Category Archives: Blog

Since the death of President Karimov in Uzbekistan, where I’ve been fortunate to do research (new book chapter coming out any day now!), I have been trying to peer into Uzbekistan’s future — and it seems that I’m not alone. Here’s a recent analysis of what may come: Uzbekistan After Karimov: More Continuity than Change.

Come and take a dip in the Sultanate of Oman for A Carefree Getaway Just Off the Persian Gulf–see you in the water!

When I was on a Fulbright in Indonesia (studying Advanced Indonesian, Islamic mysticism, Javanese gamelan, traditional puppetry [wayang], & martial arts [pencak silat]), I was placed with a Christian host mother in a predominantly Christian city in Java (we lived next to a volcano!). Since my expertise on religion in Indonesia is focused on Islam, it was an eye-opening experience for me to live among the ethnic Chinese Christian and Buddhist minority. Many of my neighbors openly shared their experiences of ethnic and religious discrimination and their fears of being persecuted. It ended up being as much of an educational experience as my Fulbright responsibilities. Now, in the wake of the Christian governor of Jakarta being suspected of blasphemy, fears are rising among the ethnic Chinese population that they too will soon be targeted for suspicion and persecution.

Here is a trailer for Crumbs, the acclaimed Ethiopian apocalyptic sci-fi hit directed by Spanish-born, Addis Adaba-based filmmaker Miguel Llansó that weaves together surrealism, western pop culture, and Afro-futurism (not to mention Santa Claus).

Here is the trailer for The Idol — which follows the journey of singer Mohammed Assaf from Gaza to winning “Arab Idol” (he performed this fall here in Oman).

In the short documentary clip above, Meryl Streep performs a few scenes from Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage — including one in which she delivers the following lines from the play:

“I’m not courageous, only the poor have courage, why? Because they’re hopeless. Just to get up every morning, to plow a potato field in war time or to bring kids with no prospects into the world. Yeah, to live poor, that takes courage. No, they trudge along uncomplainingly, carrying the emperor in his heavy throne and the pope in his stone cathedral. They stagger, starving, bearing the whole thundering weight of the…wealthy on their broad stupid backs. Is that courage? It must be, but it’s perverted courage. Why? ‘Cause what they carry on their backs will cost them their lives.”

When asked in the documentary if Mother Courage is a tragic figure, Meryl responds: “I think of her as you and me. You know, we all live off the war, whether we acknowledge it, she’s just more dirty and in the trenches. We all live off the war.” In the clip below from the end of the first act, Meryl artfully sings “The Song of the Great Capitulation” — which plays like a master class in acting, while revealing Mother Courage’s philosophy of life.

American Indian, created by Andy Warhol in 1976 (acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas), is one of sixty artworks from the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art which was scheduled to be shown next month at Berlin’s Gemälde Galerie. (Last month, while I was in Iran as a guest speaker for the Commonwealth Club of California, I visited the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art — which has the most valuable modern art collection outside of Europe and North America.) Now, however, it has been announced that American Indian will be staying in Tehran — because Iranian authorities are not allowing the paintings scheduled to go to Germany to leave the country. This particular painting depicts Russell Means, an American Indian of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who was a leader of the American Indian Movement, a politician, and an actor. In 1973, he led a group of Native Americans in a symbolic takeover of Wounded Knee which lasted 71 days. He died of cancer in 2012 on US Pine Ridge Reservation.

This Thanksgiving Day week, I have had Standing Rock on my mind and in my heart — and I am watching closely the brave protest there. As my family has roots in the Creek Tribe (a book was written about our Native American past), I was fortunate to be raised with an awareness of Native American history (and I later studied Native American cultures at Brown University). I am both appalled by the barbaric acts of intimidation and violence there, and inspired by the numerous acts of solidarity and love (in the words of Jane Fonda, who is there, “I’ve rarely seen so much love, gratitude, determination, resilience.”) Today, it was announced that the Army Corps has issued an eviction notice for December 5th to the Standing Rock camp protesting the North Dakota Access oil pipeline. With the eviction edict now issued, many are now asking: “What is to be done?”

Here is the trailer for Starless Dreams, an Iranian documentary directed by Mehrdad Oskouei that focuses on girls in a juvenile delinquency centre in Iran — most of whom have been physically or mentally abused. The film just won the award for best documentary at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Since I live in the Persian Gulf in the Sultanate of Oman, I have become more familiar with the “zar” — a communal ceremony intended to drive out unwelcome spirits and restore an individual to health in mind, body, and spirit (I have also attended zars in Africa as well). As I publish on Iranian film and have been studying the zar ceremony in East Africa and the Persian Gulf, I was delighted to learn of a new Iranian film, The People of the Wind, which is about the performance of “zar” in Hormuzgan Province on the coast of the Persian Gulf in southern Iran. The film was directed by Abtin Sarabi, a young Iranian director who lives and works in Lille, France and Tehran. He graduated from the Toulouse School of Fine Arts and is influenced by Iranian film master Abbas Kiarostami and the Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky.

Last month, while giving a series of lectures in Iran for the Commonwealth Club of California, I had the opportunity to visit the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art — which has the finest modern art collection outside of the U.S. and Europe. An upcoming exhibit of sixty pieces from its celebrated collection (which remains behind lock and key in Iran) was scheduled to open at Berlin’s Gemälde Galerie next month — but now it has been postponed indefinitely because Iranian authorities are not allowing the paintings to leave the country.

Shahrzaad’s Tale, shown this year at the Diaspora Film Festival, is a unique documentary about a forgotten star of pre-revolutionary Iranian cinema. As the website for the Diaspora Film Festival explains: Shahrzaad is the pseudonym of early 60s popular Iranian actor, also a published writer/poet and Iran’s first woman filmmaker. She saw her fortunes plummet dramatically after the Revolution of 1979. Today after more than 30 years of being out of work, in her late sixties, Shahrzaad is a wandering homeless woman. A tale of an incredible female artist caught in three decades of political turmoil in the cultural landscape of contemporary Iran.