Iranban
Iranban is a multi‑award‑winning, independent children’s book publishing company based in Teheran, Iran, with more than 500 titles published.
View Rights PortalIranban is a multi‑award‑winning, independent children’s book publishing company based in Teheran, Iran, with more than 500 titles published.
View Rights PortalThis book explores what to do with heritage that has been destroyed in conflict. It charts a path through the colonial histories and traumatic wars of Syria and Iraq to examine the projects and responses currently on offer and assess their flaws and limitations, including issues of digital colonialism, technological solutionism, geopolitical manoeuvring, media bias and community exclusion. Drawing on current research into the psychology and neuroscience of trauma and trauma recovery, and taking inspiration from artists and creative thinkers who challenge the status quo, this book envisages gentler, creative and ethically-driven ways to respond to heritage damaged in conflict that recentre people and their hopes, dreams and needs at the heart of these debates.
By situating Iran within the neoliberal global capitalism and resulting geopolitics, this book traces the patterns of capital accumulation and transformations in class and state formation emanating from it. It shows that Iranian neoliberalisation has brought about two capital fractions, namely the internationally-oriented capital fraction and the military-bonyad complex. It substantiates that the co-existence of these competing class fractions with different accumulation strategies has generated hybrid neoliberalism. The book further demonstrates how this new class formation has reorganised the function and operation of state institutions and transformed state ideology. By documenting the ways in which Iranian neoliberalisation has reshaped the subaltern classes and formed Iran's volatile foreign policy, it also provides a novel account of major events and processes in contemporary Iran, such as the post-2017 wave of uprisings, the nuclear programme and international sanctions.
This book offers a nuanced snapshot of the complex geopolitical dynamics in the Persian Gulf, underlining the interaction between Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the US. Examining their interwoven relations since the 1970s, Luíza Cerioli's framework reveals how changes in US-Saudi ties have ripple effects on Iran-US and Iran-Saudi relations and vice versa. Using a historical lens, she explores how enduring US-Saudi connections hinge on order expectations, delves into the cognitive factors shaping US-Iran enmity and traces the source of oscillation in the Saudi-Iran ties. Employing Neoclassical Realism, the book investigates status-seeking, national identities and leadership preferences, offering a deeper understanding of the region's multipolar system. By combining International Relations and Middle East Studies, Cerioli's work contributes to both fields, unravelling the intricate interplay between international structures, regional nuances and agency in shaping Persian Gulf geopolitics.
This book analyses the use of the past and the production of heritage through architectural design in the developmental context of Iran, a country that has endured radical cultural and political shifts in the past five decades. Offering a trans-disciplinary approach toward complex relationship between architecture, development, and heritage, Mozaffari and Westbrook suggest that transformations in developmental contexts like Iran must be seen in relation to global political and historical exchanges, as well as the specificities of localities. The premise of the book is that development has been a globalizing project that originated in the West. Transposed into other contexts, this project instigates a renewed historical consciousness and imagination of the past. The authors explore the rise of this consciousness in architecture, examining the theoretical context to the debates, international exchanges made in architectural congresses in the 1970s, the use of housing as the vehicle for everyday heritage, and forms of symbolic public architecture that reflect monumental time.
Fattaneh Haj Seyed Javadi, geboren 1945 in Schiraz, lebt in Isfahan. Sie studierte an den Hochschulen für Literatur und Fremdsprachen in Teheran und Isfahan und arbeitete mehrere Jahre als Lehrerin. Anfang der 1990er Jahre übersetzte sie Jeffrey Arthurs Werk Kain und Abel ins Persische. Javadi ist verheiratet und hat zwei Töchter. Nach dem auch in deutscher Übersetzung sehr erfolgreichen Roman Der Morgen der Trunkenheit (1995, Insel 2000) wurde ihr zweites Buch In der Abgeschiedenheit des Schlafs (2002) ebenfalls zu einem Bestseller im Iran.
