblicata dal Giornale di Feltri, è la storia di mille, centomila altri iraniani [...]

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The international media are (understandably) putting less emphasis on the Iranian situation, but nonetheless protests continue.
A few recent events:
1) On 6 August, green activists (supporters of Mirhossein Mousavi) blocked the Modarres Highway (it seems to be the Mirdamad overpass, but I cannot be sure from the pics)
2) Iranians keep shouting “Allah-o-akbar” (God is great) [...]

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After women-only taxis, the next conquer land for Iranian women is buses: watch this one at work in this excellent video by Sadaf Foroughi.
The hardliners won’t admit it, but change is happening right now in Iran, and it can only be women who bring it forward. Anyone who’s known the force of mother nature that [...]

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When you see police patrolling the alleys and destroying the vehicles that are parked there, it’s a clear sign that the regime has weakened big time.
Now that the street protests have largely been quieted the rough way, and anyway the foreign media cannot report them, a question looms: how will life go on in Iran?
The [...]

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BBC aired the review of a very interesting documentary on troubled Tehranian teens, showing the multitude of issues that the next president of Iran must (or has an option to) face.
Drug and alcohol abuse are hushed by the Islamic Republic authorities, but it’s high time that someone brought the issue up to the table and [...]

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It’s high time I posted a video – this one was shot in Jordan Boulevard around a year ago.

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