Author: kangal.naz

London – Highlighting the incredible world of Persian taste in food and art, the May 10 Persia Dinner and Discourse will feature the distinguished international scholar, Dr. Sussan Babaie. The Andrew W. Mellon Reader in the Arts of Iran and Islam at the Courtauld Institute of Art will feature elements of her award-winning book Isfahan and Its Palaces: Statecraft, Shi‘ism and the Architecture of Conviviality in Early Modern Iran (Edinburgh University Press, paperback 2018). She will speak about palaces in Isfahan such as the Ali Qapu and the Chehel Sotun, specially designed for royal banqueting and ceremonies of feasting and hospitality. Dr. Babaie will present the intricacies involved in how food and art served as tools for political persuasion in 17th-century Iran. Inspired by ancient habits of Iranian kingship, those Safavid practices defined the characteristics of the religious and political life of modern and contemporary Iran. Her presentation will be followed by a Persian meal and a chance to network and socialize.

Dinner and Discourse Series featuring Women of Excellence is an initiative by Persia Educational Foundation. The series brings those women and men together who aspire for excellence in their fields and display a pioneering spirit in service to their community. The initiative serves as a platform for networking and collaboration.

This public event will take place on Thursday 10 May 2018, starting at 7:00 pm. Each Dinner & Discourse is limited to a select number of diverse participants. The proceeds from sale of tickets will go towards the Persia Scholarship Fund to enable deserving students to pursue their education. Each ticket is GBP 45.00 directly payable to Persia (email for details: info@persia.education) or available through Eventbrite (plus an additional Eventbrite handling fee of GBP 2.50). Each ticket includes three-course gourmet Persian dinner, drinks, and treats. Persia is a UK-registered charity and eligible for Gift Aid.

About the Speaker
Sussan Babaie earned her Ph.D. at the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, where she focused on the arts of Islam. She held teaching positions in the USA, and Germany prior to her work in the UK and is on the International Advisory Board of Art History.

Her exhibitions have been held at the Sackler Museum of Harvard University, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, and Smith College Museum of Art (1998). While a graduate student fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she co-curated and co-wrote the catalog of the exhibition ‘Persian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’ (1989). She has consulted on Persian and Islamic arts with the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, the University of Michigan, the Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, and the Detroit Institute of Art.

Her research interests include the early modern Safavid period with topics on urbanism and empire studies, sexuality and social habits of ‘seeing’, and transcultural visuality and notions of exoticism. Her research has been supported by grants from the United States National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright (for research in Egypt and Syria), and the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles.

Highlighting women’s dedication to the cause of equality in Iran, London-based organisations, the International Coalition Against Violence in Iran, Kayhan Life, and Persia Educational Foundation; join efforts on Saturday, 3 March 2018.

As Iranian women enter a new phase in advancing equal rights, they face fresh attacks by government authorities. Reminiscent of the 8 March 1979 demonstrations at the outset of new compulsory hejab laws, Iranian women have been taking to the streets of Iran to demand their right to choose. The more than three-decade-long struggle has seen generations of women and girls contribute to the advancement of a process that is drawing attention to some of the critical challenges facing Iranian society. It puts these challenges in the context of a body of state policies and laws that systematically discriminate against millions of all backgrounds in Iran.

It also points to the mistreatment of dual citizens, such as British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and policies that limit women’s role in society, often veiled in incendiary justifications to protect the state’s agenda, dubbed as national interests.

Women’s strides in Iran are parallel to international efforts attempting to improve living conditions for all, regardless of any characteristics, including gender. A significant figure facilitating these efforts was of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran, the indefatigable lawyer and women’s rights advocate, Asma Jahangir. Ms. Jahangir’s contributions to the women’s movement and human rights energised both those working at the grassroots level as well as those leading the equality movement in Iranian society.

“We want to highlight the positive impact of changes women are making every day,” said Rouhi Shafii, Founder of ICAVI, “and show the interconnected nature of this process among those inside Iran and those residing outside its borders.”

The event will feature a distinguished group of panelists including Drewery Dyke, Roya Kashefi, Natasha Philips, and Richard Rattcliffe, along with special messages from UN Special Rapporteur, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed; and Human Rights Professor, Dr. Naz Ghanea-Hercock.

