This podcast is 100 percent Persian. Consider it a primer for the Obama Administration as it sizes up Iran’s leaders. First, a report on the BBC’s new Persian language TV service. Then Persian-language radio from the Voice of Israel. After that, a profile of Iranian-American spy novelist Salar Abdoh. We round things off with writers Firoozeh Dumas (“Laughing Without an Accent”) and Azar Nafisi (“Reading Lolita in Teheran” and “Things I’ve Been Silent About”).
In the few hours since I published this podcast, an American reporter who has visited Iran emailed me: “You just spoke about how difficult it is for journalists to get into Iran. Well, I don’t know if this is true, but the guy at Iran’s Permanent Mission to the UN tells me that it’s nearly impossible for Iranian journalists to gain entry into the US. So part of Iran’s difficult process is a tit for tat. I can’t verify this, but it wouldn’t be a bad thing to look into, in a ‘war of words’ sort of way. “
That’s worth following up on.
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