Reza H. Akbari
@rezahakbari.bsky.social
PhD Candidate AU History - Program Manager IWPR MENA - IMES at GWU Alumnus - Iranian-American - Suffering Buffalo Bills fan - inforezaakbari@gmail.com
Reposted by Reza H. Akbari
Those boats we are sinking in the Caribbean and Pacific are small and at best very lightly armed and we have the most powerful Navy in the world. Yet somehow we can’t stop them, detain the crews, seize the drugs (if any), and we prefer to just kill people instead. Not a good look…
November 17, 2025 at 2:28 AM
Those boats we are sinking in the Caribbean and Pacific are small and at best very lightly armed and we have the most powerful Navy in the world. Yet somehow we can’t stop them, detain the crews, seize the drugs (if any), and we prefer to just kill people instead. Not a good look…
Reposted by Reza H. Akbari
“It would be much better to educate [our students] here in the country where they are going to live, and with whose progress they must inevitably be concerned. But we do not yet have the necessary machinery…I don’t want to turn the Persian into a bad copy of a European.”
![“It would be much better to educate [our students] here in the country where they are going to live, and with whose progress they must inevitably be concerned. But we do not yet have the necessary machinery…I don’t want to turn the Persian into a bad copy of a European.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mo3udds7fbejja3xyafe26mg/bafkreiboa723u3rfln2zsgdhkqynltszhwxl3hm6kpbg74cdf4dy7ixjka@jpeg)
November 15, 2025 at 4:50 PM
“It would be much better to educate [our students] here in the country where they are going to live, and with whose progress they must inevitably be concerned. But we do not yet have the necessary machinery…I don’t want to turn the Persian into a bad copy of a European.”
Reposted by Reza H. Akbari
In the courtyard of the Ministry of Education, Reza Shah bids farewell to 110 Iranian students chosen to continue their education abroad. October 15, 1928.
Source: Rastakhiz Daily, Issue 279, April 4, 1976. #Iran
Source: Rastakhiz Daily, Issue 279, April 4, 1976. #Iran
November 14, 2025 at 7:34 PM
In the courtyard of the Ministry of Education, Reza Shah bids farewell to 110 Iranian students chosen to continue their education abroad. October 15, 1928.
Source: Rastakhiz Daily, Issue 279, April 4, 1976. #Iran
Source: Rastakhiz Daily, Issue 279, April 4, 1976. #Iran
Reposted by Reza H. Akbari
This would be my paternal grandfather ⬇️
He would subsequently become Minister of Culture and Chancellor of Tehran University.
Thanks for sharing, Reza. Will include this in our family collection.
He would subsequently become Minister of Culture and Chancellor of Tehran University.
Thanks for sharing, Reza. Will include this in our family collection.
November 14, 2025 at 8:01 PM
This would be my paternal grandfather ⬇️
He would subsequently become Minister of Culture and Chancellor of Tehran University.
Thanks for sharing, Reza. Will include this in our family collection.
He would subsequently become Minister of Culture and Chancellor of Tehran University.
Thanks for sharing, Reza. Will include this in our family collection.
In the courtyard of the Ministry of Education, Reza Shah bids farewell to 110 Iranian students chosen to continue their education abroad. October 15, 1928.
Source: Rastakhiz Daily, Issue 279, April 4, 1976. #Iran
Source: Rastakhiz Daily, Issue 279, April 4, 1976. #Iran
November 14, 2025 at 7:34 PM
In the courtyard of the Ministry of Education, Reza Shah bids farewell to 110 Iranian students chosen to continue their education abroad. October 15, 1928.
Source: Rastakhiz Daily, Issue 279, April 4, 1976. #Iran
Source: Rastakhiz Daily, Issue 279, April 4, 1976. #Iran
Reposted by Reza H. Akbari
Thread: Yesterday marked the anniversary of the end of the First World War in 1918. #Iran had become a major battleground where British, Russian, and Ottoman forces clashed. Foreign troops plundered towns & ravaged the countryside.
Pic: People in Bijar rushing for the entrails of a sheep. 1/3
Pic: People in Bijar rushing for the entrails of a sheep. 1/3
November 12, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Thread: Yesterday marked the anniversary of the end of the First World War in 1918. #Iran had become a major battleground where British, Russian, and Ottoman forces clashed. Foreign troops plundered towns & ravaged the countryside.
