heading to zagros

We are heading to Iran this weekend to attend a very exciting and special conference on Zagros Tranditional Settlements in Sanandaj, Kurdistan, organized by the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture, and Urbanism. We will write much more about the lectures and sites; but please let us know if there is anything specific that you want us to pay attention to, take pictures of, or ask the experts attending and/or presenting at the conference.

 

 

Photo courtesy of International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture, and Urbanism

 

tehran metro

[By Shideh]   During my last years in Iran, 1998-1999, Tehran Metro seemed like a dream that would never come to reality.  We knew that the plan for its construction had begun a long time before the revolution but was stopped during the war and that the construction had finally started after all those years but there was no hope as it seemed to take a long time.  Tehran’s traffic continued to worsen, the pollution lead to numerous social/economical/health problems, and the need for metro was at its peak.  On march 7^th, 1999, Tehran-Karaj express electric train finally started a limited service of 31.4 km between Azadi square in Tehran and Malard in Karaj with one intermediate stop.  The construction works of stations, tunnels, and bridges on a few subway lines were eventually finished and a great number of Tehranies use the Metro every day now to get to their destinations.  

 

Iran khodro with an annual production of over 1,000,000 vehicles continues to contribute to the congestion of cars in Tehran and other cities, while there is an ongoing parallel attempt to increase public transportation and metro lines in Tehran and complete construction of metro stations/tunnels in other major cities (i.e. Shiraz, Tabriz, Mashhad, etc.).  The limits imposed on the amount of gas available for each driver last year seemed to be successful in reducing traffic for a short time, but people have found a way around the limitations and selling gas on black market has become a common scene in Tehran.

 

 

Photo and map courtesy of TehranMetro

tehran’s official site

[By Shideh]   I came across the official website of the city of Tehran, while looking for some information regarding the duties and power of the Mayor.  This site provides detailed information on different aspects of life in Tehran ranging from history, policy, and urban planning to education, tourism, and much more, which you might find useful: http://www.tehran.ir

subway culture

[By Shideh]   When I walk to a metro station, whether it is in the Bay Area (California), New York, Tehran, or Boston, I look at the people around me and quickly plan my next move.  Is there a seat available? If so, are there older people standing? If not, who should I sit next to? If there are no available seats, where can I find a spot without getting hurt or being on the way?  Once I manage my way in and find a spot, I usually start day dreaming about the events of the day or something I am planning in the days to come, or read an article or a book.  I quickly lose count of minutes and my surrounding and only pay attention to the name of the station each time the train stops.  Recently, however, I have become more aware of the social aspect of subways.  I want to get to know the people with whom I happen to travel from a source to a destination.  After all, trains give us the opportunity to make many friends and learn about our surroundings. 

During our last trip to Tehran, when I entered a metro station I first noticed the majestic artwork on the walls and the neatness of the station as a whole.  Tehran-metro is truly one of the most beautiful and comfortable subways I have ever used.  People formed lines in an organized way, and were much more polite than other places.  In Tehran, at least in my experience, there is no need to ask people to get up when a pregnant lady or an elderly walks in.  When an older woman walked in, younger people got up and offered to help – a scene that is seldom experienced in NYC or even the Bay Area.  I was surprised to see that unlike busses, Tehran metro did not have separate sections for men and women – It turned out, however, that I had walked into the wrong section!

Photo of Tehran Metro, courtesy of Bahadorjn 

Shawhin and I spent last weekend in New York City.  Taking metro in New York City is not trivial by any means.  You are surrounded by many different faces, races, cultures, ages, and economic backgrounds.  The social aspect of New York subways are fascinating.  The advertisements on the walls usually get my attention for a few minutes while I notice an excellent band playing music in the subway station.  I quickly see a homeless in the other corner begging for money and scolding those who refuse to help and an old man without teeth on the other side is asking whether I am willing to buy his metro ticket (which he seems to have stolen from someone).  I notice a frustrated mother on the other corner with 2 little boys who are being as loud as possible and are quite hard to control.  There are young girls putting on make up on the other side, laughing, singing, and joking every now and then while flirting with boys who pass them by.  Suddenly a group of rich coworkers walk in and quietly wait for the next train and look at their surrounding with disgust.  There is an artist on the other corner drawing our faces and is getting a good laugh at it while smoking something that doesn’t smell like cigarettes.  You might see anything and everything when you are waiting for the train in a New York City metro station — unexpected things. When the train arrives, all of us sit next to each other in crowded narrow halls of the train. 

