About this product: In early 2004, filmmaker Jean-Daniel Lafond and author Fred A. Reed returned to Iran after a two-year absence. This is their report: Iran's once lively press had been all but silenced, the country's most outspoken journalists imprisoned, and, argues Mohsen Kadivar, one of the regime's sharpest critics, the shah's crown has now merely been replaced by the mullah's turban. President Khatami's Reform movement had failed to improve the people's livelihood. Worse, it would not, or could not, defend its strongest supporters against assaults by those determined to stop a democratic restructuring of the modern world's first religious state.
Agent Jack Teller had to make an ugly choice in his youth.
Now, decades later, he and his country must deal with the blowback.
Tehran 1953. A new recruit to the recently established CIA, Jack Teller is torn between loyalty to U.S. policies and sympathy for the hopes of a fledgling democracy in Iran—and he must choose which side he will betray.
Twenty-six years later, Jack returns to a very different Iran—a nation in the grip of a religious revolution, its populace clamoring for the destruction of The Great Satan America. Descending into the deadly chaos at the heart of an emerging struggle between the West and a dangerous new ideology, Jack must risk everything to save one man from Islamic justice—a man he once called his friend.
About this product: The Tehran Bazaar has always been central to the Iranian economy and indeed, to the Iranian urban experience. Arang Keshavarzian's fascinating book compares the economics and politics of the marketplace under the Pahlavis, who sought to undermine it in the drive for modernisation and under the subsequent revolutionary regime, which came to power with a mandate to preserve the bazaar as an 'Islamic' institution. The outcomes of their respective policies were completely at odds with their intentions. Despite the Shah's hostile approach, the bazaar flourished under his rule and maintained its organisational autonomy to such an extent that it played an integral role in the Islamic revolution. Conversely, the Islamic Republic implemented policies that unwittingly transformed the ways in which the bazaar operated, thus undermining its capacity for political mobilisation. Arang Keshavarizian's book affords unusual insights into the politics, economics and society of Iran across four decades.
About this product: In a direct, frank, and intimate exploration of Iranian literature and society, scholar, teacher, and poet Fatemeh Keshavarz challenges popular perceptions of Iran as a society bereft of vitality and joy. Her fresh perspective on present day Iran provides a rare insight into this rich but virtually unknown culture alive with artistic expression.
Keshavarz introduces readers to two modern Iranian women writers whose strong and articulate voices belie the stereotypical perception of Iranian women as voiceless victims in a country of villains. She follows with a lively critique of the best-selling Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, which epitomizes what Keshavarz calls the "New Orientalist narrative"—marred by stereotype and prejudice more often tied to current geopolitical conflicts than to an understanding of Iran.
Blending in firsthand glimpses of her own life—from childhood memories in 1960s Shiraz to her present life as a professor in America—Keshavarz paints a portrait of Iran depicting both cultural depth and intellectual complexity. With a scholar's expertise and a poet's hand, she helps amplify the powerful voices of contemporary Iranians and leads readers toward a deeper understanding of the country's past and present.
In this first biography of Alexander Griboyedov in English, Laurence Kelly paints a vivid picture of a man of remarkable literary talent and diplomatic gifts that were nevertheless overshadowed by ill-fortune. Involved in the 1825 Decembrist plot to overthrow the Tsarist state and the mission to further Russia's expansionist agenda in the Caucasus, the famous writer was eventually murdered by zealous mobs in Tehran. This book makes an invaluable contribution to the diplomatic history of Russia, the Caucasus and Iran at the same time illuminating the life and works of a writer who was among ninteenth-century Russia's most respected and prominent writers.
About this product: Iran is the most significant current threat to the United States, the Middle East, and the West. As the evidence demonstrating this threat mounts, one thing remains clear to Ilan Berman: _Washington is woefully unprepared to deal with this mounting peril._ Berman's approach is hard-hitting, provocative, alarmist, and unflinchingly critical. But he takes the indictment of Iran one step further providing what has been missing so far in the foreign policy discourse regarding Iran_both within the U.S. government and outside it_policy prescriptions designed to contain Iran's strategic ambitions.
About this product: Things are never what they seem in the art of Sadegh Tirafkan, the new feminist journalism of Asieh Amini, and the romance Shi'a-style by new fiction talent Alireza Mahmoodi- Iranmehr. Other contributors include Newsha Tavakolian, named Best Young Photographer of 2006 by National Geographic, Abbas Kowsari, Javad Montazeri and Omid Salehi, who have continued to document the social transformation of their country in the face of mass closures of newspapers and magazines by the government.
Above all, Transit Tehran celebrates the country's long tradition of artistic and cultural resistance that has influenced young Iranians, noticeably in the work of veteran editor and journalist Masoud Behnoud, photojournalist Kaveh Golestan, premier satirist and illustrator Ardeshir Mohassess, and photographer Mohsen Rastani.
About this product: Former U.N. Ambassador Dore Gold shows why engaging Iran through diplomacy is not only futile but also could be deadly. In the West, liberal politicians and pundits are calling for renewed diplomatic engagement with Iran, convinced that Tehran will respond to reason and halt its nuclear weapons program. Yet, countries have repeatedly tried diplomatic talks and utterly failed. In The Rise of Nuclear Iran, Gold examines these past failures, showing how Iran employed strategic deception and delay tactics to hide its intentions from the West. He argues that Western policymakers underestimate Iran s hostility toward us and explains why diplomacy will continue to backfire, no matter which party or president is in power.
About this product: Tehran Mission by ex special forces officer R R Wright is an exciting story detailing the planning, rehearsals, and execution of a dificult hostage rescue mission in extremely hostile territory. The skills, training and bravery of special forces personnel is remarkable.
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