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Tehran

Iran Opinion

What Role Does Religion Play in Iran’s Protests?

Posted on September 28, 2022 by Alex Shams

Alex Shams was interviewed by AJ+ about the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests in Iran that began in September 2022. He discussed how protestors were navigating the complex relationship between religion

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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

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Iran Reporting

Quarantine Kitchen: Iranians share recipes, flavors, and joy despite the threat of coronavirus

Posted on March 15, 2020 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ajam Media Collective on March 15, 2020. Tehran has been under a state of semi-quarantine for 20 days. For weeks, millions have avoided leaving the house for

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Iran Opinion

Tehran is not just “LA with minarets”: Against cliches of Third World cities on the brink of disaster

Posted on January 14, 2019 by Alex Shams

The Guardian covered Tehran in its recent article series, “The next 15 mega cities,” an examination of metropolises across Asia and Africa that will soon hit the 15-million population mark.

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Iran Reporting

Samuel Jordan, the American missionary whose name graces Tehran’s most glamorous street

Posted on March 9, 2018 by Alex Shams

Originally published by “Ajam Media Collective” For residents of Tehran, the name “Jordan” conjures up images of luxury apartment towers, expensive brand names, and twenty-somethings in fancy cars who spend

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Iran Opinion

Tehran from 435 Meters: The View from Geisha

Posted on 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

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About me

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

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Recent posts

  • Workshop: Investigating Power
  • The “Terrorists” in My Grandmother’s Neighborhood
  • A Persian Christmas Story: How A Jewish Shrine in Qazvin Connects Palestine and Iran
  • ‘They Hit Everyone and Anyone’: From Lebanon, residents share what life has been like since Israel launched its attack.
  • Iran Braces for Uncertainty After President Raisi’s Death
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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.

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