In the Bay Area, seats are arranged in a way that passengers are not forced to sit next to each other or interact (rows of seats with their backs to each other, with the exception of a few in each train cabin).  In NYC and Tehran, however, the seats are on the two sides of the train and face the center.  Last Sunday, a fantastic group of break dancers were dancing in the train when we walked in to go to Soho and Café Habana from our hotel in Union Square.  I felt fortunate to be given a chance to watch the dance of a few young African Americans for no fee really while waiting in the train.  I was a part of the energy of the crowd that was traveling below the streets of New York while experiencing unexpected events, seeing new faces, hearing new music, listening to new stories, and watching new dances.  Imagine listening to young Iranian musicians playing Santour, Tonbak, Daf, and Tar in the subways of Tehran while enjoying a cup of tea and  waiting for the next train. 

norooz

[By Shideh]   It is this time of the year again; Yaade Norooz e Tehran Bekheir.  I feel the nature’s longing for spring, I feel its heart beat for spring, its open arms to welcome spring as the trees, flowers, and every living creature (on the northern hemisphere) show their excitement for the New Year and are once again filled with life, waiting to greet a new day, Norooz.  I want to deeply clean our house this weekend, clean every closet, every little detail that has been neglected for a year.  I want to wear new clothes, get a hair cut, learn new things, meet new people, and send letters/emails/text messages to people I have already been fortunate to know.  I want to be all prepared to greet Norooz this year, to be in phase with my surroundings in welcoming Spring into our little house in Berkeley, this wonderful Iranian tradition that I can’t imagine living without. 

My mother has grown “sabzeh” for everyone in  my family this year (a type of plant/herb, a “haft seen” item as a part of the Norooz tradition).  Every morning I wake up to see that it has grown noticeably, as if it has realized that Norooz is coming in a week and it has to grow to a decent size before Norooz enters the house.  Flowers in our little yard are all prepared and full of excitement and life while quietly waiting, as if they are holding their breath, looking at each other with their shiny eyes, hiding their smile, waiting…   

power of colors

[By Shideh]   On our way to Iran from San Francisco, we stopped in Amsterdam to change planes.  Shawhin and I got our coffee and orange juice (I’m the coffee person and he’s the healthy one) and we were on our way to find the gate for the KLM flight to Tehran.  It turned out finding the gate was much easier than expected.  All we had to do was to follow the large number of familiar eyes who spoke Farsi very loudly.  It’s not common to speak loudly among Iranians, but somehow it seemed like we all wanted to make sure others noticed that we are Iranian, kind of like a signal, a way of communicating, a way to make sure other Iranians see us and can come to us if they are lost or need help of any sort.  

I felt the excitement of going home after 8 years; it was amazing being among all those familiar eyes, familiar accents, familiar smiles, or familiar complaints.  I realized in the middle of my excitement, however, that those eyes and accents were not our only guides to the right gate.  It was something much more visual and obvious: the black clothes!  Sadly I must acknowledge the current trend of fashion among my fellow countrymen.  Black, black, black.  All I could see was black, dark blue, dark gray, dark green, basically all sorts of varieties of black with different shades.  I told Shawhin if he noticed that we were the only ones not wearing black at the gate while we were waiting for our flight.  He laughed and nodded.  I saw that his happy eyes transformed to something more like worried happy eyes.  Well, I did not want to ruin this experience for him so I changed the topic.  I was however deeply concerned about the effects of this color on people’s everyday life back home.  Imagine living in a black city where colors are not widely accepted, are thought to be cheap, or are not even allowed in many public places.  I wonder if anyone in Tehran or other big cities in Iran worries about this, but there I was waiting at the gate deeply struggling with these thoughts and emotions.  I was emotional and excited with the thought of landing at the Mehrabad airport, seeing the Azadi tower when the pilot does a turn around it before landing, kissing the ground of my city, the city that really belonged to me.  My fear of black, on the other hand, was constantly on my mind.  I wanted to get the microphone from the flight attendant and ask all the passengers to change their outfits and wear brighter colors and was frustrated with my lack of power to do so. 

