Ajam Media Collective

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A platform for culture, history, and politics across Ajamistan: West, Central, and South Asia

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Last post: Sep 20, 2026
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Chavushi: Taking the Path of No Return with Mehdi Akhavan-Sales
Sep 20, 2026 · original
This post is part of Tarjomeh, a series of original poetry translations from Persian to English. Organized by editor Ashkaan Kashani, Tarjomeh poses the following questions: “When and where does Persian poetry become modern? How does modernity emerge within a millennium-old poetic tradition ?” By asking readers and contributors to approach this question through the act of translation itself, Tarjomeh sets out to explore translation and poetry as one and the same creative process – discursive practices defined by their fissures, gaps, silences, and remainders. Translated and introduced by Ashkaan Kashani and Behzad Borhan. Ashkaan Kashani is a PhD student in the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an editor at Ajam Media Collectiv e. Behzad Borhan is a Course Lecturer of Persian Language at McGill University’s Institute of Islamic Studies
Reel Bad Iranians: How Hollywood Paved the Way for War
Sep 5, 2026 · original
A guest post by Zia Shahidi, an Iranian-American writer with a BA in Economics and Political Science. His work explores history, cultural memory, and geopolitics across the Iranian/American experience. *** The series Tehran opens on a flight leaving Amman for New Delhi. The plane makes an unexpected landing in Iran; two passengers, a young Israeli couple backpacking through the region, suddenly find themselves in unwanted territory. They are simply tourists who booked a ticket; they have no idea the landing was set up by the Israeli intelligence apparatus Mossad to sneak an agent into Iran. The couple is pulled off the plane, stripped of th eir passports, questioned, and repeatedly slapped by officials. The light is dim and the Iranian men emotionless. The tourists, meanwhile, are frightened, every flicker of their terror worth the audience’s attention. In its first few minutes, the show
We Just Wanted to Make Our People Happy: Iran’s Team Melli at the World Cup
Aug 11, 2026 · original
A guest post by Ashkan Hashemipour, a PhD candidate at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on Iranian history and politics, particularly the Iranian Revolution’s international dimension. *** As Team Melli prepared for the World Cup, it found itself increasingly caught up in the political turmoil engulfing Iran. Earlier in the year, on January 8th and 9th, Iranians had engaged in unprecedented protests against the state. They were repressed by the government, which characterized them as foreign-backed. Meanwhile, the head of the Football Federation of Iran (FFI) was closely linked to the state, and the team’s captain – a political opponent of the regime – was excluded from the World Cup squad. To top it off, the tournament was being hosted in a country that had spent the previous two years violating international law and was attempting to use football to soften its image. The y
Gardening with the Times: Horticultural Innovation in Nineteenth-Century Tehran
Jun 19, 2026 · original
A guest post by Nicolas Roth, a historian, gardener, and garden designer. His research explores visual and intellectual culture in early modern South Asia and beyond, with a particular focus on landscape and garden history. Fig. 1: The orangery of the Golestan Palace; Golestan Palace Library, Album No. 373-7. Persian gardens have long been a potent symbol of Iranian cultural identity, commented on for centuries by both visitors to Iran and Iranians themselves. These evocations frequently suggest a timeless, unchanging tradition, dictated by supposedly fixed characteristics of the land and its people. Consider what aristocratic British writer and noted gardener Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962) wrote in her 1926 travelogue Passenger to Teheran : …a green cavern full of shadow, and pools where goldfish dart, and the sound of little streams. That is the meaning of a garden in Persia, a countr
How the Lion and Sun Became a Royal Symbol in Switzerland
Jun 8, 2026 · original
This article is part of the Unexpected Persianate series exploring overlooked, hidden and unconventional echoes of Persian culture, language, and aesthetics in the present. It is published in collaboration with the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies. It is written by Kristof Szitar (Ph.D Université de Lausanne), an early career researcher specializing in Persianate and South Asian studies. He currently serves as co-editor of the Ghaznavid Poetry Anthology and researches on Persian and Urdu literary cultures. *** Years ago, I hiked through Switzerland’s Francophone countryside. When I passed through Chesalles-sur-Moudon , the village coat of arms caught my eye. At first, it looked like just another flourish in Europe’s heraldic landscape. But then I noticed the symbol at its center: a golden lion brandishing a scimitar beneath a blazing sun. This unmistakably Persianate cam
