YEGANEH JUNE TORBATI

My Haft-Seen table in Dubai, set out to celebrate Iranian New...

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 22:38:57 +0000

My Haft-Seen table in Dubai, set out to celebrate Iranian New Year or Nowruz - my favorite holiday of them all. Happy spring!

“Hava-ye Geryeh,” by one of my favorite contemporary...

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:18:43 +0000

“Hava-ye Geryeh,” by one of my favorite contemporary Iranian singers, Homayoun Shajarian. Somehow pleasurably sad.

"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be..."

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 14:49:32 +0000

“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between the desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

- E.B. White

Rainbow over St. Lucia. A lovely end to 2012.

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:31:00 +0000

Rainbow over St. Lucia. A lovely end to 2012.

Recent reads

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:56:00 +0000

Been lost in these books the last few weeks:

Hitch 22 by Christopher Hitchens

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Carry the One by Carol Anshaw

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo

Resolved: 2013

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:43:12 +0000

My Iran-related/professional resolutions:

Pursue more challenging stories, ones that require a wider and deeper set of contacts within the country. I already have two or three story ideas that I think will stretch and expand my reporting skills.
Write a different mix of stories, especially more profiles
Become more familiar with Persian poetry
Learn how to properly cook rice (or just give in and buy a rice cooker!)

"به هیچ یار مده خاطر و به هیچ دیار/ که بر و بحر فراخ است و آدمی بسیار"

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:04:00 +0000

“به هیچ یار مده خاطر و به هیچ دیار/ که بر و بحر فراخ است و آدمی بسیار”

- From Saadi, the medieval Persian poet. I came across this line on a friend’s Twitter feed. I’ll leave the exact translation up to the pros, but the message is not to tie yourself to any one person or place, because the world is full of both people and places to explore. It speaks to the foreign correspondent inside me :-)

Iran's currency crisis

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 20:53:00 +0100

Credit: Reuters/Thaier al-Sudani

What’s going on with the Iranian rial? My colleagues and I have been following the issue closely. Here are a selection of stories that explain the rial’s huge falls in the last few weeks.

Iran launches forex centre to support sagging rial - Reuters.com, September 24, 2012

Iran rial hits record low despite new effort to stabilise it - Reuters.com, September 25, 2012

Iran rial plunges as Western sanctions bite - Reuters.com, October 1, 2012

Iranian police clash with protesters over currency plunge - Reuters.com, October 3, 2012

Tehran’s Grand Bazaar reopens, currency trade still frozen - Reuters.com, October 6, 2012

"Many have asked, pointing incredulously toward a sweep of tract homes and billboards, why picture..."

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 18:01:31 +0100

“

Many have asked, pointing incredulously toward a sweep of tract homes and billboards, why picture that? The question sounds simple, but it implies a difficult issue—why open our eyes anywhere but in undamaged places like national parks?

One reason is, of course, that we do not live in parks, that we need to improve things at home, and that to do it we have to see the facts without blinking … Paradoxically, however, we also need to see the whole geography, natural and man-made, to experience a peace; all land, no matter what has happened to it, has over it a grace, an absolutely persistent beauty.

”

- Robert Adams, 1974. He was speaking about photography but I think it applies pretty well to all forms of bearing witness.

Going through some old travel photos, I came across this one of...

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 15:22:00 +0100

Going through some old travel photos, I came across this one of a market in Cairo. Taken August 2009

Some exciting news - This month will see the release of...

Sun, 13 May 2012 10:04:00 +0100

Some exciting news - This month will see the release of “Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power” by David E. Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times. This is a project I researched and wrote for throughout part of 2010 and much of 2011, particularly the chapters concerning Iran. It’s a probing, detailed look at the Obama administration’s approach to foreign policy and touches on the Arab Spring, the killing of Osama bin Laden, drone strikes, the Iranian nuclear program, and many many other topics. It comes out June 5, and you can pre-order an e-book copy here.

Excerpt from Orianna Fallaci's 1973 interview with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 23:23:00 +0100

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi: No, we Iranians aren’t all that different from you Europeans. If our women wear the veil, so do yours. The veil of the Catholic Church. If our men have more than one wife, so do yours. The wives you call mistresses. And if we believe in visions, you believe in dogmas. If you think yourselves superior, we have no complexes. Don’t ever forget that whatever we have, we taught you three thousand years ago.

Orianna Fallaci:Three thousand years ago…I see now you’re smiling too, Majesty. You don’t look so sad any more. Ah, it’s too bad we can’t agree on the business of the blacklists.

MRP:But can you really be on the blacklist?

OF: Majesty! As if you didn’t know, you the King of Kings and who knows everything! But I told you, it may well be. I’m on everybody’s blacklist.

MRP:What a pity. Or rather, it doesn’t matter. Even if you’re on the blacklist of my authorities, I’ll put you on the white list of my heart.

OF: You frighten me, Majesty. Thank you, Majesty.

Gate in Amman, Jordan - February 2009

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 02:08:00 +0100

Gate in Amman, Jordan - February 2009

Persian word of the week

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 23:43:00 +0000

expediency, or interest or benefit, often used in contexts of political national interest: maslehat مصلحت

Past W.O.T.W.:

lest, or an interjection meaning essentially “God forbid”: mabada مبادا

whirlwind, chaos: gholghole غلغله

story: daastaan داستان

report: gozaaresh گزارش

throughout, all over: saraasar سراسر

dialogue: goftogoo گفت و گو

curious: konjkaav کنجکاو (literally, “one who looks around corners”)

[Note: This word and ones like it are the reason I love Persian so much. So much meaning and literalism packed into two short syllables.]

Two men share a cup of tea on the banks of Zayandeh River in...

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 23:05:00 +0000

Two men share a cup of tea on the banks of Zayandeh River in Esfahan, Iran - December 2009

Arabic word of the week

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 22:59:00 +0000

exile: eghterab اغتراب

Past W.O.T.W.:

shocked: masdoom مصدوم

to chat: dardash دردش

isolation: ‘azleh عزله

hesitant: motaradida متردده

opportunist: intihazi انتهازي

liquidation, purge: tasfiyeh تصفيه