Registration for IAAB's 2005 Conference on the Iranian Diaspora is Now Available Online!

We are excited to inform you that registration for IAAB’s Second International Conference on the Iranian Diaspora is now open! Please note that registration is limited and will be determined on a first-come-first-served basis. For your convenience, you may register securely online via our website, and pay with a credit or debit card via PayPal. The registration fee of $40 for the general public and $25 for students includes access to both days of the conference including breakfast and snacks throughout the weekend.

We will also be holding an event on Saturday evening, April 23, in Washington, DC, which will feature the highly-acclaimed Iranian-American comedian Maz Jobrani, followed by a band and DJ. This event is open to all conference participants for $5 and to the Washington, DC community (non-conference participants) for $15. Ticket information for this event coming soon.

The conference, which is hosted by the Iranian Students’ Foundation of the University of Maryland and sponsored by the University’s Center for Persian Studies, will be held April 23-24, 2005 at the Adele H. Stamp Student Union, UMD, College Park. More information on the student union, including directions, can be found here.

2005 Conference Schedule Promises New Insights on the Iranian Diaspora

We are excited to announce the conference schedule for the 2005 Iranian Alliances Across Borders 2nd International Conference on the Iranian Diaspora, available here. This year’s conference will include speakers from across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Iran. The presentations come from a wide array of professors, artists, writers, students, activists, lawyers, filmmakers, politicians, journalists, and NGO leaders who will be addressing the many issues that are present in our diaspora community.

During the two days in which we will all be gathered, the conference participants will raise questions such as:

How do we express, and thus reconcile, our immigrant experiences in our new societies?

In what way is the second-generation acting like a bridge between Iran and the Western societies they now live in?

What issues does the second-generation face in terms of sexuality, gender relations, dating/marriage, and ethno-religious identity?

How important is (and how important should) the knowledge of Persian for the second-generation?

What issues do we face as hyphenated Iranians in a post-September 11th world, and what are we doing about the infringements on our civil liberties?

How do we fit and place ourselves on America’s political map?

We hope you will join us for what promises to be a thought-provoking and stimulating two days. Please register for the conference on our website at your earliest convenience, as space is limited!

Bam: One Year Later

In December 2004, four members of Iranian Alliances Across Borders (IAAB) spent two days in Bam working with a Tehran based Iranian non-governmental organization called SIB (Setad-e Yar-e Bam, or "Apple"). As we continue to expand our organization, Narges Bajoghli, IAAB's co-Executive Director, has been in constant contact with SIB and has made numerous trips to Bam to explore opportunities for IAAB there. Along with Narges, Ramin Ostadhosseni, Mani Parcham, and Ramin Bajoghli were stationed in a newly built school funded by SIB. While there, the IAAB staff members worked with the children of Bam, and, along with SIB, they accompanied the children who had lost parents to the cemetery to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake.

See Ramin Bajoghli's full account and photo gallery by clicking here.

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