When Britain and the Soviet Union invaded and occupied Iran in August 1941 during the Second World War, in violation of Iran’s policy of neutrality, their principal purpose was to use Iran as a bridge to supply a Russia hard-pressed by Hitler’s army with vital military and other supplies. Believing Reza Shah would not cooperate with the Allies to the degree they required, Britain and Russia engineered the shah’s abdication, and the British took him into exile, first to the island of Mauritius, then to Johannesburg where he passed the last two years of his life. This lecture will describe the evolution of the decision to force Reza Shah to surrender his throne and the shah’s final, troubled journey through Iran and into exile. 

Shaul Bakhash is the Clarence Robinson Professor of History Emeritus at George Mason University and a specialist in the history of modern Iran. He is the author of Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution (Basic Books, 1986), Iran: Monarchy, Bureaucracy and Reform under the Qajars, 1858-1896 (Ithaca, 1978), and most recently The Fall of Reza Shah: The Abdication, Exile and Death of Modern Iran's Founder (I.B. Tauris, 2021). His many articles on Iranian and Middle East history have appeared in numerous books and journals. He has also written for the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, Middle East Journal, Democracy and other publications. His Op-ed essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post and other newspapers. Previous to his academic career, he worked for many years as a journalist in Iran as a reporter, commentator, and editor for Kayhan newspapers and reported from Iran for the Economist, the (London) Times, and the Financial Times. He was educated at Harvard and Oxford Universities and has been awarded fellowships by the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, The Guggenheim Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Britain and the Abdication of Reza Shah with Shaul Bakhash

April 22, 2021
Translating a work that employs inventive literary techniques is an already arduous task, however, negotiating with a system of imposed censorship makes the process of translating and publishing increasingly more intricate. In this talk, Akram Pedramnia explores the challenges of translating modernist works, like "Lolita," "Tender is the Night," as well as "Ulysses," under a system of imposed censorship and discusses the methods she employs to evade it.

Akram Pedramnia is an Iranian-Canadian author and translator. She has published three novels in Persian. Among others, she has translated F. Scott Fitzgerald’s "Tender is the Night" (2009), Vladimir Nabokov’s "Lolita" (2013), and James Joyce’s "Ulysses" (2019). She is a recipient of the Friends of the 2019 Zurich James Joyce Foundation Scholarship and the 2020 Joyce Translation Scholarship and Looren Residency. Her translation of "Ulysses" received a Literature Ireland Translation Grant. She has been a guest speaker in the English Literature Department of New York University during the academic years of 2019 and 2020 and a lecturer at University College Dublin in 2018. She is an active member of the International James Joyce Foundation.

Event is in Persian/Farsi. Part of the Stanford Festival of Iranian Arts.

Translating Ulysses into Persian: A Century of Censorship with Akram Pedramnia

May 6, 2021
Kian Katouzian discusses her life as a working woman in Iran, participating in the opposition against the Shah and then against Khomeini before leaving Iran for a life of exile in France.  She discusses the feelings of loneliness and disorientation while living in exile.

She earned a master’s degree in education in Iran in the 1960s, was a professor of history and geography for more than twenty years, and was head of a high school.  She was the editor-in-chief of "Jonbeche," a newspaper opposed to the Shah’s regime.

The Iranian Women's Movement: A Conversation with Kian Katouzian

May 27, 2021
Literary research premised on sensory studies challenges above all the monopolization of modern Persian literary criticism by socio-political discourses, which generally rely on content-based approaches constructing "committed readings" of literary production. "Committed readings" circumscribe the significance of the literary by allowing the text to only be a site of resistance and calls to action, thus foreclosing opportunities for alternative readings. Sensory studies challenge the limits of such approaches, and this confrontation takes place in the fields of aesthetics-stylistics and literary readings.

Mehdi Khorrami, Emeritus Professor, New York University, is the author of "Literary Subterfuge and Contemporary Persian Fiction: Who Writes Iran" (2014), and "Modern Reflections of Classical Traditions in Persian Fiction" (2003), and a number of essays and book chapters on the rhetorical and aesthetic dynamics of Persian modernist writing and contemporary Persian prison literature. He has also co-edited and co-translated a number of books, including: "Fayz Muhammad Katib Hazrah’s Afghan Genealogy and Memoir of the Revolution" (2019), "Moments of Silence: Authenticity in the Cultural Expressions of the Iran-Iraq War, 1980–1988" (2016), "Vol. 4 of The History of Afghanistan: Fayz Muhammad Kātib’s Sirāj al-tawārıkh" (2016), "A Persian Mosaic: Essays: Essays on Persian Language, Literature and Film in Honor of M. R. Ghanoonparvar" (2015), "Vol. 3 of The History of Afghanistan: Fayz Muhammad Kātib’s Sirāj al-tawārıkh" (2013), "Sohrab’s Wars: Counter-Discourses of Contemporary Persian Fiction: A Collection of Short Stories and a Film Script" (2008), "Critical Encounters: Essays on Persian Literature and Culture in Honor of Peter J. Chelkowski" (2007), "Another Sea, Another Shore: Persian Stories of Migration" (2004), "A Feast in the Mirror: Stories by Contemporary Iranian Women" (2000), "A Feast in the Mirror: Stories by Contemporary Iranian Women" (in Persian, 2002), "A World Between: Poems and Short Stories by Iranian-Americans" (1999).

Prof. Khorrami’s lecture was originally accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation and the video is forthcoming.  The images used are accessible at the following links:
"Allegory of Sight and Smell" (1618) by Jan Brueghel the Elder, Hendrick van Balen the Elder, and Gerard Seghers, courtesy Museo del Prado, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jan_Brueghel_(I),_Hendrick_van_Balen_(I)_and_Gerard_Seghers_-_Allegory_of_Sight_and_Smell.jpg
"The Senses of Hearing, Touch and Taste" (1618) by Jan Brueghel the Elder, courtesy Museo del Prado, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:File-Bruegel_d._Ä.,_Jan_-The_Senses_of_Hearing,_Touch_and_Taste_-_1618.jpg

Losing Our Minds, Coming to Our Senses: Sensory readings of Persian literature (A Hafezian Banquet)

September 29, 2021
Narges Mohammadi in conversation with Darius Rejali and Abbas Milani.

