Iranian voices

I am currently reading My Sister, Guard Your Veil; My Brother, Guard Your Eyes by Lila Azam Zanganeh.

Will try to write a detailed review later but for now..here is an excerpt from the introduction by the editor, Lila Azam Zanganeh, to give you an idea about the book.

'The gap between the multifaceted realities of Iranian political and cultural life and the simplified image one is often fed by politicians and mainstream media alike remains mind-boggling.' The book aims at closing that gap by offering a wide ranging look at Iran from the perspective of some the country’s most astute observers and commentators and strives to open a 'series of vibrant perspectives on concealed Iranian realms.' - Adapted from the Levantine Cultural Center's Uncensored Iranian Voices page.

The book includes some well-known and some not-so-well-known Iranian personalities like:

• Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran^
• Marjane Satrapi, author of graphic novel, Persepolis 1 and 2 and Embroideries*
• Celebrated filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami $
• Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, Oscar-nominated for House of Sand and Fog & acted in the 4th season of the hit sitcom, 24)... 
  

Read a more detailed review of the book and also hear Zanganeh weigh in on the growing tension between the U.S. and Iran on the Tavis Smiley show on NPR.

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^ Azar Nafisi - Author of Reading Lolita in Tehran converses with Robert Birnbaum of The Identity Project.

Transcript of interview with Nafisi on PBS

Interview with Nafisi at Powell Books

Audio Interview with Nafisi on NPR's The Connection.

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* Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi talks about why Iranians don't think sex is sinful, the hypocrisy of American saber-rattling over Iran, and why George Bush and the mullahs are "the same."

Couple of interview with Satrapi

An Iranian Girlhood - Time magazine on Persepolis

AsiaSource Interview

Audio interview at Coastal Carolina University

Audio interview on NPR

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$ Abbas Kiarostami Interview
Transcript of Kiarostami's conversation with Bill Horrigan, the curator of media at the Wexner Center.

Abbas Kiarostami Critical analysis of landmark international and independent cinema

Guardian Unlimited Film Interviews Abbas Kiarostami

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Also by Lila Azam Zanganeh

Americans Return from Afghanistan
Relatives of victims of Sept. 11 create a relief fund in Afghanistan for casualties of U.S. bombings.

Not at One With Nature
Lila Azam Zanganeh discusses a skeptical Parisian's perspective on the great American outdoors.

Literary Cafés
The two most popular Literary Cafés have different ways of bringing poetry (and prose) to the people.

Women in Afghanistan
The United Nations marked International Women's Day with a conference on Afghan women, with guests Kofi Annan and Laura Bush.

Russian Mafia
Lila Azam Zangeneh reports on why the Russian mafia is no longer thriving in New York City.

La Boheme, But Few Bohemians
Lila Azam Zanganeh wants to know why New York lacks avant-garde opera

Lila Azam Zanganeh discusses Giorgio Fabre's new book about the relations between Hitler and Mussolini. (Also appeared in NYT, Nov 7, 2004)

Out of Africa (June 2005; NYT, free subscription required) What is a literature that does not exist? One that takes root far from an emigrant writer's native land, where his work is barely read, if at all? Togo's best-known writer, Kossi Efoui, addressed this remarkable paradox of his continent's literary heritage when he asserted, ''For me, African literature is something that does not exist.''

Succès de Scandale
Lila Azam Zanganeh American readers have long felt guilty about loving Lolita. As Vladimir Nabokov's nymphet heroine turns 50, Lila Azam Zanganeh traces the impact of a novel that has become both an icon and a cultural cliche. (She is currently at work on a book about Vladimir Nabokov.)

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