Ajam Media Collective
Diaspora
“This Place Should Have Been Iran”: Iranian Imaginings in/of Dubai
It is precisely the position between an Iran back home and an Iran abroad, or Iran’s present circumstances and possible future, which informs the sense of displacement so widely shared among Iranian expatriates here. For many Iranians, Dubai’s emergence as a global metropolis is imagined to have resulted, more specifically, from the displacement of Iranian modernity. Continue reading
Towards an Armenian-Iranian Modern: Tehran Church Architecture & Post-Revolutionary Soccer Culture
A post written by Asher Kohn, a law student at the Washington University in St. Louis, focusing on the interplay between theories of jurisprudence and land use in Central Asia. Follow Asher on Twitter @AJKhn. For other articles in Ajam’s series on Armenian-Iranians, check out “A Bridge to New Julfa: A Historical Look at the … Continue reading
The Bridge to New Julfa: The Golden Age and Lasting Influence of Isfahani Armenians
Part II of a guest post written by Afsheen Sharifzadeh, a student at Tufts University focusing on Iran and the Caucasus. This article is part of a series on Armenian-Iranians. Check out Part I, “The Bridge to New Julfa: A Historical Look at the Armenian-Iranian Community of Isfahan” here, as well as “Towards an Armenian-Iranian Modern: Tehran … Continue reading
The Bridge to New Julfa: A Historical Look at the Armenian-Iranian Community of Isfahan
Part I of a guest post written by Afsheen Sharifzadeh, a student at Tufts University focusing on Iran and the Caucasus. This article is part of a series on Armenian-Iranians. Check out Part II, “The Bridge to New Julfa: The Golden Age of Isfahani Armenians,” here, as well as “Towards an Armenian-Iranian Modern: Tehran Church Architecture and Post-Revolutionary … Continue reading
A Young Diaspora Raises its Voice: Creating Iranian Alliances Across Borders
A guest post by Amy Malek, a board member and conference director of Iranian Alliances Across Borders (IAAB). In 2002, a group of Iranian-American students studying abroad made a wild and exaggerated observation: Iranians are everywhere. Of course, we didn’t mean on TV or in the movies. We meant that all of a sudden, Iranians seemed … Continue reading
How Good Is Arash's Persian? The Politics of Language & Identity in Diaspora Iranian Pop Music
A guest post by Kamyar Jarahzadeh, a student at UC Berkeley focusing on migration and forced migration in Turkey and the Middle East. Like the modern music of most cultures, a survey of the modern Iranian pop scene would produce a pretty standard variety of artists and genres. The Iranian music video (“Clip”) shows that broadcast … Continue reading
Afghans in Iran: Contradictory State Policies and a Grassroots Anti-Racist Movement
Part III of a series on Afghan refugees in Iran. Earlier this year, I begun a series highlighting the experiences of Afghan refugees in Iran. By focusing on cultural production, particularly film and literature, I wished to elucidate the conditions of 2-3 million individuals making a living away from their war-torn homeland as well as … Continue reading
Persian Gulf Cosmopolitans & Emirati Fences: The Life and Times of the Iranian Souk
As the standoff between Iran and the United States enters into a new, more aggressive phase of crippling sanctions punctuated by threats of war, the Arab oil sheikhdoms to Iran’s south have increasingly collaborated with US efforts to isolate Tehran. Increasingly, the Persian Gulf has been represented as a geopolitical powder keg with distinct cultural … Continue reading
Persian Poetry in Los Angeles: Nostalgia VS Adaptation
This essay is based on a talk presented at Stanford University on February 21, 2012 by Majid Naficy. Los Angeles is sometimes called Irangeles, because more than half a million Iranians live there. Most of them have come to this city during or after the 1979 Revolution. They were either beneficiaries of the fallen monarchy … Continue reading
Far From Home: Portrayals of the Afghan Refugee in Iranian Cinema
Part II of a series on Afghan Refugees in Iran. Earlier this month, I completed a post discussing how works of literature from prominent Afghan writers voiced the conditions of millions of undocumented Afghan refugees residing in Iran. These members of the Afghan diaspora have been able to draw upon their own personal accounts as … Continue reading