Narges Mohammadi is Deputy Director of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC).  She was elected as President of the Executive Committee of the National Council of Peace in Iran, a broad coalition against war and for the promotion of human rights.  She has campaigned for the abolition of the death penalty in Iran and was awarded the Per Anger Prize by the Swedish government for her human rights work in 2011.  In a two volume study, called "White Torture," she underscores how solitary confinement is indeed an insidious form of torture.  She has interviewed many of Iran’s dissidents who have been subjected to solitary confinement.  Based on these conversations, she has also produced a documentary.

Darius Rejali, professor of political science at Reed College, is an internationally recognized expert on government torture and interrogation. Iranian-born, Rejali has spent his career reflecting on violence, specifically, on the causes, consequences, and meaning of modern torture in our world. His award-winning work spans concerns in political science, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, history, and critical social theory. He is the author of "Torture and Democracy" (2007), "Torture and Modernity: Self, Society, and State in Modern Iran" (1994), and many related articles. He consults as an expert for international scholarly projects on torture prevention, serves as an adviser to nongovernmental organizations that work on torture-related issues, and has submitted expert testimony for Guantanamo (Al Ginco v. Obama) and Abu Ghraib related cases (Al Shimari v. CACI International). He has been interviewed widely, from Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! to David Frost on Al Jazeera, from the BBC to the Washington Post.

Abbas Milani is the Director of the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies at Stanford University and a research fellow at The Hoover Institution. He taught at Tehran University, Faculty of Law and Political Science until 1986. He has written and translated many books and articles. Most recently, he edited and wrote the introduction for "A Window into Modern Iran: The Ardeshir Zahedi Papers at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives," and "Saadi and Humanism" with Maryam Mirzadeh.

White Torture: The Infamy of Solitary Confinement in Iran with Narges Mohammadi

April 8, 2022
Speakers: Mahnaz Afkhami, Ali Banuazizi, Mandana Zandian

Scholars reflect on Ehsan Yarshater's remarkable contributions and lasting impact on the study of Iranian history, literature, culture, and the arts. Dr. Yarshater (1920-2018) was Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies at Columbia University, the founder and director of Columbia’s Center for Iranian Studies, and the founding editor of the Encyclopædia Iranica. In 2016, he was awarded the Bita Prize in Persian Arts from the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies at Stanford University. 

Mahnaz Afkhami – Yarshater's Impact on The Foundation for Iranian Studies

The pioneering work of the Foundation for Iranian Studies (FIS) began in 1981. It was a time of loss and confusion⁠—a characteristic of revolution and exile⁠—but even more challenging, a time of division, anger, and animosity among the diaspora. Ehasan Yarshater provided pivotal support in a variety of areas of the Foundation's work, especially by sharing and supporting the idea that the prevailing battle against all that was Persian in Iran's history, literature, and the arts was an existential threat to the self-definition of Iranians. He assembled a substantial research library without which the FIS journal, Iran Nameh (ed. Jalal Matini), could not fulfill its purpose. Ms. Afkhami will provide a brief summary of the interaction and collaboration between the team at FIS and Dr. Yarshater's expanse of interests and initiatives.Mahnaz Afkhami

Ali Banuazizi – Yarshater's Formative and Lasting Contributions to Iranian Studies

A brief overview of Professor Ehsan Yarshater’s lifetime contributions to the study of Iranian history and culture. He was not only the leading scholar of his generation in several areas of Iranian studies, but one who devoted his entire professional life to building institutions and initiating projects with lasting impact. With examples drawn from the recently published collection of Yarshater’s notes and reflections, the talk will also illustrate how widely he cast his eyes—beyond his own intellectual pursuits—on various aspects of Iran’s history, popular culture, and politics, offering constructive criticisms to advance the work of others.Ali Banuazizi

Mandana Zandian – Understanding Yarshater Through His "Diaries"

Diaries contains a series of notes written by Dr. Ehsan Yarshater—the most prominent Iranian studies scholar of our time— over a period of 26 years (1986-2012) for the journals Irannameh and Iranshenasi (ed. Jalal Matini). Yarshater's notes narrate his observations and evaluations in many thematic areas related to the study of Iran including various historical and political perspectives, as well as his comprehensive knowledge of Persian language, literature, and culture in different historical periods. Dr. Zandian discusses Diaries and Professor Yarshater's contribution to Persian literature, culture, and art.

Ehsan Yarshater's Yaddashtha: Reflections on Iranian History, Literature, Culture, and the Arts

September 29, 2022
Speaker: Dr. Hamid Najafi

Dr. Hamid Najafi discusses his new book "The Battles of a Judge." The book was written by Dr. Najafi and his late father, Dr. Hossein Najafi.

From 1946 to 1979, Hossein Najafi served at the Justice Ministry of Iran. He started in an entry level judicial position after law school and rose to lead the Justice Department as a minister during the most tumultuous months of the Iranian Revolution. 

The book is his firsthand recollection of the legal cases and judgments he worked on during 33 years of service to his country. The book includes some of the most critical cases brought to the Justice Department during the Shah’s time and culminated in Dr. Najafi’s imprisonment by the Islamic revolutionaries and his eventual release under unprecedented circumstances.

The writings depict a real, unbiased portrayal of the Justice Department, those in positions of power who tried to sway his judgements to their benefit, and illustrate how he never flinched in the pursuit of what he believed to be the uncompromised delivery of justice.

Dr. Najafi’s never-before-told description of the events include numerous meetings with the Shah–many of which were private–during the most fateful and consequential months of Iran’s contemporary history. This book is essential reading for those interested in the recent history of Iran and, most importantly, to those working today, or planning to work in the future, in justice departments in Iran or elsewhere.

