Wetland Creation, Restoration, and Conservation

Water-dominated landscapes include wetland areas. The term “wetland” has not been commonly used until quite recently. It is believed to be a euphemistic equivalent of “swamp.” Every year on the second day of February, World Wetlands Day marks the adoption of the convention on Wetland by Ramsar, the Iranian city that has a special place in Iranian history. Flood protection, water quality improvement, shoreline erosion control, natural products, recreation, and aesthetics are some of the many advantages of wetlands, as well as the fact that they are vital habitats for a variety of animals and plants. Several studies illustrated the importance of wetlands in reducing carbon emissions and regulating climate on a global scale. In recent years, these advantages of wetlands have been recognized by governments worldwide and have led to legislation, regulations, and management plans creating wetlands for conservation, protection, and restoration. Unfortunately, the destruction of wetlands is a concern since they are among the planet's most productive areas.

Mutual Perception in Contemporary Relations between Russia and Iran: Image of Russia and Iran in History School Textbooks of the Two Countries

Russia and Iran have maintained continuous diplomatic relations since 1592. During the post-Soviet period, relations between the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran have strengthened significantly. The leaderships of both countries seek to turn their relations into a strategic partnership. However, the main obstacle to achieving this goal is the negative perception of the other by the peoples of both countries. The purpose of this study is to understand how modern Russians and Iranians see each other and the relations between their governments. This article examines data from sociological surveys, opinions of Russian and Iranian experts, and analyzes the images of Iran and Russia presented in school-level history textbooks of the two countries. We note negative stereotypes and a distrust of Russia among modern Iranians. Russia receives far more attention in Iranian history textbooks than Iran in Russian ones. For Iranians, the image of Russia as a neighbor is more important than the image of Russia as a great world power. However, the image of Russia in general is negative; Russia is seen as a country to be feared. The negative image of Russia among Iranians is formed through selective and often erroneous interpretation, rather than historical facts. Although opinion polls in contemporary Russia divulge a generally positive image of Iran, the country is not seen as important to respondents - it remains distant, exotic, and incomprehensible. Modern Russians have very faint ideas about their Southern neighbor, Iran. Persia and Iran receive so little attention in Russian school textbooks that it is difficult to talk about the image of this country as positive or negative.

STRATEGIC CULTURE FENOMENA IN IRAN-ISRAEL RELATIONS

The current confrontation between the State of Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran is not an exceptionally new phenomenon; however, it is noticeable that escalation around the “Iran nuclear deal” makes this issue one of the most urgent on the current political agenda. This article focuses on countries’ strategic culture as both public and non-state actors see and respond to challenges and opportunities international system − which is the result of cultural perception. Iranian and Israeli strategic cultures have some similarities - consideration of which is necessary to understand the specifics of the relationship between the two states and Jerusalem's possible response to a potential nuclearization of Tehran. Cultural details are often overlooked when we are trying to analyze the policy of a particular state, however, this analysis can provide an understanding of a particular country's response to challenges and threats. Learning more about how and why actors use force in the system is an important topic to which strategic culture may provide some answers but the process of applying it is difficult. In this article, we overview historical preconditions of Iran-Israel relations, Israel's specific view of its ambitions in the region, and nowadays escalation between two countries. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is still on the agenda between the two countries, while negotiations in Vienna continue, Iran increased its enrichment up to 60 percent – the highest level in Iranian history. Iranian nuclear program is a cornerstone in the US-Iran and Iran-Israel relations, but the strategic culture of Israel still cannot adopt improvement of relations between the US and Iran, as Iranian progress in its nuclear ambitions.

The Spatial Structure of Yazd Courtyard Houses: A Space Syntax Analysis of the Topological Characteristics of the Courtyard

An important “architectural type” in Iranian history is the Yazd courtyard house. This historic building type features a walled boundary that contains a complex pattern of open (to the sky), semi-enclosed and enclosed spaces. The planning of the courtyard in these houses has typically been interpreted as either a response to changing socio-cultural values or to local climatic conditions. Such theories about the planning of these houses are based on a series of assumptions about (i) the numbers of courtyards and rooms they contain, (ii) their unchanging nature over time and (iii) a topological pattern existing in the relationship between the courtyard and the rest of the plan. Yet, these assumptions, all of which have an impact on the socio-cultural or climatic interpretation of this famous architectural type, have never been tested. In response, this paper uses a computational and mathematical method drawn from Space Syntax to measure the spatial topology of 37 plans of Yazd’s most significant courtyard houses. These houses, which are classified by the Yazd Cultural Heritage Organization, were constructed between the 11th and 20th CE centuries and are all exemplars of this type. This paper develops three hypotheses around the assumptions found in past research about the characteristic planning of the Yazd courtyard house. Then, using quantitative measures derived from plan graph analysis, the paper develops a series of longitudinal trends to test the hypotheses and explore changes that have occurred in this architectural type over time.

