Stanford Iranian Studies Program

March 9, 2023 Speaker: Iran Davar Ardalan Iran Davar Ardalan discusses the innovative and new Voice AI experience “Freedom Speaks.” This project honors Iranian women using powerful art such as poems, music and more from the past & present—all accessible through Alexa's voice command “Alexa, open Freedom Speaks." Ms. Ardalan also explains how others can be part of an exciting conversation about...

March 2, 2023 Speakers: Kian Tajbakhsh Author Kian Tajbakhsh discussed his most recent book, "Creating Local Democracy in Iran: State Building and the Politics of Decentralization." With a combination of historical, political, and financial field research, it explores the multifaceted dimensions of local power and how various ideologically opposed actors shaped local government as an integral comp...

February 17, 2023 Speakers: Mohsen Yalfani, Shabnam Tolouei A discussion with Mohsen Yalfani about his life, work, and the recent reading of his play “Diaspora,” directed by Shabnam Tolouei at Stanford University. Ms. Tolouei joined the conversation as well. Discussion is in Persian. Mohsen Yalfani was born in 1943 in Hamadan, Iran. He wrote his first plays in his last year in high school and subm...

A discussion with Mohsen Yalfani about his life, work, and the recent reading of his play “Diaspora,” directed by Shabnam Tolouei at Stanford University. Ms. Tolouei joined the conversation as well. Discussion is in Persian. Mohsen Yalfani was born in 1943 in Hamadan, Iran. He wrote his first plays in his last year in high school and submitted one to the Center for Dramatic Arts in Tehran and won...

February 8, 2023 Speaker: Houchang Chehabi Dr. Houchang Chehabi discusses his new research work on Reza Shah and his family's exile in Mauritius. In 1941 Reza Shah and most of his family were exiled by the British to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. They remained there for six months. This talk discusses the circumstances of the royal family's long trip from Bandar Abbas via India to Mauritiu...

February 2, 2023 Speaker: Mona Khademi Mona Khademi will examine the extraordinary life of Laura Barney and her deep and enduring connections with Iranians and Iran, and their impact on her life. Laura Barney learned Persian, traveled to Iran in 1906, visited several cities there, and met many Iranian dignitaries and government officials. She also met Iranian officials and scholars outside of Iran...

This talk explores the state's contradictory demands on Iranian women in the post-revolutionary era. It examines the processes that at once reinforced women's expectations of rights yet also demanded that women exemplify a static symbolic status to further the goals of the revolution, even four decades on. Arzoo Osanloo is Professor in the Department of Law, Societies, and Justice and Director of...

December 1, 2022 Speaker: Homa Sarshar Homa Sarshar discusses her new book "A Narrative of Endurance." She also touched on the Iranian women’s movement and demonstrations organized by the Iranian diaspora in support of protests in Iran over the past four decades. This talk is in Persian. About the book: “One can find and obtain knowledge, albeit incomplete, of the footprints of nations and people...

November 30, 2022 Speaker: Shirin Ebadi The Iranian Studies Program screened a new documentary “Shirin Ebadi: Until We Are Free” about the Nobel Peace laureate’s mission to bring justice to the people of Iran. Dr. Ebadi held a post screening discussion live-translated to English and moderated by Dr. Abbas Milani. The event was introduced by Dr. Abbas Milani. Hamid Moghadam welcomed guests and spok...

October 29, 2021 Speaker: Mohammad Rasoulof The film screening of There Is No Evil was followed by a discussion with the film's director, Mohammad Rasoulof. The talk is in Persian with live English translation. About the film: Filmed in secret and banned in its home country, Mohammad Rasoulof’s Golden Bear-winning film is an anthology of four short stories, each focused on a person affected b...

October 28, 2022 Speaker: Hamed Esmaeilion Dr. Hamed Esmaeilion discusses his award-winning novels written in Persian, as well as his moving memoir about the loss of his wife and daughter in the downing of flight PS752 by the Islamic Republic of Iran on January 8, 2020. Introduction by Dr. Abbas Milani. Dr. Hamed Esmaeilion was born in Kermanshah, Iran and grew up during the Iran-Iraq war that rav...

October 13, 2022 Speakers: Dr. Hamed Esmaeilion and Babak Payami The Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies held a special screening of award-winning director Babak Payami’s new documentary "752 Is Not a Number" about the unprecedented downing of a passenger flight leaving Tehran airport by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. The film follows Dr. Hamed Esmaeilion’s struggles with gr...