Dr. Hamid Najafi, received his doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1983 and has worked as a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley for 40 years, primarily in wireless communications. He currently runs two startups while pursuing his beloved hobby of singing. He collected the writings of his late father, Dr. Hossein Najafi, and co-wrote portions of this book.

Book Talk: The Battles of a Judge with Dr. Hamid Najafi

November 30, 2022
Speaker: Shirin Ebadi

The Iranian Studies Program screened a new documentary “Shirin Ebadi: Until We Are Free” about the Nobel Peace laureate’s mission to bring justice to the people of Iran. Dr. Ebadi held a post screening discussion live-translated to English and moderated by Dr. Abbas Milani.

The event was introduced by Dr. Abbas Milani. Hamid Moghadam welcomed guests and spoke about Shirin Ebadi's life and work. Dean Debra Satz, the Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society, and Professor of Philosophy, spoke about the universality of human rights and Iranian women's fight for equality and justice. Professor Michael McFaul, the director of Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute, closed the event. 

Shirin Ebadi is an author and lawyer, and was the first female judge in Iran. She has lived in exile in London since 2009. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her efforts to promote democracy and human rights, especially those of women and children in Iran. 

Ebadi was a judge in Iran until 1979, the year of the Islamic Revolution, when she was no longer allowed to work as a judge. She co-founded the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child in 1994 and co-founded the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC) in 2002 with other lawyers to assist those working towards promoting democracy. After her Nobel Prize in 2003, she co-founded the Nobel Women's Initiative in 2006, and used some of her prize money to support DHRC. In 2008, the Iranian government closed down DHRC by raiding her office, which by then had 30 lawyers working on cases. While she was traveling abroad, her professional archives and personal belongings were confiscated, and her husband and her sister arrested and imprisoned on spurious charges. She published her memoir, "Until We Are Free," in 2016 detailing her fight for human rights in Iran.

The film “Shirin Ebadi: Until We Are Free,” written and directed by the award-winning filmmaker Dawn Gifford Engle, tells Ebadi’s story of courage and defiance in the face of a government out to destroy her, her family, and her mission: to bring justice to the people and the country she loves. The Iranian government would end up taking everything from Shirin Ebadi–her marriage, her home, even her Nobel Prize medallion–but the one thing it could never steal was her spirit to fight for justice and a better future for the women of Iran.

Read more about the film: https://www.peacejam.org/film/shirin-ebadi-until-we-are-free

The event was co-sponsored by the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies and the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University.

Shirin Ebadi: Until We Are Free (film screening discussion)

February 8, 2023
Speaker: Houchang Chehabi

Dr. Houchang Chehabi discusses his new research work on Reza Shah and his family's exile in Mauritius.

In 1941 Reza Shah and most of his family were exiled by the British to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. They remained there for six months. This talk discusses the circumstances of the royal family's long trip from Bandar Abbas via India to Mauritius, their reception by the colonial authorities of the island, and their ambiguous relations with local Mauritian society against the background of the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean during the Second World War.

Dr. Houchang Chehabi is a Visiting Professor at UCLA and Emeritus Professor of International Relations and History at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University.

Reza Shah's Exile in Mauritius with Houchang Chehabi

March 3, 2022
Speaker: Nicolas Gorjestani

Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iran's prime minister in the early 1950s, was one of the most consequential national leaders of the twentieth century. Based on his recent book, Nicolas Gorjestani will examine Mosaddegh's life story, resistance strategy, governance, reform record, and overthrow.

Mosaddegh locked horns with Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower in 1951-1953 over the nationalization of Iran's oil industry. In the event, Mosaddegh was overthrown in the first post-WWII regime change organized and supported by the British MI6 and the American CIA.

The book combines insightful memoir, strategic analysis, economic assessment, and historical review based on primary sources in Iran, the UK, the US and the World Bank. 

Nicolas Gorjestani is a former senior official of the World Bank with economic development experience spanning more than four decades in countries undergoing transformational change. Born in Iran of Georgian heritage, Nicolas lives in Washington, DC.

The Legacy Of Mohammad Mosaddegh With Nicolas Gorjestani

May 11, 2023
Speakers: Pamela Karimi

Discussion with Dr. Pamela Karimi about  the work of several prominent contemporary women artists and their courageous acts of political activism in the streets of Iran.

Following the tragic murder of Mahsa Amini, Iranian women took to the streets in large numbers to protest. Their bodies were the focus of these demonstrations, with women dancing and spinning their headscarves or anonymous activists installing protest banners or using sanitary pads to cover surveillance cameras in order to prevent state authorities from imposing conservative dress codes on women. The courageous presence of women in public spaces has been a crucial aspect of this revolution, with many instances of women's political activism on the streets taking on characteristics of art production. By entering the realm of visuality and sense-experience, traditionally assigned to art and aesthetics, activism has taken on performative dimensions. However, the "Woman, Life, Freedom" uprising is not the only manifestation of such involvement. For over three decades, Iranian women artists (and, by extension, activists as artists) have engaged in public art activism, creating moments of rupture in everyday life without necessarily declaring an overt political stance. These artists have used guerilla-style tactics such as painting graffiti, playful drifting, and occupying empty urban spaces to assert their right to the city and challenge strict urban regulations. Such innovative practices in busy urban areas are more challenging for women artists than their male counterparts. This presentation highlights the work of several prominent contemporary women artists who have questioned the limitations of public life for women, demanded freedom of expression, and reclaimed the streets through their creative and courageous interventions.

Pamela Karimi received her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009 and is currently a professor at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Karimi is the author of Domesticity and Consumer Culture in Iran (Routledge, 2013) and Alternative Iran: Contemporary Art & Critical Spatial Practice (Stanford, 2022). She is the co-editor of The Destruction of Cultural Heritage in the Middle East: From Napoleon to ISIS, a collection of important essays published at the height of ISIS attacks on cultural heritage. Karimi has held fellowships from many organizations, including the College Art Association, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and Iran Heritage Foundation at SOAS. More recently Karimi was the co-recipient of a major grant from the Connecting Art Histories Initiative at the Getty Foundation. Co-founder of Aggregate Architectural History Collaborative, Karimi currently serves on the boards of Thresholds Journal (MIT Press) and the Association of Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran, and Turkey.

