These viral articles are a reflection of what captured our attention the most in 2011.

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20- How U.S. Laws Can Affect Your Personal Affairs in Iran

The current economic and political instability in Iran is causing many Iranian-Americans to sell properties in Iran they did not sell before moving to the United States, be it offices, farmland, factories, or even former family homes.  A number of others are going through Iranian courts to reclaim properties that were seized by the government after the revolution.  What most Iranian-Americans unfortunately do not know is that U.S. laws require U.S. persons (as defined by the applicable regulations) to obtain a license from the Treasury Department to engage in transactions related to the sale of their personal property in Iran.

19- Caspian Sea Is Dying

Caspian Sea is dying and its littoral states (Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan) are not able to decide who owns what and what their responsibilities to the Caspian Sea, towards each other and the non-littoral states are.  The main problem is that the newly independent countries (this includes Russia which is not the USSR) around the Caspian Sea are not ready to give an equitable share of the Caspian Sea to Iran

18- 2011 Sundance Film Festival Presents Circumstance by Maryam Keshavarz

Teenagers Atafeh, and her best friend, Shireen, are experimenting with their burgeoning sexuality amidst the subculture of Tehran’s underground art scene when Atafeh’s brother, Mehran, returns home from drug rehab as the prodigal son.

17- Photos: Facebook curly-hair community gather in Tehran’s park

MooFerferia (curly-hair in Persian) Facebook community has about 8000 members worldwide,  and for the first time gathered in Tehran’s Nation Park in January 2011 for a few hours before they were asked to leave by park police.

16- Photos: New Year 2011 at the Vank Christian Church in Isfahan – Iran

The Vank Cathedral was one of the first churches to be established in Isfahan by Armenian immigrants settled by Shah Abbas I after the Ottoman War of 1603-05.

15- Iran: Second anniversary of Neda Agha Soltan ’s killing highlights near-total impunity for officials

Two years after the death of Neda Agha Soltan was captured on a mobile phone and came to symbolize the brutal repression meted out by security forces after the disputed presidential election of 2009, Amnesty International is renewing its call on the Iranian authorities to end impunity for officials responsible for unlawful killings, torture and other human rights violations.

14- The NBC Report That Could Have Been Produced By Iranian State TV

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad prays every morning at 5 a.m., then goes jogging with his bodyguards “at times seemingly ‘Rocky’-style.”

He then heads to the gym. The early bird Iranian president works out for 30 minutes every day before reaching his “spacious but simple office” before 7 a.m.

13- Iranian Actress Marzieh Vafamehr Arrested

According to Iran Green Voice, Iranian actress Marzieh Vafamehr, wife of film director and screenwriter Nasser Taghvai, was arrested two weeks ago in Tehran and remains in detention.

12- Persian Gulf: A Name for All Seasons

The famous Greek mathematician and astronomer of 2nd Century BC, Claudius Ptolemy was a great geographer as well. His world map is in the shape of a vast hemisphere showing at least 8000 places. In this map, the Persian Gulf recorded as Sinus persicus is clearly shown. Parallel to it, toward south, we find the name Sinus Arabicus or Arab Gulf. From this important map, which together with its marking method – attracted the attention of Islamic scholars a more important point can be derived: Persian and Arab Gulfs were two distinct seas whose names and limits were known even before Christ.

11- Iran photos of the year by Fars

Nineteen Photographs of Iran from 300 images submitted by 90 Fars photographers in 1389.
10- Photos: Lake Urmia-Iran, the third largest salt water lake on earth

The lake (in northwestern Iran) is named after the provincial capital city of Urmia, originally a Syriac name meaning city of water.

Lake Urmia has 102 islands, the second largest island, Kaboudi, is the burial place of Hulagu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan.

9- U.S. worried China, Russia will gain access to RQ-170 drone

The controversial U.S. spy drone, which was successfully brought down by the Iranian military in the northeast of the country near the city of Kashmar, is one of the most state-of-the-art espionage instruments in terms of technology and design.

8- I Dream of (A Persian) Jeannie

Stranded on a desert island after his spacecraft malfunctioned, NASA astronaut Tony Nelson comes upon a strange bottle and releases a beautiful girl genie. “Jeannie” as she is called, is more than two thousand years old, is from ancient Persia, and can materialize objects or control any situation with the blink of an eye.

7- Farah Pahlavi’s interview with French Magazine Point de Vue

Ever Since her exile and the death of her husband the Shah of Iran, the life of Empress Farah could have been a succession of tragedies. ” There are moments of great joy “, confesses the Empress to our reporters surrounded by her family in the outskirts of Washington.

