About the song

Alireza Eftekhari is a famous Iranian singer from Esfahan. The song for this slideshow, Sayyad, is from his album by the same name.

Suggested reading

If you are interested to learn more about Iran then I heartily recommend these books:

Garden of the Brave in War: Recollections of Iran

Terence O'Donnell

If I had to name only one book to read and reread about Iran, it would undoubtedly be Terence O'Donnell's absolutely marvelous account of rural life in a village near Shiraz. The stories he tells emerge from ten years of keeping a daily journal, so they are remarkably rich in ethnographic detail. And what fascinating stories they are, brimming with intriguing characters and cultural twists.

The Mantle of the Prophet

Roy Mottahedeh

By combining a couple of thousand years of Iranian intellectual and cultural history with the stirring biography of a young mullah, Mottahedeh weaves a memorable, compelling and sometimes surprising tale of what makes Iranians Iranian. The format is unusual, but it works. It helps that like O'Donnell, Mottahedeh is a fine writer.

Love and Pomegranates: Artists and Wayfarers on Iran

Meghan Nuttall Sayres

A brand new series of testimonials from people who have been touched by Iran's hospitality, cultural traditions, religions and arts. Given the tensions between Iran and the West, it is more than a collection of essays to acquaint readers with Iran—it is a model for citizen diplomacy. I have a brief chapter.

My Uncle Napoleon: A Novel

Iraj Pezeshkzad

One of Iran's most loved novels. Ball-bouncingly funny, gregarious, and life-affirming. I like to think John Cleese would find much that resonates.

The Women of Deh Koh: Lives in an Iranian Village

Erika Friedl

In a finely written ethnography, Friedl tells twelve stories of Iranian village women. In one a woman gives birth alone while her family sleeps, ashamed of her supposedly late age. In another a widow creates a dramatic scene in the village so she can keep her home after her relatives had not fulfilled their familial duties. In a third a woman cannot give birth, blames the evil eye, turns to a herbalist and modern physicians, and comes to quarrel bitterly with her husband and in-laws. Throughout Friedl manages to compile sometimes astoundingly detailed accounts of the material aspects of everyday life.

The Great Satan vs. the Mad Mullahs: How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other

William O. Beeman

Bill Beeman is one of the few American anthropologists of his generation who is a real expert on Iran. As such he infuses his ethnographic account of the ways in which Iranian and American officials misunderstand each other with practical, theoretical insights. Bill is also my PhD advisor.