Germany, pacifism and peace enforcement is about the transformation of Germany's security and defence policy in the time between the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 war against Iraq. The book traces and explains the reaction of Europe's biggest and potentially most powerful country to the ethnic wars of the 1990s, the emergence of large-scale terrorism, and the new US emphasis on pre-emptive strikes. Based on an analysis of Germany's strategic culture it portrays Germany as a security actor and indicates the conditions and limits of the new German willingness to participate in international military crisis management that developed over the 1990s. It debates the implications of Germany's transformation for Germany's partners and neighbours and explains why Germany said 'yes' to the war in Afghanistan, but 'no' to the Iraq War. ;
In "Tankstellenchips" von Antonia Michaelis entfaltet sich eine ungewöhnliche und humorvolle Road Novel über die unerwartete Freundschaft zwischen Sean, einem Studenten aus dem Iran, der seit zwei Monaten in Deutschland lebt, und Davy, einem Jugendlichen auf der Flucht aus dem Heim, der sich auf die Suche nach einem Freund gemacht hat. Ihre Wege kreuzen sich in einer Sommernacht, als sie Zeugen eines Überfalls werden und fortan gemeinsam auf der Flucht vor Verbrechern und Polizei quer durch Deutschland reisen. Ihre abenteuerliche Reise führt sie über Erdbeerfelder, durch Biergärten und sogar im Heißluftballon, wobei sie merkwürdigerweise immer wieder von Kühen umgeben sind. Die Geschichte, die mit viel Witz und Skurrilität erzählt wird, bietet nicht nur unterhaltsame Einblicke in die deutsche Kultur aus der Perspektive eines Flüchtlings, sondern beleuchtet auch ernstere Themen wie Freundschaft, Außenseitertum und die Suche nach Zugehörigkeit. Erfrischende Perspektive: Die Erlebnisse eines Flüchtlings auf einer abenteuerlichen Reise durch Deutschland bieten einzigartige und humorvolle Einblicke in kulturelle Unterschiede und die Herausforderungen der Integration. Spannende und humorvolle Handlung: Eine abwechslungsreiche Flucht quer durch das Land, gespickt mit skurrilen Begegnungen und einer ständigen Präsenz von Kühen, sorgt für Unterhaltung und Lacher. Tiefgründige Themen: Hinter der leichten und komischen Fassade verbirgt sich eine Geschichte über Freundschaft, Identität und das Überwinden von Hindernissen, die zum Nachdenken anregt. Authentisch und lebensnah: Antonia Michaelis ist bekannt für ihren authentischen und nah am Leben orientierten Schreibstil, der auch in "Tankstellenchips" voll zur Geltung kommt.
This book attempts to establish a more holistic approach to the rehabilitation of war-injured civilians, one that adjusts to the patients' long-term needs. Kovacic not only offers an insight into the daily realities of patients during and after rehabilitation, but seeks to develop a new way to perceive, respect and involve them in health care. Based on comprehensive interviews with patients and MSF staff, as well as extended field observations, Reconstructing lives follows Syrian and Iraqi war-injured civilians in their journey to recovery. From their improvised medical treatment in their home countries, to the MSF-run hospital in Amman Jordan, to their return home, Kovacic explores how individuals attempt to pick up the pieces of their previous lives, add new elements from their treatment and travel experiences, and finally establish a new reconstructed reality. The book explores how the interaction between MSF staff and their patients contributes to the immense task of healing that awaits victims of war. The reader visits the intimate medical and domestic spaces that usually remain closed to the outside observer, spaces rich with human contact, perceptions, emotions, conflicts and reconciliations.
‘In the Footsteps of Enayat Al-Zayyat’ is a book that traces the life of an unknown Egyptian writer who died in 1963, four years before the release of her only novel. The book does not follow a traditional style to present the biography of Al-Zayyat, or to restore consideration for a writer who was denied her rights. Mersal refuses to present a single story as if it is the truth and refuses to speak on behalf of the heroine or deal with her as a victim, but rather takes us on a journey to search for the individuality that is often marginalised in Arab societies. The book searches for a young woman whose family burned all her personal documents, including the draft of her second novel, and was completely absent in the collective archives. The narration derives its uniqueness from its ability to combine different literary genres such as fictional narration, academic research, investigation, readings, interviews, fiction, and fragments of the autobiography of the author of the novel. The book deals with the differences between the individuality of Enayat, who was born into an aristocratic family, graduated from a German school and wrote her narration during the domination of the speeches of the Nasserism period, and that of Mersal, a middle-class woman who formed her consciousness in the 1990s and achieved some of what Enayat dreamed of achieving but remained haunted by her tragedy. The book deals with important political, social and cultural issues, as we read the history of psychiatry in modern Egypt through the pills that Enayat swallowed to end her life on 3 January 1963, while her divorce summarises the continuing suffering of women with the Personal Status Law. We also see how the disappearance of a small square from her neighbourhood reveals the relationship between modernity and bureaucracy, and how the geography of Cairo changes, obliterated as the result of changes in political regimes. In the library of the German Archaeological Institute, where Enayat worked, we find an unwritten history of World War II and, in her unpublished second novel, we see unknown stories of German scientists fleeing Nazism to Cairo. We also see how Enayat’s neglected tomb reveals the life story of her great-grandfather, Ahmed Rashid Pasha, and the disasters buried in the genealogy tree.
