Higher education at Iran's state-run universities is not supported by a deeply-rooted tradition of quality assessment. For several decades, Iranian universities have not been able to monitor themselves and develop efficient, internal structures of quality assurance. The academics' attempts at internal monitoring have failed, giving way to a system of bureaucratic supervision and control. Recent changes in Iran have given rise to new concepts, including the principle of universities' self-evaluation, based on academic autonomy and scientific freedom. But the dominant tendency in Iran's political structure and administration is still toward external, bureaucratic control. The conflict between more or less advanced texts and typically solid structures is a reflection of inconsistencies within the Iranian society, pursuing its transitional stage.

Hostility between Iran and the United States has intensified since the mid-2000s. America's allegations regarding Iran's nuclear program and its association with terrorist organizations are the main drive for this rising tension. This study focuses on the latter. Specifically, it examines Tehran's ties to militant groups in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in the Palestinian Territories. I argue that although American and Iranian interests in the region are very different, they are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Alongside the burgeoning secular ideas on people and state during the Constitutional Revolution, a movement seeking a modern Islamic state, governed according to the shari'a, also emerged. This article studies the evolution of that movement in Isfahan, first by contrasting the experience of two brothers of very different ages, Aqa Najafi Isfahani and Haj Aqa Nurullah Isfahani, and examining the way the younger became receptive to the Pan-Islamic ideas then current in the Middle East. Second, the article considers in particular the political theory of Aqa Nurullah, which was influenced by his practical experience of institutional innovation in Isfahan. He argued that constitutionalism was implicit to Islam and saw it as generating wealth for Muslims. He also advocated many of the features of later Islamism, including the desire for a strong army.

Because of annual communal lamentations dedicated to Siyāvoš, he is considered to be a unique character among heroes of the Šāhnāmeh. The elements of the rituals revolving around Siyāvoš are compatible to those of vegetation deities in some other religions. Of particular interest is the cycle of birth-death-rebirth of vegetation deity that takes place according to a specific sequence of events. In the present article, the author attempts to trace conformities and nonconformities in the Siyāvoš tale as described in the Šāhnāmeh and correlates them with the life-death-rebirth cycle of vegetation deity.

The present study tries to show a wider-than-usual use of ta'ârof, that is the deliberate play with the so-called “ritual courtesy, or politeness” formulas that can alter the readers' opinion about a character, for instance that result in prejudice, sympathy, etc. towards the characters. Politeness, in both everyday conversations and literary texts, is an excellent device for expressing certain individual opinions. Depending on or irrespective of the conversation partner, individual interests or opinions can be expressed or withdrawn. What I try to prove is that their use— quantity, types etc.—can be a form of expressing the author's direct attitude. I have chosen works of the “classics” of modern fiction (Sâdeq Hedâyat, Bozorg ‘Alavi, Sâdeq Čubak and Jalâl Âl Ahmad). Based on the selected examples from the works of the writers I have chosen, I attempt to demonstrate and prove my presumption. The exaggerated insistence on a certain style or just the exaggerated refusal to use a certain style can be a tool for the writer to influence—beforehand—the readers’ impression of a certain character or characters. This effect can be rough, sarcastic, etc.

This article examines the American Presbyterian education project in Iran from the early nineteenth century to 1940. While most literature on the subject concerns Iranian state-missionary relations and Presbyterian boys' schools in Iran, this article seeks to address the interactions between American Presbyterians, the Iranian state, and students and families of Iranian girls' schools. A study of the Presbyterians' flagship girls' school in Iran Bethel/Nurbakhsh and its sixty-six-year history reveals missionary intentions, tactics, and accomplishments, as well as the adaptations and accommodations pressed upon them by the Iranians they served. Despite the school's promotion of modern American norms and Christian teachings, the young graduates of Iran Bethel/Nurbakhsh developed a strong sense of loyalty to both Iran and Islam, thus turning an evangelist mission into an important feature of the construction of Iranian nationalism and modernity.

Note by Iranian Studies: Journalism has the potential to make a reporter feel at least as important as the subject of his or her reports. The temptation can be even stronger in global journalism, with reporters from the affluent nations covering the traumas of the people in more problem-ridden parts of the world. By contrast, in Tom Fenton's account of Ayatollah Khomeini's funeral in 1989, a seasoned reporter goes beyond the apparently chaotic and frenzied action by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Iranians to see the historic significance of the event and the man.

Thomas Trail Fenton, born 1930 in Baltimore, Maryland, retired from CBS in 2004 after a thirty-four year career. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1952 and was an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1952 to 1961, serving in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Fenton began his career in journalism at The Baltimore Sun, where he worked until 1970, reporting from Europe and the Middle East, including the June 1967 Israeli-Arab war and the May 1968 student protests in France, which earned Fenton an award from the Overseas Press Club.

Fenton joined CBS News as a correspondent in the Rome Bureau in 1970, followed by assignments to the bureaus in Tel Aviv, Paris, London and Moscow. He became Senior European Correspondent in 1979. He reported on the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971, the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, and the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus. After the fall of Mohammad Reza Shah in 1979, Fenton was the first western journalist to interview Ayatollah Khomeini. He later returned to Iran to report on the hostage crisis that had followed the occupation of the American Embassy in Tehran. During the 1990s, Fenton covered the break up of the Soviet Union, the wars in the Balkans, and the violence in the Middle East and Africa. After retiring, Fenton wrote Bad News: The Decline of Reporting, the Business of News, and the Danger to Us All in 2005.