Pic: People in Bijar rushing for the entrails of a sheep. 1/3
Pic: People in Bijar rushing for the entrails of a sheep. 1/3
Thread: Yesterday marked the anniversary of the end of the First World War in 1918. #Iran had become a major battleground where British, Russian, and Ottoman forces clashed. Foreign troops plundered towns & ravaged the countryside.
Pic: People in Bijar rushing for the entrails of a sheep. 1/3
Pic: People in Bijar rushing for the entrails of a sheep. 1/3
November 12, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Thread: Yesterday marked the anniversary of the end of the First World War in 1918. #Iran had become a major battleground where British, Russian, and Ottoman forces clashed. Foreign troops plundered towns & ravaged the countryside.
Pic: People in Bijar rushing for the entrails of a sheep. 1/3
Pic: People in Bijar rushing for the entrails of a sheep. 1/3
Homayoun Ershadi, a renowned Iranian actor, left us today. He was perhaps best known internationally for his debut role in Abbas Kiarostami’s 1997 Cannes Palme d’Or winning film Taste of Cherry. May he rest in peace. #Iran
November 11, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Homayoun Ershadi, a renowned Iranian actor, left us today. He was perhaps best known internationally for his debut role in Abbas Kiarostami’s 1997 Cannes Palme d’Or winning film Taste of Cherry. May he rest in peace. #Iran
Reposted by Reza H. Akbari
One of my proud COVID-era creations. Qajar popsicle stick kings! A clever visual aid for teaching? A fun craft project? Bookmarks? Quarantine boredom? A sign that I was spiraling into madness? I am not sure either. #Iran #Qajar #QajarKings
October 31, 2025 at 6:55 PM
One of my proud COVID-era creations. Qajar popsicle stick kings! A clever visual aid for teaching? A fun craft project? Bookmarks? Quarantine boredom? A sign that I was spiraling into madness? I am not sure either. #Iran #Qajar #QajarKings
People who have fled the western city of el-Fasher in wartorn #Sudan are recounting horrific violence at the hands of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as aid workers say they fear only a fraction of the besieged city’s residents have managed to escape. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10...
Survivors fleeing Sudan’s el-Fasher recount terror, bodies in streets
Aid organisations fear that far fewer people than hoped have been able to leave the besieged Darfur city.
www.aljazeera.com
October 30, 2025 at 4:24 PM
People who have fled the western city of el-Fasher in wartorn #Sudan are recounting horrific violence at the hands of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as aid workers say they fear only a fraction of the besieged city’s residents have managed to escape. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10...
Thread: Tehran is undeniably overcrowded and polluted, perched on active earthquake fault lines, and facing severe land subsidence. The city has also become a growing burden, having exhausted much of its groundwater and now relying on costly water transfers from other regions. #Iran 1/3
Iran’s president calls for new capital to replace Tehran
Masoud Pezeshkian says water shortages have made megacity unlivable, but experts dismiss idea of moving
www.ft.com
October 30, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Thread: Tehran is undeniably overcrowded and polluted, perched on active earthquake fault lines, and facing severe land subsidence. The city has also become a growing burden, having exhausted much of its groundwater and now relying on costly water transfers from other regions. #Iran 1/3
Iran appears to be stepping up the rebuilding of its ballistic missile program, despite the reintroduction last month of United Nations sanctions that ban arms sales to the country and ballistic missile activity. www.cnn.com/2025/10/29/m... #Iran
Western intelligence says Iran is rearming despite UN sanctions, with China’s help | CNN
Iran appears to be stepping up the rebuilding of its ballistic missile program, despite the reintroduction last month of United Nations sanctions that ban arms sales to the country and ballistic missi...
www.cnn.com
October 29, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Iran appears to be stepping up the rebuilding of its ballistic missile program, despite the reintroduction last month of United Nations sanctions that ban arms sales to the country and ballistic missile activity. www.cnn.com/2025/10/29/m... #Iran
Perils of relying on oral history: you spend hours finding the right source, track down an interview from 1986, spot the keywords, get your hopes up…only to find that one of the few people with first-hand knowledge was having a memory gap during the conversation. I am sure #historians can relate.
October 25, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Perils of relying on oral history: you spend hours finding the right source, track down an interview from 1986, spot the keywords, get your hopes up…only to find that one of the few people with first-hand knowledge was having a memory gap during the conversation. I am sure #historians can relate.
Happy Friday from the streets of Shiraz, #Iran.
Kokamz Band
Afif Abad Garden, Shiraz
📽️ Artaan: tinyurl.com/34unujw4
Kokamz Band
Afif Abad Garden, Shiraz
📽️ Artaan: tinyurl.com/34unujw4
October 24, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Happy Friday from the streets of Shiraz, #Iran.
