List of Persian/Iranian Events for 2009-01-13

    Demystifying Iran's Islamic Republic

    Bay Area - Peninsula Tuesday - January 13, 2009     07:00 PM

    http://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/courses/course.php?cid=20082_POL%20170

    Demystifying Iran's Islamic Republic
    (POL 170)
    Tuesdays: 7:00 - 8:50 pm
    5 weeks:
    January 13 - February 10
    1 Unit(s): $200

    Iran's nuclear program and maneuverings in Iraq have raised concern among US foreign policy makers. At the center of the growing political controversy has stood Iran's radical president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But his election in 2005 was a surprise for all. Prior to this, he was almost a political unknown, belonging to none of the established political power groups. A self-styled champion of the poor and dispossessed, the scope of his power still remains unclear today.

    In this course, we will chronicle and explain the election and regime of Ahmadinejad, trace the development of the country's nuclear program, and unravel the tangled web of Iranian politics. We will take careful stock of Iran's political system, which is fragmented with multiple centers of institutionalized power, each in conflict. Here we will focus on the country's competing political groups (the clerical establishment, neoconservatives, liberals, and hard-line conservatives) and see how their constant maneuverings and hidden clashes put the fate of clerical rule and the role of democracy at stake. We will also shed light on the deep economic and social divisions between young and old, and rich and poor, which rend the Islamic Republic and threaten its very continued existence. In short, we will walk the labyrinth of modern Iran and come to understand its mysteries.

    David Giovacchini, Arabic Librarian, Middle East Collection, Stanford University Libraries

    David Giovacchini received advanced degrees in Islamic studies from Cornell and Princeton, and taught at Florida Atlantic University. He teaches regularly about Islam and the politics of the modern Middle East and is considered an expert in Middle Eastern film.

    Things I've Been Silent About - Azar Nafisi Book Reading

    Bay Area - San Francisco Tuesday - January 13, 2009     08:00 PM

    New York Times Review

    http://www.nytimes. com/2009/ 01/04/books/ review/Sciolino- t.html


    Things I've Been Silent About is a stunning personal story of growing up in Iran, memories of her life lived in thrall to a powerful and complex mother, against the background of a country's political revolution. A girl's pain over family secrets; a young woman's discovery of the power of sensuality in literature; the price a family pays for freedom in a country beset by political upheaval—these and other threads are woven together in this beautiful memoir, as a gifted storyteller once again transforms the way we see the world and "reminds us of why we read in the first place." (Newsday).

    Bay Area Book Tour
    Tuesday, January 13, 2009
    San Francisco, CA
    CITY ARTS & LECURES
    08:00 PM
    1955 Sutter St., San Francisco, CA
    In conversation with Brian Gray
    Herbst Theatre
    Contact: Sydney Goldstein
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