• About me
  • Reporting
  • Opinion
  • Academic Work
  • Contact me

Alex Shams

  • About me
  • Reporting
  • Opinion
  • Academic Work
  • Contact me
Search for:

Alex Shams

  • About me
  • Reporting
  • Opinion
  • Academic Work
  • Contact me
Search for:
Category:

Reporting

Iran Reporting

‘We Have to Know When to Hope and When to Be Hopeless’: How six Iranians feel about the Woman Life Freedom movement, one year later

Posted on September 16, 2023 by Alex Shams

First published in New York Magazine on Sept. 16, 2023. As told to Alex Shams. One year has passed since protests first broke out across Iran following the killing of

  • Share
Iran Reporting

How Bazaar: The surprising way a Japanese soap opera shaped the Iranian secondhand economy

Posted on September 1, 2023 by Alex Shams

Originally published in Mildew Magazine, Sep 2023, based on an article in Ajam Media Collective.

  • Share
Iran Reporting

‘We Have Broken the Wall of Fear’: Iranian protesters on what brings them back to the streets four weeks in

Posted on October 13, 2022 by Alex Shams

Originally published in New York Magazine on Oct. 13, 2022. Written by Alex Shams. Since mid-September, Iranians have taken to the streets to protest the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini

  • Share
Featured Iran Reporting

Hormuz: A Psychedelic Ride through a Geological Wonder

Posted on September 8, 2022 by Alex Shams

Originally published in Kinfolk Islands in September 2022, pgs. 74-85. The Strait of Hormuz gets a bad rap. Sandwiched between Iran, Oman and the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf, this

  • Share
Featured Iran Mexico Reporting

Inside Mexico’s deep and unexpected legacy of Iranians

Posted on July 29, 2022 by Alex Shams

The Iranian presence in Mexico dates back centuries, but became even more pronounced when the Shah of Iran sought refuge there after he was overthrown in 1979. Originally published on

  • Share
Featured Iran Reporting

Feats of Strength and Street Politics in Tehran – مواقع القوة وسياسات الشارع في طهران

Posted on July 26, 2022 by Alex Shams

Originally published in Journal Safar in September 2021 as part of Issue VI: Power. On the nights leading up to Ashura, the streets of Tehran turn a thousand shades of

  • Share
Arab World Lebanon Mexico Reporting

“أرواحنا منقسمة إلى قسمين”: المجتمع العربي في مدينة مكسيكو

Posted on July 4, 2022 by Alex Shams

Originally published on July 2, 2022 on Noon Post. This article is a translation of an article originally published on Middle East Eye on November 15, 2016. العديد من العرب المقيمين

  • Share
Iran Reporting

Sofreh aqd : à la découverte du mariage iranien

Posted on July 3, 2022 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Middle East Eye on July 3, 2022. Un grand miroir scintille dans la lumière des candélabres. Les visages du couple se reflètent dans leur lueur. Devant eux,

  • Share
Featured Iran Reporting

From City to Slope in Iran

Posted on September 13, 2021 by Alex Shams

Originally published in Kinfolk Travel in September 2021, pgs. 146-153.

  • Share
Iran Reporting

Tanakura Bazaar: The Iranian Legacy of Beloved Japanese Soap Opera Oshin

Posted on February 16, 2021 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Ajam Media Collective on Feb. 16, 2021. In markets across Iran, Tanakura Bazaars can be found dedicated to second-hand clothes, knock-off brand name shoes, and Iranian-made shirts

  • Share
previous 1 2 3 4 … 14 next

About me

Alex Shams is an Iranian-American writer and a PhD student of Anthropology at the University of Chicago.

follow me on

Recent posts

  • “Why Did So Many People Think This War Was a Good Idea?”
  • CBS Interview: How people in Iran feel about ceasefire with U.S., upcoming peace talks
  • Looking A Tyrant In the Eye: Iran’s Long Struggle for Freedom and Justice
  • Iran After Khamenei
  • Iran’s Protesters Are Caught Between State Repression and Foreign Intervention
Search for:

About

Born and raised in an Iranian-American family in Los Angeles, Alex Shams has long been fascinated by the stories that places can tell us. Growing up, he learned Persian and Spanish; in college, he learned Arabic and studied abroad at the American University of Cairo before moving to Beirut after graduation. After receiving his master’s in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard, he moved to Bethlehem, Palestine, where he was a journalist at Ma’an News Agency, the largest independent Palestinian news organization. He received his PhD. from the University of Chicago in Sociocultural Anthropology. His dissertation, entitled “Constructing Islamic Modernity: Power, Religion, and Masculinity in Post-Revolutionary Iran,” was based on three years of ethnographic research in Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan as well as archival research in the British Library and Ba’ath Party Archives.

follow

Popular posts

  • Nablus is Nablus
    Nablus is Nablus
  • Israel Needs a Plan in Gaza. Don't Look to the West Bank for Ideas
    Israel Needs a Plan in Gaza. Don't Look to the West Bank for Ideas
  • Iran Hits the Beach
    Iran Hits the Beach
  • The Joys of Akitu, the Assyrian New Year
    The Joys of Akitu, the Assyrian New Year
  • Iran's Beach Town Boom
    Iran's Beach Town Boom
  • Quiet Solidarity: The Underground Networks that Defied Israel's War on Iran
    Quiet Solidarity: The Underground Networks that Defied Israel's War on Iran
  • When Persian was an Indian Language: The Fables of Jameh ul-Tamseel from Medieval Hyderabad to Modern Iran
    When Persian was an Indian Language: The Fables of Jameh ul-Tamseel from Medieval Hyderabad to Modern Iran
  • Bulgarian Habibi: How Orientalist Stereotypes in Chalga Music Recover Memories of the Balkans’ Ottoman Past
    Bulgarian Habibi: How Orientalist Stereotypes in Chalga Music Recover Memories of the Balkans’ Ottoman Past
  • “I’m Afraid a Bomb Will Kill Me in My Sleep”: Iranians React to Israel’s Attacks
    “I’m Afraid a Bomb Will Kill Me in My Sleep”: Iranians React to Israel’s Attacks
  • Inside Mexico's deep and unexpected legacy of Iranians
    Inside Mexico's deep and unexpected legacy of Iranians

Archive

Categories

  • Academic Work
  • Arab World
  • El Salvador
  • Featured
  • India
  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Israel
  • Lebanon
  • Mexico
  • Oman
  • Opinion
  • Pakistan
  • Palestine
  • Reporting
  • USA
Back to top
Copyright © 2009–2026 Alex Shams