Kokamz Band
Afif Abad Garden, Shiraz
📽️ Artaan: tinyurl.com/34unujw4
Kokamz Band
Afif Abad Garden, Shiraz
📽️ Artaan: tinyurl.com/34unujw4
Harvard University's Faculty of Arts & Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for the next two years. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
Harvard FAS Cuts Ph.D. Seats By More Than Half Across Next Two Admissions Cycles | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for th...
www.thecrimson.com
October 22, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Harvard University's Faculty of Arts & Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for the next two years. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
For those keeping tabs, #Islamophobia is still alive and well in America!
October 21, 2025 at 8:52 PM
For those keeping tabs, #Islamophobia is still alive and well in America!
Reposted by Reza H. Akbari
"It was — yeah, it was really — it was really horrifying, what they had to share."
Moureen Kaki, an aid worker in Gaza, has spoken to many former Palestinian prisoners released by Israel as part of the ceasefire. "Everybody described torture," she says.
Palestinian Prisoners “Taken Hostage” by Israel Describe Torture
Palestinians who have been released from Israeli prisons as part of the hostage exchange with Hamas are describing physical and psychological torture, medical neglect, deprivation and more. Moureen Ka...
www.democracynow.org
October 19, 2025 at 1:36 PM
"It was — yeah, it was really — it was really horrifying, what they had to share."
Happy Friday! It's a good day to pause and take in a story or two. Earlier this year, I started The Guarded Domains, a Substack on #Iran, war, identity, & the narratives that shape a people. I try to write with care and keep it accessible. If that resonates with you, please join me for the ride.
The Guarded Domains | Reza H. Akbari | Substack
Iran's sociopolitical history, blended with personal experience. Click to read The Guarded Domains, by Reza H. Akbari, a Substack publication. Launched 4 months ago.
guardeddomains.substack.com
October 17, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Happy Friday! It's a good day to pause and take in a story or two. Earlier this year, I started The Guarded Domains, a Substack on #Iran, war, identity, & the narratives that shape a people. I try to write with care and keep it accessible. If that resonates with you, please join me for the ride.
Cross-dressing in Iranian cinema is ripe for academic exploration in fields like queer studies, film, performance art, & cultural studies. From Akbar Abdi (and other men) playing women to Elnaz Shakerdoost playing a man, there’s a lot of gender-bending to challenge norms and censors. #Iran
October 15, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Cross-dressing in Iranian cinema is ripe for academic exploration in fields like queer studies, film, performance art, & cultural studies. From Akbar Abdi (and other men) playing women to Elnaz Shakerdoost playing a man, there’s a lot of gender-bending to challenge norms and censors. #Iran
Back to square one. The frustrating game of "you move first, no you move first, if you move, we may move..." has begun. The issue with #Iran's current approach is that it allows Trump to dictate the playing field. amwaj.media/en/media-mon...
Inside story: Iran skips invite to Gaza summit, but will ‘engage’ with ‘fair US proposal’
The story: Iran has declined an invitation to attend the high-profile Gaza peace summit in Egypt. Co-chaired by US President Donald Trump, the event will gather more than a dozen world leaders. Politi...
amwaj.media
October 13, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Back to square one. The frustrating game of "you move first, no you move first, if you move, we may move..." has begun. The issue with #Iran's current approach is that it allows Trump to dictate the playing field. amwaj.media/en/media-mon...
Reposted by Reza H. Akbari
Medieval and Early Modern MENA Starter Pack (@brianjulrich.bsky.social)
October 12, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Medieval and Early Modern MENA Starter Pack (@brianjulrich.bsky.social)
To celebrate 63 years of diplomatic ties, the South Korean ambassador to Tehran sang the iconic Persian folk song "Jan-e Maryam." Who needs nuclear sanctions or nonproliferation summits when you can disarm Iran with...your...voice? #Iran
October 11, 2025 at 7:44 PM
To celebrate 63 years of diplomatic ties, the South Korean ambassador to Tehran sang the iconic Persian folk song "Jan-e Maryam." Who needs nuclear sanctions or nonproliferation summits when you can disarm Iran with...your...voice? #Iran
There are strong elements of #Qatar's foreign policy toward the U.S. that mirror Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's approach in the 1960s–70s. Not a normative statement. Just noting the playbook isn’t new, and it tends to be effective for a time. #Iran
Hegseth: "I'm also proud that today we're signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emeri air force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho."
October 10, 2025 at 3:08 PM