A girl in Sanandaj, Iran, wearing traditional colorful costumes. Photo courtesy of Ddokosic

geohazards international

[By Shideh]   A great organization working toward global earthquake safety: http://www.geohaz.org/index.htm

The mission of this Nonprofit Organization is to “reduce death and suffering – particularly among children – due to earthquake and other natural hazards in the world’s most vulnerable communities through advocacy, preparedness, prevention, and mitigation.”  I will write more about this organization in the future posts as we just learned about their activities and are planning to do more research and potentially get involved; so more posts to come.

  

Photo courtesy of J Rodgers

UN hazard mitigation game

[By Shawhin]  I just found a very neat website developed by the UN/ISDR (International Strategy for Disaster Reduction).  They have a series of “Stop Disaster” scenario games that you can play.  The game can be run off the internet on almost any machine.  It’s pretty cool.  It is a bit like the simcity game but geared toward disaster management and natural hazards.  Here’s the link:http://www.stopdisastersgame.org/en/home.html

Currently they have five natural hazard games: tsunami, hurricane, wildfire, earthquake, and flood.   And they are looking for support in creating more scenarios and in different languages.  More info at http://www.unisdr.org/.The website also has a lot of information on education, preparedness, and tips on what to do to mitigate damaging effects of natural hazards.  I haven’t been through the whole site, but it looks like a good resource, particularly for younger folks and kids.

nevada quake

[By Shideh]   This morning, at 6:16am local time, a strong earthquake of magnitude 6 struck the northeast corner of the state of Nevada in the U.S., which damaged buildings in a small town near the epicenter. This earthquake was apparently felt as far away as southern California.  The USGS recorded eight aftershocks between magnitudes 3 and 4 in the hours following the first shake.

 

There are records of collapsed building fronts and bricks crushing cars (according to CNN), as well as cracked walls. Fortunately, the authorities have confirmed only one minor injury. 

Important observation for everyone, especially Iran’s northern cities where some houses are built out of wood and there are large forests: the main water line shut down because of leaks caused by the temblor during the earthquake this morning, in the city of Wells, Nevada.  The breakage of water lines was what ruined the city of San Francisco in 1906 after the earthquake as the fire started while major water lines were shut down and fire fighters couldn’t effectively control the fire.  When I talk to older people in San Francisco about the 1906 earthquake, they mostly remember it as the 1906 fire and not the earthquake, even though the fire was caused by the earthquake.

tehran dance

[By Shideh]   The art of dancing is truly a gift. It is an amazing feeling - the power in group dances - especially the ones with lots of energy, movement, singing, colors, and joy. I only saw these dances in Indian movies when I was a kid - we never had that experience growing up in Tehran. It seems as if Tehran is the America of Iran, where many people from different villages, cities, and provinces migrate to in order to provide better opportunities for their next generation. It is a busy city with lots of people, high rises, and traffic jams. Tehran has become the melting pot for the country, a city where people from all sorts of backgrounds, cultures, languages, and costumes from around the country migrate to and learn to live next to each other. But in many cases, these individuals sadly forget their own backgrounds and costumes. As a result Tehran may have lost its own unique identity. Perhaps it’s hard to define it or perhaps this is what Tehran’s identity is: a melting pot. But why didn’t I, as a Tehrani girl, ever experience a Tehrani group dance like kids who lived in Gilan, Mashhad, south Bandars, or the nomads of Qashghai experienced?

 

photo courtesy of Ballet Afsaneh

denial, escapism, scapegoating, and cynicism

[By Shawhin]  Yesterday I heard a great lecture from UCBerkeley on iTunes.  It was a guest lecture by Professor of Public Policy, Robert Reich in a political science class.  In one part he talks about the importance of overcoming four things (“the four horseman of the apocalypse”) that keep the public from taking action on things which should be done:

+        Denial: saying that problems don’t exist, e.g. saying there is no global warming, there is no poverty, etc

+        Escapism: “there may be problems, but where I am, it’s not an issue: in my home, job, and my community, I am fine and there is no need to worry”

+        Scapegoating: “we may have problems, but they are all because of a certain group or concept”.  Scapegoating is a substitute for thought and genuine reform in social change.

