List of Persian/Iranian Events for 2008-03-06

SUFIS, SHI'ITES & SHAHS

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Event Type
Lecture
Date And Time
2:00 PM Thursday, Mar 6
Event Area
Chicago
Event Location
Price Auditorium (lower level) at The Art Institute of Chicago
Description
A presentation by Dr. Sheila Canby Curator of Islamic Art and Antiquities, The British Museum, London The Safavids ruled Iran from 1501 to 1722. A dynasty of Azerbaijani and Kurdish origins, the Safavids declared Shi'a Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most significant turning points in the history of Islam. Dr. Sheila Canby examines the roles that the Ardabil Shrine, the dynastic heart of the Safavid Dynasty, the Shrine of Imam Riza in Mashhad, and the Shrine of Fatimeh Ma'sumeh in Qum, played in establishing Shiism as the state religion of Iran and the Safavid rulers as its protectors.
Event Photo

Admission Fee
Free
Website
http://www.artic.edu

Dear Iranian American:



First and foremost, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Leila Radan. I am the sister-in-law of one of Iran's top actors, Bahram Radan, and currently reside here in San Francisco. I am part Iranian, part Danish and an actress in the official V-Day SF production of "The Vagina Monologues".



V-Day is the organization behind "The Vagina Monologues" and uses the play as a sort of performance piece grassroots fundraiser aimed at uniting the community at large and at, of course, raising as much money as possible to submit to both V-Day's cause of choice (this year it is for the women survivors of Katrina) and to local charities (SF WAR & Generation Five).



As the only Iranian involved actively both as a castmate and as a pseudo-organizer/ media outreach of the show, I am placing out a call to the Iranian community to please come and join us! I just moved back home to San Francisco after 3 1/2 years spent abroad and am personally looking to reconnect with the Iranian community at large. My unselfish and greater wish, however, is to represent the voice of our repressed Iranian people, of the women of Iran who endure human rights abuses that should not even be occuring in this day and age. "The Vagina Monologues" is a play, a collective cry of "NO MORE" where all the women involved symbolically add their voices to this shared declaration and, in doing so, hope to take it further and to add to V-Day's current achievement of having raised $50 million in the past 10 years in order to further women's rights.



I would love to use our current production of "The Vagina Monologues" as a springboard for both a show in solidarity with women's and children's rights from you, my community, and as a compassionate vehicle of greater involvement of our Iranian community within the American community at large. This is a fabulous video where Jane Fonda and Eve Ensler, the playwright and women's rights activist extraordinaire, passionately and so eloquently explain our cause.

So what am I asking of you? If you can in any way help us to spread the word it would be greatly appreciated. Do you have any affiliations with websites or publications of any sort? Well then give us a mention or an interview or a feature or... the sky's the limit! If using my relation to Bahram Radan is of interest and a good segue into promoting our play, then I am more than willing to sacrifice myself in this way. Do you have a database of Iranians at your disposal? Then kindly send them an email blast and urge them to show up and support a fellow Iranian and to show their solidarity with the cause that is women's and children's rights, both of these being a mere fraction of the larger picture that is human rights of which we, Iranians as minorities in the US, are a part of as well.

This link explains the cause, where the proceeds shall go to and provide a link to ticketweb where the tickets are up for sale for our one and only shownight which is on Thursday, March 6th at 7:30 pm


Thank you so very much and I look forward to seeing you at our play,


Leila Radan

organicyogi@ gmail.com email

Dear Friends:

We will be reading and discussing poems with the theme of Norouz, at 7:30 pm on Thursday.


We will get together at:
St. Catherine's Anglican Church
1058 Ridgewood Drive , Edgemont Village , North Vancouver

Please check www.gologolshan.com for more information.

Feel free to distribute this email to your friends who may be interested.

Sincerely,
Gol o Golshan