Kourosh Ziabari - The Compass Culture: About 15 km away from Rasht, the capital city of the Guilan province, there is a green and calm highway, with its two sides surrounded by rush and pine trees. A little further, lies an open area decorated with wooden tableaux and billboards including “Musee patrimoine rural de Guilan”.

That French title remembers the glorious opening ceremony of “Guilan museum of rural heritage” in March 2007 where Professor Christian Bromberger gave an attractive lecture about the history of Gilak tribe in front of hundreds enamoured with Persian culture.

Guilan museum of rural heritage is a unique Ecomuseum that has been constructed in order to show the hidden corners of Guilan people’s culture and lifestyle to tourists from around the world.

After paying a very skimpy amount of tax to the incumbent at the gate, you will take way into a natural corridor with tall maple trees along the sides and their foliage acting as roofs, preventing the sun and rain from damaging the traditional cobblestone floor of this narrow rural route.

The artificial wooden fence on the two sides of the corridor extends all around the museum that is designed exactly like a small village and includes all parts of a real hamlet such as teahouse, playground, municipality, stable and lake.

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Compass Magazine’s editor note by Lusine Stepanian: In this Issue I am proud to acknowledge the youngest writer on The Compass. Join Kourosh as he introduces us to his own heritage, Iran’s Guilan rural heritage museum.
History does not stop here; we also follow Peter on his descriptive journey through Jordan’s mysterious Petra.

Five enamel works by Isfahani artists received the UNESCO Seal of Excellence award on Sunday.
Isfahan is hosting the award reception ceremonies to be attended by several Asian countries, including Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the ceremony’s director Mohammadreza Bazeghi told the Persian service of IRNA.

He added that Iran stands first with 157 works and Kazakhstan takes the second place with 80 artworks in the ceremony that continues until Oct.8.

The jury members of this edition come from Denmark, Malaysia, Thailand, France and the Netherlands, Bazeghi said, adding that based on the regulations, the host cannot be represented by a jury member, he explained.

Bazeghi remarked that several other Iranian products have also received the award so far, including, “ceramic work from Semnan, and tile work from Isfahan. One form of key-lock-making from Chahar-Mahal Bakhtiari, finger ring-making style from Kermanshah, silver items from East Azarbaijan, and filigree-making from Zanjan.”

The Seal of Excellence award serves as a quality control process for both traditional hand-made and innovative products. It guarantees that awarded products are made to meet the highest standards of quality and are produced with careful concern for cultural authenticity and environmental conservation.

To be certified with the seal, a product must be of excellent quality and manufactured in an ethical manner, as well as authentic, innovative, eco-friendly and marketable.

Originally piloted for Southeast Asia in 2000-2003 in cooperation with the ASEAN Handicraft Promotion and Development Association (AHPADA), the Seal of Excellence has succeeded in raising the standards of Southeast Asian craft products, as well as in improving their marketability. Over the last 3 editions, over 200 Southeast Asian products have participated in the program and 70 products have been awarded the Seal of Excellence.

Adapted from: Mehr News

Statue of Khayyam, the Iranian poet and polymath in Tehran

Khayyam! why weep you that your life is bad?
What boots it thus to mourn? Rather be glad.
He that sins not can make no claim to mercy,
Mercy was made for sinners, be not sad.

The Rubaiyat translated by E.H. Whinfield

Ghiyas od-Din Abul-Fath Omar ibn Ibrahim Khayyam Neyshaburi was a Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher and astronomer. He was born in Neyshabur, now part of Khorasan Razavi Province in Iran.
Although better known as a poet, his substantial mathematical contributions include his “Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra”, which gives a geometric method for solving cubic equations by intersecting a hyperbola with a circle. He also contributed to some amendments to Persian calendar.
Khayyam derived the binominal theorem before it was formulated by Isaac Newton in 17th century.
Outside Iran, he is best known for his quatrains, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, popularized through Edward FitzGerald’s re-created translation:
“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”

adapted from: Mehr News

The Candidacy is a well-known American communal blog, attracted wide considerations as a political tribune from democrats side, recently hold a 4 parts interview with me on Iranian culture, lifestyle, literature and politics.
Randall H. Miller who is the blog admin, asked me different questions regarding the Iran-US relations, Persian culture, history of Iran, Persian Gulf renaming project, Iranian president and his foreign policy etc.
While parts I and II are available to read and comment, I invite you to read this short selection from the 3rd part with main focus on Iranian culture.

RHM: National perceptions are partly shaped by the media. The only footage Americans see of Iran are usually large crowds screaming “Death to America!”. This does not sit well for obvious reasons. If you asked the average American what the biggest threat to the world is right now, they would likely say “terrorism”, “Iran’s nuclear program”, and “global warming” (not necessarily in that order). How do you think Persians would answer the same question?

Kourosh: Yes, craving or not, the reality is that mainstream media are offering the west with a really altered and spurious view of Iran. All the pictures you see about Iran in CNN, BBC, Euronews and Foxnews are the pictures of Afghan Niqab-wearing women being introduced as Persians, showing suicide bombers while casting the voice of Holy Quran being recited, dry and spacious deserts with camels running in them, and as you said, large demonstrating crowds while shouting “Death to US.”

