Nima Shirazi @WideAsleepNima

In the sweltering late summer heat of 1953, a fifteen-year-old boy who would, a few decades and thousands of miles later, become my father, walked to his older...

The news media was abuzz this week with reports that, speaking before the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington D.C. -...

In his speech before the meeting of the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 24, U.S. President Barack Obama resurrected yet...

In Hillary Clinton's predictable, self-serving, overlong, boilerplate review of Henry Kissinger's new book, published last week in the Washington Post, she...

"...pathologies often help policy makers justify action at times when no vital, tangible interests are otherwise at stake. When pathology defines reality,...

Attempting to navigate a field of international rivals, under close scrutiny on a world stage, and achieve multilateral recognition before the window of...

Earlier this month, a freak sandstorm swept through Tehran, effectively shutting down the metropolis and tragically taking the lives of at least five people....

"Never underestimate the power of colors and how they can bring life to old walls and buildings," remarks a correspondent for Iran's PressTV in an April 2012...

Earlier this month, during an exhibition at the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Forces' Central Command in Tehran on May 11, Iranian military...

Iranian students, studying in the United States and reliant on Bank of America debit cards and ATMs for access to their foreign bank accounts, have recently...

As four days of "fruitful" and "useful" expert-level talks between Iran and the six world powers known collectively as the P5+1 (Britain, China, France,...

In response to the recent confirmation that the Rolling Stones will play a concert in June at Israel's Ramat Gan Stadium, Roger Waters and Nick Mason -...

"If this be play-acting, then it is play-acting of the highest order and comes close to being the best entertainment in town. To cavil at it for being...

With wretched pencil to debase Heaven’s favourite work, the human face, To magnify and hold to shame Each little blemish of our frame. - The Marquess...

It has become increasingly clear that the United States government has deliberately delayed issuing a visa to Hamid Abutalebi, Iran’s new Permanent...

Three years after popular revolutions overthrew dictators and galvanized political resistance in the Arab world, and as uprisings and civil wars continue to...

Alireza Ansari, founder of the Iranian skateboarding collective TSIXTY, does a kickflip at a skatepark in Tehran.(Photo Credit: TSIXTY) The West is often...

A haft-sîn - or seven S's - table in Tehran, Iran in 2010.(Photo Credit: Nima Shirazi) March 20, 2014 at 8:27 (and seven seconds) in the evening Iran-time...

In mid-2012, Alex Shams, editor-in-chief of the indispensable Persian and Iranian socio-culture site, Ajam Media Collective, wrote, It is nearly impossible to...

"Since its inception, Coursera, the education company that offers massive open online courses (MOOCs) to 6.3 million users in 190 different countries, has...

On January 29, 2014, The Times of Israel published what seemed to be some truly alarming news. "Iran now has all the technical infrastructure to produce...

"I am hoping to make my art accessible by designing products that play parts in your lives," writes Iranian designer and artist Diba Salimi about her latest...

Hassan Rouhani at his first press conference as Iran's President-Elect on June 17, 2013, Tehran, Iran. During his campaign to become Iran's president this...

*This piece was originally published on December 26 Earlier this week (the week of December 23)*, journalist and author Max Blumenthal posted an excellent...

"Le Passé" (or "The Past"), the new film by celebrated Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, was released in select U.S. cities today.  Already highly acclaimed...

Still frame from the Iranian music video commemorating the first 100 days of President Hassan Rouhani's administration.(YouTube) Riding the high of signing...

Nastaran Ghaffari, 22, is one of the many subjects of ABC News correspondent Muhammad Lila's #FacesOfIran photo series during his current trip to Iran.(Photo...

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than That cunning men pass for wise. -- Francis Bacon Whenever tensions over Iran's nuclear energy program appear to...

 "We are always wrong when we believe that Orientals think logically as we do." - President Dwight Eisenhower, in comments to his National Security...

This week in New York City, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke before the United Nations General Assembly, addressed a UN nuclear disarmament conference,...

I’m committed to fulfilling my promises to my ppl, incl my pledge to engage in #constructive interaction with world. http://t.co/7cTzRutT0B — Hassan...

A year after it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, eleven months after its blockbuster opening weekend, nearly seven months after being released on DVD...

"I have no interest in any open-ended conflict in Syria, but we do have to make sure that when countries break international norms on weapons like chemical...

In honor of the eighth anniversary of the Palestinian civil society call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, the Palestinian BDS...

The military coup that removed Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, on Wednesday July 3, 2013, after serving only a single year in...

Hassan Rouhani As could be expected, speculation about the future of Iranian foreign policy has been rife since Hassan Rouhani, a respected cleric,...

(Photo Credit: Reuters) One week ago, on Friday June 14, 2013, Iranians elected Hassan Rouhani, a highly-respected cleric and long-time fixture of the...

Hooman Majd is the grandson of an ayatollah, son of a career diplomat, and related by marriage to former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami.  Born in Tehran,...

Hooman Majd is the grandson of an ayatollah, son of a career diplomat, and related by marriage to former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami.  Born in Tehran,...

Iran's eight presidential candidates prepare to leave the set after their second of three televised debates in Tehran, Wednesday, June 5, 2013.(AP Photo/IRIB,...

A 2011 Andy Warhol exhibit at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran, Iran. Iran is in the news a lot these days.  Perhaps more than usual.  There's...

Iranian Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei casts his ballot in Tehran in parliamentary elections in 2012. On Tuesday May 21, Iran's Guardian Council announced...

The Journalists Memorial, located in the Newseum in Washington, D.C., pays tribute to reporters, photographers and broadcasters who have died reporting the...

The ancient town of Mahallat in central Iran, located roughly halfway between Tehran and Esfahan, boasts Hellenistic ruins from the time of Alexander the...

"Comment is free, but facts are sacred." - C.P. Scott, editor of the Guardian, 1921 Israeli commentator Meir Javedanfar has made a very successful career...

(America Loves Iraq/Facebook) “I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states...We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,...

A new photography exhibition, which opened Thursday April 11, 2013 at the Thomas Erben Gallery in New York City, showcases the talent of world-renowned,...

Margaret Thatcher died Monday, April 8, 2013, at the age of 87. Predictably, there is no dearth of hagiographic profiles of the former British Prime Minister...

A second round of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 - the five nuclear-armed permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and Germany - over...

NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament history was made last week when the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles, in their inaugural tournament appearance, became the first...

On March 19, 2003, the illegal, immoral and unnecessary U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began. That evening, from the Oval Office, George W. Bush told the world,...

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (Photo credit: AP Photo/Susan Walsh) In testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday March...

(Photo credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images). We are tempted to comment, in these last days before the war, on the U.N., and the French, and the Democrats. But...

Amid constant media coverage on the latest, seemingly substantive and productive nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1, new blustery threats of war...

If there’s one thing mainstream “Iran experts” hate, it’s well-credentialed, experienced analysts who dare challenge Beltway orthodoxies, buck...

The wizards of Wired's Danger Room blog have posted a year-end click-bait listicle identifying who they - Spencer Ackerman, David Axe, Noah Shachtman,...