Wednesday Edition: Pars Links

Once a week, we’ll do a round-up of what’s going on in the Iranian community. Our first one was last Monday. If you see a link or story you think should be here, please send it to us at editorATparsarts.com.

Nazanin Saved
A girl who’d been sentenced to death for killing a guy in self-defense when he tried to rape her and her niece, Nazanin Fatehi (pictured) had her death sentence dropped this week. A big crusade was launched on her behalf by Nazanin Afshin-Jam, an Iranian-Canadian beauty queen, whose website, helpnazanin.com, is collecting donations to help with the blood money Fatehi will likely have to pay. Imagine having to pay the family of someone that tried to rape you. Though I suppose it’s better than being killed for nearly getting raped.

Film Festival Update
The Noor Film Festival has updated their films page to include the shorts they’ll be showing. Almost makes us wish we were in L.A. (almost), although their features aren’t new.

More on Iranian Blogging
The BBC has a nice list of quotes from different Iranian bloggers in response to the Islamic Republic’s new requirement of registering your blog with them. I wish they’d included links to the bloggers’ blogs, though. Isn’t that the point?

Iran, the Lady
Her book came out last week, but if you can’t get enough, Davar Ardalan has a pretty interesting website, which includes a schedule of appearances all over the U.S.

New is Good
Jadid Online (“jadid” means new) is mostly in Persian (yet another reason to brush up on our reading skills), but their About page is in English: “Jadid Online publishes reports by a new generation of journalists, mainly from Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, pioneering new forms of multimedia journalism. They provide original snapshots of life in their societies in multimedia formats, from new angles, offering new voices and images[...] It was set up in 2005, and specialises in media development, training, and production with a focus on Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and the wider Islamic world.” Their programming is really high-quality and they have a few English-subtitled or voice-overed (is that a word?) stories available, on topics from the importance of TV satellites in Iran to the lives of carpet weavers in Qom. One small gripe is that there’s no date included for when these stories were produced/posted (not counting the copyright date), which is a bit important for context in news stories, even if they’re more news-magazine than current events oriented.

Art, Etc.
According to the BBC, it sounds like Isfahan’s developing at a rate that’s eating up its history. And speaking of eating history, the Telegraph has an interesting story about the battle over a frieze from Persepolis. The verdict will have huge repercussions in the art world.

Petition for Peace
The National Iranian American Council is urging people to call their congresspeople and urge them against war with Iran. You can enter your zipcode on their website to find out just who your congressperson is.