Women, Art, Freedom: Women Artists & Street Politics in Iran by Pamela Karimi

May 2, 2023

Speakers: Ladan Lari, Leila Pourhashemi, Abbas Milani, Kioumars Ghereghlou

A discussion about "Never Invisible: An Iranian Woman’s Life Across the Twentieth Century" (Mage Publishers, 2023).

Houri Mostofi Moghadam was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1919, descended on her mother’s side from Iranian royalty and on her father’s from a “God-fearing” family of scholars and government administrators. When she was twenty-two, Houri married Mohsen Moghadam, a young man from a merchant family who went on to become a successful businessman, often traveling abroad, while Houri dedicated herself to teaching, charitable public works, and running international women’s associations in Tehran. Together, they also raised three children, in whom Houri was keen to instill the same spirit of industry and self-discipline she had learned from her own parents.

Houri was among the first women to go to university in Iran, working as a teacher for nearly forty years and diligently continuing with her own education in later life, including traveling to the U.S. as a Fulbright Scholar, and, after being forced into exile following the Islamic Revolution of 1979, studying for a PhD at the Sorbonne in Paris. From a privileged social class, with a glamorous, jet-setting lifestyle, Houri was a pioneer, nonetheless, and a feminist for her own time. Through her hard work and frequent acts of bravery—from standing up to sinister intruders to dogged persistence in the face of intransigent officialdom—she made sure that, as a woman, she was never overlooked, never invisible, even when hidden under a dark chador at the Revolutionary Court. It was women like Houri who were the precursors of the young women fighting for equal rights and justice in Iran today.

The resulting memoir tells the fascinating story of her life, with all its ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies, set against the backdrop of an impending revolution that would topple the world she and her family had always known and turn it upside down.

In this video, Houri’s daughter, Ladan Lari, and granddaughter, Leila Pourhashemi, discuss Houri’s life and work, and the extraordinary commitment Houri’s daughter, Mariam Safinia, undertook to make the publication of this memoir possible.

Dr. Kioumars Ghereghlou and Dr. Abbas Milani discuss the importance of the Houri Moghadam archival collection at Stanford, her life in historical perspective, and the process of creating and publishing the memoir.

Conversation is in English and is moderated by Stanford Stein Visiting Writer Laleh Khadivi.

Never Invisible: An Iranian Woman’s Life Across the Twentieth Century

May 19, 2022

Speaker: Saeid Golkar

Ayatollah Khamenei is replacing the Islamic Republic's old cohort of specialists with newly indoctrinated technocrats, preparing the regime for a swift succession. In addition, reconfiguration of political elites is shifting the power equilibrium in the Islamic Republic, facilitating greater coordination between deep and visible states.

Saeid Golkar is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Concurrently, he is a non-resident Senior Fellow on Middle East Policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs (CCGA) and The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in the UK.

The Reconfiguration of Iran's Political Elite: Rising Indoctrinated Technocrats with Saeid Golkar

August 11, 2021
Speaker: Fereshteh Sadreorafaei

Fereshteh Sadreorafaei was born in Tehran, Iran in 1962. From a young age, she attended the Children and Adolescents' Intellectual Development Center. There, she studied theater and puppetry and staged several puppet shows. From 1974-1976, she was a student at Pars National Ballet under the supervision of Abdullah Nazemi.

Due to the Iranian Revolution and closure of universities, she was unable to acquire a university education. During which time she got married and started a family. She worked as a puppet actress in a children’s TV series, using what she learned from the Intellectual Development Center. 

Her first professional theater performance was in 1983, followed by her debut in cinema in 1985.

She went on to narrate and puppeteer in 17 series and films, directed four TV series for children and teenagers, acted in 20 films, and acted in one unreleased TV series. She has collaborated with directors such as Jafar Panahi, Kambozia Partovi, Reza Mirkarimi, Abdolreza Kahani, Mohammad Rasoulov, Maziar Miri, Narges Abyar, Massoud Bakhshi and, in her latest film Ghahraman, Asghar Farhadi.

She has been nominated for and received numerous awards, including several for Café Transit.

About the film:

Written and directed by Kambuzia Partovi (2005).
Synopsis: In a village near Iran's border with Turkey, Reyhan (Fereshteh Sadreorafaei), a young woman with two children, faces a difficult choice when her husband dies. Instead of marrying her brother-in-law (Parviz Parastoei), as required by traditional law, she chooses to support her family by reopening her late husband's restaurant.

Part of Stanford Festival of Iranian Arts.

SGS Summer Film Festival: Cafe Transit

February 17, 2023
Speakers: Mohsen Yalfani, Shabnam Tolouei 

A discussion with Mohsen Yalfani about his life, work, and the recent reading of his play “Diaspora,” directed by Shabnam Tolouei at Stanford University. Ms. Tolouei joined the conversation as well. Discussion is in Persian.

Mohsen Yalfani was born in 1943 in Hamadan, Iran. He wrote his first plays in his last year in high school and submitted one to the Center for Dramatic Arts in Tehran and won a prize for it. At the age of 18 he moved to Tehran, and while studying at the Teachers' Training College, another of his plays won the same prize. This play was staged in the major theater in Tehran in 1966. 

Yalfani wrote several one act plays that were published in literary magazines and produced for Iranian television. In 1970 he wrote “The Teachers” which was staged in Tehran. The play was stopped by the Shah’s SAVAK and Yalfani along with the director, Saeid Soltanpoor, were arrested and spent three months in prison. Henceforth, all of Yalfani’s plays were prohibited from being staged or published.