This novel, a bestseller in Baghdad, starts with the first two American tanks that crossed over the Jumhuriya Bridge into the heart of Baghdad in 2003, as the narrator watches events unfold from her grandfather’s house at the riverfront. That’s when her emigration journey begins, setting her on a path to experience both love and death away from her country. After her mother passes away, her father resorts to quantum physics in an attempt to interpret the meaning of existence, while the nameless protagonist discovers the novels of Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens, and Francoise Sagan. ///The author depicts how different generations of the same family live different worlds, separated by experiences and time despite occupying the same physical spaces. The Jumhuriya Bridge threads symbolism throughout the novel—ushering in the beginning of the military fall of the city and later being the setting of sporadic events, from innocent flirting, to gulls, down to the shocking event that pushes the story up to its climax.
This autobiographical work centers on literary creativity. Poet Ali Jaafar Alallaq recollects his academic and professional experiences, as well as their diverse ventures into poetic, literary, critical, and academic writing earlier in his life. The book covers the poet’s upbringing in a humble, impoverished village, his family’s subsequent move to Baghdad in the early 1950s, and his journey up until the present day. ///The biography details a plethora of human, cultural, and poetic events that impacted Alallaq’s perspective on events he witnessed, interacted with, or was involved in. These events range in intensity and scope, spanning from his childhood years in the countryside to navigating significant societal changes in Baghdad, and from his early explorations in writing and literary journalism to pursuing doctoral studies in the United Kingdom. He reflects on enduring two destructive wars that displaced Iraq’s people, leading to a life of exile and reliance on divine providence under the night sky. ///Beginning in 1991, Alallaq began a long period abroad that included six years of teaching at Sanaa University, followed by ten years of work at the United Arab Emirates University from 1997 to 2015. He produced a remarkable body of poetry and critical works during his tenure as a university instructor and his active involvement in cultural and poetic affairs in Sanaa and later in the UAE, which continues to this day. ///In this book, Alallaq takes on several roles, including narrator, contemplator, restorer, and descriptor, and expresses himself using elevated literary language. As a result, the work serves as an aesthetic testament to the purity of language as well as a cohesive account of the ups and downs of daily life. Despite living and working in a prosperous and stable environment for many years, he remains emotionally and imaginatively connected to the events and struggles affecting his country and the Arab world. He continues to document his aesthetic and patriotic testimony of current happenings, as clearly evidenced in his present autobiography.
Die Wahrnehmung Irans wird derzeit von den Tiraden Ahmadinejads und dem Nuklearprogramm dominiert. Das Klischee von verblendeten Mullahs verstellt dabei den Blick auf ein Land, dem zentrale Bedeutung für den Nahen und Mittleren Osten zukommt. Dagegen skizziert Volker Perthes die differenzierten strategischen Positionen, die Radikale und Realisten innerhalb der iranischen Eliten einnehmen. Europäischen Politikern empfiehlt er eine Politik, die das wechselseitige Vertrauen fördert und die Sicherheitsinteressen Irans wie seiner Nachbarn ernstnimmt. Damit liefert er einen fundierten Beitrag zu einer der wichtigsten politischen Herausforderungen der Gegenwart.
