
The US nuclear treaty with Iran highlights connections between Hawai‘i and a country that is often viewed as difficult to understand. Persian culture has a foothold in Hawai‘i with the Doris Duke Center for Islamic Art and a new online Persian language course through UH M?noa. As part of its ongoing series, Following Up, HPR’ s NoeTanigawa revisited Iranian scholar FaridehFarhi for a window on what is happening in Iran now.
Farideh Farhi is an independent scholar/researcher and Affiliate Graduate Faculty at UH M?noa. She has also taught at the University of Tehran. She has been quoted in the New York Times, Financial Times, America al Jazeera, Foreign Affairs, and by NPR, among other new sources. Farhi has worked as a consultant for the World Bank and the International Crisis Group. She is currently co-editing a book, "Power and Change in Iran: Politics of Contention and Conciliation," for the University of Indiana Press.
In 2012, Iran won its first Oscar for the film, A Separation, by Asghar Farhadi . Farhi recommends an earlier film by Farhadi, "About Elly", which has just been released in the West. She also recommends award-winning filmmaker Rakhshan Bani-E'temad whose film, "Tales", weaves the stories of seven characters linked by shared struggles — social, economic, and political.