In 1973, while collaborating with the Iran Theatre Association, he was arrested, along with his coworkers and friends, and imprisoned for four years. In prison, he translated and adapted the book Voice and the Actor by Cicely Berry and wrote his one-act play “On the Beach.”

When released in 1978, Yalfani collaborated with the Iranian Writers' Association (of which he was elected as a member of the secretariat). After the Islamic Regime’s crackdown on democratic associations, Yalfani left Iran, in disguise, and sought political asylum in France.

Shabnam Tolouei is an award-winning actress, playwright, and director. Born in Tehran, she was forced into exile in 2004 and became a naturalized French citizen in 2019. She has studied filmmaking in Tehran, Bagh-Ferdos Film School and Theatre Studies at Université Paris X, Nanterre, France.

She has been writing short stories for cultural magazines since 1990, acting and writing plays since 1993, and teaching acting for camera since 2001. She continues her career outside Iran as an actress, filmmaker, and playwright.

Part of the Stanford Festival of Iranian Arts.

A Discussion with Mohsen Yalfani

June 1, 2023
Speaker: Tomoyo Chisaka

The second Zahedi Family Fellow lecture by the Spring 2023 Zahedi Fellow, Dr. Tomoyo Chisaka. 

Influential literature on Iran-US relations has assessed economic and security issues as having profound impacts on the rise and fall of Mohammad Reza Shah. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the ways that Iran's domestic institutions, particularly parliamentary politics, influenced the nature of bilateral relations. Findings from the Ardeshir Zahedi papers housed in Hoover Library and Archives and the US National Security Archives indicate that even though the Shah and the US were close allies, parliamentary elections provided a space for the US to contact “moderate” opposition who tried to challenge the Shah’s dictatorship by participating in electoral politics. This communication was facilitated by US concerns about fighting communism within the context of the Cold War, in part because Iran’s opposition knew that only US advocacy would encourage the Shah to co-opt them in parliament in an otherwise illiberal authoritarian environment. A closer look at parliamentary elections in Iran during the Shah’s regime offers important insights into the ways that domestic politics interacted with Iran-US relations, with implications for Iran’s political development.

Dr. Tomoyo Chisaka joined the Iranian Studies Program as the second Zahedi Family Fellow in spring of 2023. Dr. Chisaka is a JSPS postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tokyo, Japan. She is a visiting scholar at the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University during the 2022-2023 academic year. Her dissertation examined parliamentary election management in post-revolutionary Iran. Focusing on the legal functions of the Ministry of Interior and the Guardian Council, the dissertation considered when and how Iran’s Supreme Leader delegates autonomy to the executive headed by the President as related to the management of parliamentary elections.

Parliamentary Politics and Iran-US Relations During the Cold War

In 2014, Maestro Mohammad Reza Shajarian visited Stanford University. In collaboration with Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), he recorded a few test sessions using virtual acoustics of the Hagia Sophia. 

Recording and production of audio and video were made possible by the CCRMA team and the Icons of Sound Project.

To watch the video recording of these test sessions, please visit our YouTube channel.

Mohammad Reza Shajarian Records Singing with Hagia Sophia Acoustics

May 31, 2022

Speaker: Arash Azizi

"Pahlavi Iran, alongside Turkey, was a rare case of a Muslim-majority state to have consistent relations with Israel. Much of existing literature often discusses this as an aspect of Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s Policy of Periphery. But the Shah’s relations with Israel were in line with his foreign policy conception of “National Independent Policy” and part of a careful balancing act that aimed to stake out a unique place for Iran in the global Cold War. Following the 1967 war, the Shah publicly criticized Israel and demanded its withdrawal from the occupied territories while Iran also maintained clandestine ties to the PLO and restored its ties to the leading Arab nation of Egypt. The Shah’s vision of Iran as a Muslim country and his opposition to remnants of European colonialism also motivated Iran’s policy in this era.  

Basing itself on a study of the Ardeshir Zahedi papers at the Hoover Library & Archives—which include accounts of Iran’s diplomatic meetings with countries such as Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Soviet Union and Yugoslavia—this study attempts to flesh out the formation and execution of Iranian policy on the Arab- and Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the 1967-79 period."

Arash Azizi, a PhD candidate in History and Middle Eastern Studies at New York University (NYU), will be the first Zahedi Family Fellow at Stanford University, joining in spring 2022. His dissertation charts the history of Communist internationalism in the Middle East as part of the Global Cold War. Focusing on the ties between the Communist parties of Iran and Iraq, the dissertation looks at their transnational collaboration, their unique stance on Israel/Palestine and their rivalry with the New Left and Islamists. It looks to show how the Cold War was waged in the Middle East, not only by distant superpowers but by local actors such as the communists and their opponents such as the Shah of Iran.

Nobody's Periphery: Pahlavi Iran and the Arab-Israeli Conflict

October 5, 2023
Speaker: Bahram Grami

A book talk about the acclaimed Iranian poet, Ahmad Shamlou, with Dr. Bahram Grami.  Event is in Persian and was organized on Oct. 5, 2023.

“The book 'Ahmad Shamlou, Behind the Mirror' is not a literary criticism, it is a step toward better knowing Ahmad Shamlou based on reliable sources. It is not a documentary for promoting or defaming him. While Shamlou should be appreciated and praised for his great poetical works, his character and social life is studied because he has been a role model for young generations. This book contrasts with his statement, ‘I live in a glass house and have nothing to hide.’”

Bahram Grami was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. He studied at Tehran University, American University of Beirut and University of Manitoba, Canada, where he received his PhD in plant science and genetics. He served as assistant professor in Iran until he left for the United States in 1985 and became a researcher at the University of California, Davis. His recent work includes the 2022 edition of Flowers and Plants in a Thousand Years of Persian Poetry. He has taught in Hong Kong, Bahrain and China, and has been a consulting editor for flora with the Encyclopedia Iranica.