Michel Ezra Safra & Sons is a family saga by a well-known Israeli writer, Amnon Shamosh. The story is semibiographical and takes place partly in Aleppo, Syria, the birthplace of the author. The book describes the life, struggles, and dispersion of a well-to-do Syrian Jewish family during the course of three generations, beginning in the mid-1930’s. The story of the Ezra Safra family is the tale of a Middle Eastern Jewish society and its basic traditional values, which are constantly challenged by other norms, both circumstantial and universal. Shaken by local and global upheavals, the family, headed by Michel and his pretty wife Linda, is driven from their hometown of Aleppo during riots in the aftermath of the United Nations resolution in late 1947 on the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. Michel, a practical figure, continues to rule his worldwide business empire. His grip on his children seems to loosen, however, though he still enjoys their respect and love. Rachmo, the eldest son and heir apparent, runs the Paris branch of the family business, but his conduct as a family man does not live up to his parents’ standards. Albert, his younger brother, abhors business and shuns the course he is expected to take. He finds an outlet in Zionist underground activity, including “smuggling” Jews into Palestine. Five other Safra sons and daughters emigrate to Europe, America, and Israel. What concerns Michel most, disturbing and haunting him, is not the state of his financial empire, but a grave “sin” that he has committed. When the old synagogue of Aleppo was set on fire, Michel rescued the “Aram Zova” Torah scroll and managed to keep it from burning. He removed a piece from this priceless, sacred scroll and secreted it in a safe in Nice, France. Although this treasure is protected, Michel construes the tragedies that befall the family as divine punishment. Throughout the novel, the reader follows Michel on his worldwide travels, settling family and business affairs, burdened by poor health and by his conscience. The life of his son Albert, now an influential member of a collective settlement in Israel, is completely alien to him. The saga of the Ezra Safra family draws to a finale when Michel dies heartbroken a few days after his grandson is killed during the 1967 Six-Day War. Later, Rachmo, who was made party to his father’s secret, dies of a heart attack upon learning that the scroll in Nice has been stolen. Linda agrees to join her children in Israel, but refuses to live with them. She chooses to live a solitary life, surrounded by photos and memories of the past. Michel Ezra Safra and Sons was made into a highly successful mini-series for the Israeli television. French and Spanish translations of the entire novel are available! 348 pages, 14.5X21 cm
On a nice fall day of 1988, Zakiya Zaghwani was found lying dead at the edge of the desert, giving way to a quest to discover the circumstances surrounding her death. While looking for whoever was involved in the death of the young singer, nearby residents discover bit by bit their involvement in many things other than the crime itself. ///The story takes place in a town near the desert. And as with Khatibi’s previous novels, this one is also marked by a tight plot, revolving around the murder of a singer who works in a hotel. This sets off a series of complex investigations that defy easy conclusions and invite doubt about the involvement of more than one character. /// Through the narrators of the novel, who also happen to be its protagonists, the author delves into the history of colonialism and the Algerian War of Independence and its successors, describing the circumstances of the story whose events unfold throughout the month. As such, the characters suspected of killing the singer are not only accused of a criminal offense, but are also concerned, as it appears, with the great legacy that the War of Independence left, from different aspects.///The novel looks back at a critical period in the modern history of Algeria that witnessed the largest socio-political crisis following its independence in 1988. While the story avoids the immediate circumstances of the war, it rather invokes the events leading up to it and tracks its impact on the social life, while capturing the daily life of vulnerable and marginalized groups. /// Nonetheless, those residents’ vulnerability does not necessarily mean they are innocent. As it appears, they are all involved in a crime that is laden with symbolism and hints at the status of women in a society shackled by a heavy legacy of a violent, wounded masculinity. This approach to addressing social issues reflects a longing to break loose from the stereotypical discourse that sets heroism in a pre-defined mold and reduces the truth to only one of its dimensions.
