Pulitzer Center Untold Stories

Iran: "The guest is God's friend"

Iason Athanasiadis, a journalist reporting from Iran on a grant from the Pulitzer Center, has been in Iranian custody since June 17. The Greek government has taken the lead in efforts to secure his release. The article below, written for Salon by University of Southern California professor Sandy Tolan, tells of Iason's remarkable career and why he has touched so many people, in journalism and beyond. Read earlier posts on Iason's case here and view his work with the Pulitzer Center in Iran, Turkey and Greece.

Iran: "The guest is God's friend"   
(Salon, July 2, 2009)

By Sandy Tolan

Jul. 02, 2009 |

Journalism's deepest, most honest contributions inevitably spring from on-the-ground reporting, unencumbered by policy agendas in Washington, London or other foreign capitals. That's what epitomizes the work of my friend and colleague Iason Athanasiadis, and it's why his detention by Iranian authorities, on June 17 when trying to board a flight out of Iran, is so troubling.

Iason, who has written for the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times and publications across Europe and the Middle East, comes from that breed of journalist in pursuit of something beyond just "the story." To work in Iran, he learned Farsi; to understand its people, he lived with them for three years. His work, as a writer and photojournalist, reflects deep empathy with the Iranian people, an understanding of their historical legacy, and an analysis of the changes swirling around them. Those values lend an independence and credibility to Iason's work that allow him, on the one hand, to produce the revealing photo essay "Children of the Revolution," which captures the hopes of a new generation of Iranians; and on the other, to invoke, in his writing on the nation's history, "Britain's imperialist past and expert meddling in Iran's internal affairs," which "has left most ordinary Iranians nursing a distrust that endures."

Read Sandy Tolan's article in Salon.

Iran: Roxana Saberi and the politics of understanding

Nathalie Applewhite, Pulitzer Center

American-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi was held in detention in an Iranian prison for nearly three months under charges of spying for the United States. She was sentenced to eight years in prison by Iran's Revolutionary Court, but on May 10th an appeals court suspended the sentence and she has recently returned home to the U.S.

Her story provides a dramatic example of the potential consequences of reporting in a society weary of a U.S. perspective, and perhaps, of the consequences of our own misunderstanding of, and mis-reporting on, Iran.

Pulitzer Center grantee Iason Athanasiadis provides a unique portrait of Roxana and the realities of reporting in Iran in a story for the latest Nieman Reports, written during the time Saberi was in Tehran's Evin Prison. In "Understanding Iran: Reporters Who Do Are Exiled, Pressured or Jailed" Iason takes us from Roxana's personal story as a reporter in Iran to the broader politics of reporting there:

"By summer 2007, Roxana, working without a press permit, was one of a very few journalists still surveying the scene. The night before I left Iran in 2007, an Iranian political analyst for a foreign embassy told me that the Iranian government abhors foreign journalists, who are seen as proffering "social intelligence" about their host country. Unlike truly locked-away lands such as North Korea, Iran is an open society proud of its contribution to world civilization. But the current security-minded regime wants to minimize the outflow of information." Continue reading

Three faces of Istanbul

Iason Athanasiadis, in Istanbul, for the Pulitzer Center

Istanbul is an overpopulated metropolis whose estimated 14 million inhabitants are straining it at its seams. Centuries of events in arguably the world’s most historical city have shaped an urban environment so varied that it regularly throws up baffling scene changes for the traveler caring to venture a little beyond the Sultanahmet-Taksim-Bebek triangle that delineates most foreign visitors’ trips. The common denominator is a rush to build and modernize, often at the expense of the layers of history lying underneath or – often – right on the surface.

Over a 24-hour reporting period I experienced an extraordinary mixture of the Third and First World. First cameConstantinople’s ancient walls, still largely intact over the periphery of the ancient city. Guide books warn against taking too literally the possibility of tracing historical Constantinople by following its defences. 

There are “less-than-salubrious neighbourhoods, packs of dogs and vagrants living in the wall’s cavities along its length who have been known to rob and assault passers-by,” warns the Lonely Planet guide.

One such ‘vagrant’ and a resident of the wall is Necip Batur. The homeless man dragged an incongruous-looking living-room couch into a ground-level arch packed with dark earth and turned it into a temporary home. His former address, he says, was more prestigious: Taksim Square in European Istanbul’s glitzy center. He moved to the walls because “people around here are more concerned, they look out for you”. The Gypsies of Solukule are a historical community of musicians, belly-dancers, crooks and entertainers who are finally abandoning the area to make way for wealthier residents. With demolitions of the surrounding neighbourhood continuing apace, Batur’s only remaining neighbours are Abdurrahman Pasha ve refiki (Abdurrahman Pasha and a friend), buried away in a humble Sufi tekke tucked away by the walls.

Obama’s tepid Turkish welcome

Iason Athanasiadis for the Pulitzer Center

ISTANBUL: For president-elect Barack Obama, his arrival on the international scene has been one of near-universal acclaim. Around the world, he is seen as the man who can transform the perception of an ailing America and reclaim that country’s ideal of being “the shining city upon a hill”. Except in Turkey.

Even fiercely anti-American Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad greeted Obama’s coming with one of his trademark letters, welcoming him to the global fraternity of leaders but advising him to substitute what he called “war-oriented policies, occupation, bullying and discriminatory policies” with “respect and non-interference in other countries' state matters”.

Italian President Silvio Berlusconi raised eyebrows with his racially-tinged quip that Obama is “young, handsome and even tanned”. Elsewhere in Europe, much of the Middle East, Africa and Asia, jubilation greeted Obama’s win.

But in historically pro-US Turkey, a strange silence reigns.

A Ramadan Controversy

By Iason Athanasiadis

ISTANBUL - Millions of Muslim break their fast today (Tuesday 29 September) for one last time as the holy month of Ramadan comes to an end and a new moon appears in the skies. But in Turkey, where Ramadan is pronounced Ramazan, this year was not so much a time of reflection, self-denial and prayer as an extension of the political battlefield between secularists and the faithful over public and private behaviour during the holy month.
Photograph by Iason Athanasiadis

In the bastion of secularism that is the capital, Ankara, an alcohol vendor had his store vandalized by vigilantes for not refraining from selling alcohol during Ramadan. In Istanbul, Turkey's westernmost and most liberal city, a demonstration against the banning of drinking in public spaces (that featured public alcohol consumption) turned nasty when the police arrested an organizer.

Turkey is a secular country with a Kemalist tradition that, until recently, banned headscarfed women from studying in universities or working in the public sector.

But much has changed since the religious AKP Party came to power. Societal tensions soared after the law banning headscarves in official places of education and work was rescinded.

Predictably, the political confrontation did not spare Ramadan. Mustafa Akyol, a columnist for the Turkish Daily News, wrote in his column that "Turkey is becoming neither yet another Iran nor another, say, Amsterdam. It is becoming what Turkish columnist Haluk Şahin recently dubbed "ucubistan", or "strangeland".

Go to A Turkish Dilemma project page

Georgetown Students Pose Questions

Hi Class,

Thanks for being such a good group last week!

This is a blog for our latest project. Check out the main project page for Mozambique (there's a video that introduces the issues and many other related resources) and then post your questions here for Stephanie and Steve who are in Mozambique now and ready to answer questions.

Thanks!

Nathalie

Hi Class,

Thanks for being such a good group last week!

This is a blog for our latest project. Check out the main project page for Mozambique (there's a video that introduces the issues and many other related resources) and then post your questions here for Stephanie and Steve who are in Mozambique now and ready to answer questions.

Thanks!

Nathalie