I’ve been looking into Iranian websites lately and couldn’t find a good list of Persian forums and communities online so here it is:

Persian Hub

PersianHub is home to the largest community of Iranians online. They have over 200,000 members. Most of their members sign up for an account to download Iranian music and movies (for free) but the forums are very active too.

Iran Proud

Similar to PersianHub, Iran Proud has a large database of Iranian music and movies to download as well as an active forum community.

Bia 2

Bia2 is one of the most popular Iranian websites online for their Farsi radio, jokes, pictures, and now their forums. With more than 8000 members and over 300,000 posts you can always be sure to get a reply to your threads.

New Persia

New Persia is an online community website where users have their own very customizable profile. They can chat with each other and communicate through the forums.  New Persia has been online since 1999.  New Persia is in some sense the MySpace of Iran.

Once again Iranians show they are on the edge of technology. Students at Tehran University unveiling a walking talking robot.

I was listening to this video today and really liked it (even though I’d seen it before).

It has been a long time since I made a Learn Farsi post. Following is a list of directions  in Farsi

Following are a series of videos about Iran, its past history and as it is today by Rick Steves. I think the videos are very well made and would like to thank Rick Steve for his work.

You can read more about it on Rick Steves website’s Iran section.

Video 1/6

Video 2/6

Video 3/6

Video 4/6

Video 5/6

Video 6/6

It has been a long time since I made a Learn Farsi post. Following are months of the Iranian calendar in Farsi:

Iranian calendar is an astronomical solar calendar and and one of the longest chronological records in history. The first day of the year is the first day of Spring (approximately March 21st of each year). For that reason, Iranian months don’t exactly correspond to different months in Gregorian calendar.

The corresponding days are estimates and not very accurate. Following are some good resources:

• Iranian Calendar
• Iranian Calendar application on Google tools.
• Iranian Calendar Firefox add-on.

Saadi is a world known Persian (Iranian) poet. He lived 1184 to 1283 (According to Wikipedia). One of his most famous poems is the following:

Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.

If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.

If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain.
I have seen many claiming that the above poem is actually written on top of the entrance of United Nations headquarters in New York City. However I haven’t seen any pictures or evidence of it.

Either way it is a powerful poem and one more time reminds us that we are all humans. The dead everywhere in the world hurt as much as the dead here in America.? Let’s value human life the same everywhere.

Love Kolah Ghermezi

I recently went on a trip to Iran. I didn’t go to Shiraz but my cousin did and took pictures. Here are some of the pictures. You can also go to Shiraz Pictures folder in the gallery.

Shiraz is the 5th most populated city in Iran and is located on the south side close to persian Gulf. Shiraz is known as the city of poets, wine and flowers. You probably at some point have had Shiraz wine which is originated from Shiraz, Iran.

Shiraz is over 4000 years old and is full of monuments and tourisim attractions such as Hafiz and Sa’adi tombs, Persepolis, Pasargad, and more.

Hafiz Tomb

Persepolis

Shahrak Ekbatan (Ekbatan Apartments) is probably the largest apartment complex in Tehran and Iran. It was built in Shah’s time and has been developed further and expanded since.

Ekbatan is right beside Apadana apartments on the west side of Tehran beside Karaj autobahn. Ekbatan has its own shopping centers, elementary/middle school/high schools, parks, mosques, and a lot more. I would guess close to 100,000 people live in Ekbatan.

Here are some pictures of Shahrak Ekbatan that I took on my last trip to Tehran, Iran:

Shahrak Ekbatan

you can find more pictures of Ekbatan apartments under Tehran Pictures.