Move over Britannica,
here's Encyclopedia Iranica
POSTED: 12:50 a.m. EDT, March 26, 2007
Story Highlights• Project requires another decade• Iranian government opposes it; U.S. backs it• Iran scholar Ehsan Yarshater began project 32 years ago• Each volume costs $1 million to produce
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- The Christian concepts of heaven and hell originate in Iran. The Jewish holy Talmud is littered with Iranian words and ideas. And some Iranians cherish the Israeli city of Haifa as a sacred place.
These are among the fascinating nuggets in the Encyclopedia Iranica, a sprawling project under way since 1973 that seeks to distill 5,000 years of Iranian history, geography and life into 45 blue-bound volumes proclaiming Iran's greatness.
"Today more than at any other time we need to keep our Iranian culture alive," Iranica's director Ehsan Yarshater told an audience of 350 Iranians at a fundraiser in Dubai last month. The glitzy dinner, concert and auction raised $100,000 for a project that will take a total of $20 million -- and another decade or so -- to finish.
The Iranian government bitterly opposes the encyclopedia, and the U.S. government backs it. More than half of the encyclopedia's budget comes from the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities, which has funded it as a project of major cultural significance since 1979 -- the same year Iranian students occupied the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
"Once completed it will be a magnificent gift to our children and the generations to come," said Yarshater, an Iran scholar at Columbia University in New York.
The encyclopedia is Yarshater's life work. Now a frail 86 years old, he suffers from Parkinson's disease. He started the encyclopedia 32 years ago, just after leaving Iran. The project threatens to outlast him. Another Columbia Iranologist, Ahmad Ashraf, will take over leadership of the project if Yarshater dies before completing it.
Only 13 volumes of the English-language encyclopedia have yet been published, up to the letter G. It's been so slow that managers have abandoned the one-letter-at-a-time approach and are soliciting all remaining articles at once.
Each volume costs $1 million to produce, said Mark Houshmand, who heads the Encyclopedia's Dubai support group. Dubai, with around 300,000 resident Iranians, has a large expatriate community supporting the project, as does Los Angeles, New York, Geneva, London, Toronto and Miami.
Individual volumes can be ordered from Iranica's Web site for $250-$350 each, or the first 12 for $3,450. When complete, it'll take more shelf space even than the 29-volume Encyclopedia Britannica.
Some 2,500 years ago, Persia's empire stretched from Libya to China and included Turkey and northern India. The Persian dominion revived again after the 11th century, spreading from Turkey to Bangladesh and dominating central Asia until the penetration of Western civilization into Asia in the mid-1800s.
Thus, encyclopedia entries cover Persian aspects of places far outside today's borders, including Central Asia, India, North Africa, Greece and Albania.
Most of the work is being done outside Iran too, because the Iranian government opposes the project. Scholars inside the country have faced harassment, the managers say. The project is headquartered at Columbia.
Problem: Yarshater is Bahai
Most of the Iranian opprobrium stems from Yarshater's belonging to the Bahai faith, Houshmand said.
"He's not welcome in Iran. They don't appreciate the work he's doing. They don't want him to get any credit," Houshmand said. "All this is because of his religion. It should be irrelevant. But unfortunately, with today's Iranian government, these things are very relevant."
Bahais have been vigorously persecuted by current and past Iranian regimes. In 1868, several Bahais were exiled to Palestine, now Israel, where they built shrines in Haifa, which they now consider a holy city, the encyclopedia says.
Entries like that, documenting the Islamic Republic's connections to Israel and its pre-Islamic past, are deemed contrary to Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution by its current government.
Concepts such as the survival of a person's soul after death, the Day of Judgment, heaven and hell, and holy angels all derive from Iran's surviving Zoroastrian faith, a 3,000-year-old religion that predates Islam and Christianity, the encyclopedia says. Iran's hard-liners also frown on the Zoroastrian beliefs.
In the fundraiser audience were U.S. and Swiss diplomats and some of Iran's biggest pre-revolutionary pop stars, including singers Mahasti and Aref, both of whom flew from homes in Los Angeles. Iran's most famous pianist, Los Angeles-based Anoushirvan Rohani, played his melancholy songs until the wee hours.
"I couldn't care less about what my regime's stance is toward the United States," said Sara Masinaei, 24, a Dubai resident who emigrated from Tehran with her family at the age of eight. "What's important to me is Iran's history, language and traditions. I want my kids and their kids to benefit from what we're supporting today."
Abbas Bolurfrushan said exiles worry about losing touch with Iran and its Farsi language. The books ought to tug them back into the fold until Iran's regime mellows enough to allow them to visit more often, he said.
But Bolurfrushan, who heads the Dubai-based Iranian Business Council, said he was chiefly concerned with practical issues such as U.N. sanctions, which hamper his own trade with Iran.
"I'm fed up with the glorious past," Bolurfrushan said. "What have we got today? The Iranians have to bring themselves out of the past and devote themselves to building up the present."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/03/25/iran.encyclopedia.ap/index.html

