Negar Mottahedeh is a cultural critic and film theorist specializing in interdisciplinary and feminist contributions to the fields of Middle Eastern Studies and Film Studies. [1]
Negar Mottahedeh is a cultural critic and film theorist specializing in interdisciplinary and feminist contributions to the fields of Middle Eastern Studies and Film Studies. [1]
She is known for her work on Iranian Cinema, but has also published on the history of reform and revolution, on `Abdu'l-Baha's vision of human solidarity and peace in the 20th Century, on Bábism, Qajar history, performance traditions in Iran, the history of technology, visual theory, Majid Tavakoli and the Men in Scarves Movement (also known as the "I am Majid" campaign), [2] and the role of social media in the 2009–2010 Iranian election protests. [3] [4] [5] With the publication of #iranelection: Hashtag Solidarity and the Transformation of online life in 2015, [6] she expanded her focus to the cultures and practices of the web, writing on the political efficacy of selfies, memes and gifs in The Hill (2017), [7] and pieces on internet security and Iranian hacker culture on WIRED's platform Backchannel (2017). [8] She also wrote articles for Observer, covering the effects of President Trump's travel ban, and the persecution of the Jews and the Baháʼí (2017). [9]
She received her Ph.D. in 1998 from the University of Minnesota. She has taught at the Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, and in 2002 began teaching at Duke University, where she is associate professor in the Program in Literature and in the Women's Studies Program. Mottahedeh curated the "Reel Evil: Films from the Axis of Evil" [10] film festival with Miriam Cooke in 2003 and created Brainquake with Golbarg Bashi in response to Boobquake on April 26, 2010. [11]
The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people. Established by Baháʼu'lláh, it initially developed in Qajar Iran and parts of the Middle East, where it has faced ongoing persecution since its inception. The religion is estimated to have 5 to 8 million adherents, known as Baháʼís, spread throughout most of the world's countries and territories.
Bábism, also known as the Bábi Faith, is a monotheistic religion founded in 1844 by the Báb. The Báb, an Iranian merchant-turned-prophet, professed that there is one incorporeal, unknown, and incomprehensible God who manifests his will in an unending series of theophanies, called Manifestations of God. The Báb's ministry, throughout which there was much evolution as he progressively outlined his teachings, was turbulent and short lived and ended with his public execution in Tabriz in 1850. A campaign of extermination followed, in which thousands of followers were killed in what has been described as potentially one of the bloodiest actions of the Iranian military in the 19th century.
The Baháʼí calendar used in the Baháʼí Faith is a solar calendar consisting of nineteen months and four or five intercalary days, with new year at the moment of Northern spring equinox. Each month is named after a virtue, as are the days of the week. The first year is dated from 1844 CE, the year in which the Báb began teaching.
Táhirih (Ṭāhira) (Persian: طاهره, "The Pure One," also called Qurrat al-ʿAyn are both titles of Fatimah Baraghani/Umm-i Salmih, an influential poet, women's rights activist and theologian of the Bábí faith in Iran. She was one of the Letters of the Living, the first group of followers of the Báb. Her life, influence and execution made her a key figure of the religion. The daughter of Muhammad Salih Baraghani, she was born into one of the most prominent families of her time. Táhirih led a radical interpretation that, though it split the Babi community, wedded messianism with Bábism.
The cinema of Iran, or of Persia, refers to the film industry in Iran. Particularly Iranian art films have garnered international recognition. Iranian films are usually written and spoken in the Persian language.
The Conference of Badasht was an instrumental meeting of the leading Bábís in Iran during June–July 1848.
The Baháʼí Faith is a relatively new religion teaching the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people.
The Baháʼí Faith has its background in two earlier movements in the nineteenth century, Shaykhism and Bábism. Shaykhism centred on theosophical doctrines and many Shaykhis expected the return of the hidden Twelfth Imam. Many Shaykhis joined the messianic Bábí movement in the 1840s where the Báb proclaimed himself to be the return of the hidden Imam. As the Bábí movement spread in Iran, violence broke out between the ruling Shiʿa Muslim government and the Bábís, and ebbed when government troops massacred them, and executed the Báb in 1850.