Book Talk: Ahmad Shamlou, Behind the Mirror

Jahan Ramazani is University Professor and Edgar F. Shannon Professor of English at the University of Virginia. He is currently writing a book on poetry in a global age. This talk on poetry, art, and East-West translation ranges from ancient Iran to medieval Byzantium and the Abbasid era to modern Iran and Ireland.

The lecture is in three parts. The first looks at the Persian artistic influences via Byzantium on a modern Irish poet that have passed largely unrecognized (a bridge taken for a wall). The second looks at a Persian poet whose accessibility in English translation has perhaps been overestimated (a wall taken for a bridge). The third attempts a synthesis in another Persian poet who can help us think about culture as both bridge and wall. After exploring poems by Yeats, Rumi, and Behbahani, the lecture reflects on "world" poetry and translation, and it offers suggestions for the uses of a global comparative frame for lyric poetry.

"A Bridge Taken for a Wall, a Wall Taken for a Bridge" by Jahan Ramazani

Does morality come from God, as many religions believe, offering a foundation of theocracy, or could there be biological explanations that have more to do with evolution than Divine design? In this lecture, De Waal will discuss the sense of fairness in animals and will review expressions of empathy in animals.        

Dr. Frans B. M. de Waal is a Dutch/American biologist and primatologist known for his work on the behavior and social intelligence of primates. He is currently C. H. Candler Professor in the Psychology Department of Emory University and Director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Center, in Atlanta, Georgia.

FR=30.000-ND D=01:27:51:03

"Evolution of Goodness: Empathy in Animals and Humans" by Dr. Frans de Waal

Pouya Afshar is an alumnus from the California Institute of Arts Character Animation department and is a graduate of University of California Los Angeles Graduate Department of Film and Television focusing in Animation and Digital Media. He has exhibited his work as an animator and visual artist throughout Los Angeles and United States at renowned locations such as Harold M. Williams Auditorium at the Getty Center, Bovard Auditorium at University of Southern California, Royce Hall at University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Santa Monica Art studios, 18th street Art Center, Art Miami/Context and Shulamit Gallery. Pouya is the creator, character designer and producer of the animated series "Rostam in Wonderland." He is currently an Assistant Professor of art at University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

"Animation Trends in Iran after the Revolution" by Pouya Afshar

Aida Moradi Ahani was born in Bandaranzali, Iran, in 1983. She now lives and works in Tehran. She graduated in electrical engineering from Azad University (Tehran, Iran- 2007). Since 2005 she has been active as an essayist, editor and writer.

Her first collection of short stories, The Pin on Cat's Tail, was published in 2011 (Cheshmeh publishers, Tehran). Her début novel, Golfing on the Gunpowder was published in 2013 (Negah, Tehran). She has collaborated with another artist to turn one of her short stories into a film script. Another of her stories has been selected and translated into English for Tehran Noir, a collection of Iranian short stories to be published this fall by Akashic Books, New York.

"Recent Trends in Iranian Fiction Writing" by Aida Moradi Ahani

Mohsen Namjoo is an Iranian artist, songwriter, singer, music scholar and setar (traditional Persian lute) player based in California. Born in 1976 in Torbat-e Jam, Iran, Namjoo began his musical training at the age of twelve, studying under Nasrollah Nasehpoor until the age of eighteen. In 1994 Namjoo began to study Theater and Music at the University of Tehran, where he was trained under Alireza Mashayekhi, Azin Movahed and other masters. Namjoo also studied Iranian folk music under Haj Ghorbane Soleimani. His unique music style resembles a patchwork of Persian classical poetry of Hafez, Rumi or Saadi with western music, namely rock, blues, and jazz.

Since 2003, Namjoo has recorded parts of his works in Tehran. His debut album titled Toranj was officially released in Iran in September 2007 with his own voice featured in most of his creations. He has also composed soundtracks for movies and plays, and was featured in the documentary Sounds of Silence (directed by Amir Hamz and Mark Lazarz) which has been screened at international film festivals. He also appeared in a feature narrative film called Few Kilograms of Dates for the Funeral (Director Saman Salur). Namjoo’s first performance outside of Iran was in January 2006 at the Tehran Hotspot of the International Rotterdam Film Festival where he played solo. In 2009 he was sentenced in absentia to a five-year jail term by the Iranian revolutionary courts for allegedly ridiculing the ash-Shams, a sura of Qur’an in the song named “Shams”. The conviction took place in spite of his formal apology. After establishing in the West, he sang this song in his Oy album which was produced in Italy in 2009.

In 2008 Namjoo kicked off his first solo US tour, which granted him the Visiting Artist Fellowship at Stanford University, co-sponsored by the Christina & Hamid Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies and the Music Department at Stanford. In 2010, Namjoo partnered with Payam Entertainment to present Namjoo in A Minor with a new ensemble centered around some of his most popular and controversial songs. They performed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Sony Center in Toronto, Canada and the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. Payam Entertainment released Namjoo’s latest album Useless Kisses in 2011, and Alaki in 2012, which live recording from a performance at the Stanford University in February 2011. In the fall of 2011, Namjoo joined the team of celebrated New Yorke based Iranian artist Shirin Neshat as the music director of her performance OverRuled, commissioned by the Performa 2011 Festival in New York City. He is currently working with the Iranian filmmaker, scholar and play write, Bahram Beyzai on his new project commissioned by Stanford University. Namjoo continues touring the world and creating new music. His new album entitled “Thirteen/Eight” is due in the fall of 2012.

Hailed as “the Bob Dylan of Iran” by the New York Times, Mohsen Namjoo is a visionary artist who speaks for and touches the souls of today’s youth. Seamlessly blending the Classical with the Modern, the ancient with the current, Mohsen Namjoo is a true musical maverick.

