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Freaky ISIS Stunt in Crowded Mall in Tehran Sparks Controversy

May 8, 2018

They, however, were not real terrorists. They were a group of actors dressed in ISIS militants’ costumes and were there to promote the film “Damascus Time”, an Iranian movie about the Islamic Republic’s fight against terrorism in Iraq and Syria.

The weird stunt immediately sparked harsh reactions among the people there and shocked the social media users who later watched the footages.

A clip filmed by one of the people inside the shopping mall shows a parent shouting at the ISIS-like actors, asking them, “What if a woman or a child is shocked by your freaky show here? Who is responsible for such a stupid move? Who the hell did tell you to dress up like this?”

After thousands of tweets and posts in various social media to criticize the move, Ebrahim Hatamikia, the director of the film, issues a statement and said he was unaware of the promotion, and sincerely apologizes to all those hurt and scared by the show.

“I thought a person with red beards (like ISIS militants) is going to stand outside the mall and let the fans take selfies with him. I didn’t know there would be horses, screams, and crowds inside the mall.”

“The show was definitely beneath the dignity of my film,” he added.

Damascus Time, shot in Iran and Syria, stars Hadi Hejazifar, Babak Hamidian and a number of Syrian and Iraqi actors.

It tells the story of an Iranian pilot and his son as co-pilot who are seized by ISIS forces in Syria when are in the country to deliver a cargo of humanitarian relief supplies to people in a war-torn region.

The film was produced by the Owj Arts and Media Organisation, an institution based in Tehran, producing revolutionary works in art and cinema.

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Mobile Café in Tehran Promotes Book Reading Culture

Fatemeh Askarieh

May 8, 2018

The café titled “Titil” hosts the bookworms, who even lend their books to this mobile library in order to give the chance to their fellow citizens to read them as well. What follows is a report by the Persian-language Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) on this café.

In the days that reading books is not that much prevalent in Iran, and the publishers are worried about the decreased number of readers and book shoppers, three young guys are doing their best to promote the book reading culture among people using their own talents and experiences.

They bought a red Volkswagen T3 with a small amount of money, and turned it into a mobile library so that they could explore the city to lend books to the people interested in reading.

It was an interesting idea that produced results very soon, and the Titil Café has now become one of the most popular mobile cafés and libraries in Tehran. It is a café whose owners, regardless of economic concerns, seek to promote book reading culture among the people.

In addition to borrowing books from the café, you can order coffee, snacks and cold drinks, along with cupcakes and homemade and handmade cookies to enjoy your time when you are reading a book.

How It Came into Existence

Kourosh Esmaili, Mostafa Rasouli and Mohammad-Reza Heydari are the three main initiators of the Titil Café, which started its work in the summer of 2017 with an investment of around 14,000 US dollars. The three guys, who are the employees of a company in the field of oil and gas, are busy at the company from morning to the afternoon. From 5 pm to 10 they work at Titil Café.

As regards the name of the place, Kourosh Esmaili says “Titil in the Gilaki language means dragonfly, and since we wanted to go from place to place every day, Titil was a good choice as it constantly jumps from one place to another.”

Read Books for Free

One of the main features of Titil book café is that you can only borrow books, and this means no one can buy and sell books here. “Our main aim was to lend the books in a rotating form among the audience across the city. Honestly, we never thought about selling books, and from the very beginning we wanted to lend books for free,” says Mostafa Rasouli.

“Borrow a book, read and bring it back please,” this is a sentence written on a 25*30 cm blackboard in front of the café’s library. The library, which began with 150 books, now has about 3,000 volumes. Of these, about 400 to 700 books are transferred every day by the mobile Titil Café.

Concerning the future of the café, Kourosh told us that “we would like to enjoy the close cooperation of people and publishers with Titil Café so much so that we could have about 10,000 volumes of books on various subjects in order to be able to expand Titil’s activity from Tehran to other cities across the country.”