Amnon Shamosh, who made his name as an author with the well-known family saga “Michel Ezra Safra & Sons” as well as with the dozens of enthralling short stories that appeared in the collections entitled “My Sister the Bride” and “Wheels of the World,” surprises us once again with a novel that is modern, brilliant, and profound. The story revolves around age-old traditions and historical facts that complement one another, mingling in Shamosh’s imagination and impassioning the reader. In the year 1400, the great conqueror Timur Lang arrives in the Syrian city of Haleb (Aram Zoba) and from it sends ten Jewish families of silk dyers into exile, banishing them to Samarkand, capital of Timur’s empire, on the Silk Road. Timur Lang also kidnaps Jewish virgins, sequestering them in his harems. One of the virgins captures the heart of Timur’s son, a man of intellect and creation, who ruled under him. King Elias, “son of the Jewess,” who was raised in the Islamic faith, embarks on a quest to Spain in an effort to get to know and understand the Christian world as well as the Jewish one, which was flourishing in Spain at the time. Elias, seeking an identity and also a bride, finds them in Haleb, city of his maternal forefathers. His young wife came from the Dayan family, with ties to the dynasty of the House of David. The novel moves through three story lines. One is situated in the fifteenth century and centers mainly on the royal family and on the harem in Samarkand. The second occurs at the beginning of the twentieth century, in Jerusalem’s Bokharan Quarter, where immigrants from Bokhara and Haleb are crowded together, and the leaders of the new Jewish immigrant society visit the neighborhood. Story line number three concerns the last decade of the century, with the massive immigration of Soviet Jewry; the story here focuses mainly on the Bokharan immigrants. The spotlight is on Oshi Shauloff Ben-Shaul, born in the Bokharan Quarter, whose mother, of Halev origin, is a descendant of the above-mentioned House of Dayan and has roots in one of the families that were exiled from Haleb to Samarkand. This novel, excitingly erotic yet refined and restrained, has a style that is at once powerful and inspiring – as we have been led to expect from the works of Amnon Shamosh. Born in Syria in 1929, Amnon Shamosh immigrated to Tel Aviv as a child and later became one of the founding members of Kibbutz Ma'ayan Baruch, where he resides today. A graduate of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, author of both poetry and prose for children and adults, his work has been translated into English, Spanish, and French. Amnon Shamosh is a recipient of the Agnon Prize, named after the celebrated Israeli Nobel Laureate in Literature, the Prime Minister's Prize for Creativity, the President of Israel's Award for Literature, and numerous other literary awards. 288 pages, 14.5X21 cm
Just as in a Greek tragedy, America is moving towards the inevitable collision with the ultimate threat: the fatal combination of fanatic Islam, nuclear arms, and the richest energy resources in the world. On September 11, 2001, Osama Bin Laden demonstrated to the world how US dollars and American technology could be easily turned around and used as a boomerang to strike into the heart of America. It is easy, though shattering, to imagine what can happen once such fanatic zeal is equipped with the monstrous power of nuclear weapons. A quick look at the map shows that the United States did learn the lesson, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were just the closing of the circle around the real threat – Iran. From Scratch takes you into the whirlpool that sweeps the world from a local war in the Persian Gulf through a military coup in Russia - Iran’s new old ally - to a veritable nuclear holocaust. An all-male US submarine crew that unwillingly played an active role in destroying mankind, finds out in the aftermath that the opposite task – to recreate the human race rests on their shoulders – From Scratch. They will emerge, after nine months underwater, at a remote Pacific Island where conditions can again support life. Equipped with cutting-edge technology, they carry with them two dozen frozen fertilized ova, each of which is destined to become a new "Eve", and who together will be the mothers of the new humankind. However, there are too many “Adams” on the island, and more than a hundred men are eagerly waiting for the 24 baby girls to mature into grown women. Therefore the struggle for control over the precious “resource” is predetermined. These men find out that human nature cannot be changed. Even after the ultimate war that destroyed everything, man will go on using sheer force in order to get what he wants and to resolve disputes. Despite the pessimistic scenario, the book is essentially optimistic, and is driven by faith in the law of history: although the good may suffer and pay a precious price, they will eventually prevail. The Author: A Fighter Pilot, Naval Officer, and Senior Hi-tech Engineer. Ron Adam has enjoyed an impressive military career, from Israeli Navy submarine and torpedo boat service to the Israeli Air Force as a fighter pilot, captain of an aircraft carrier, flight instructor, and electronic warfare staff officer. Holding a degree in Electronics Engineering, Adam has headed a 1.2 billion dollar defense program and has also established three high-tech start-ups. Today, Adam is a senior consultant to the aerospace industry, and shares his time between top-level engineering and writing of books and scripts. He is happily married and has 3 children. An English-Language eBook edition has been scheduled for publication in late 2017 by Samuel Wachtman's Sons ,Inc., CA. 180 pages, 15X21 cm