State of the world Seminar on “Real Iran”
As a part of continuous “World Seminars” each semester, Office of International Students (OIS) will have their seminar focused on “Real Iran” this semester being held on March 29th 2006 at Doheney Library, University Park Campus.
The article that OIS wrote for promoting the seminar of “State of the World”, The Real Iran: A Student Perspective is as follows:
“Since the election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, there has been controversy surrounding Iran. So far this year, Iran has been a focal point in world news. This involves Ahmadinejad’s comments about Israel and the Holocaust. Also, there has been concern of his attempt to re-start Iran’s nuclear program. The United Nations and many countries have responded with statements condemning Iran’s nuclear program.”
In order to get a realistic perspective of what is really going on in Iran, State of the World will be presenting The Real Iran: A Student’s Perspective. It will involve a student panel of Iranian students who will speak about the actual perspective of Iranians concerning political and world events in their country. Also, the panel will give details about life in Iran. It will be moderated by a faculty member and will include time for a question and answer session.
This State of the World Seminar will be held on Wednesday March 29 at the Intellectual Commons at Doheny Library from 5pm to 6:30pm.
There will be a panel of five Iranian students with different ethnic backgrounds, cultures and believes to share their knowledge of the beloved homeland with the audience who I believe will mostly be other international students and particularly students of USC Department of International Relations.
The issues which we have been asked by OIS to consider in our presentation, will be Facts and statistics about Iran, Iranian culture, History, Social concerns and issues, the everyday lives of people, Religious life in Iran, Jewish Iranians, Christians of Iran, Muslim life and practice, Different ethnics (Persian, Azeri, Kurd, Baluch, Arab, …), Political frictions with the United States, Iran and The State of Israel and finally the recent Nuclear developments and activities being accelerated by the election of the new president…
This session will be continued by question and answer session as well.
Besides the panelists who will be the main speakers, there should be two faculty moderators for the event whom the speakers will be benefited by their opinions and ideas while the talk goes on.
Attendance: 250
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Students Celebrate Nowruz
Members of the Iranian Graduate Students Association passed out fliers and had a traditional Haft Seen table to celebrate Nowruz, the Iranian or Persian New Year, which lasts for 12 days and is celebrated in Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan.
The celebrations included a table set with Haft Seen. In Iranian, Haft is seven and Seen is S. Haft Seen is seven items that begin with the letter S and relate to the seven creations and the seven immortals that protect those creations.
A more detailed Daily Trojan article can be found here. See more pictures here.
Attendance: 50
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Nowruz 1385
In order to introduce rich Persian culture and traditions and providing USC international community as well as the school officials with Persian new year celebration traditions and Nowrouz, IGSA published a through introduction of Nowrouz, Haft-seen and its cultural backgrounds and decided to share the glory of the new year, the beautiful spirit of the spring and nature reanimation with other American and international students in addition to the university officials, sharing Iranian candies and a rich, well-designed pictorial book of “My Homeland Iran” with them to make a true and beautiful introduction of the beloved homeland.
In this regard, we shared the glory of the first day of the spring, Nowrouz and Haft-seen with:
• President of the University of Southern California
• Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs of the University of Southern California
• Vice President of Student Affairs and Enrollment Services of the University of Southern California
• Director of the Office of the International Students
• Head of USC Libraries- Doheny Memorial Library Head – Dean’s Office
• Head of the Admission Office
• Dean of the Viterbi School of Engineering
• Dean of USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
• Associate Dean of the Viterbi School of Engineering
• Head of the Viterbi School of Engineering Admissions
• Chairman of the Civil Engineering Department
• Chairman of the Environmental Engineering Department
• Chairman of the Electrical Engineering Department
• Chairman of the Computer Science Department
• Chairman of the Mechanical Engineering Department
• Chairman of the Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and Material Science Department
• Chairman of the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department
• Chairman of the School of Dentistry
• President of the International Students Assembly
• President of the Graduate and Professional Students Senate
Also in order to celebrate the new year with our Persian faculties, IGSA sent its members sincere regards and best wishes to every and each of them in the form of Nowrouz postal cards.
