On the 2nd day of the Human Screen International Film Festival in Tunis, “le Mondiale” movie house exhibited yesterday “Forbidden voices”, a film which was released in 2012 and which was winner of the Amnesty International Award and the Swiss Film Festival Award as “Best Documentary”. The film narrates the story of three young and courageous female bloggers, from three different countries, who made a revolution from behind a laptop.
Iran 16
Arab censors swim against the information tides
It was supposed to be a reform of a bad piece of legislation that not only muzzled the press but […]
Iran : Omid Reza Misayafi Has Died in Prison
Our friend Hamid Tehrani has told us that Omid Reza Misayafi has died in prison in Iran. Omid was sentenced […]
Freedom on the global Internet still a pipe dream
So begins the annual “Internet Enemies” report by Reporters Without Borders–and that’s probably the cheeriest line in the entire 39-page […]
“Islam Is a Religion, Not a Political Agenda”
Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari is one of the world’s most important contemporary Shia clerics. In this lengthy interview with Fatma Sagir, […]
Preparing the Battlefield : The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.
Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against […]
Where Shall We Begin?
Ali Shariati (1933-1977) has been called the “Ideologue of the Iranian Revolution.” His reinterpretation of Islam in modern sociological categories prepared the way for the Islamic revival that shook Iran in 1979, attracting many young Muslims who had been alienated both from the traditional clergy and from Western culture. Shariati was born in Mazinan, […].
“The Fiction of Life”.
Conversation with Azar Nafisi (1). by Elizabeth Wasserman (2) In 1979, Azar Nafisi returned to her native Iran after a seventeen-year absence. From the moment she stepped off the plane, she found herself in a place that was dark and unfamiliar. The cheerful and cosmopolitan Tehran airport that she remembered from her youth, with its terraced restaurant […].
Intellectual Autobiography.
Interview with Abdolkarim Soroush. Sadri: I would like to ask you for an account of your intellectual development. I am certainly interested in whether you distinguish any turning points, watersheds, or distinct periods in the evolution of your thought. Soroush: In the name of God the compassionate, the merciful, thank you for giving me this opportunity […].
Travel.
Interview with Abdolkarim Soroush. April 1997 – Following his return to UK from the United States and shortly before he left London for Tehran to end a twelve-month absence from the country, Dr Soroush spoke to SERAJ in an exclusive interview. Here is a summarised translation of this conversation. Dr. Soroush, over the last few months, you have travelle […].
Upbeat on democracy in Iran.
Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate, visited Indonesia last week. In her presentations she came across as a person who spoke out for what she believed in — the people’s fight for freedom, rooted in her conviction that this is the basic message of her religion, Islam. Ebadi’s conviction has brought her to odds with both authorities and acti […].
Back to Iran.
I don’t like posting full articles or interviews unless that their reading is highly significant to Iranians and to the lay observer of Iranian affairs. That being said this is an interview published in the New Scientist concerning Soroush’s decision to return to Iran after a six year hiatus. For those of you who don’t know much about Soroush, he’s conside […].
Emerging Civil Society in Iran
In recent years the issue of civil society has taken on new salience among students of international affairs. The emergence of civil society as a vehicle for democratization in Eastern Europe and Latin America has led to increasing scholarly attention to the role of non-state actors in promoting political and economic reform In recent years the issue of […].
Fundamentalism and Modernism in the Contemporary Iranian Islam
Summary: `Islamic fundamentalism’ and `Islamic modernism’ are questions that Hojjatoleslam Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari has discussed in a lecture delivered at the University of Sorbonne in France in February 26, 1997. Text: In this article we will try to answer the following questions: a. What is Islamic fundamentalism? b. What is Islamic modernism? c. Wh […].
Abdolkarim Soroush and Islamic liberation theology.
Abdolkarim Soroush has emerged as the foremost Iranian and Islamic political philosopher and theologian. His sprawling intellectual project, aimed at reconciling reason and faith, spiritual authority and political liberty, ranges authoritatively over comparative religion, social science, and theology. However, it is only by understanding the local context […].
The Responsibilities of the Muslim Intellectual in the 21st Century
By Farish A. Noor Professor Abdolkarim Soroush is an Iranian philosopher and social scientist who is currently based at the Institute for Epistemological Research in Tehran, Iran. A well-known scholar and Islamist intellectual in Iran and abroad, his writings have been widely disseminated both in print and via the Internet. In Iran, he is seen as an advo […].