Back

August: The anniversary of the death of Reza Shah, Mohammad Reza Shah, and the murder of Dr. Shapour Bakhtiar.

Dr. Reza Baraheni was elected as the Chair of Pen Canada

The news of his election to the top position of an 
internationally prestigious society "Pen Canada" has been well received among 
the journalists, writers, poets, academia and all Iranians who know Dr. Baraheni, inside and outside of Iran.

Iranian lecture at torture exhibit, San Francisco

Shokufeh an ex-political prioner in Iran, talked about her sad experiences of jail, on Wednesday August 15th in San Francisco as part of "European Instruments of Torture and Capital Punishment from the Middle Ages to the present", exhibition.  Shokofeh was one of the speakers in IWSF, Paris conference few years ago.

Shokufeh is one of those rare people with a strong will power to stand for her belief's and
instead of breaking under torture, becoming even stronger. In the time she was in political
prison in Iran, she spent more than 6 months in "Taaboot" (coffin), one of the most
inhumane torture Instruments of IRI, where it is a matter of days to loose your mind sitting
in it day and night.

When everyone was in tears in the conference in Paris listening to Shokufeh, she was
making the point how her experience in prison unveiled her strong desire to live in a free
world and continue her struggle to make a difference. And, she sure has!

Kayhan Kalhor performance, Birmingham

Ghazal Persian & Indian Improvisations

September 22, 2001 - 8:00 p.m. 
Alys Stephens Center
Birmingham Music Club
Birmingham, Alabama

Ghazal unites sitarist-vocalist Shujaat Hussain Khan, perhaps the greatest North Indian
classical musician of his generation, with kamancheh master Kayhan Kalhor, one of the
most creative and remarkable musicians playing traditional Persian music, and inventive
tabla player Sandip Das. Combining the musical traditions of India and Persia, their
collaboration has been deemed "one of the most vital in world music."

Distinguished Iranian Scientist

The Persian Watch Cat (PWC), and Iranian-American anti-discrimination center, has named Professor Davood N. Rahni as its President and Chairman of the Board.  Mr. Rahni acknoledges the ambitious tasks in from of him in his position and in realizing the PWC goals.  Among the goals of PWc are the recognition of the Iranian-American community without the stereotyping as implied by the media.  Mr. Rahni and the organization believe their goals to be attainable with the cooperation of Iranian-Americans in reporting discrimination cased to PWC.

Plate of Appreciation

The UNICEF Plate of Appreciation has been received by Houshang Moradi Kermani for the role his books have played in promoting children's rights in Iran as well as to the general world population.  Other tributes to this wonderful writer have come from Krima Pacific Rim 2000, where his book, Carpet Weaving children, has been recongnized by the International Munich Library.

Iran robotic team stands first in U.S. RoboCup

The search-and-rescue prototype, designed by the Sharif University, was recognized as the best robot among six competing machines-- five from the U.S. and one from the U.K.-- and won the top prize for the best artificial intelligence.

The robots had been programmed to search for probable injured people on a hypothetical quake-stricken and totally bumpy land, independent from human steering.

The Iranian robot managed to identify the highest number of the injured.

A record 111 robotic teams from universities in 23 countries compete between Aug 2 to 10 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle. It runs concurrent with the American Association for Artificial Intelligence's annual conference.

"This is the largest and the most important robot competition in the world," Tucker Balch, a research scientist at Carnegie Mellon University and associate chair of this year's RoboCup was cited as saying.

Teams from Iran and Germany are the favorites in the middle-size (F-2000) league.

Other teams to watch this year include Cornell's Big Red, the two-time defending champion in the small-size (F-180) league and rival CMUnited from Carnegie Mellon, playing in several categories.

The Australian University of New South Wales will defend its title in the Sony legged (AIBO) league.

Anjoman-e Sokhan of Northern California  has sponsored a series of lectures in contemorary literature
by Dr. Karimi Hakkak. These lectures will start late in September at 1700 San Mateo, 3rd floor. 

On the Seminar, from Dr. Karimi -Hakkak

  Seminar series to examine the Persian novel in the twentieth century. It will consist first of some preliminaries, both historical and literary. It would then concentrate on a single work in each session. All of us will read -- or read again -- the agreed-upon work and we will discuss it as a group activity. As discussion leader, I will of course supply the necessary context as well as the terms of interpretation I have developed on each work.

Here's a tentative list of the works to read and examined:

1) Zayn-al-Abedin Maragheh-i, Safar-nameh-ye Ebrahim Bayg
2) Mohammad-Ali Jamalzadeh, Dar al-Majanin
3) Sadeq Hedayat, Buf-e Kur
4) Sadeq Chubak, Sang-e Sabur
5) Bahram Sadeqi, Malakut
6) Jalal Ale-Ahmad, Modir-e Madreseh
7) Simin Daneshvar, Savushun
8) Hushang Golshiri, Shazdeh Ehtejab
9) Ebrahim Golestan, Khorus
10) Moniru Ravanipur, Del-e Fulad
11) Shahrnush Parsipur, Tuba va Ma`na-ye Shab
12) Mahmud Mas`udi, Surat al-Ghorab

An exhibition of Persian Ceramics, Paintings, Handicrafts and children's books was held in Hourian Gallery in San Francisco on August 11 thru August 19th, 2001.  Reception and Opening was on August 10, 2001 6:00 to 9:00 pm

Hourian Gallery is located at 1843 Union Street in San Francisco.  To know more about the Gallery, please visit their Web Site at:.http://abciran.com/exhibition.htm