Dreaming Away at Balchik
PalaceDestinations
16 March 2007, Friday.
The concept of harmony between man and nature was the foundation, on whichthe palace at the coastal town of Balchik was built, while the Baha'i cultto beauty breathed life into it. Turning into reality the dreams of aneccentric Romanian queen - Marie of Edinburgh.By Milena HristovaThe construction of the palace, later to be called "The Quiet Nest", beganin 1924, when the region of Southern Dobrudzha was still in the hands ofRomania. Armies of experts from Italy, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Romaniawere gathered together to draw on their skills in architecture, gardening,stone-cutting and painting and turn the unique steep slope of stones overthe Balchik Gulf into an extraordinary piece of architectural art and arefreshing oasis amidst the dryness of Dobrudzha plateau.It is a small surprise that Queen Marie of Romania picked this wild andpicturesque spot over the Balchik Gulf to live and dream away. It was itsvirginity and romanticism that captured her heart and imagination, whileroaming through Romania's newly conquered areas.The Baha'i teaching, whose fervent follower the queen was, preached that allreligions can be united for the sake of beauty. The palace, together withdowntown Sofia, is one of the few places in the world where Christianity andMuslimism live peacefully together and complement each other. Here thevisitor can see the white minaret of a mosque, sporting a weathercock on itsedged top, right next to the dome of a Christian church. The silver well,with a ceramic medallion with the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus chiseledout, is one of the most inspiring and touching Christian symbols here. Ifyou see your reflection in its clear waters and drop a coin, be sure allyour dreams will come true!The queen's castle is located on the very coastline, bringing togetherelements of Mediterranean culture, Bulgaria's Revival and Orientalexoticness. The "Quiet Nest" villa is bordered by the queen's home at theone end and the chapel at the other. In between is a labyrinth of gardens,flowers, lakes, bridges and paths, linking into one organic whole theseparate parts of the complex - an irrefutable proof of the owner's delicateflair for harmony and aesthetics and her never-ending search for beauty.Queen Marie (1875-1938) was the daughter of the Duke of Edinburgh, secondson of Queen Victoria, uncle of George V, and of Grand Duchess Marie,daughter of Tsar Alexander III of Russia. She was, therefore, first cousinto King George, by birth a Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, by marriage aHohenzollern, having married into the Catholic branch of that family whenshe became the bride of Crown Prince Ferdinand of Rumania. The palace andthe pictures hanging on its walls paint the picture of a romantic andeccentric woman, whose vision transcended the everyday and the historicaland poured over the invisible and the occult in a bid to explain the ups anddown of life and destiny.After her death and in accordance with her will, her heart was brought tothe palace, cushioned in a gold casket, to spend two years at the cloisterof her house of dreams. A day after Bulgaria restored its reign overSouthern Dobrudzha in accordance with the Treaty of Craiova, the casket wastaken back to Romania.The turn of events, however, gave birth to a new beginning - the botanicalgarden, which sprawls on the territory of the queen's former summerresidency. It's not for nothing that the garden, one of Bulgaria's fourbotanical gardens, was named after her house, "The Palace", even though itsdesign and selection of flowers was completely overhauled. Bathing insunlight most of the year, the garden is home to more than 2000 plantspecies belonging to 85 families and 200 genera. One of the garden's mainattractions is the collection of large-sized cactus species arrangedoutdoors on 1000 m², the second of its kind in Europe after the one inMonaco.Unfortunately a few years ago the garden's future was threatened by wranglesover ownership and revenues collection. It would be unforgivable if we failto protect the heavenly and exotic beauty of this unique part of Bulgaria'sBlack Sea coast. Standing right by one the world's best symbols ofdifferences overcome, unity and beauty.http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=77994__._,_.___


and more about the gardens from this site:
http://www.travel-bulgaria.com/content/varna_out_of_town.shtml