Everyday Clients

Mohammad-Reza Heydari says some of the people are the fixed clients of the café, adding that “we have a lot of clients, and some of them, who follow us in the social media, read our news and daily events. They visit us several times a week to return the books they have read and borrow some new ones. This is very promising.”

He also refers to one of their regular clients, saying “there is a woman who lives near Darabad in north of Tehran. She finds our location via our page on Instagram and comes to us every afternoon at about 6. She borrows a book and reads it until 10 pm, and if she is short of time, she will take the book to return it the day after.”

About the terms of lending books, Mohammad-Reza tells us that “anyone who likes to borrow a book just needs to give us his/her name and a cell phone number to be registered. We give them a card and they give it back after they read the books.”

A Charitable, Cultural Work

“During the week, many writers and translators are invited to the café, and sometimes they call on us without any coordination. In addition to donating their books to the café and holding book-reading sessions, they sign a number of their works.”

Kourosh, Mostafa and Mohammad-Reza, however, are thinking of another goal by separating the books signed by writers and translators.

“When the number of such books goes up, we will hold a public exhibition to sell the books signed by the authors, and spend the money on charity events. Fortunately, we have collected more than 60 signed books that we hope will increase as soon as possible.”

Another interesting thing about Titil café is that on the first Saturday of every month the revenues are spent on charity works.

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Seven Iranian Professors Receive ITU Standards Approval

IFP Editorial Staff

May 8, 2018

Vahid Yazdanian, the dean of Post and Telecommunications Faculty, said with this approval, the professors can hold ITU’s workshops across the world.

“Four of the seven Iranian professors have already been invited to preside over an international workshop on Cyberspace Security slated for May 12 and 13 in Tehran,” a report by Persian-language Islamic Republic News agency (IRNA) said.

Promoting knowledge of potential challenges and threats by online services and applications, sharing global cyber security plan by ITU, exploring global indexes on cyber security and protecting children in the cyberspace are among the main issues to be dealt with during the workshop.

ITU has announced that during the workshop, the participants will also discuss clouding, internet of things, information security standards, critical information infrastructures and the prospects of cyber threats.

For a brief review of Iran’s achievements in various fields of science and technology, check the book “Science and Technology in Iran: A Brief Review”

Yazdanian went on to say that so far 15 managers and experts from Asian and Oceanic countries like India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, New Guinea and Afghanistan have registered to take part in the workshop.

“One of the main advantages of hosting such workshops is that we can increase the number of Iranian participants in the workshop by one and a half times compared with other countries,” he noted.

According to Yazdanian, based on the ITU regulations, member states like Iran must hold joint training courses in information technology and communication with the help of leading Asian countries in this area like South Korea, China and India. He added preliminary arrangements have been made to hold the courses in the near future.

Over the past years, Iran-ITU ties had been cut and Iranian professors were not allowed to hold any regional workshops.

President Hints Iran May Stay in Nuclear Deal after US Withdrawal

IFP Media Wire

May 8, 2018

In comments at a meeting of administrative officials in Mashhad on Monday, Rouhani said Iran has devised the necessary plans to deal with any possible scenario, including a US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement with the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).

The US will be the real loser if it walks away from the nuclear accord, he added.

“We have our own plan. Either what we demand from the JCPOA is fulfilled by the non-American (parties),(and in that case) the US withdrawal will be the removal of a trouble, or we (will resort to) our legal and rational option… if what we expect is not fully accomplished,” the president said.

He warned Washington against the “strategic mistake” of withdrawing from the nuclear deal, reiterating though that Iran has no concerns about the US’s cruel policies and wrong moves.

US President Donald Trump in January set a 120-day deadline for US lawmakers and European allies to “fix” his predecessor Barack Obama’s main foreign policy achievement or face a US exit.

Since the historic deal was signed by Tehran and the Group 5+1 in Vienna in July 2015, the IAEA has repeatedly confirmed the Islamic Republic’s compliance with its commitments under the JCPOA, but some other parties, especially the US, have failed to live up to their undertakings.

