According to its website, Tehran Avenue, www.tehranavenue.com, is an Iranian Tehran-based online art project. The website was launched in 2001, with the aim of establishing a small city magazine. However, during the past five years, the small group of young writers who were its original contributors has grown into a sizable community.
The website states that Tehran Avenue's authors focus on issues that official or established media seldom do, discovering the development of Tehran's artistic life through words and photography. Tehran Avenue, which is in both Farsi and English, states that the aim of using English as a language of communication is to reach as many readers as possible, including the second generations of Iranians abroad who are more comfortable with the language of the country in which they were born or raised.
In April 2008, the website published, in its "Society" section, an article titled "Irrelevant Questions"[1] consisting of a list of provocative questions, compiled by Hamed Safaee, graphic designer and one of the writers of Tehran Avenue. The following is the article, in the original English.[2]
(See also MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 1289, “Tehran Avenue.com - The Discovering of Iranian Pop Culture,” http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP128906>http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/1875.htm)
"Who Decides What Publications Are Allowed and Which Ones Must Stop?"
"Who is behind the remodeling of the City Theater?
"Who decides what publications are allowed and which ones must stop?
"What does it mean to have images of heavily made-up five-year old girls on the cover of 'family' magazines?
"Why are the most important headers of all our news services unimportant news of the U.S. 'Empire'?
"Why do we not have a 'Ministry of Art'?
"Does a country need to 'acculturate' and 'guide' her people indefinitely?
"Why is the film Santouri[3] banned, while The Snare Drum[4] is not?
"Does The Snare Drum continue the trend set by such films as The Lizard[5] and The Outcasts[6]?"
"If Coca Cola Is Bad, Why Is It Being Bottled in the [Iranian] City of Mashhad?"
"If the Oscars represent a form of imperialist hegemony, why do our officials [submit] an Iranian candidate to the Academy each [year]?
"Why is it that at the bottom of the Police Blotter page of newspapers we see ads for 'sexual impotence?'
"Was [Shahram Jazayeri[7]] impotent?
"Why were all the entries of the Fajr Film Festival this year about 'women'?
"Why don't they get rid of the offensive mural on Vanak Square?
"What does the mural on Aladdin Building on Jomhuri Street say to us?"
"If Coca Cola is bad, why is it being bottled in the city of Mashhad?
"What Other Things – Other Than the Right to Nuclear Energy – Are Our 'Absolute Right'?"
"Why [does] our national television broadcast the soundtrack of Conquest of Paradise each year on the anniversary of the 'Liberation of Khorramshahr'[8] from the Iraqi army in 1983?
"Why do we not rid ourselves of our national football league, which has become a source of constant collective anxiety?
"Why are text messages controlled?
"Why are all the young people on the street called 'thugs'?
"Should we get rid of Valiasr Street's trees because they were planted on an order from Reza Shah?
"Is advertising legitimate? Can we, as mortal beings, advertise ourselves? Is self-advertising a form of prostitution? Should parliamentary candidates be allowed to advertise themselves?
"Is [Mohsen Namjoo[9]] a genius?"
"What other things – other than the right to nuclear energy, that is – are our 'absolute right'?
"Does [Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] Own a Satellite Dish At Home?"
"Whose permission had to be obtained to build the Tehran-Caspian Freeway?
"Should we allow the screening of Omen in primary school?
"Is it permissible to burn the U.S. flag? Does [Abbas Kiarostami[10]] come to Iran for vacation?
"Is Abbas Kiarostami important?
"Is [Moshen Makhmalbaf[11]] bad?
"With so many of our filmmakers winning prizes at foreign festivals, why should [Masood Dehnamaki[12]] be making films?
"Is Dehnamaki better than [Quentin Tarantino]?
"Does [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] own a satellite dish at home?
"Does the wind change the direction of his dish also?
Endnote:
[1] http://tehranavenue.com/article.php?id=804
[2] The text has been lightly edited for style.
[3] Santouri is a 2007 Iranian drama film dealing with the life of a santour player. In Farsi, 'playing the santour' is a euphemism for injecting heroin.
[4] The Snare drum is an Iranian movie. "Snare drum" is the way a satellite dish is referred to among residents of an apartment complex, and the film includes the stories that unfold around this bringer of news from the outside.
[5] The Lizard is a movie in which a convicted burglar escapes from prison dressed as a mullah and accidentally becomes the leader of a provincial mosque; this Iranian comedy was described by Iranian cleric Ayatollah Jannati as 'a hideous film' and a 'bad influence' and was withdrawn from distribution after three weeks of playing in Iranian cinemas.
[6] The Outcasts a film that broke all box-office records in Iran, is set during the Iran-Iraq War.
[7]Shahram Jazayeri is an Iranian entrepreneur involved in a high-profile corruption case with Iranian government.
[8] Iranian recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran-Iraq war.
[9] Mohsen Namjoo is an Iranian singer-songwriter, author and musician.
[10] Abbas Kiarostami is an internationally acclaimed Iranian film director.
[11] Moshen Makhmalbaf is an internationally acclaimed Iranian film director.
[12] Masood Dehnamaki a right-wing Iranian activist, journalist, writer and film director, for decades considered one of the most extremist members of the ultra-conservative circles, and director of the movie The Outcasts.