+        Cynicism: the belief that nothing will change or nothing can be changed.  People use cynicism to hide from the burden of responsibility and disillusionment

Prof. Reich sees these each as a “burden to overcome to mobilize people to face the facts and to change the direction society is going in.”

I think cynicism is a big issue in Tehran, but at the same time, I think we have recent examples of when one leader can reverse a good amount of it and bring hope in its place.  Many people, especially youth, seem to go with the flow on cynicism… I think.

super tuesday

[By Shideh]   Today is voting day (Super Tuesday), when nearly half of the states in the U.S. pick their republican and democratic candidates for the November Presidential elections.  The race has basically narrowed down to five candidates: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for democrats, and Mike Huckabee, John Mccain, and Mitt Romney for Republicans.

It is definitely an exciting day here in Berkeley, a wave of enthusiasm for voting is felt as you walk through the south gate of the campus.  Mostly I hear Obama’s name on the student’s flyers and yes, they are hopeful for the future of their country.  It seems many older people see something nobel in Obama, something that reminds them of America’s older heroes, like Martin Luther King, or John F. Kennedy.  I like this feeling and atmosphere, and can’t get enough of it.  It reminds me of the presidential elections in Iran, for Khatami’s first campain.  I was a high school student then and one of his huge supporters at that time.   

Photograph courtesy of New York News and Features

As an Iranian living in America, I naturally care a lot about the outcome of today’s elections and of course the November elections.  If I could vote, I would vote for a leader who would concentrate on improving this country (in terms of education, health care, infrastructure, research,…) more than focusing on offense and war, a leader who would advocate tolerance and deep respect for all.  I specifically want a leader who would unconditionally support direct dialogue (political, scientific, etc.) with Iran and many other countries that have found their way to the U.S. black list for one reason or another.  I want change, a deep change in current U.S. foreign policies and in the budget spent on propaganda, racism, hatred, and offense.  I want this all to end, yet is a president alone able to make all these changes?  Is this country ready for change?  Is the president really the one in power or is he really only a puppet in the hands of lobbyists, investors, bankers,…, you know those quiet powers that are behind the scene?  Is this a game or does it somewhat matter who’s the president? If so, to what extent?

power of god

[By Shideh]  

I am auditing an awesome course on “human behavior and organizational factors, …” with Professor Bea, here in Berkeley’s civil engineering department.  He’s an amazing lecturer, one of those professors that you just can’t forget. 

Here’s one of his quotes that I’d like to share with you:

“You have the power of God in your hands, as engineers.  You can save lives and of course can easily take lives when your design fails.  Based on 50 years of experience as an engineer having witnessed many failures, I tell you now that almost 80% of all engineering breakdowns happen because engineers are not well trained in dealing with people and fail in effective communication and management.”

tehran historic earthquakes

[By Shideh]   I read an interesting article by H. Hamzehloo, F. Vaccari, and G.F. Panza, “ Towards a reliable seismic microzonation in Tehran, Iran,” a few parts of which I am including below:

“Tehran, the capital of Iran, is located in a very high seismic zone at the foot of the Alborz Mountains, which is part of the Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt. The distribution of historical earthquakes around Tehran shows that the region has been experiencing eight large destructive earthquakes with magnitude greater than 7 from 4th B.C to 1830 (Ambraseys and Melville, 1982). These large historical earthquakes caused severe damage to Shahre Ray City, which is a part of Tehran city at present. The last large historical event was the 1830 earthquake with magnitude 7.1, which occurred approximately 100 km from the city. The closest historical event to the city was the 855 earthquake with magnitude 7.1.

i have a dream

[By Shideh]  Today is a national holiday in the U.S., dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the great leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement.  He is mostly known for his efforts to end segregation and racial discrimination through non-violent means.  His birthday marks a day of hope for all African Americans here as well as for many others around the globe.  This is one of my favorite holidays and I wanted to write a post here in his honor and in the memory of hope.  Here is a video of his famous speech, “I Have a Dream”:

richard frye

[By Shideh]  A very interesting interview with an American scholar, Richard Frye, at Harvard University about his feelings for Iran.  Enjoy: 

children and earthquake safety

[By Shideh]  I came across an interesting presentation by IIEES’ (International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology) public education department in regards to earthquake safety and particularly children’s safety programs currently being developed in Iran:

http://www.iiees.ac.ir/English/Publicedu/school_safety_iran_case_study_davos.pdf 

 A few highlights: About 131,935 classrooms need to be reconstructed; 126,010 classrooms need to be strengthened; 39% of schools need to become safe… 

iran’s international conference on integrated natural disaster management – this february