September 29, 2022 Speaker: Dr. Hamid Najafi Dr. Hamid Najafi discusses his new book "The Battles of a Judge." The book was written by Dr. Najafi and his late father, Dr. Hossein Najafi. From 1946 to 1979, Hossein Najafi served at the Justice Ministry of Iran. He started in an entry level judicial position after law school and rose to lead the Justice Department as a minister during the most tumul...

Musician Faraz Minooei discusses his new film, "Rediscovering 12 Persian Folk Songs by Blair Fairchild" which brings back to life the late 19th century Iranian music Blair Fairchild (American composer and diplomat) discovered and published in 1904. Faraz is joined in the discussion by vocalist Golnaz Khazei. The event was organized on August 25, 2022. In the film, Faraz collaborates with Golnaz Kh...

"Pahlavi Iran, alongside Turkey, was a rare case of a Muslim-majority state to have consistent relations with Israel. Much of existing literature often discusses this as an aspect of Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s Policy of Periphery. But the Shah’s relations with Israel were in line with his foreign policy conception of “National Independent Policy” and part of a careful balancing act...

May 31, 2022 Speaker: Arash Azizi "Pahlavi Iran, alongside Turkey, was a rare case of a Muslim-majority state to have consistent relations with Israel. Much of existing literature often discusses this as an aspect of Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s Policy of Periphery. But the Shah’s relations with Israel were in line with his foreign policy conception of “National Independent Policy” an...

May 19, 2022 Speaker: Saeid Golkar Ayatollah Khamenei is replacing the Islamic Republic's old cohort of specialists with newly indoctrinated technocrats, preparing the regime for a swift succession. In addition, reconfiguration of political elites is shifting the power equilibrium in the Islamic Republic, facilitating greater coordination between deep and visible states. Saeid Golkar is an assista...

April 8, 2022 Speakers: Mahnaz Afkhami, Ali Banuazizi, Mandana Zandian Scholars reflect on Ehsan Yarshater's remarkable contributions and lasting impact on the study of Iranian history, literature, culture, and the arts. Dr. Yarshater (1920-2018) was Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies at Columbia University, the founder and director of Columbia’s Center for Iranian Studies, and the found...

April 14, 2022 The Clash of Values  provides groundbreaking empirical data to demonstrate how the collision between Islamic fundamentalism and liberal nationalism explains the region’s present and will determine its future. Analyzing data from over 60,000 face-to-face interviews of nationally representative samples of people in seven countries—Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tun...

March 3, 2022 Speaker: Nicolas Gorjestani Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iran's prime minister in the early 1950s, was one of the most consequential national leaders of the twentieth century. Based on his recent book, Nicolas Gorjestani will examine Mosaddegh's life story, resistance strategy, governance, reform record, and overthrow. Mosaddegh locked horns with Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, and Dwight Ei...

February 25, 2022 In the age of imperialism Iran was one of only a handful of non-Western states that maintained their sovereignty. However, as in other places such as the Ottoman Empire, China, and Siam, this sovereignty was punctured by unequal treaties that granted certain Western powers extraterritorial rights. These rights were justified by the absence of a rational legal system that would sa...

November 12, 2021 The film screening of Immigrant Stories: Iranian-Americans of Silicon Valley was followed by a conversation with the film's co-directors, Nima Naimi, Alireza Sanayei, and Julian Gigola.  About the documentary : Iranian Americans have achieved remarkable success across all professional fields, with many recognized internationally for their outstanding contributions. This...

October 15, 2021 Naghmeh Sohrabi and Arash Davari This talk reconstructs rumors and demonstrations in 1968 around the death of Gholamreza Takhti, Iran's beloved gold-winning wrestling champion, recentering them in the history of the 1979 revolution and the global 1960s. The account of the demonstrations provided here explains a mobilization tactic used to great effect in the lead up to the 1979 Ir...

November 5, 2021 Speaker: Sahand Abidi Sahand Abidi is an essayist and critic. He studied drama at the fine arts faculty of Tehran University. He worked as a playwright, dramaturge, assistant director and actor in theatre, and taught courses on the history of theater. He has worked in different capacities on numerous films, documentaries and plays. Many of his essays on aspects of modern Iranian t...

October 22, 2021 Speaker: Ameneh Yousefi Ameneh Yousefi was born in Hamedan city in Iran. She received her Doctoral in Persian Literature from the University of Karaj. She has done several auditorial, visual and animated projects as an author for Local National Broadcasting. She currently teaches Persian Literature in Ganjname University in Hamedan City and is researching the representation of int...