Tarhonya, Tarkhineh: The Persian Roots of Hungary’s Most Hungarian Food
May 23, 2026 · original
This article is part of the Unexpected Persianate series exploring overlooked, hidden and unconventional echoes of Persian culture, language, and aesthetics in the present. It is published in collaboration with the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies. It is written by Larkin Cleland, a Hungarian-American journalist and geographer. In 2025, he completed a Fulbright scholarship at the Hungarian Geographical Institute. He currently uses his fluency in Persian and Arabic as a researcher for Global Energy Monitor. *** The winter chill hangs over Košice, the capital of Slovakia’s easternmost district. The city feels tired and grey. I see the sign for a small restaurant above a hair salon and make my way upstairs in search of warmth and food. The waitress speaks only Slovak, but when I ask, “Magyar?” to see if anyone speaks Hungarian, she gestures for me to wait. Soon she returns
The Birth of the Assyrian Flag: Modern Pride for an Ancient Nation
May 11, 2026 · original
A guest post by Ramina Samuel, co-founder of BET KANU Inc., a non-profit focused on Assyrian language preservation, and an advocate serving Assyrian families in the Chicago greater area. She is the founder of AssyrianFlag.org . *** In March 2026, Iraq’s soccer team beat Bolivia 2-1 to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986. I watched the game on a phone screen at an airport far from the pitch, but I savored the rare sense of collective joy among Iraqis I saw onscreen. As the Iraqi players celebrated, they raised not only the official Iraqi standard but also a blue-white-and-red flag that I know well: the Assyrian flag. Held aloft by the team’s five members of Assyrian heritage, the flag’s appearance was an unexpected moment of visibility for Assyrians that sparked pride among the global diaspora and curiosity among many non-Assyrians. Members of Iraq’s football team hold
Bricks of My Soul: Remembering a Tehran Synagogue Destroyed by Israeli Bombs
May 3, 2026 · original
A guest post by Narciss M. Sohrabi, a researcher in urban studies focusing on Tehran’s Jewish communal spaces and their relationship to urban context, memory, and everyday life in Iran. She is affiliated with the Centre for Iranian Studies at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. *** On the morning of April 7, 2026, I woke up to a phone call from Tehran. It was a friend of mine, a member of the Association of Jewish Iranian Graduates. Her voice was marked by shock and disbelief: Rafi-Nia Synagogue had been destroyed by an Israeli missile strike. I was stunned. How could a small, modest, almost invisible building tucked away in a dead-end alley in central Tehran be hit by an Israeli bomb? I thought back to my first experience at this neighborhood synagogue during Yom Kippur a few years ago: the quiet entrance of men wearing kippot, women offering brief, hushed greetings, and the beginning of
Chasing God’s Shadow: The Dangers of Royal Nostalgia
Apr 17, 2026 · original
A guest post by Zohra Saed, a poet born in Afghanistan and raised in Brooklyn whose work explores decolonial memory, diaspora, and archives of Central and South Asia. She is currently a distinguished lecturer at Macaulay Honors College, CUNY. “The shadow of God is over the King.” I often heard this phrase at picnics in the Afghan diaspora community in New York City where I grew up. Over black tea with cardamom, I’d listen as uncles and aunties shared stories of ale Hazrat , “his majesty,” and the sayeh-ye khoda that guided him. Afghan monarchists were usually elites from Kabul who’d benefited from government posts and fellowship or diversity-driven academic programs. Most immigrated to New York, New Jersey, Virginia, or California. It was His Majesty’s benevolence that helped many secure passage out in the early years of the Soviet-Afghan war. This was Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghan
Demilitarize the Indian Ocean
Mar 28, 2026 · original
A guest post by Mahdi Chowdhury, a writer, researcher, and doctoral candidate at Harvard University. He is presently writing a dissertation on Indian Ocean Islam and British imperialism. *** “What should Indians try in Iran? “ “ Ghormeh sabzi ,” the Iranian sailor says, smiling without hesitation. He adds: “Biryani is so spicy ,” gesticulating tears in his eyes. “ I am crying at the table .” At this, the Iranian sailor and the Indian interviewing him burst into laughter. Their exchange was filmed in late February during the International Fleet Review and MILAN 2026, a massive multinational parade and exercise in the Bay of Bengal. It is a light-hearted conversation and yet it evokes some of the oldest promises of naval life: the opportunity to see the wider world, the fraternity of maritime society, the experiences through which young men and women become someone. The sailors take selfie

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