IAF to host ritual folk music performances

TEHRAN – Groups of folk musicians from across Iran are scheduled to come together at Jalil Shahnaz Hall of the Iran Artists Forum (IAF) in Tehran on Wednesday evening to perform repertoires of ritual folk songs of their own native regions.
The musicians have been invited to the event from the provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran, Kordestan, West Azarbaijan, East Azarbaijan, Fars, Sistan-Baluchestan, South Khorasan and Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari.

Mohammadreza Darvishi, Hamidreza Ardalan and other experts are also scheduled to speak on various aspects of regional religious music in the country.


“The Enchanted Horse” reaches Iranian bookstores

TEHRAN – A Persian edition of British author Magdalen Nabb’s “The Enchanted Horse” has recently been published in Tehran by Woodpecker’s Books, which is affiliated with Donya-e-Eqtesad Publications.

Rendered into Persian by Neli Mahbub, the children’s book is about Irina whose family doesn’t have enough money to buy her the present she wants on the eve of Christmas. Then Irina sees a wooden horse in a junk shop window and all she wants is to take it home with her.


Tehran theater to face “The Nightmares of the Harmful Effects of Tobacco”

TEHRAN – Aryan, an Iranian theater troupe led by director Afsaneh Zamani, plans to stage “The Nightmares of the Harmful Effects of Tobacco” at Entezami Hall of the Iranian Artists Forum (IAF) in Tehran on December 13.

The one-act play is based on prominent Russian author Anton Chekhov’s “On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco” that has also one character: Ivan Ivanovich Nyukhin.

Farzin Mohaddes will play the role of Nyukhin who has been asked by his wife to give a lecture on the harmful effects of tobacco, although he is a smoker. However, he always postpones the actual subject by talking about his problems with his domineering wife.


“Shadows and the Wind” receives honorable mention from Belarusian festival

TEHRAN – Iranian play “Shadows and the Wind” by director and playwright Fereidun Velai has received an honorable mention at the 12th Teatralny Kufar International Student Theater Festival, which was held in Minsk, Belarus from November 29 to December 6.

The play staged by Barish theater troupe hints at the desperate loneliness of human beings due to unsolvable problems as it puts forward questions like, “Do you really smile when you smile?” and, “What is behind your shadow?”

Last year’s grand prix of the festival went to the Iranian troupe Papion for their performance of “The Chairs”.


Photog records huge panorama of Shia Muslims’ Arbaeen walking in Karbala

TEHRAN – Photographer Ehsan Baqeri, who is also the director the Iranian Photographers Center (IPC), said on Monday that he has recorded the longest panorama of mourning rituals of Shia Muslims last week in Karbala during Arbaeen, which marks the end of the 40-day mourning period following the martyrdom of Imam Hussain (AS) and his companions on Ashura.

Baqeri said that the breathtaking panorama of pilgrims walking along an 80-kilometer route from the Iraqi city of Najaf to Karbala illustrates that nowhere else can such a huge number of people be seen walking together to reach a specific destination with a common goal.

Each year, pilgrims, mainly from Iraq and Iran, travel long routes on foot to Karbala, which is home to the holy shrine of Imam Hussein (AS).

AFM/RM/YAW
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