"Evolution of Iranian Rhythms" by Mohsen Namjoo

Abolala Soudavar completed his university education at the Ecole Polytechnique, Paris (1963-67), Stanford University (1967-68) and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Pratiques, Paris (1980-81). As a businessman he was involved in Iran from 1969 to 1982, when he moved to the USA and established Mirak Inc. He was Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Tehran University from 1970 to 1977. He is/was a member of the Visiting Committee for Islamic Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art - New York (since 1983), of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1978 to 1994), Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago - Visiting Committee - (1995-7), Arthur M Sackler Gallery- Visiting Committee, Smithsonian Institution  (1995-2003), Harvard University Museums-Collection Committee (1997- present). His publications include Art of the Persian Courts (1992), The Aura of Kings: Legitimacy and Devine Sanction in Iranian Kingship (2003),Decoding Old Masters: Patrons, Painters, and Enigmatic Paintings of the 15th Century (2008), Mithraic Societies: From Brotherhood to Religion’s Adversary” (2014).

"Mithraic Societies: From Brotherhood to Religion's Adversary" by Abolala Soudavar

Massoud Behnoud, a prominent Iranian journalist and writer, was born on 27 July 1947 in Tehran. He started his work as a journalist in 1964. During his long career he worked as an investigating journalist for different publications and founded more than 20 newspapers and magazines, none of which are currently in publication. Between 1971-79 he was the chief editor of the most influential and popular daily in Iran, "Ayandegan", that was shut down in 1979 on the orders of Ayatollah Khomeini and it's editor and senior staff were all imprisoned. During 1972-79 he also worked as a producer, writer and speaker for the "National Iranian Radio and Television". In 1979 Massoud Behnoud became the chief editor of the weekly "Tehran-e Mosavar", which was also shut down by the Islamic government after 30 issues during the crackdown of all non-governmental and independent newspapers.

Between 1972-1979 Massoud Behnoud was one of the most important and active figures of the trade union of Iranian journalists.

From 1979 till 1985, after the closure of "Tehran-e Mosavar" as well as the trade union of Iranian journalists Massoud Behnoud. From 1981-1985 he led a low profile existence in Teheran. In 1985 he was one of the founders of "Adineh", the most prominent and influential social and literary monthly in Iran. For more than 13 years Massoud Behnoud was one of the leading members of the editorial board and published a great number of essays and commentaries in "Adineh". In his articles he supported the freedom of speech and of the press. He struggled against censorship and tried to support the free circulation of information. Once in 1995 the trade union of Armenian writers invited 22 Iranian writers and journalist for a visit to Armenia. Massoud Behnoud was one of these delegates. In a conspiracy to kill all of the delegates the Iranian security police tried to divert the bus they were traveling with on a steep valley. In 1997 Massoud Behnoud joined a host of other journalists to publish the Teheran daily "Jameh" His articles and commentaries were received with a great deal of public interest. With the closure of "Jameh" he continued his work in the other newly found dailies "Tous", "Neshat", "Asr-e Azadegan" and the most lately "Bonyan". All of this newspapers have been closed down.

Following a series of murders in 1999 during which some prominent Iranian writers and intellectuals have been killed by the security police, Massoud Behnoud´s name was also discovered on the list of those writers and intellectuals who had been earmarked for assassination. After the crackdown of the Iranian newspapers, Massoud Behnoud together with other well known journalists like Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, Akbar Ganji, Emadeddin Baqi and Ebrahim Nabavi , was imprisoned for a period of 23 months. The court accused him of "having provoked public opinion and" insulting the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic and the commander of the Revolutionary guards". The sentence against him and other journalists aroused a lot of protest from Reporters sans Frontieres, the International PEN-Center, amnesty international and other human rights organizations.

After serving a a period of 6 months, two of which he spent in solitary confinement, Massoud Behnoud was released temporarily on bail.

While Massoud Behnoud was engaged in a European lecture tour, on 1 June 2002, the Iranian juridical authorities announced that an order for his arrest had once again been issued. On the baisi of this order he was ordered to return back to Iran to serve the remainder of his 16 months prison term. Masoud Behnoud currently lives in the United Kingdom with his wife and has a Daughter and a son. He is working as a journalist for a number of media organizations, mainly BBC Persian Services, for which he has worked for the past 21 years.

"Diaspora Media: Failures, Accomplishments and Future Role" by Masoud Behnoud

Nima Mina is a member of academic staff at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies in the field of Persian and Comparative Literature. He received his academic training in general linguistics and Medieval Studies at the University of Marburg, Germany and in Comparative Literature and Music at the Universite de Montreal in Quebec. Recently, he has authored and edited books on the history of literary Orientalism in 19th and 20th century Germanic literatures (Iudicium-Verlag, Munich 2006) and Goethe's sources for the West-oestlicher Divan (Grazer Morgenlaendische Studien 2007.

Hamid & Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies

"The Early German Poetry of Fereydoun Farrokhzad" by Nima Mina

Kayhan Kalhor and Ali Akbar Moradi in discussion

Kayhan Kalhor is an internationally acclaimed kamancheh (Persian spike fiddle) player. His musical collaborations have helped popularize Persian music outside of Iran and attract audiences from around the world. Kayhan is a founding member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble (which received a Grammy in 2016 for the album “Sing Me Home”). He has composed music for Iran’s most renowned vocalists including Mohammad Reza Shajarian and Shahram Nazeri, and has toured as a soloist with ensembles and orchestras including the New York Philharmonic and Orchestre National de Lyon.

Ali Akbar Moradi is a master tambour (Persian lute) player. He has performed throughout Europe, Canada, and the U.S. and has performed with singers like Shahram Nazeri and at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Ali is from Kermanshah, Iran, and plays traditional Kurdish Iranian music. He currently lives in Iran and teaches tambour, and continues to develop the legacy of the instrument and the regional music.

"Maqams: The Roots Of Iranian Classical Music" by Kayhan Kalhor and Ali Akbar Moradi

We humans are a puzzling species.  No other animal comes close to our capacity for violently harming each other; yet at the same time, no other comes close to our capacity for cooperation, altruism, or compassion.  Most challengingly, the same motoric behavior can count as appalling or noble, depending on the context.  This lecture considers the biology of our context-dependent best and worst behaviors.  Crucially, true understanding requires a multi-disciplinary approach, as one must consider everything from neurobiological events over the course of seconds to evolutionary ones over the course of millions of years. 
 