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Speech on Persian History "Parthian Dark Age"
In this event Mr. Dilmaghani, the most well known Iranian researcher in Parthian History, is invited to talk about his investigations and findings regarding the Dark Age in Parthian history. Mr. Dilmaghani has been collecting Iranian ancient coins and particularly Parthian coins for the last thirty years. Through investigation of the coins he has been able to solve some problems of the Parthian history. His article on the “Parthian Dark Age” published in the Numismatic Chronicle, caused him to become a member of the ROLAL NUMISMATIC SOCIETY of England. Ever since he has made many lectures on the Parthian history in Iran.
The Parthian empire was the most enduring of the empires of the ancient Persia, which ruled for about 400 years. The Parthian empire rose to power at (171-138 BCE) under king Mithradates and occupied all of modern Iran, Iraq, and Armenia, parts of Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and – for brief periods-territories in Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine. The end of this loosely organized empire came in 224 CE, when the last king was defeated by one of their vassals, the Persians of the Sassanid dynasty. The Parthian Dark Age refers to the most confused period of Parthian history, from the late years in the region of Mithradates II (c. 123-88 B.C.) to the establishment of the sole rule of Orodes II (c. 57-38 B.C.).
The coinage studies by Sellwood and Dilmaghani solved this confusion and made a reasonable description of the empire at that period of time.
Attendance: 40
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Nowruz (Iranian New Year Celebration)
Nowruz, in word, means "New Day". It is the new day that starts the year, traditionally the exact astronomical beginning of the Spring. Iranians take that as the beginning of the year. Nowruz with its uniquely Iranian characteristics has been celebrated for at least 3,000 years and is deeply rooted in the rituals and traditions of the Zoroastrian.
Iranians consider Nowruz as their biggest celebration of the year, before the new year, they start cleaning their houses, and they buy new clothes. But a major part of New Year rituals is setting the "Haft Seen" with seven specific items. In ancient times each of the items corresponded to one of the seven creations and the seven holy immortals protecting them. Today they are changed and modified but some have kept their symbolism. All the seven items start with the letter "S"; this was not the order in ancient times. These seven things usually are: Seeb (apple), Sabze (green grass), Serke (vinager), Samanoo (a meal made out of wheat), Senjed (a special kind of berry), Sekke (coin), and Seer (garlic). Sometimes instead of Serke they put Somagh (sumak, an Iranian spice). Wheat or lentil representing new growth is grown in a flat dish a few days before the New Year and is called Sabzeh (green shoots). Decorated with colorful ribbons, it is kept until Sizdah beh dar, the 13th day of the New Year, and then disposed outdoors. A few live gold fish (the most easily obtainable animal) are placed in a fish bowl. Mirrors are placed on the spread with lit candles as a symbol of fire.
IGSA, along with many other Iranian organizations celebrates this great event and organizes a very popular event to allow Iranians gather and party together. IGSA's New Year celebration has increasingly drawn attention from Iranians studying at USC as well as all other Iranians leaving in nearby areas. We always have people attending our New Year bash from Los Angeles area, Irvine, Pasadena, San Diego as well as Northern California. It also gets some media coverage from local and national radio and television channels.
Attendance: 350
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Beverages of the world
International Scholars Committee (GPSS) presented Beverages of the world on March 1st at courtyard between Business school and Law school to encourage the international students to come by and sample beverages from all over the world and socialize with people of all nationalities. IGSA, as a leader in every social and cultural event, was one of the fourth student association clubs taking part in beverages event.
IGSA served Iranian traditional tea with cardamom flavor along with one of special traditional Iranian Cookie, called Baghlava. Serving the Persian cookie made the atmosphere more appealing for other international students so that 150 pieces of cookies were gone after half an hour!!!
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