Iran to Give Crushing Response to Israel in Due time: Top General

IFP Editorial Staff

May 7, 2018

General Baqeri said over the past few days, the enemies triggered some developments in the region against Iran without receiving an appropriate response.

“But this does not mean we will remain silent or surrender to the violence. We will give a crushing response to the enemies in due time,” he said, apparently referring to a recent Israeli airstrike on a Syrian airbase which killed several Iranian advisors.

He expressed satisfaction with the current preparedness of Iranian armed forces to defend the country’s borders.

“A review of our defence capabilities has led the enemies to this conclusion that any violence against our soil and national interests will cost them highly and they will achieve nothing but casualties and damages,” he said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, General Baqeri said every now and then some naïve politicians in some states rise to power, level accusations against and order their armies to wage a war on Iran.

“This comes as top commanders of the very violent countries like the US warn the politicians against waging any war against Iran. They advise the politicians to resort to political solutions when it comes to dealing with Iranians,” he added.

He pointed out that the US, Saudi Arabia and the Zionist regime are run by naïve politicians who raise absurd claims about Iran.

“But when it comes to taking practical steps, the same politicians come to this sense that Iran’s defence capability and power is inviolable,” he added.

General Baqeri concluded that the Islamic Republic will not sit idle if the enemies violate its national interests.

Iran Hails Lebanon Elections as Victory for Entire Lebanese Nation

IFP Editorial Staff

May 7, 2018

In a Monday statement, the spokesman described the election as an epic achievement, saying it is a great victory for all Lebanese people from different tribes and political movements.

Iran maintains that holding a peaceful election amid the current chaotic situation of the region is by itself a great democratic achievement for all the people of Lebanon, he added.

Lebanese people went to the poll stations on Sunday to vote in their parliamentary elections after nine years. The elections had been delayed three times since 2008 due to the unrest in the region and conflicts among political parties on election laws.

Unofficial results show the resistance Movement Hezbollah and its allies have managed to gain more than half of the votes. That’s almost 67 out of 128 parliamentary seats.

The Future Movement of Prime Minister Sa’ad al-Hariri did well in its strongholds of Sidon and Tripoli, but finally lost one-third of its seats in the Parliament.

The rival Christian faction known as the Lebanese Forces also doubled the number of its seats to 15.

The voter turnout was 49.2 percent.

Iran Calls for Promotion of Business Ties with Georgia

IFP Editorial Staff

May 7, 2018

Iran Calls for Closer Business Ties with Georgia

In a Monday meeting with Dimitry Kumsishvili, the Georgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Zarif elaborated on the Islamic Republic’s great economic capacities and called for further development of business relations between the two countries.

For his part, the Georgian official voiced his satisfaction with visiting Iran and described the relations between Tehran and Tbilisi as friendly and developing.

He said there are many development projects in Georgia in which Iranian companies are participating.

Kumsishvilli added Georgian government warmly welcomes the presence of Iranian companies in the country.

During the talks held in Tehran, the two sides also explored ways to establish a regional transit corridor and further develop reciprocal relations in transit, banking, energy and tourism areas.

They also exchanged views on ways to remove the obstacles in the way of expansion of bilateral cooperation.

Those Arming Saudis Are Supporting Terrorism: Nobel Peace Laureate

IFP Editorial Staff

May 7, 2018

“Yemen is being terrorized by the UAE and Saudi Arabia directly by killing thousands of civilians and imposing a blockade on its people and indirectly by supporting, financing and establishing armed terrorist groups,” Karman said in a post in her Facebook account on Sunday.

“Countries involved in providing these two countries with weapons are accordingly involved in supporting terrorism and providing its groups with weapons,” she added, stressing that she will disclose all these facts in her later lecture in Oxford University.

Yemen’s defenceless people have been under massive attacks by the Saudi-led coalition for more than three years but Riyadh has reached none of its objectives in Yemen so far.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

Over 14,000 Yemenis, including thousands of women and children, have lost their lives in the deadly military campaign.