Regretfully, this is the entire black propaganda project being accomplished by a united group of western media, managed and guided by American media cartels. While the American media and TV stations are showing themselves independent and non-governmental controlled off, the global public opinions trusts it and believes its conspicuous lies about Iran and its people.

As you know, Iran is a land of 7500 years of civilization when there were just two major monarchies on the earth (Greek and Persia), with due respect to American nation, your country is at most 300 years old and a simple compare reveals that how peaceful, conciliator and compromising the Iranian nation was.

Iranians have never blamed a battle or war as the commencers while nobody forgets the Persian Gulf War where my parents clearly remember President Ronald Reagan and Saddam Hussein had a secret meeting and a few days later, the Iraqi imposed war on Iran started.
With American weapons, Saddam killed more than 350,000 Iranian youth and my dear uncle was among them…

Anyhow, every awake and equitable person will judge on the history and if the mainstream media are really divulging the truth and facts.

• Why don’t the western media speak out about the Persian culture and arts and thousands of globally known Iranian writers, poets, painters, dancers, filmmakers, actors and journalists?
• Why don’t they retell the story of American Prof. Richard Nelson Frye whose Persian passion caused him to request of President Ahmadinejad to be buried in Isfahan after his death?
• Why they don’t say anything about the national poet of Iran, Mevlana and the UNESCO international year of Mevlana?
• Why they conceal the international congress on Avicenna hold in Tehran for commemoration of this everlasting Iranian scientist?
• Why they don’t tell anything about thousands of Persian beauty queens and pageant contestants?
• Why they don’t tell anything about Abbas Kiarostami, Niki Karimi and other international celebrities of Persian cinema?
• Why they don’t tell anything about Shahram Nazeri (Iranian Pavarotti) who received the worthy Legionne de’hunor of France?
• Why they don’t broadcast any pictures from the international registration of Nowruz (Ancient Persian New Year celebration) in Persepolis?
• Why they don’t comment on Iranian investment for reconstruction in Afghanistan and repairing the detriments of American war?

However, these are the questions that have to be answered by these media, newspapers and their headquarters. Maybe there are several other examples of interesting facts about Iran that your media cloak from you and don’t allow you to be informed about them, in the other side aggrandize any inadequacy and problem inside Iran with their best.

Part 3 complete text goes here

 Highlighting the most attractive cultural and social motifs of modern day Iran, “Press TV” made lots of appreciating efforts to introduce the factual vision of this honorable and blessed land, Persia.
This state-financed ideological self-sufficient television channel has been gotten underway and established in order to crusade against the media dominance of the west that corrupts and misinterprets news on its own.

The main headquarters bureau is located in Tehran with hundreds of representatives in 26 countries within a special delegacy in occupied territories of Palestine to cover the latest events of Israeli-produced conflicts in the region.
While the mainstream media try aggressively to distort facts and realities about Iran, pretending that it is striving for nuclear weapons, accusing Tehran authorities of sponsoring terrorist groups of Iraq and Afghanistan by dispatching high-tech weapons and funding bomber bands of Persian Gulf coastline Arab countries, Press TV replies firmly by divulging the American felonies in Iraq, betraying the furtive relations of US officials and UK royal family with Saddam Hussein, 5+1 countries backing Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden and their final penitence slurred over by the invasion of Afghanistan and scattering the gossip about the Bin Laden’s arrestment following the “war on terrorism” process.

The unique and shocking documentaries of Press TV showing the George H. W. Bush signing contracts with Saddam the dictator and their warm, sincere meeting behind the close doors by pulling out the only recorded reels out of archives disheveled Washington and its partners while the scandal of Ronald Reagan’s direct bid for Saddam’s buying weapons to blame war against Iran and Kuwait with American dollars broadcasted by Press TV confused the west, trying to distract the public opinion by imbecilely brining forth again the case of new sanctions against Iran in UNSC.
Press TV also influences the world considerably by propounding the financial, scientific and political thrives and prosperities of Iran leaving the west dejected and crestfallen which spends his entire media budget to feigning Iran’s personality showing off that is an isolated land out of world’s powerful states heed.

The picture above casted by Press TV shows Donald Rumsfeld (Former Reagn’s special envoy to Middle East) shaking hands with Saddam Hussein while communicating the presiden’ts decree on the anti-Iranian war

The recent oil and gas deal between Swiss and Iran which worth 22 billion euros was an interesting example that engaged US efforts in a notorious futile that has recently proclaimed that nobody has the right to convene any financial or economic pact with Iran regarding to third race of sanctions.
The cultural programs of Press TV also caused the western and arabian countries to snuff themselves for grappling with a country of ancient civilization, for example the US-charged Arabic incomplete accomplished naughtiness for the renaming plot of eternal Persian Gulf, the famous Google disgrace of promoting the fake name of “Arabian gulf” as a reward to Arabs paying thousands of dollars in the name of financial support for a “search engine”.

Or as another sample, nobody forgets the shameless Yahoo removal of Iran’s name from its countries list in lieu of White House removing Yahoo taxes and increasing its annual stipend.
Anyhow, Press TV has an elucidating and indicative duty to cover the world stories as they are, without any type of garble and interference.
Today it is becoming a proper model of an independent TV station for global media, satisfying both its viewers and non-Iranian staff, admired by British Yvonne Ridley, the host of “the Agenda” who says: “There is no pressure on me for putting lid on various subjects specially the interior situation of country, working liberally as a veracious reporter.”