A glimpse of Iran, by the eyes of its artists and journalists

Few People have had the chance to go to or discover Iran, an ethnically various nation of over 90 million folks which has been successfully shut off from the US because the Iranian revolution of 1979. Now, with a U.S. and Israeli-led battle on Iran underway, the concepts, emotions and opinions of Iranians could really feel much less accessible. Nevertheless, some latest books, movies and music made by artists and journalists in Iran and from the Iranian diaspora can assist illuminate this historical tradition and its modern politics.

These solutions are simply a place to begin, in fact — with an emphasis on latest works made by Iranians themselves, somewhat than by outsiders wanting in.

Books

For the Solar After Lengthy Nights: The Story of Iran’s Girls-Led Rebellion, by Fatemeh Jamalpour and Nilo Tabrizy

There are fairly a couple of wonderful titles that deconstruct the historical past of Iran from historical occasions by the rule of the Pahlavi Dynasty to the Iranian Revolution. However there are far fewer books that assist us perceive the Iran of 2026 and the individuals who stay there now. One standout is the Nationwide E book Award-nominated For the Solar After Lengthy Nights: The Story of Iran’s Girls-Led Rebellion by journalists Fatemeh Jamalpour and Nilo Tabrizy, which chronicles — nearly in actual time — the Girl, Life, Freedom motion that started in 2022, throughout which Jamalpour was working secretly as a journalist in Tehran. In 2024-25, Jamalpour (who’s now dwelling in exile within the U.S.) and I spent a yr collectively on the College of Michigan’s Knight-Wallace fellowship for journalists; her insights into modern Iran are among the many finest.

Gold, by Rumi, translated by Haleh Liza Gafori

If People are acquainted with Persian poetry in any respect, it might be by well-liked “translations” of the Thirteenth-century Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi accomplished by the late American poet Coleman Barks, who neither learn nor spoke the Persian language and indifferent the works of Molana (“our master”), as Iranians name him, of references to Islam. (As a substitute, Barks “interpreted” preexisting English translations.)

In 2022, Iranian-American poet, efficiency artist and singer Haleh Liza Gafori supplied the primary quantity of a corrective, within the type of contemporary Rumi translations which might be directly accessible, deeply contemplative and speedy. A second quantity, Water, adopted final yr.

Martyr!: A Novel, by Kaveh Akbar

This 2024 debut novel by Kaveh Akbar, the poetry editor at The Nation, is an unflinching tour-de-force bursting with wit and perception into the issues of diaspora, the character of id in a post-Warfare on Terror world and the inter-generational influence of the 1979 Revolution on Iranians. The protagonist, the Iran-born however American-raised Cyrus Shams, has struggled with dependancy, melancholy and insomnia his entire life, and is making an attempt his finest to make sense of a world on the “intersection of Iranian-ness and Midwestern-ness.” As with so many different of the titles right here, fiction and truth are woven collectively: the story facilities across the true story of the U.S. downing an Iranian passenger airplane in 1988 throughout the Iran-Iraq battle.

The Stationery Store: A Novel, by Marjan Kamali

Marjan Kamali’s 2019 love story is the wistful story of a younger lady named Roya and an idealistic activist named Bahman, who meet cute in a Tehran retailer within the Nineteen Fifties, however whose deliberate marriage falls aside resulting from turmoil each familial and political, as Iran’s democratically elected authorities falls in a U.S.-British lead coup that ends with the set up of the Shah. Roya flees to the U.S. for a contemporary begin, however the two reunite in 2013, questioning: what if life had spun out in a distinct route?

Motion pictures

Coup 53

This 2019 documentary directed by Iranian movie maker Taghi Amirani and co-written by Walter Murch recounts Operation Ajax, through which the CIA and Britain’s MI6 engineered the removing of Mohammad Mossadegh, Iran’s democratically elected prime minister, and put in a pleasant ruler, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in his place. (The Shah was ousted within the 1979 revolution.) As Contemporary Air critic John Powers famous in his overview, “What emerges first is the backstory of the coup, which like so much in the modern Middle East is predicated on oil. Shortly after the black gold was discovered in early 20th century Iran, a British oil company now known as BP locked up a sweetheart deal for its exploitation. Iran not only got a mere 16% of the oil money before British taxes, but the books were kept by the British — and the Iranians weren’t allowed to see them.”

Slicing By Rocks

Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni’s movie Slicing By Rocks is up for an Oscar this season after premiering on the 2025 Sundance Movie Pageant. This inspiring documentary follows Sara Shahverdi — a divorced, childless motorcyclist — as she campaigns to turn out to be the primary lady elected to town council of her distant village, and who desires of instructing women to journey and to finish youngster marriage.

It Was Simply an Accident

The most recent movie from acclaimed director Jafar Panahi — who has formally been banned from making movies in Iran — is 2025’s It Was Simply an Accident. Panahi, who has been jailed a number of occasions for his work and was not too long ago sentenced once more in absentia, has mentioned in interviews that his inspiration for this brutal – and shockingly humorous – thriller was folks he met whereas in jail: an auto mechanic named Vahid finds himself face-to-face with the person who he’s pretty sure was his torturer in jail, and ultimately assembles different victims to attempt to verify his suspicions. Contemporary Air critic Justin Chang referred to as It Was Simply an Accident “a blast of pure anti-authoritarian rage.”

The Seed of the Sacred Fig

This 2024 thriller — shot in secret by director Mohammad Rasoulof — facilities on a household whose father, Iman, is appointed as an investigating decide in Tehran. However it quickly turns into clear that his job has nothing to do with truly investigating. Iman, his spouse, and two daughters come to suspect one another in our age of mass surveillance, as town streets beneath erupt into the real-life Girl, Life, Freedom protests.

Music

Kayhan Kalhor

One of many major ambassadors of Persian classical music has been the composer and kamancheh (an Iranian bowed-instrument) virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor. Though music, like poetry, has been central to Iranian tradition for hundreds of years, all types of music have been initially banned after the 1979 revolution. Since then, nevertheless, Iranian classical musicians have ridden many looping cycles of official condemnation, grudging tolerance, censorship and makes an attempt at co-option by the regime.

Regardless of these difficulties, Kalhor has constructed a thriving profession each inside Iran and overseas, together with profitable a Grammy Award as a part of the Silkroad Ensemble and incomes three nominations as a solo artist. Again in 2012, I invited him to our Tiny Desk to carry out solo. “Didn’t know I could have goosebumps for 12 minutes straight,” a YouTube commenter not too long ago wrote; I could not put it any higher.

Saeid Shanbehzadeh

Amongst Iran’s 92 million folks, about 40% of come from numerous ethnic minorities, together with Azeris, Kurds and Armenians amongst many others. Probably the most fascinating communities is the Afro-Iranians within the Iranian south, lots of whose ancestors have been delivered to Iran as enslaved folks from east Africa. Multi-instrumentalist and dancer Saeid Shanbehzadeh, who traces his ancestry to Zanzibar, celebrates that heritage together with his band, and specializes within the Iranian bagpipe and percussion.

The underground metallic scene

Regardless of ongoing restrictions on music — together with the continued ban on feminine singers performing in mixed-gender public settings — Iran is residence to a thriving underground scene for metallic and punk. Although it is fictional, Farbod Ardebelli’s 2020 quick drama Forbidden to See Us Scream in Tehran — which was secretly filmed in Tehran, with the director giving directions remotely from the U.S. through WhatsApp — offers a taste of that real-life scene and the hazards these artists face.