Robert Sapolsky is an extremely talented speaker and teacher whose course at Stanford University is one of the most popular classes on campus. He is the author of several works of nonfiction, including A Primate's Memoir, The Trouble with Testosterone, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, and his most recent book this year Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst. He is a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation genius award. Image credit: L.A. Cicero

Robert Sapolsky - The Biology Of Humans At Our Best And Worst

Workshop with renowned Iranian film director Bahram Beyzaie at Stanford University, January-March 2013.

Sponsored by the Stanford Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies, and the Bita Daryabari Endowment in Persian Letters.

The five series workshop based on the following topics: 2/21:  THE MEANING OF SHAHNAMEH AS A SOCIAL WORK2/28:  NON WRITTEN MYTHS OF PRE-SHAHNAMEH PERIOD 3/7: THE CREATION OF MANKIND AND AFTER3/14: ANALYTIC VIEW OF THE LEGEND OF ROSTAM AND SOHRAB 3/16: IRANIAN MYTHS IN TRADITIONAL SPECTACLES

Bahram Beyzaie is one of the most talented, internationally acclaimed artists, scholars and public intellectuals of his generation in Iran. He has written more than thirty-five plays, and fifty screenplays. Though a film-maker for over forty years, and recognized as one of the masters of Iran’s much-celebrated new-wave of cinema, he has been allowed to make only ten feature films and four short films.

But Beyzaie is not just an artist but also a scholar. His pioneering work on the history of Iranian theater remains, some forty-years after its publication, the most authoritative source on the subject. His many monographs and essays have delved into a comparative study of Iranian, Indian, Chinese and Japanese performing art traditions. He has played a critical role in the study of religious passion plays in Iran and what they can offer modern theater. He has just finished work on a lengthy manuscript on the origins of A Thousand and One Nights story. He offers an altogether new interpretation of the Indo-Iranian origins of these remarkable stories.

Beyzaie was born in Tehran, in December 1938. His was a family of erudite poets and literary scholars, and it did not take him long to realize that his was to be a life in arts and aesthetics.  He had a voracious appetite to read, learn and create. Myriad discursive genres and performing arts became the smithy for his unique alchemy of words and images, history and myth, the mundane and the sublime.  His unique talents as an artist and his singular accomplishments as a scholar eventually combined to make him the Chair of the Dramatic Arts Department at Tehran University, where he helped train at least two generation of artists. After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, he was forced to resign from the university.  His unbending dedication to his art and to the dignity of artists and scholars, his unwillingness to allow ideological or political forces deform his ideas and art, his defiant desire to always speak truth to power have made of him a maverick. His direction of his own play, Marg Yazgerd (Death of Yazgard) remains today, almost three decades later, one of the most memorable and acclaimed theatric performances of the time. A film version of the play has also won much acclaim.

Western audiences were first introduced to Beyzaie's talents when two of his plays were performed at the Festival du Theater des Nations, in Paris in 1963. Since then, many of his plays have been performed in theaters around the world and several of his films have won acclaim at important film festivals. His works have been translated into English, French, German, Portuguese, Turkish, Kurdish and Arabic.

He is currently the Daryabari Visiting Professor of Persian Letters at Stanford University. He lives in Palo Alto with his wife, Mojdeh Shamsai, herself an acclaimed actress, and their son Niassan.

Semiotics Of Iranian Myths With Bahram Beyzai Part III

Semiotics Of Iranian Myths  With Bahram Beyzaie Part I

Najmieh Batmanglij, hailed as “The Grande Dame of Iranian Cooking” by The Washington Post, has spent the past 40 years cooking, traveling, and adapting authentic Persian recipes to tastes and techniques in the West. Her celebrated cook books include Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies, Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey, and her most recent book Cooking in Iran: Regional Recipes and Kitchen Secrets. Najmieh is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier and lives in Washington, DC, where she teaches Persian and Silk Road cooking, and consults with restaurants around the world.

In this talk, Najmieh discusses her most recent cookbook, selected as one of the 19 best cookbooks of Autumn 2018 by The New York Times. 

Description of the book: “Najmieh takes us with her on an extraordinary culinary journey: from the daily fish market in Bushehr, on the Persian Gulf, where she and her host buy and cook a 14-pound grouper in a tamarind, cilantro, and garlic sauce, to the heart of historical Isfahan, in central Iran, where she prepares lamb necks in a yogurt, saffron, and candied orange peel sauce topped with caramelized barberries. Traveling north to the Caspian Sea, she introduces us to the authentic Gilaki version of slow-cooked duck in a pomegranate and walnut sauce, served over smoked rice; and the unique flavors of a duck-egg omelet with smoked eggplant and baby garlic. Lingering in the north, in tribal Kurdistan, she treats us to lamb-and-bulgur meatballs filled with caramelized onions and raisins in a saffron sauce. Dropping south, to Bandar Abbas on the coast, she teases our palate with rice cooked in date juice and served with spicy fish, while in Baluchistan she cooks spiced goat in a pit overnight and celebrates the age-old method of making bread in hot ashes.At every village and off-the-beaten-track community, Najmieh unearths traditional recipes and makes surprising new discoveries, giving us a glimpse along the way of the places where many of the ingredients for the recipes are grown. She treks through the fields and orchards of Iran, showing us saffron being picked in Khorasan and pomegranates in Yazd, dates harvested by the Persian Gulf, pistachios in Kerman, and tea and rice by the Caspian.”

Cooking in Iran: Regional Recipes and Kitchen Secrets

The Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies fosters the interdisciplinary study of Iran as a civilization. Each academic year, the Program offers undergraduate courses related to Iran in such disciplines as language, literature, economics, and political science. It provides a wealth of events for scholars, students and the general public, which include conferences, symposia, forums, lectures and performances.

Listen to one our podcasts or check out our youtube channel to discover Iran!

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