NIAC demands VOA retract, correct, and apologize for their slanderous false reporting
After NIAC initiated legal efforts to demand a retraction, correction, and apology from Voice of America, the U.S. Agency for Global Media has confirmed to NIAC that the broadcast has been removed from VOA platforms. This follows the recent airing of a 60-minute program by VOA Farsi that falsely defamed our grassroots U.S. civil society organization as “lobbyists for the Islamic Republic”, and also leveled these outrageously false smears against journalists and victims of the Islamic Republic.
NIAC Proud to Recognize Employee Labor Union
This Labor Day, instead of simply wishing you a happy labor day and expressing solidarity with labor we are putting our words into action. We are also extremely excited to announce that our staff has unionized!! We’re proud to be joining a global movement of workers. In solidarity
بیانیه نایاک در خصوص اکران فیلم با حضور پرویز پرستویی در جنوب کالیفرنیا
Click here to read this in English. شورای ملی ایرانیان آمریکا (نایاک) در رابطه با نمایش فیلم مستند ‘افسانه بناسان’ یا ‘داستان‌های هزار و یک روز’ در جنوب کالیفرنیا و حواشی آن بیانیه‌ای به شرح ذیل صادر نمود هفته گذشته، نمایش فیلمی مستند در لس‌آنجلس و اورنج کانتی با حضور پرویز پرستویی، هنرپیشه مشهور ایرانی، به جنجال و […]
Honoring Iranian-American Women during Women’s History Month: Negin Farsad
Last year, Mayor Pro Tempore Sepi Shyne made history when she became the first lesbian and first woman of color elected to West Hollywood’s City Council, ushering in their first female-majority City Council.
Shirin Saeidi: Women and the Islamic Republic
In a new book from Cambridge University Press, Women and the Islamic Republic: How Gendered Citizenship Conditions the Iranian State, author Shirin Saeidi explores the formation of women’s rights, roles and responsibilities in post-revolutionary Iran. While the newly formed Islamic Republic transformed Iranian society after 1979 and formulated a particular narrative of the Iranian citizen, ordinary Iranians employed their own agency as they negotiated, contested and accepted various aspects of the state’s account. Saeidi’s book is both a welcome addition to the growing canon of scholarship on post-revolutionary Iran and a revealing study on a topic often discussed but hardly understood: Iranian women.
Film Review: A Hero (Ghahremān)
Already a two-time academy-award winner—for A Separation (2011) and The Salesman (2016)—Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has shown once again why he has emerged as one of Iran’s preeminent filmmakers with his newest film, A Hero (Ghahremān). A Hero has already garnered many accolades, including a Golden Globe nomination, the Grand Prix prize at the Cannes […]
Holiday Reading List!
As we reflect on the past year, many of our proudest moments came from showcasing artists, authors, and creatives at book talks, our open mic nights, and community programming. With the holiday season upon us, we thought it would be a perfect time to put together a NIAC Holiday Reading list!
An Old Faith in the New World – Zoroastrianism in the United States
Iranian Americans are one of the most spiritually diverse diaspora groups in the United States due to their wide range of minority religions. Although most are Shia Muslims, they are still much more diverse religiously than Iranians in Iran. An MIT poll of Iranian Americans in 2005 found that half of them identified as Muslim, while the CIA World Factbook estimates that 95% of Iranians in Iran do. In addition to Baha’is, Christians, Jews, and secularists, members of ancient Iranian religions have also found a home in the United States. Of these, perhaps the most interesting example is Zoroastrianism.
Mehdi Ghadyanloo: Beautifying Tehran One Wall at a Time
After answering an open call for artists in 2004, Iranian muralist, Mehdi Ghadyanloo was commissioned by the Tehran City Municipality to paint over 100 colorful murals. A city once covered in political paintings, either in remembrance of Iran-Iraq War martyrs or with negative slurs regarding America, Tehran had almost 5,000 bare walls to paint. When […]
Learning from the Past – The Failures of Militant Counterrevolution in Iran and Cuba
“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” – Foundation, Isaac Asimov
Although I am not a part of the Iranian diaspora, I have seen many similarities between its history and that of a diaspora I am part of – Cuban exiles. My grandmother, aunt, and mother were born in Cuba and fled its communist government for a better life in America. Like many other Cuban exiles they hate Fidel Castro, and want few things more than to bring his regime down. How precisely to do this, however, is a point of contention – my mother favors diplomatic relations with Cuba and expanding socioeconomic exchanges to foster demand for reform. On the other hand, my grandmother and aunt oppose engagement with the regime on the grounds that dialogue would legitimize it.
What We Can Learn From Obama’s Cultural Diplomacy
From proposed religious litmus tests for Muslim immigrants to unrelenting efforts to kill the Iran deal and thwart trade and academic exchange, this election has left many in the Iranian-American community feeling alienated. Rhetoric has only intensified fear of Muslims and immigrants and policymaking has only made escape from the mire of identity politics more […]
Men in Iran are Wearing Hijabs in Support of Women’s Rights
The fight against the forced hijab has been documented since it began immediately after the 1979 Iranian revolution. Iranian women have gone so far as to shave their heads in protest of wearing the hijab. Last week, however, the fight against forced hijab took a new turn. Iranian men have begun wearing the hijab in […]