Analyzing the Challenges of Female Audience Participation in Iranian Stadiums

Background and Aim: The purpose of this article is to examine the barriers and challenges for female spectators in Iranian stadiums and to provide facilitating strategies. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional study with an overview of the prevailing conditions of society as well as reviewing Iranian law and referring to sports legal and legal texts. The researcher examines the fatwas of Shia authorities and the historical background of Iranian sports from 1970 to 2019, and the presence of women in stadiums in the past, and examines the conditions for collecting relevant material in this field. Results: Women were free to attend Iranian stadiums in the pre-revolutionary years, and Iranian women could freely watch national and club games, but in the post-revolutionary years, in line with the Islamic Republic's policies on the separation of women and men and the views of authorities. Shi'a imitation and religious rulings and religious issues were limited. As part of the country's overall policies on women, sport was also affected by these policies, and it seems that removing these barriers should be seen in a broader theoretical framework. Conclusion: By examining the current state of the country and examining Iranian law and referring to Iranian history from 1970 to 2019, the researcher has concluded that we do not have a law prohibiting women from entering the stadium, which is a public place. They are there to watch the matches and cheer on their favorite teamn

Iran's “Self-Deprecating Modernity”: Toward Decolonizing Collective Self-Critique

Extant studies of Iranian nationalism accentuate the self-aggrandizing side of Iranian modernity, mainly achieved through, and informing, a process of otherizing certain non-Persians/Iranians, particularly the Arabs. I argue that equally important to understanding Iranian modernity is its lesser recognized, shameful and self-demeaning face, as manifested through a simultaneous 19th-century discourse, which I call “self-deprecating modernity.” This was an often self-ridiculing and shame-inducing, sometimes satirical, discourse featuring an emotion-driven and self-Orientalizing framework that developed out of many mid-nineteenth-century Iranian modernists’ obsessions with Europe's gaze; with self-surveillance; and with the perceived humiliation of Iranians through the ridiculing laughter of Other (especially European) nations at Iran's and Iranians’ expense. To explore this discourse, I re-examine the works of three pre-constitutionalist thinkers and writers within the broader sociopolitical context of late Qajar Iran, surveying their perspectives on shame, embarrassment, and ridiculing laughter, and showing how they were significantly informed by, while also helping to form, self-deprecating modernity. Given the strong, self-colonizing presumptions of this discourse, I conclude the article with a stress on the importance of re-exploring collective self-critical practices in modern Iranian history, culture, and literature with an eye toward decolonizing self-criticism.

The Bundahišn

The Bundahišn, meaning primal or foundational creation, is the central Zoroastrian account of creation, cosmology, and eschatology and one of the most important of the surviving testaments to Zoroastrian literature and pre-Islamic Iranian culture. Touching on geography, cosmogony, anthropology, zoology, astronomy, medicine, legend, and myth, the Bundahišn can be considered a concise compendium of Zoroastrian knowledge. The Bundahišn is well known in the field as an essential primary source for the study of ancient Iranian history, religions, literature, and languages. It is one of the most important texts composed in Zoroastrian Middle Persian, also known as Zoroastrian Book Pahlavi, in the centuries after the fall of the Sasanian Empire to the invading Arab and Islamic forces in the mid seventh century. The Bundahišn provides scholars with a particularly profitable window on Zoroastrianism’s intellectual and religious history at a crucial transitional moment: centuries after the composition of the Avesta, the Zoroastrian sacred scriptures, and before the transformation of Zoroastrianism into a minority religion within Iran and adherents’ dispersion throughout Central and South Asia. However, the Bundahišn is not only a scholarly tract. It is also a great work of literature in its own right and ranks alongside the creation myths of other ancient traditions: Genesis, the Babylonian Emunah Elish, Hesiod’s Theogony, and others. Informed by the latest research in Iranian Studies, this translation aims to bring to the fore the aesthetic quality, literary style, and complexity of this important work.