Iraqi Quarter in Tehran Heating Up with Election Fervour

IFP Editorial Staff

May 7, 2018

Not many Tehran residents may know that a “Little Iraq” is located in southeast Tehran. Over the past four decades, the Dowlatabad neighbourhood has been home to Iraqi citizens (mainly Shiites) who fled the tyranny and atrocities of former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein’s regime and took refuge in Iran. Political circumstances have kept them from returning to their homeland for a long time, but have not been able to affect their customs as well as cultural and social traditions. Henceforth, you will feel you are walking in a Baghdad street once you enter the Dowlatabad neighbourhood.

Arabic statements on walls, signs outside shops, the style the prayer sites are decorated, clothes and even the Arabic conversations among people, all remind you that you are going away from the Iranian cultural and social aura and entering a new ambience. In addition to these features, maybe the unique communication among citizens is another striking feature of an Arab society, which is pretty obvious in Dowlatabad: Crowded restaurants, chairs and tables on pavements for people to sit next to each other and catch up on what’s going on in their daily lives, mosques and prayer sites packed with worshippers during prayer times, and, of course, hookahs, which are almost everywhere in this neighbourhood!

Many Arab residents in this neighbourhood regard themselves as Iranian-born. Some of them have even left Dowlatabad over the past years and moved to more central neighbourhoods in the capital. Still, it seems Dowlatabad remains the best place for Iraqis in Tehran to live because it is no different from Arab neighbourhoods in Baghdad or Najaf.

But if you go for a walk in Dowlatabad these days, it is not only the usual Arab elements that draw your attention, but you will notice an election campaign going on, a campaign depicting the most important political Shiite currents in Iraq in the lead-up to key parliamentary elections slated to be held on May 12. Photos and banners of candidates, including Nouri al-Maliki, Hanan al-Fatlawi, Haider al-Abadi, Hadi Al-Ameri, etc. The election ambience in Dowlatabad show the residents of the “Little Iraq” in Tehran are seriously following up on their political developments.

Although, so far, many Iraqi opinion polls suggest a relative lead for the al-Nasr (victory) alliance led by Haider al-Abadi, there is a different atmosphere in Dowlatabad where supporters of Nouri al-Maliki, who leads the ruling State of Law coalition, are in the majority. What is noteworthy in Dowlatabad is that most of Abadi supporters are the younger generation of the Iraqi community there, which could be a big success for Iraq’s incumbent prime minister.

The Iraqi election is around the corner, but the limited time left until then is very determining and sensitive for Iraq’s political currents and groups. Like their comrades in Iraq, Iraqi expats in Tehran’s Dowlatabad closely follow election news as they cherish the idea of a better future for their country.

What follows are Fars News Agency’s photos of the election fervour in Dowlatabad:

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Iran’s Beauties in Photos: Amir Nezam Garousi Mansion

Fatemeh Askarieh

May 7, 2018

The mansion has now turned into a museum showcasing items belonging to the Qajar era. It was built during the time when Amir Nezam Garousi was an advisor to Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, the King of Persia from September 5, 1848 to May 1, 1896 when he was assassinated.

After the fall of the Qajar dynasty, the Pahlavi regime used the building as the Treasury Department.

Constructed on a plot of land measuring 3,000 sqm, the two-storey edifice has a built-up area of 1,500 sqm. The building has two inside and outside yards with gardens and ponds; which have added to the mansion’s beauty, a report by the Persian-language Hamshahri Online said.

Sixteen columns with beautiful column heads support the porch of building. On the top floor, windows decorated with coloured glass as well as beautiful plaster and mirror work make the mansion all the more attractive.

The large “pond room” with exquisite architecture in the basement makes it one of the most beautiful parts of the building.

The house was purchased by the Cultural Heritage Organization in 1991. Given the serious damage the building had suffered, it was restored and reconstructed; while taking care that the mansion’s architectural and traditional features are preserved.

What follows are photos of Amir Nezam Garousi Mansion retrieved from various sources:

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