The first destination is the Quiet Nest palace, tile former summer residence of Queen Marie of Romania, and its famous gardens of more than 35 ha. The gardens are the "residence" of 3000 or so plant species of which cacti alone are over 250, and thus Europe's second most important collection, The palace park is an imitation of the Famous Cretan labyrinth. Each stone for the church therefore was brought from the island of Crete. The Carden of Allah is the prettiest. The Silver Well and the alleys paved with mill stones are also very interesting The earthen jars were brought from Morocco.

and more about the castle and some lovely pictures of the gardens here:
http://www.intovarna.com/balchik_palace.html

and more about the castle and some lovely pictures of the gardens here:
http://www.intovarna.com/balchik_palace.html

and another fascinating article here:

http://www.vagabond-bg.com/?page=live&sub=18&open_news=104

includes the following:
This peculiar "Queen Marie Code" reflects her adherence to an exotic religion. Although her religious background was Church of England and she adopted Romanian Orthodox Christian beliefs, in her later years she befriended Martha Root, a renowned travelling "teacher" of the Baha'i Faith.

Queen Marie became the first member of a European royal family to officially profess Baha'ism. This faith, established in the 19th Century by Baha'ullah, expounds the unity of god, religions, and mankind. Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and all other religious leaders are considered to be prophets of God's will.

Queen Marie sought peace, love, rapport, and serenity in Baha'ism and Balchik. Instead, she died a violent death and her sarcophagus was taken back to her adopted homeland. Her heart ended up in Bran Castle, a Romanian tourism landmark situated on the border between Transylvania and Wallachia. It owes its fame to the myth that it had been the home of Vlad the Impaler. Nevertheless, Marie's spirit lives on in the strange and wonderful home she made in the Quiet Nest of Balchik.

It is no surprise that she had so many men vying for her attentions. Queen Marie was renowned for her beauty and during the 1920's she appeared in advertisements for perfumes by Houbigant Paris, "Parfumeur to Queen Marie of Roumania", chocolates and Pond's Skin Creams.An easily-recognisable high society figure, she frequently appeared in newspapers and magazines and made the front cover of Time magazine in 1924 as a "regal authoress".Indeed, she wrote many books of poetry and prose, including children's fiction, as in The Magic Doll of Roumania (1929), books about the supernatural, the Queen of Roumania's Fairy Book (1925), and the novel, The Voice on the Mountain (1923).

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/2121876

Iranian Feminist Protest Gender Apartheid under Islamic Republic's rule.

02:49Taken: 21 February 2007
Location: Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Women's day 2005 (Iranian Calendar Khordad 22-1384), women asserting their rights and protesting the unjust, unfair and unequal treatment of Iranian Women under gender apartheid system of Islamic Republic Constitution and clergy rule. Mrs. Simin Behbani the renowned Iranian Poet and Feminist leader also participated in this demonstration. A lot of the participants were arrested by the Islamic republic’s paramilitary security forces and jailed for extended period of time to suppress their aspiration.

Producer: Ms. Mahnaz Mohamadi (a very brave woman) http://www.meydaan.com/



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Feminist Protest Gender Apartheid
Uploaded by kzkz

IRANIAN BAHA'IS FACE CONTINUING DISCRIMINATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION

NEW YORK, 28 February 2007 (BWNS) -- A growing number of Baha'is admitted toIranian universities this year have been expelled, powerful evidence thatBaha'i students in Iran still face severe discrimination and limited accessto higher education.After more than 25 years during which Iranian Baha'is were outright bannedfrom attending public and private universities in Iran, some 178 Baha'istudents were admitted last fall to various schools around the country afterthe government changed its policies and removed religious identificationfrom entrance examination papers.As of mid-February, however, at least 70 students had been expelled aftertheir universities became aware that they were Baha'is.