6- Designation of Iran Air on OFAC’s SDN List and Restrictions for Iranian Americans

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury announced that it has added Iran Air, the largest Iranian air career, to its “Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List” (SDN List).

5- Photos: Bear Cubs Separated From Mommy Bear

Two bear cubs are being cared for at the quarantine center in Lorestan Mountain Park in Khorramabad, western Iran. Environmental protections agents discovered these cubs recently in a box a hunter was carrying with him. The hunter escaped leaving the cubs behind along with unanswered questions about where they had come from and how they had been separated from their mother.

4- Remembering Princess Leila Pahlavi

June 10th is a sad day for the Pahlavi Royal Family in exile. It is marked by a simple gathering in the Passy Cemetery in Paris ever since the demise of the youngest daughter of Shahbanou Farah, the former Empress of Iran, in 2001.

3- Bon Anniversaire Votre Majesté

The Month of October is a joyful one for the Pahlavi Family for it corresponds to several timely birthday celebrations and happy symbolic memories linked to their dynasty that of respectively the Coronation of 1967 and Persepolis Celebrations of 1971. The reason is that October corresponds to the birthday month of the late Shah of Iran ( October 26th, 1919), the Shahbanou (October 14th, 1938) and their eldest son the Crown Prince Reza (October 31st, 1960).

2- Photos: Ali-Reza Pahlavi 1966-2011

Alireza Pahlavi, 44, the youngest son of the former Shah of Iran, died Tuesday morning Jan. 4 2011 at his home in Boston, Massachusetts.

Ali-Reza Pahlavi was born on 28 April 1966. He lived in the U.S. where he received a Bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, a Masters of Arts degree from Columbia University, and studied at Harvard University as a Ph.D. student in ancient Iranian studies and philology.

1- Photos: Murder convict hanged in public in Iran

Alireza Mollasoltani was hanged today, Wednesday, after the appellate court confirmed his death sentence for the murder of Ruhollah Dadashi. ISNA reports that Mollasoltani was hanged in public in the Golshahr area of Karaj.

Related Posts:

1. Payvand’s top 10 News stories of 2010
2. Photos: Ali-Reza Pahlavi 1966-2011

Iranian women received medals in Wushu, Shooting, Taekwondo, Kabaddi, Karate, and Rowing.

The real number one spot for the games goes to Chiness women who represented 47.5% of the China’s 960 member team for the Asian games and these women won close to 56% (or 221) of China’s medal count, more medals than any national team from any country. This is despite the fact that there are about 20% less women events than for men.

The bottom spot goes to Saudi Arabia for the decision not to send woman athletes. After all, they won a seat to the Board of UN Women agency which seeks to promote the Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

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Khadijeh Azadpou - Women's Sanshou 60kg - Gold

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Khadijeh Azadpou - Women's Sanshou 60kg - Gold

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Khadijeh Azadpou - Women's Sanshou 60kg - Gold

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Khadijeh Azadpou - Women's Sanshou 60kg - Gold

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Elaheh Ahmadi - Shooting - 2 Silver and 1 Bronze

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Jambozorg Mahlagha, Talebi Maryam, Ahmadi Elaheh - Shooting - Silver

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Iran's Kabaddi team

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Malihe Miri - Kabaddi - Bronze

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Sara Khosh Jamal Fekry - Women's Under 46kg - Bronze

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Leila Ebrahimy Mojavery - women 1,500m

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Leyla Rajabi - shot put

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Samira Malekipour - Karate 68kg-category - Bronze

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Maryam Toosi - 100m heat

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Niloufar Mardani - Roller Sports 10000m

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Parisa Farshid - under 67kg taekwondo - Silver

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Rowing team - Bronze

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Sepideh Tavakoly Nik - high jump

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Photos: ISNA, MEHR, FARS

Related Posts:

1. Cartoons: Iranian women in Metro by Elham Ataei Azar
2. Art Gallery: Works of four young Iranian women titled Closed

Iranians are obsessed with football. Thousands watched the televised Iran-Brazil friendly on October 7, which took place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). One young Iranian said ahead of the game that he was “so excited” to see it live from the UAE’s Abu Dhabi stadium.

Another fan, a freelance sports journalist who asked to be identified as Mehdi, said: ”Even though I’m 26 and I’m not supposed to be excited, I’m really excited about seeing my country…play against Brazil, one of the best teams in the world.”

Brazil beat Iran 3-0 in a friendly in the UAE on October 7

Iran lost 3-0, but Mehdi – whose first memory as a child was the 1990 World Cup – is no fair weather fan. For him, and for many Iranians, football is more than just a sport. The country was left with few cultural exports after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. So football matches — particularly those played abroad — tend to carry the full weight of national identity.

