(Flickr: Jonathan Rashad)

As the world watches Egypt commemorate the first anniversary of the Egyptian mass uprising, we get an update about the country of Bahrain which is going through its own revolutionary struggle against an entrenched monarchy. We will get an update on the protest movement in Bahrain from Professor Toby Jones, a Middle East Historian from Rutgers University.

A Separation (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin), a film by Asghar Farhadi

By: Kiazad Ehya

As the film’s title suggests, director Asghar Farhadi’s film A Separation (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin), is about the separation of a married couple, but the story is actually centered on the complex interpersonal relationships between an upper class secular liberal couple and that of an impoverished religiously devoted Muslim couple. The complexities are deep, and Farhadi tries to not take the side of one family over the other in the film.

“I think A Separation is a detective story without any detectives…The film raises questions instead of imposing ideas and answers,” said Asghar Farhadi, the films director.

The drama  in the story arises out of basic human nature. The poor mistakes or choices of a person are not limited to one kind of a person. Everyone is flawed and everyone makes mistakes. Farhadi describes the film — which recently made the Oscar shortlist for best foreign film this year — as a detective story, and the mystery arises from the truthfulness or dishonesty of the main characters. The characters are driven to lie to preserve their innocence to either a judge or to their loved ones, which is an important theme coming from a country where people are constantly forced to lie due to the many restrictions imposed on them by either government or personal morals. There is no good guy or bad guy, the conflict in the film resides in the vulnerability of truth in a place where one needs to lie to protect herself or himself; this is one of the central themes of Farhadi’s film.

A Separation is more conservative in style compared to the internationally popular Iranian films from Abbas Kiarostami or Bahman Ghobadi, and doesn’t have the same art-house appeal, which may help the film attract a larger audience. The film’s pace is driven by the great performances of the cast, and the complex drama of a story that builds and builds, inviting the viewer to search for the truth. Much as Farhadi says, like a detective story.

The film takes place in a bustling contemporary Tehran, with characters coming from different socio-economic backgrounds — a view that movie-goers in the West may find surprising. However, the film is also about universal human experiences and translates well to people worldwide, which is made apparent by the 20-plus awards it won at international festivals around the globe.

A Separation won the Golden Bear for Best Film, Best Actress award, and Best Actor award at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival, and most recently won the Best Foreign Language Film of the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards.

A Separation will be playing in San Francisco today, Friday, January 20^th.

A Separation (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin) by Director Asghar Farhadi. Starring Peyman Moaadi, Leila Hatami, Ali-Asghar Shahbazi, and Sareh Bayat. Drama, 123 minutes, Rated PG-13

Since the ousting of Hosni Mubarak from power, dozens of new private channels started competing on Egypt’s airwaves; but what does the proliferation of media outlets mean for the freedom of the press in Egypt?

We’ll speak with prominent Egyptian journalist and activist Hossam El Hamalawy about the state of the media in the post Mubarak era.

We will also talk to Iraqi-American activists and artists Yara Badai and Susu Attar about , a stage documentary based on nearly 40 interviews conducted in 2008 by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen with Iraq refugees in Jordan.

Guests:

Hossam El Hamalawy

Yara Badai

Susu Attar

Flickr: Khalid Albaih

This week’s Voices of the Middle East and North Africa, we will be speaking with University of New England political science professor Ali Ahmida about the current political situation in Libya three months after the fall of the autocratic leader of the country, Muammar Gaddafi.

Later in the program, we will bring you the first part of a conversation with  prominent Egyptian activist and blogger, Hossam el-Hamalawy about the changing media landscape in post-Mubarak Egypt.

We will also hear the commentary, God’s Pirates by Amir, the co-authour of the graphic novel, Zahra’s Paradise about the strange incident between  Iranian fishermen and American sailors.

Guests:
Ali Ahmida
Hossam el-Hamalawy

Upcoming Event: Palo Alto Players present- Aftermath: A Documentary Play About Displaced Iraqis. Playing at Lucie Stern Theatre from Jan 13-22. Click here for ticket information.

(Flickr: Truthout.org)

On January 1st, 2012 President Obama signed into law a military authorization bill containing a provision that imposes new sanctions on Iran. The new law forces foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran’s central bank to choose between ending that business or being blocked from the U.S. economy.

A new graphic novel about an Iranian family’s search for their 19-year-old son after he disappears during a protest in the aftermath of the rigged 2009 presidential election in Iran. We’ll speak with Amir, who’s the author of the graphic novel Zahra’s Paradise.

Guests:

Ali Rezaei – social researcher currently completing doctoral work at the University of Calgary.

Amir – co-author of Zahra’s Paradise and human rights activist.

Click Here to Listen

Harvard University About the WWQI Project Goals and Scope

The goal of Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran is to address a gap in scholarship and understanding of the lives of women during the Qajar era (1796 – 1925) in Iran by developing a comprehensive digital resource that preserves, links, and renders accessible primary-source materials related to the social and cultural history of women’s worlds in Qajar Iran. Through the use of technology it brings together little known archives scattered across the world.

Edward Said

On Sept 26th 2003, Palestinian Intellectual Edward Said passed away after a long battle with leukemia. We remember Professor Said by featuring an interview he did about his seminal work, Orientalism.

Anthony Alessandrini,  Jadalyyia EZine: Today marks the eighth anniversary of the passing of Edward Said. It is an anniversary that continues to fill me with a deep sense of melancholy, one shared, I know, by so many admirers of his work and his example ( read the the whole article)

Later in the program, we speak with Golden Thread Productions’ Founding Artistic Director Torange Yeghiazarian and International artist Hafiz Karmali about the play, NIGHT OVER ERZINGA.

Night Over Erzinga

NIGHT OVER ERZINGA, written by award winning playwright, Adriana Sevahn Nichols,tells the moving story of an immigrant family of Armenian and Dominican heritage, exploring how a man can lose everything but his heart, and how a grandmother can reach through time, to unearth the untold story, and bring her children “home.” Spanning two continents and three generations, from Western Armenia of 1913, to 1930′s Massachusetts, to 1960′s New York, ancestors are reunited with the living, as they each search for solace, and a way to make peace with the past.

NIGHT OVER ERZINGA is currently on stage at the South Side Theatre, Fort Mason Center, and San Francisco. For more information visit Golden Thread Theatre online.

Click here to listen.

Zahra's Paradise is the fictional story of the search for Mehdi, a young Iranian protestor who has disappeared in the Islamic Republic’s gulags.

This week’s Voices of the Middle East and North Africa, we explore the escalation in violence in Yemen’s capital Sanaa persists as military forces loyal to president Ali Abdullah Saleh have continued their assaults on  protestors for the past four days. We’ll speak with Atiaf al Wazir, a Yemeni-American blogger and activist based in the nation’s capital Sanaa.

We’ll also speak with University of Richmond political scientist Sheila Carapico about how external powers are attempting to shape Yemen’s future.

Later in the program, we’ll feature a new graphic novel about an Iranian family’s search for their 19-year-old son after he disappears during a protest in the aftermath of the rigged 2009 presidential election in Iran. We’ll speak with Amir, who’s the author of  the graphic novel Zahra’s Paradise.

Max Blumenthal (image courtesy of maxblumenthal.com)

As the 10th anniversary of the 911 attacks approaches, a report points out a handful of charitable groups involved in $42.6 million dollar campaign to fund Islamophobia. We talk to journalist and author Max Blumenthal who has investigated these organizations relationships with right wing Zionists group in the U.S. Later in the program we bring present the second part of our interview with a famed Algerian cartoonist.

Click here to listen.

Click here to listen.