Nasrin Pourhamrang is an Iranian journalist, social researcher and calligraphist. The versatile artist holds a MA of urban and industrial sociology and has been working as the editor in chief of Hatef weekly magazine of northern Iran for 15 years.

 Alongside her journalistic and artistic professions, Nasrin Pourhamrang also masters in the theoretical and applied western philosophy, having written more than 300 analytic articles reviewing the contemplations of Kant, Marx, Max Webber, Wittgenstein, Habermas etc.

Her collection of interviews with the outstanding, world-renowned personalities of sociology and philosophy including Thomas Pogg, Jurgen Habermas, Manuel Castells, Furio Cerruti and Christian de la Compagne would be published in both Persian and English versions in the near future.

 In order to read an excerpt of her articles and interviews, go to her personal website.

In order to see the small-scale samples of her calligraphies, go to this page. (You should click on the Persian titles of right side in order to see each of the artworks)

Payvand, Kourosh Ziabari: It’s a long time that I’ve got used to hear expressions such as “wow! I see you have restaurants in Iran!”, “Believe me Iran was not what I’d thought”, “I was never thinking of such a beautiful country” and so on, when talking to a foreign tourist who has come to my motherland for the very first time.

For the global public opinions and the majority of masses who do not have any particular way of knowing a far spot on the earth rather than relying on the information given to them by the mainstream media i.e. magazines, TV channels, news websites and radio stations, Iran would enthusiastically be the most astonishing and enticing place one can ever see and explore in his/her lifespan.

When switching between TV channels who perpetually hold up piping-hot debates between their guests talking not, clashing about Iran’s nuclear issue, you can see pictures of spacious, dry deserts with a sequence of camels running in sluggishly, demolished buildings adjacent to the slums of downtown, ballistic missiles being test-fired, multitudinous hordes chanting political slogans while rallying in the covered streets and afterwards, some interlinked strings of nuclear power plants being shown from the aerial view.

What kind of perception one might catch from this partial and subjective “image-doctoring”? Undoubtedly, they would be convinced that the target country, which is Iran in this example, should be the most terrific and scaremonger chain in the “axis of evil” and full of terrorists, atomic bomb arsenals and a forgotten land, as well.

That’s why nearly all of those foreign, specifically western visitors who come to Iran for various purposes get perplexed and confused of what they see here; a bizarre confusion which begins from the early moment of their arrival in the airport and lasts until the final seconds of their bidding farewell with the “Ancient Persia”.

Not many people, except those who are in favor of unveiling the truth by researching regularly, are informed that Iran is the same country of “Persia” with 15,000 years of ancient history and civilization, a monarchy that someday was gaining dominance over India to Egypt as the largest territory of all times, where Cyrus the Great has flourished and where the most remarkable personalities of science, literature and arts came from; Mevlana and Khawrizmi to Rhazes and Avicenna, Ferdowsi and Hafez to Khayyam and Rudaki.

Not many people know that Iran is the land of Persepolis, Pasargadae and Apadana, the land of oldest known human civilization on the earth and the land of “Persian Gulf”, but they know well that Iran is “the axis of evil”! The prevalence of such assumptions has no reason but the dominance of treacherous, dishonest and malicious media that feed the public opinions with duplicity, doubtfulness and misinformation.

However, I believe that awakened, conscious people, who could still be found somewhere in the world, have an ethic duty of impeding the widespread expansion of such untruths and falsifications by divulging the reality and propagating it worldwide.

To do so, on behalf of myself and at least about my country, I derived the most possible benefits from an opportunity which has occurred last month and helped me conduct an interview with a non-Iranian journalist who had traveled to Iran for a same goal of mine: understanding the reality of Iran.

Jill Worrall is a well-known New Zealander travel journalist and international tour-guide who has co-written several books on the profile of her own country such as “Landscapes of New Zealand” and “Coastlines of New Zealand” with the patronage of her husband, moreover she is intending to write an elaborate book about her observations of Iran.

She owns a regular column in New Zealand Herald, which is the most prominent newspaper of the country, in which she tells the stories of her miscellaneous travels to different parts of the world as a regular wanderlust!

In the November 2008, she made her second travel to Iran heading a group of 29 other New Zealander tourists who voyaged to most of the important cities of Iran including Tehran, Yazd, Shiraz, Isfahan, Mashhad, Rasht, Qom, Ahvaz, and Kashan.

Pursuant to my prior liaisons with her husband, to whom I should express my warmest thanksgivings for the immense helps he has given, I conducted a detailed interview with Jill Worrall and questioned a load of challenging topics focused on Iran from the viewpoint of a non-Iranian visitor.

Following is the complete text of our conversation in which a number of delicate and interesting remarks could be implied if a minimum of talent and astuteness is employed.

