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

Celebrate Nowrooz with Kamkars’ Concert
Sunday March 8, 2009 at 5:00 PM Ticket prices:
Great Hall $40.00 $60.00 $80.00 $100.00
7 East 7th Street @3rd Ave To purchase tickets call
New York City, NY 201 522 7807 or 201 327 3494

You can mail your check to Mehr Humanitarian Society, Inc.
PO Box 591, Allendale New Jersey 07401

For more information please click the following links
Mehr March 8, 2009 Concert Video
To sample the music, please click the following

Kamkars You tube Video
Doors open at 4:00 PM Show starts at 5; 00 PM
All ticket sales are subject to availability and are not refundable
This event is sponsored by Mehr Humanitarian Society, Inc.
The proceeds from this event will be used for academic
scholarships and humanitarian assistance.

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.

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