This public event will take place on Saturday, 3 March 2018 at Fitzroy House. Doors will open at 3:30 pm. The programme is open to registered participants and will begin promptly at 4:00 pm. It will include two panels, a new short documentary film on the women’s movement in Iran, special messages and Q&A followed by refreshments.

This joint event will be made available to a global audience through Facebook Live accompanied by a Thunderclap Campaign.

The event served as the launch of a new Small Media report entitled Wasted Youth: Children’s Rights in Iran. This timely report identifies a number of areas in which Iran is failing to live up to its obligations to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, including guaranteeing the rights of children to health, education, and protection from violence. The findings of the report were presented by Small Media’s Research Manager James Marchant, followed by a Persia panel discussion about key children’s rights challenges in Iran today, including:

• Zarin Hainsworth OBE, an internationally recognised expert and an advocate for the rights of women and girls. She is well known for her work throughout the MENA region as well as her strong role in advocacy and policy advice within the UK, EU and the UN mechanisms.
• Diana Nammi, author, Founder and Executive Director of IKWRO. She is an internationally known figure involved in defence of the rights of minorities, in particular women and girls.
• Nazee Akbari, an established therapist, an academic and the Executive Director of Barnet Refugee Services. She travels to Iran often and works with children and young people.
• Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC, a public law specialist at the prestigious Doughty Street Chambers with particular expertise in children’s rights and human rights-related judicial review. She is recognised as a Leading Junior in Public Law, Human Rights and Civil Liberties by the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners.

The event accompanied the launch of Persia’s Wristband Campaign in support of its Girls’ Scholarship Fund. The campaign challenges citizens around the globe to take action and provide the means to provide education for those with the highest impact on our future.

Earlier in 2017 Persia published ‘A Legal Study on Children’s Rights and Iran’s Laws‘, following a series of articles on the state of girl children in Iran marking the 5th anniversary of the International Day of the Girl Child in October 2016.

Small Media is a London-based action lab, providing digital research, training and advocacy solutions to support the work of civil society actors that provides assistance to at-risk communities globally.

Persia Educational Foundation is a UK-based charity advancing education among 110 million Persian speakers of all backgrounds.

In addition to the above, please see the National Alliance of Women’s Organisations’ report on the event.

On Wednesday, 17 May, Persia held its third Dinner and Discourse. Hosted at an exclusive venue in London’s St John’s Wood, the event brought together a diverse group of women and men interested in exploring the timely issue of immigration and the manner in which it enriches our perspectives and informs our decisions.

In response to emerging social trends that impose illusive divides among us, Persia’s pioneering Dinner and Discourse series draw attention to the need for engaging in candid and constructive discourse with people of all backgrounds. The series promotes exploring important issues with a view to creating cohesion and cooperation. It also draws attention to the contributions of extraordinary women, whose lives are dedicated to creating a progressive, but more importantly, inclusive world.

Persia’s first Dinner and Discourse was inaugurated last January by the internationally best-selling author and historian, Dr. Nina Ansary. In her remarks, she emphasised the need for each of us to learn how to better our lives and those of others, inviting everyone to escape the culture of apathy that grips modern life and instead engage with the spaces we have access to, both on and offline, to create better conditions for all.

The second Dinner was enriched by the insight and views of human rights lawyer extraordinaire, Mehrangiz Kar. Sharing lessons from her experiences in Iran and elsewhere, she highlighted the need for a culture of human rights and the impact we yield when we learn to stand shoulder to shoulder.

At the most recent Dinner, Dr. Bahiyyih Nakhjavani spoke about her newly-published book, Us & Them, highlighting the challenges and advantages of life for Iranians living in post-revolutionary Iran and the west. Drawing on her experiences growing up in Uganda, the UK and the United States, she invited the participants to reflect on the definition of “home”, and the limits to cultural branding and identity politics, and to discover the strange and mysterious gifts of living in exile.

Persia is grateful to the sponsors, supporters, presenters, and participants in its Dinner and Discourse series and will gradually expand the series to a more diverse group of participants. In this light, Persia’s next Dinner and Discourse will feature journalist and author, Heidi Kingstone, in association with Farkhunda Trust. Persia and Farkhunda share the mission of supporting education for women in Afghanistan.