Football’s mass appeal also bridges many currents of Iranian society, including politics and religion. The latter was picked up by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi in his award-winning 2006 film “Offside,” about a group of Iranian girls who dress up as boys in order to watch a football match in Tehran. (Iranian women are not allowed into football stadiums.)

Nor has football escaped the watchful eye of the government. In recent years, commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) — a branch of the Iranian military that is thought to have extensive assets in far-flung sectors of the economy — have gradually permeated Iran’s football scene.

“The Iranian premiere division has 18 teams,” Mehdi explains. “Seventeen of them are somehow connected to the government,” adding that the 18th is run by “one person who used to be with the Revolutionary Guards,” referring to Hossein Hedayati of the Tehran team Steel Azin.

Whether this creeping IRGC participation is simply an effort to cash in on a lucrative sports market or is part of some bigger plan is not known. What is certain is that it has left current and former Revolutionary Guards members poised to exert considerable influence on an aspect of Iranian life that has until now remained notably apolitical.

Back in 2002, Revolutionary Guard commander Akbar Ghamkhar became general director the popular Persepolis football team, the first member of the IRGC to manage one of the two top-notch Tehran teams — Persepolis and Esteghal. (Ghamkhar is currently the head of the Tourism and Travel Ministry in Iran.)

It took off from there, Mehdi says, partly because Revolutionary Guards protect football team owners.

“For example, one of your players gets drunk” — alcohol is forbidden in Iran — “and everyone knows,” he says, so Revolutionary Guards use their “force” to discourage newspapers from writing about the incident.

Not always.

When star winger Ali Karimi was recently accused of breaking his fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, he was temporarily suspended from his Steel Azin team. But after football fans began demonstrating, Karimi was quickly reinstated. The situation prompted the resignation of the team’s general director and prominent Revolutionary Guards commander Mostafa Ajorloo. (Ajorloo remains the head of the Iranian football union, an informal organization of club owners.)

The Basij — the volunteer arm of the Revolutionary Guards — is also involved in football. They have their own association called the Sport Organization of the Militia, which is headed by Revolutionary Guards Brigadier Mohammad-Reza Naghdi.

Sport Organization of the Militia members shadow teams to identify players who are also members of the volunteer force. Ideology aside, many young people in Iran join the Basij because it can help them get into Iran’s hyper-competitive universities or because it offers a path to the highest-paying jobs in the country — government-paid positions — or other benefits. Basij members recruit football players who have joined the volunteer force for Basij-only teams that play each other under the auspices of the Sport Organization of the Militia. The organization also serves as a loose collective of all Revolutionary Guards and Basij involved in football in Iran.

The Basij commonly ride along with football teams in order to report bad behavior, such as when several players of the Iranian national team wore green armbands to protest the 2009 presidential election results during a high-profile World Cup qualifier last year in Seoul. (Two of the six protesting players quickly resigned from the team.)

There is a considerable amount of money in football in Iran. Teams party or fully owned by the government get massive tax breaks, which is the reason there are only two private teams in all of Iran. Both teams are second-tier, unable to compete with football players’ sky-high salaries. (Mehdi claims that players receive salaries of “up to $800,000 a year,” in a country with an average yearly income of roughly $3,500).

The highest-ranking Revolutionary Guards commander currently involved with football is Aziz Mohammadi, who heads the Iranian League Organization. The organization manages league championships in Iran, earning billions of dollars on domestic broadcasts.

Revolutionary Guards commanders have been strengthening their influence. In the religious city of Qom, Revolutionary Guards Commander Shahryari is the general director of Sabaye Qom, a team owned by the manufacturing arm of the Armed Forces’ Battery Industry.

In Shiraz, the capital of Fars Province, the Revolutionary Guards has its own football team (Fajr-e Moghavemat-e Sepasi), which is managed by Revolutionary Guards Colonel Jafar Jafari.

Traktorsazi is the most famous team in Tabriz, the fourth-largest city in Iran and capital of the country’s East Azerbaijan Province. The team’s former manager is Revolutionary Guards Commander Naser Shafagh, but the team is now run by another commander, Mohammed Jafari.

Revolutionary Guards Commander Ali Salahi runs two major teams — Pas-e Mashhad and Payam-e Mashhad — in Mashhad, the capital of Khorasan-e Razavi Province. But Revolutionary Guards Commander Hashem Ghiasi is the most influential figure in Mashhad football because he is the deputy to the province’s top Revolutionary Guards commander.

Also, high-ranking Revolutionary Guards Commander Karim Mallahi is the general director of the well-known Hamedan team. For years, he was also managing the Tehran and Mashhad teams.