Today, we received a message from one of the chairs of the 3^rd International Conference on Integrated Natural Disaster Management scheduled in Iran for this February (2008).  The main themes for the conference are: earthquakes, floods, droughts, landslides, and hurricanes.  UNICEF, the City of Tehran, IAEM, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Shahid Beheshti University, York University, and Cranfield University are some of the sponsors of this conference. 

The deadline for submitting abstracts and papers is passed but you can still register and attend the conference.  If you have a paper that you’d like to submit, I personally suggest you send it even though the deadline’s past.  For more information: www.indm.org.  The image below is from their flash intro:

   

مصاحبه دکتر قالیباف، شهردار تهران | FT interview with Tehran mayor

[By Shawhin]  I just finished reading the transcript from an interview between the Financial Times and current Tehran Mayor, Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, published on January 8^th, 2008.  There’s a lot of information in the transcript particularly regarding development, urban planning, transportation, etc.  Dr. Qalibaf has been mayor since September 2005 according to Wikipedia. 

I’ve summarized a few points from the article here – these are from quotes from the Mayor:

+        Development in Tehran is handled on three levels:

o       Small projects are handled at the local/neighborhood level: via assisting councils (“shora yaari”,  شورا یاری) – see details below,

o       Medium size projects are handled by the Municipality’s representative offices in 22 zones, and

o       Large projects (i.e. highways, Milad Tower, etc) are done at the national level

snowy tehran

[By Shideh]  On Sunday, Tehran woke up to a heavy overnight snowfall which ended up shutting primary and secondary schools, blocking major roads, and canceling all domestic flights.  All government offices closed on Monday and Tuesday, according to IRNA news agency.  All roads in the northwest of the country were closed to traffic, meanwhile the international flights (which now run exclusively from Imam Khomenin International Airport) were delayed.  Tehran lies at an altitude of more than 1,000 meters above sea level and is regularly hit by heavy falls of snow in winter (even though there have been some winters without major storms).  State television has also reported that the snowfalls will continue in the coming days, while the cold weather has already created problems in the country with around a dozen towns suffering gas cuts last week (due to a surge in demand and cuts in exports from Turkmenistan)… 

 

Image borrowed from: www.tehrandaily.wordpress.com

powerful women

[By Shideh]  Benazir Bhutto’s death has shocked hundreds of thousands of people from around the world and has left many of her supporters in dismay.  Pictures of her funeral on Friday are heartbreaking, seeing people in such grief.  I want to write a post on this weblog in her memory as she was always an icon of hope as a powerful and influential Muslim woman and a role model for many in our region of the world.  My deepest condolences to the people of Pakistan and to her family.  It is truly a great loss for the entire world and for the region.  Here are some pictures of her life and final moments that I found on line:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-071227bhutto-photogallery,0,3762424.photogallery

  

Image borrowed from: http://www.chicagotribune.com/

There are and have been many women like Bhutto who risk their lives to bring change and to protect their families, children, and countries at large.  One such group that is beginning to gain power is the Iranian “Mothers for Peace,” a group that announced its formation in November as a movement seeking peace and freedom (http://motherspeace.blogfa.com/).  I urge the readers, anyone who cares for peace, to donate to this group of Iranian women who are standing up for their rights and the rights of their country and children with no violence what so ever.  All the power to those who rise to make the changes they want to see, instead of waiting for others to make them.

town carved from rock

A town famous for its beautiful architecture and energy efficiency.  Interesting video on National Geographic about Kandovan:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071205-village-video-ap.html

  

picture borrowed from: www.Anvari.org

engineering grad school application

[By Shawhin]  In the past few weeks, we’ve had the pleasure of getting questions on applying to grad school in the US and particularly Berkeley.  Most questions came from friends we made during our visit to Iran, blog readers, some family, etc.  Since I was sharing a lot of the same information, I thought it would be useful to put an entry here on tehranshake.  My timing is a bit off because most applications we were helping with were due sometime in the past few weeks.  Nevertheless, I’m sure applicants for next year could still benefit from this info – especially given that some advanced planning, in terms of getting familiar with professors, should be done well before the application.

visiting tehran university

A few photographs of Tehran University, most of which were kindly sent by ’First Lieutenant’.  Beautiful architecture and an extremely lively and exciting campus, not to mention the very enthusiastic and upbeat students!