Let’s add that when in the first question, I called Jill a famous travel writer, she denied submissively with a humble compliment and told that maybe she will become one day “Inshaallah”, but not know!

Read the full text here

Daves Travel Corner - Kourosh Ziabari: There are currently nine world heritage sites registered to UNESCO from Iran: Persepolis is the first of them all. 

Persepolis is the main symbol of Persian culture and civilization for Iranians around the globe and is reckoned a source of honor for young people in modern day Iran. 

The architectural traits of this ceremonial palace make it a unique site in the country — and the world — and an attraction for thousands of tourists who travel to the country just to visit Persepolis.

The palace is known to modern Iranians as “Takht-e-Jamshid” or the throne of Jamshid. Jamshid is a mythological king of Persian Empire who has been described in great detail by Ferdowsi in “Shahnameh,” the most esteemed epic poem in Persian literature.

Many historians attribute this ceremonial capital to the Achaemenidan dynasty, which goes back to about 2,500 years.

According to Andre Godard, the French archaeologist who excavated Persepolis during the early 1930s, this site was constructed under Darius the Great, but Cyrus the Great chose it as the capital of his kingdom.

The Persepolis complex consists of various parts and halls, the most predominant of which are the gate of all nations, Apadana palace and the throne hall.

The Persepolis was attacked by the army forces of Alexander the Macedonian in the year 330 BC which caused irrecoverable damage to the buildings and destroyed the major sections and halls of it. 

A fire at Xerex palace after the Alexander troops left Iran was yet another disaster for that former glorious site, which led to the destruction of more than 40 percent of Persepolis.

In any case, the invasion of Persia by Alexander and his awesome military was an unforgettable nightmare for the Sasanid dynasty.

Describing Persepolis in words is difficult. The remaining ruins mainly consist of a number of colossal buildings on the terrace made of dark-grey marble; there are 20 standing pillars and 40 escalated minarets.

These painful ruins — which remind us of 2,500 years of turbulent periods, monarchies and kings — are transfiguring by a sense of splendor and grief, something which you cannot really feel except by experiencing the site in person. 

Persepolis, which was named a heritage site by UNESCO in 1979 — right after the Islamic revolution of Iran — hosts more than 500,000 visitors annually, most of them from Western Europe and the US.

Iranian artists have created the world’s largest sand carpet from the colorful sand found on the country’s southern island of Hormuz.
Some 25 visual artists used 70 types of colorful sand to create the ‘Persian Gulf’ sand carpet, which will be displayed on the island from Dec. 9 to 17, 2008.
The 12000-square-meter carpet is unique in magnitude, pattern and color and its title which shares the name of the forever Persian Gulf.
The previous sand carpet record belonged to 900-square-meter one created on the Canary Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Known for its beautiful red soil, Hormuz Island has witnessed numerous artistic events, including Iran’s 15th Environmental Art Festival.

More photos and details here

Media Left - Kourosh Ziabari: Nowadays, you hear the name of Iran for the most catastrophic reasons in the global media headlines. Nuclear weapons, terrorism, mass destruction, violation of human rights, abduction of freedom activists etc. Such hostile approach for the coverage of Iran news which has been taking by the corporation media since long times ago would easily sequence to an international pessimism toward the people of Iran, the culture of Iran and the history of Iran. That’s why, Iran is somehow interpreted as the most misrepresented, misunderstood country in the world that is being distorted by image despite of its richness of civilization.

Speaking to an American scholar of Persian Culture who has devoted almost 15 years of his lifetime to studying the furthest angels and brinks of Persian culture and Iranian lifestyle is worth reading at least once for it gives a clarified and impartial viewpoint of Iran, what the outgoing President of US calls the “Axis of Evil”.

James Russell is a world-distinguished figure, a well-known name for those interested in Persian culture, Persian civilization and Iranian studies. He is a Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the a former Associate Professor of Ancient Iranian studies at Columbia University while teaching at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem priorly.

At the time being, Professor James Russell of the Harvard University is writing a book on a medieval Armenian collection of tales whose source he believes to be the Buddhist Lotus Sutra, an important scripture written by and for the Silk Road peoples, most of whom spoke Iranian languages.

I conducted an interview with Prof. James Russell with the aim of learning more about the viewpoints of an American university professor about Iran, the misrepresented and misinterpreted country that you can not discover the truths about, unless you travel and sense it face-to-face.

In the brief debate, we talked about various topics such as the life of Persian poet Mowlana, the customs and rituals of Iranian people, the history of Persian Gulf and the richness of Persian literature.

I invite you to come with us to walk you through the corridors of 7500 years history of Greater Persia; certainly you would learn more things, knowing not before!

Continues here