The high percentage of expulsions - which are all explicitly connected tothe students' identities as Baha'is - suggests at best that the governmentis turning a blind eye to discrimination in higher education, and, at worst,is merely playing a game with Baha'i students," said Diane Ala'i, the Baha'iInternational Community's representative to the United Nations in Geneva."While we are happy that for the first time since the early 1980s asignificant number of Iranian Baha'i youth have been able to enter andattend the university of their choice, the government's long history ofsystematic persecution against Baha'is certainly calls into question thesincerity of the new policies," said Ms. Ala'i.She noted, for example, that another 191 Baha'i students, havingsuccessfully passed national college entrance examinations last summer, wereunable to enter university this year, either because of the limited number
of places for the course of their choice or for other reasons unknown to them.

"International law provides that access to education is a basic human right,and Iranian universities have no excuse for denying students who havesuccessfully passed their examinations the right to attend simply becausethey are Baha'is," added Ms. Ala'i."As long as any Baha'i is unjustly denied access to higher education, we cansay that the years of systematic persecution and discrimination againstBaha'i students has not yet ended, and we must call for this injustice to berectified," she said

The largest religious minority in Iran, Baha'is of all ages have facedsystematic religious persecution since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Morethan 200 Baha'is have been killed, hundreds have been imprisoned, andthousands have had property or businesses confiscated, been fired from jobs,and/or had pensions terminated.According to a secret 1991 government memorandum, Baha'is "must be expelledfrom universities, either in the admission process or during the course oftheir studies, once it becomes known that they are Baha'is."One of the chief means the government has used to enforce this policy was torequire that everyone sitting for the national college entrance examinationstate their religion on the test registration forms. Test forms that listed"Baha'i," or that had no listing, were rejected.

In 2004, apparently in response to continued pressure from the internationalcommunity, the Iranian government removed the data field for religiousaffiliation. About 1,000 Baha'i students successfully sat for theexamination that year and hundreds passed, many with very high scores. Later that same year, however, in an action that Baha'i InternationalCommunity representatives characterize as a "ploy," exam results were sentback to Baha'is with the word "Muslim" written in, something that officialsknew would be unacceptable to Baha'is, who as a matter of religiousprinciple refuse to deny their beliefs. Government officials argued that since the Baha'is had opted to take the setof questions on Islam in the religious studies section of the test, theyshould be listed as Muslims. Baha'is contested the action and were rebuffed;no Baha'i students entered university that year

The same thing happened in 2005. Hundreds of Baha'i students took and passedthe national examination, only to find that the government had listed themas Muslims. Baha'is again contested the action, but without successfulredress, and no Baha'is matriculated in 2005.Last summer, again acting on good faith, hundreds of Baha'is took thenational examination. This time, as indicated in the figures above, hundredshave passed, and some 178 were accepted into universities.Throughout the fall, reports came out of Iran indicating that many of thosewho had been accepted were being refused entry or expelled once theuniversities learned that they were Baha'is. As of February, the confirmedfigure totaled 70 Baha'is expelled.

Accounts we have received from those who have been expelled or deniedregistration at the university of their choice clearly indicate the issue istheir Baha'i identity," said Ms. Ala'i."One student, for example, received a phone call from Payame Noor Universityon 18 October, asking whether he was a Baha'i. When he replied in theaffirmative, he was told that he could not be enrolled.

Later, after visiting the university, the student was told that theuniversity had received a circular from the National Educational Measurementand Evaluation Organization, which oversees the university entrance examination process, stating that while it would not prevent the Baha'is

from going through the enrolment process, once enrolled, they were to beexpelled.

"Another Baha'i student at that same university was told that students whodo not specify their religion on registration forms would be disqualifiedfrom continuing their education there," she said.Ms. Ala'i also said that the Baha'i International Community has learned thatall universities in Iran except one still include a space for religion ontheir own registration forms.

"This raises the grave concern that the 191 additional Baha'is who passedtheir examinations this year but were refused places may in fact be thesubjects of discrimination," she said. "We call on the international community to continue to monitor thissituation closely," said Ms. Ala'i. "We would also ask for the continuedefforts of educators and university administrators around the world who haveparticipated in a campaign to protest the treatment of Baha'i students inIran."

To view the photos and additional features click here:http://news.bahai.org/index.cfm?src=se8-bp-070228-1-EXPELLED-507-S

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Copyright 2007 by the Baha'i World News Service. All stories and photographsproduced by the Baha'i World News Service may be freely reprinted,re-emailed, re-posted to the World Wide Web and otherwise reproduced by anyindividual or organization as long as they are attributed to the Baha'iWorld News Service. For more information, visit

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