Iran

India Reporting

Parsi Mumbai: The Legacy of Zoroastrianism in India’s Urban Fabric

April 14, 2015 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ajam Media Collective on April 14, 2015. An Iranian visitor can’t help but notice the Zoroastrian symbols that dominate old Mumbai. In the historic Fort District toward

Academic Work Iran Reporting

Urban Space and the Production of Gender in Modern Iran

February 23, 2015 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ajam Media Collective on Feb. 23, 2015 and again in Women in Islam journal on Sept. 9, 2019. What does an Islamic urban space look like? This question

Iran Opinion

Sectarian War or Political Mistake?

August 24, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally Published in Andisheh-ye Pouya, Tir 1393.

Academic Work Iran Israel Opinion

Next Year in Tehran

February 20, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published on The New Inquiry on Feb. 20, 2014. An Iranian intellectual’s trip to Israel in the 1960s revealed the strange appeal of secular republicanism to religious ethno-supremacists In March

Opinion

A Caricature in the Crosshairs

April 27, 2012 by Alex Shams

Originally published in the Harvard Crimson. It’s time to talk about Iran. The last few months have seen an unprecedented increase in belligerent rhetoric of American and Israeli neoconservatives towards

Iran Opinion

Tehran from 435 Meters: The View from Geisha

December 27, 2011 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ajam Media Collective on December 27, 2011. Tehran is a city defined by a distinctly “Islamic modernity.” Although some have said it is not an “interesting” city

Reporting

Qom: Land of samosas and talebe factories

August 31, 2011 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Mashallah News. The first glimpses of Qom are always a let-down. The approach begins about an hour into the journey south on the Tehran-Qom road, when, after