Mehdi says that while the situation might seem strange to football fans in the West, he isn’t really surprised.

“After the war [with Iraq] finished in 1988, all the Revolutionary Guards, they didn’t have anything to do,” he says. He thinks they decided to get involved in the coolest thing around — football. And that kicked the whole thing off.

– Kristin Deasy

(Radio Farda’s Denise Ajiri, Morad Vaisibiame, and Payam Razi contributed to this report.)

Related Posts:

1. Photos: Vafa Animal Shelter in Iran
2. Persian iPhone applications

Following the electoral coup d’état and fraudulent results of the Presidential Elections, thousands of Iranians have been subject to state-sponsored violence, torture, rape and execution last year.

12 June Event Finder

See the full list of cities & International support for June 12 HERE
12 June Event Finder: 79 cities & counting!

June 12, 2010 is the first anniversary of the people’s uprising in Iran. A large number of Iranians worldwide will commemorate this day simultaneously.With regard to this occasion, we as “Iranian Progressive Youth” have organized a cycling demo. In order to support the Iranian citizens inside Iran, specially the political prisoners, and raising awareness about the executions that have taken place recently.

Each city adopt some prisoners of conscience to focus on. Amsterdam will focus on: Zeynab Jalalian, Bahareh Hedayat, Majid Dori

Amsterdam, June 12
Route: Spui to Museumplein,13.00 to 15.00 PM
Gathering: Museumplein 15.00 to 17.00 PM (with or without bike)
Among speakers: Mahboobeh Abasgholizadeh, women’s rights defenders. Amin Hosui, student activist. Ali Honai, student activist.

* Click  here for route and its print options and GPS download options !

** You could rent a bike for € 5  at ‘Rent a Bike’, Damstraat 20. (Mention that you are taking part in ‘cycle for free Iran’!) Don’t forget your ID and € 25 deposit.

*** Designed t-shirts

Confirm your attendance at the Facebook event here

“Iranian Progressive Youth”
www.iranpy.net

in collaboration with Persian Dutch Network

به حمایت از فریاد آزادیخواهی مردم ایران برخیزیم
رکابزنی و گردهمائی در آمستردام

تظاهرات جهانی 22 خرداد، برای بزرگداشت سالگرد خیزش آزادیخواهانه مردم ایران، همزمان در بیش از 68 شهر جهان
برای همبستگی با مبارزات مردم ایران برای آزادی، بر علیه اعدام، برای آزادی کلیه زندانیان سیاسی

با حمایت سازمانهای بین المللی مدافع حقوق بشر و سخنرانی
محبوبه عباسقلی زاده فعال حقوق زنان، امین حصوری فعال دانشجوئی و علی هنری فعال دانشجوئی

هر یک از شهرهای شرکت کننده بطور سمبولیک تعدادی از زندانیان سیاسی را برجسته میکنند
آمستردام: زینب جلیلیان، فعال سیاسی کرد، محکوم به اعدام
بهاره هدایت، فعال دانشجوئی و حقوق زنان، محکوم به دهسال حبس
مجید دری، فعال دانشجوئی محروم از تحصیل، محکوم به شش سال حبس

برای علاقمندان به شرکت در اکسیون رکابزنی امکان کرایه دوچرخه ارزان قیمت در محل هماهنگ شده است

شبکه جوانان پیشرو
با همکاری شبکه ایرانیان هلند

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1. Amnesty International report 2010 on Iran
2. Human Rights World Report 2010: Iran Targets Human Rights Messengers

November 29, 2009 – Memphis Grizzlies vs. L.A. Clippers: Andy will sing the National Anthem and the Luna RAQS Dance Academy will perform during halftime.

A portion of each ticket will benefit the Hamid Haddai Javanan Foundation

November 4, 2009 – Memphis Grizzlies vs. Golden State Warriors: Farshid Amin will sing the National Anthem and Niosha dance academy will perform during halftime.

Hamed Haddadi Goes Green

November 4, 2009 – Memphis Grizzlies vs. Golden State Warriors
Oracle Arena

www.gs-warriors.com
events.kodoom.com

Mark Stanga at 510-986-2260 or mhstanga@gs-warriors.com

November 29, 2009 – Memphis Grizzlies vs. L.A. Clippers
Staples Center

www.thescene.com
www.haddadihoops.com

Tickets & Info: Amir Khoshnevis
Email: akhoshnevis@clippers.com
Phone: (213) 765-0597

Info: Mayar Zokaei
E-mail: mayar@haddadihoops.com
Phone: (310) 775-9201

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2. Face of 5000 year old Iranian woman reconstructed