Baháʼís are persecuted in various countries, especially in Iran, where the Baháʼí Faith originated and where one of the largest Baháʼí populations in the world is located. The origins of the persecution stem from a variety of Baháʼí teachings which are inconsistent with traditional Islamic beliefs, including the finality of Muhammad's prophethood, and the placement of Baháʼís outside the Islamic religion. Thus, Baháʼís are seen as apostates from Islam.
Denis M. MacEoin was a British academic, scholar and writer with a focus on Persian, Arabic and Islamic studies. He authored several academic books and articles, as well as many pieces of journalism. Since 2014 he published a number of essays on current events with a Middle Eastern focus at the Gatestone Institute, of which he was a Senior Fellow. He was a Senior Editor from 2009 to 2010 at Middle East Quarterly, a publication of the American think tank Middle East Forum, where he was also a Fellow.
The Baháʼí Faith in the United Arab Emirates began before the country gained independence in 1971. The first Baháʼís arrived in Dubai and Sharjah by 1940, and by 1957 there were four Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assemblies in the region of the United Arab Emirates and a regional National Spiritual Assembly of the Arabian Peninsula. Looklex Encyclopedia estimated some 75,000 Baháʼís or 1.6% of the national population - second only to Iran in number of Baháʼís in the nations of the Middle East - though the Association for Religious Data Archives estimated closer to 51,700, 1.3%, in 2005. Recent estimates of the ARDA count some 38,364 Baháʼís or 0.5% of the national population.
Opponents of the Baháʼí Faith have accused the faith's followers of committing various acts of political mischief, such as having a supposed "dual loyalty" and being secretly in the employ of foreign powers supposedly inimical to the interest of their home state. These accusations, together with others with a more theological bent, have been used to justify persecution of adherents of the Baháʼí Faith and the religion itself.
The origins of the Baháʼí Faith in Bangladesh begin previous to its independence, when it was part of British Raj. The roots of the Baháʼí Faith in the region go back to the first days of the Bábí religion in 1844. During Baháʼu'lláh's lifetime, as founder of the religion, he encouraged some of his followers to move to India. It may have been Jamál Effendi who was first sent and stopped in Dhaka more than once. The first Baháʼís in the area that would later become Bangladesh was when a Bengali group from Chittagong accepted the religion while in Burma. By 1950 there were enough members of the religion to elect Local Spiritual Assemblies in Chittagong and Dacca. The total number of Baháʼís in Bangladesh is too small to have any major direct impact on society at large. However, the World Christian Encyclopedia estimated the Baháʼí population of Bangladesh about 9,603 in 2010. Baháʼís are widely persecuted in Bangladesh. According to The Business Standard the population is about 300,000.
The Baháʼí Faith originated in the 19th century Persian empire, and soon spread into the neighboring British India, which is now Pakistan and other states. The roots of the religion in Pakistan go back to the 1840s, and it was recognized in the constitution of 1981 as a religious minority with legal rights. According to various sources, there are 2,000 to 87,000 Baha'is living in Pakistan.
Since its inception the Baháʼí Faith has had involvement in socioeconomic development beginning by giving greater freedom to women, promulgating the promotion of female education as a priority concern, and that involvement was given practical expression by creating schools, agricultural coops, and clinics.
Negar Mortazavi is an Iranian-American journalist, political analyst, editor and host of the Iran Podcast. She is based in Washington DC.
Abbas Amanat is an Iranian-born American historian, scholar, author, editor, and university professor. He serves as the William Graham Sumner Professor of History at Yale University and Director of the Yale Program in Iranian Studies.
The scholarly study of the Baháʼí Faith, its teachings, history and literature is currently conducted in a variety of venues, including institutes of the Baháʼí administration as well as non-affiliated universities. Some scholars study some aspect of the Baháʼí Faith as part of research on related matters while others engage in Baháʼí studies as a primary focus of their research. Scholars' comments on the religion and its predecessor Bábism date back to at least 1845, the year after its founding. Initially, they were often Orientalists or Christian missionaries but through time both Baháʼís and non-Baháʼí researchers have addressed the religion especially in tune with the growth of the religion, which has been called significant.
Moojan Momen is a retired physician and historian specializing in Baháʼí studies who has published numerous books and articles about the Baháʼí Faith and Islam, especially Shia Islam, including for Encyclopædia Iranica the British Library, and is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
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