  

 

 

 

 

 

az maast ke bar maast — از ماست که بر ماست

[By Shideh]  We, along with a group of friends from Berkeley, attended a talk by Dr. Soroush last night at Stanford University on “cultural challenges of Iranians in today’s world,” which brought up many new thoughts and ideas for healthy debate!  I truly admire his vast knowledge of Iran’s sociology and culture and learned a lot in the short time that we had, even though I didn’t necessarily agree with all of his comments. In this post, I will mention a few highlights of his talk that I found most interesting.  Please note that the material below is more or less what I recall from Dr. Soroush’s talk and it does not reflect my personal stance on these issues.

laboo foroosh — لبو فروش

[By Shideh]  It’s this time of the year again and everyday as I walk through the campus I experience the beauties of the Fall season in Berkeley.  Of course you don’t see as many mesmerizing colors here as you would in the east coast of the U.S. but Berkeley has its own “haal o havaa”.  Today though, I long for Tehran’s “Payeez” and can’t stop thinking about the “Vali Asr” Avenue (i.e. Pahlavi Ave.) and its trees in the fall.  The nostalgia of pomegranate juice stands, the smell of “laboo and baghela forooshees” in the narrow streets of Tehran, near Meydoon e Vanak on a rainy day.  There is so much life and extreme emotions there.  Shawhin often says, “Tehran feels like the center of the universe once you get to know it.” I must agree.  

   

  

citizen and community involvement / empowerment in planning?

[By Shawhin]  One theme that came up a couple times in our Iran visit was the apparent lack of citizen and/or community involvement in city planning and policy matters.  With plenty of development, debatable growth trends, “good” and “bad” projects (be it building, infrastructure, landscape, or …), and in general a very educated and aware community, it seems odd that there isn’t a ton of (and possibly little to no) community involvement in places like Tehran or Shiraz. 

Does: development + growth + public opinion + dissatisfaction with some trends = community involvement? 

shiraz’s new looks

[By Shideh]  A short overview of our experience in Shiraz:  

We stayed in Shiraz for a few days during the first week of our trip and had a great time visiting a few of the astonishing historical places.  As amazing as this city is (and will always be), we could not help noticing the distasteful trend of new buildings replacing old gardens.  The Shirazies seemed to have become crankier than before as they are not used to the new changes resulting in more traffic, pollution, and a more stressful state in their city.  In particular, ladies driving around while talking on their cell phones seemed to drive the taxi drivers crazy!

 

   

   

 

viva tehran

[By Shideh]  We are back in Berkeley and are in the process of organizing our photos/videos from Iran.  We’ll post short summaries with observations from our trip over the next few weeks (as it’s going to be long… and there were plenty of interesting topics for discussion that came up).  First, today, a few short thoughts and impressions from Tehran:

   

heading to tehran in a few minutes

[By Shawhin]  We’re at SFO airport right now headed to Tehran for 3 weeks.  Stay posted for some photos and reports from the great city itself.  We’ll have the fortune of meeting with academics in earthquake engineering and planning.  We’ll post pertinent discussions on tehranshake.

If you have any particular questions you’d like us to ask for you – don’t hesitate to let us know.

 الان در فرودگاه «سان فرانسیسکو» منتظرپرواز به تهران هستیم! به مدت سه هفته آنجا خواهیم بود.  منتظر مطلب و عکس از تهران روی «تهران شیک» باشید.  خوشبختانه تونستیم قرارهایی با چندین دانشگاه و استادهای زلزله وطراهی شهر(؟) بگذاریم.  اگر سوأل خواصی برایشان دارید، بهمون خبر بدین.