August 19, 2004
06:00 PM » Iranian Studies Group Women's Studies Group Initiation Meeting
The Iranian Studies Group's plans in creating in Women's Studies Division. The session will be moderated by Dr. Assyeh Mir Aghaee, who will also be the project manager for the Women's Studies Division. Our goals is to form a research group that looks at the important issues facing Iranian women today. Assyeh would like to address the weaknesses of women’s movement, starting off with an outline of women’s role in social movement in Iran and proceeding to elaborate on different aspects of women’s movement in Iran. The rest of the meeting will consist of discussions on possible research issues that the group wants to engage in, and possible division of tasks.
Meeting Abstract
Iranian women’s collective action in politics has been marked by their strong presence in social movements in the last 150 years. Whatever movement they supported turned out to be a great success. Yet, they did not have share in the victory. They were “the worst off” after each movement. The question is why women endure these disadvantages in the formal politics in Iran during the last century. It calls for a comprehensive analysis of the reasons behind women’s setbacks in the Iranian politics. I would like to address this important question in our meeting and try to discuss how the inferior situation of women in this era could be changed.
This is a unique opportunity to contribute to the improvement of women's situation in Iran. It will provide an opportunity for mutual learning, discussions and actual contributions to these issues. And I believe this is the first such effort outside of Iran. I hope you will find the time in your schedules for this.
Here is the event information. It is important that we know how many people we should wait for, therefore I would like each of you to take the time and let me know of the following:
1) Will you be coming to this event?
2) If you are not coming, are you interested in joining the research group?
E-mail: amostash@MIT.EDU
Iranian Studies Group
Research Meeting on Iranian Women's Studies
DATE: August 19, 2004
TIME: 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: MIT Room 1-132
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA
http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?mapterms=1-132
07:00 PM » Journey from the Land of No
Journey from the Land of No by Roya Hakakian
Thursday, August 19th at 7:00 PM Morristown, New Jersy
Reading and Book Signing
J & S
8 Mount Kemble Ave.
Morristown, NJ 07960
973.605.5225
Introduction
Roya Hakakian was twelve years old in 1979 when the revolution swept through Tehran. The daughter of an esteemed poet and teacher, Roya grew up in household that hummed with intellectual life. Her older brother, Albert, drew cartoons for a satirical magazine that would be banned under the new regime. Another brother, Javid, shared the magic of poetry, and secretly read to her from a celebrated children’s book, The Little Black Fish, an allegory about a stubborn young fish that defies its elders by swimming out to sea. Roya eventually learns that the book’s author was killed by SAVAK, the Shah’s secret police, and his message about the price of freedom and independence become a guiding force in her life. Her memoir, Journey From the Land of No, is a lyrical and beautifully written coming-of-age story about one young, deeply intelligent and perceptive girl’s attempt to find an authentic voice of her own at a time of cultural closing and repression.
Hakakian also tells the vivid story of what it was like to grow up Jewish in Iran on the brink of the revolution. She writes about discovering a swastika painted on the wall of her peaceful alley, and standing by as her classmates were escorted from school by Islamic Morality Guards, accused of reading blasphemous books, never to return to class. It was only later that Roya learned from her Persian Cosmopolitan teacher – the school administrator’s spy – that the reason she was spared was because the teacher admired her writing.
Here, twenty years after finally emigrating from Iran with her parents, Hakakian recounts some of the best known “urban legends” of the Iranian culture and revolution, but she does so in a domestic setting, in the powerful and distinctive voice of a young girl observing the life around her the way a poet or an artist would. One of her favorite activities as a teenager was the weekly hike that members of the Jewish Iranian Students Organization made at sunrise up the majestic, snowcapped Alborz mountains to laugh, enjoy each other’s company, and declaim poetry. Until one Friday when the group is stopped by young guards armed with Kalashnikov’s who had closed the mountain citing the “needs of the revolution,” and proceeded to detain the entire group and strip-search the women.
Throughout the book we witness fascinating courtship rituals as they unfold in Roya’s home, featuring eccentric uncles, aunts, brothers and friends. We experience in the most poignant, and at times painful ways, what life was like for women after the country fell into the hands of Islamic fundamentalists who had declared an insidious war against them, but always we see it through the eyes of a strong, youthful optimist who somehow came up in the world believing that she was different and knowing that she was special.
Journey from the Land of No is a wonderfully evocative story that reveals an Iran that most readers have not encountered, and marks the debut of a stunning new talent
07:45 PM » Poetry Workshop
But the emperor has nothing on at all. Cried a little child.
Hans Christian Andersen
In our next session we discuss about modernity and post-modernity in Persian poetry.
Place: St. Catherine's Anglican church
1058 Ridgewood Drive
Edgemont Village,
North Vancouver
Date: Thursday Aug. [mory] 19 , 2004
Time: 7: 45 ( gather 7: 45 , talk 8.00) To 9: 40 pm.
Reception: Chai, Coffee & Shirini.
Please sign-in at tea-break.
Volunteers are welcomed for cultural activities.
Audio Records of previous workshops on : Rumi, Attar, Hatef Esfehani, Sheikh Bahaei, Abu Saeed Abol Kheir, Jaami, Nasser Khosro, Mansour Hallaj, Parvin Etesaami, Nezami, Sanaee, Ferdosi, Hafez, Modern, Shehrezad (1001 nights), Norouz & Spring, and Golshan Raaz are available in cassette tapes (can also be provided in CD). Video records are available on Golshan Raaz. and Sherezad. "Rumi for Today", Jami: in Progress
For more information please contact :
Sherkat (604) 925 1676 msherkat@portal.ca
Balouch (604) 980 7775 abbasbalouch@netscape.net
Mory Ghomshei (604) 780 8599 mory@interchange.ubc.ca
If you are not interested in recieving this email please contact us to remove your email address from our list.