In this episode, Rustin is joined by Dr. Neda Maghbouleh and Dr. Amy Malek to interview Dr. Narges Bajoghli, Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, about her new book, [“Iran Re-Framed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic.”](http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29666) Dr. Bajoghli talks about how she came to spend ten years in the field as an anthropologist studying members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Ansar Hezbollah, and Basij paramilitary organizations. Through a study of their media production, she explores how these men developed strategies to reach the youth, how they understood their own life trajectories, and tellingly, their deep anxieties about the future and their place in it. She also explains how she takes a “3D look at power in Iran” and its relation to the ethics of fieldwork, particularly among subjects that one disagrees with. This book offers a multilayered story about what it means to be pro-regime inside the Islamic Republic of Iran, challenging what we think we know about those who continue to support its revolution. ...
In this episode, Teren Sevea, an Assistant Professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, interviews Suvir Kaul, the A. M. Rosenthal Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Kaul is the the author of the book: [Of Gardens and Graves: Essays on Kashmir](https://www.english.upenn.edu/publications/2015/suvir-kaul/gardens-and-graves), published by Duke University Press in 2017. Dr. Sevea and Dr. Kaul open the episode with a discussion about the political history of Kashmir's division and occupation, as well as how India's BJP-majority government has recently revoked Jammu and Kashmir's special status, dramatically affecting the everyday lives of people in the region. They then explore the role of Kashmiri poetry as a medium for understanding the decades-long occupation, as well as the resistance to it. Finally, the episode closes with a reading of "A Pastoral," a poem written by the late Srinagar-born poet Agha Shahid 'Ali (1949-2001) in dedication to Dr. Kaul. ...
In this episode, Rustin speaks with Leyli Gafarova, an independent filmmaker and the co-creator of Salaam Cinema, a community-driven independent cinema space showcasing non-commercial, locally-made, and historical films in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital. Named after Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s [1995 movie of the same name](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello_Cinema) , Baku’s Salaam Cinema is a venue for the performing arts and offers a wide program of exhibitions and educational workshops. Following their opening in January 2019, Salaam Cinema moved into their current venue, a [historic Molokan prayer house](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Salaam+Cinema/@40.3801135,49.8436259,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x40307dd716cb339d:0x212e232413554cac!8m2!3d40.3801135!4d49.8458146?shorturl=1) in the heart of Baku. [Molokan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molokan) is a term describing Eastern Christian groups that developed in Slavic lands but rejected central Orthodox rites. In the 1830s, the Russian Empire forcibly transferred many Molokans to the periphery of the empire, and a group was settled in Azerbaijan. In 1913, an architect of Molokan origin [built the prayer house](https://www.facebook.com/atelierpille/posts/845848332443258?__tn__=K-R) with the aim of gathering the dispersed Molokan populations across Azerbaijan. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the prayer house was converted into a radio broadcasting building in 1926. The home of the radio show, Danışır Bakı (Baku is on air), the building became a bastion of the Azerbaijani language and an everyday fixture of Baku cultural life. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the building was privatized and then rented out as office space, but it had fallen into disrepair. Salaam Cinema, with the help of the community, refurbished the building and once again transformed it into a cultural landmark. However, as of March 2019, the landlords have moved forward with plans to demolish the historic building, fitting with the general trend of gentrification and property speculation that has driven [Baku’s rapid urban development](https://ajammc.com/2016/10/10/mehelle-recording-life-endangered-neighborhoods/) since the early 2010s. Salaam Cinema, ...
