Columbia University Presents: “Iran after the Election”

New Yorkers, mark your calendars for December 5th.

In what looks to be the most important academic conference on the post-election affairs of Iran, Columbia University will host a who’s who of Iranian scholars, activists, and journalist for a conference entitled “Iran After the Election.”

Featured speakers will include: Asef Bayat, Hamid Dabashi, Gary Sick, Abdolkarim Soroush, and Richard Bulliet among others.

This will be the event for those wishing to know everything and more about what happened in Iran last summer and what to look for in the coming months. Best of all, the event is free and open to the public!

For more information visit:

http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/mei/iranconference/Home.html

Fresh Protest Video from Tehran University

The New York Times’ lede blog has just posted fresh footage of protests from Tehran University. The struggle continues for the Green Wave both at home and abroad.

Rafsanjani will lead upcoming Friday Prayers in Tehran.

Big news from Iran. Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a major anti-Ahmadinejad power broker in Iran has spent the last month holed up somewhere plotting something (I am sure), is to lead national prayers this upcoming friday.

The LA Times reports:

News of the return of reformists and moderates to the official Friday prayer ceremony could serve as a challenge to hard-liners, led by supreme leader Ali Khamenei, on their home turf. Alternately, it could be a sign that the two sides have brokered a truce in their continuing political conflict.

More importantly, it is believed that both Mousavi and Khatami will attend the sermon. If indeed this is true, Rafsanjani’s sermon may well be on of the most watched events in the 30 year history of the Islamic Republic.

Rafsanjani, known as “The Shark” within Iran for his cunning political ability, his massive wealth,  and his inability to grow a beard, is a political survivor so many would not be suprrised to see him kowtow to the State (having already made backroom deals). We will know on friday.

NY Review of Books Does Podcast With Roger Cohen on Iranian Election

Roger Cohen. Interview. Listen here. Read The New York Review of Books often.

Roger Cohen.

Roger Cohen (the coolest guy in English language journalism besides Louis Theroux) has written a new column about covering the recent uprisings in Iran. Enough said.

Read here. Hand him the Pulitzer.