Journalist and author of Lipstick Jihad
Posted in TIME on Apr 14th, 2007
Not so long ago, the only place in Tehran that I might spy a pair of Dolce and Gabbana heels would have been in a smuggled copy of Vogue. These days, I need only walk through my neighborhood. High above a busy intersection where hard-liners hang “Death to America” banners looms a huge D&G billboard [...]
Posted in Journal on Apr 12th, 2007
Having written previously in TIME about baby names banned under the Islamic Republic, I now feel obliged to share my recent discovery that a handful of names were also banned in Shah-era Iran. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi forbade certain common Farsi names such as Amir (prince) or Homayoun (imperial), whose literal meanings made them, in his [...]
Posted in TIME on Apr 2nd, 2007
Last summer, when Ostad Mohammad-Reza Lotfi — Iran’s most accomplished classical musician and tar master — returned from exile in the West to found a music school, hordes of eager young musicians stood in interminable lines under the Tehran sun, instrument cases tucked under their arms, waiting to take the entrance exam. The opportunity to [...]