After a hotly contested presidential election that resulted in street riots and a disputed claim to a renewed mandate by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran stands at a crossroads: between reformist and conservative leadership, between its revolutionary past and its post-revolutionary future.
Iran: "The guest is God's friend"
Published July 2, 2009
Iason Athansiadis, a journalist reporting from Iran on a grant from the Pulitzer Center, has been in Iranian custody since June 17. The Greek government has taken the lead in efforts to secure his release. The article below, written for Salon by University of Southern California professor Sandy Tolan, tells of Iason's remarkable career and why he has touched so many people, in journalism and beyond.
ran: "The guest is God's friend"
(Salon, July 2, 2009)
By Sandy Tolan
Jul. 02, 2009
Journalism's deepest, most honest contributions inevitably spring from on-the-ground reporting, unencumbered by policy agendas in Washington, London or other foreign capitals. That's what epitomizes the work of my friend and colleague Iason Athanasiadis, and it's why his detention by Iranian authorities, on June 17 when trying to board a flight out of Iran, is so troubling.
Iason, who has written for the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times and publications across Europe and the Middle East, comes from that breed of journalist in pursuit of something beyond just "the story." To work in Iran, he learned Farsi; to understand its people, he lived with them for three years. His work, as a writer and photojournalist, reflects deep empathy with the Iranian people, an understanding of their historical legacy, and an analysis of the changes swirling around them. Those values lend an independence and credibility to Iason's work that allow him, on the one hand, to produce the revealing photo essay "Children of the Revolution," which captures the hopes of a new generation of Iranians; and on the other, to invoke, in his writing on the nation's history, "Britain's imperialist past and expert meddling in Iran's internal affairs," which "has left most ordinary Iranians nursing a distrust that endures."
Project
Iason Athanasiadis was the only foreign journalist to be detained during Iran's post-election unrest. Here he writes about the weeks he spent inside and outside Evin Prison before and after the...
In an article on how he brings foreign news reporting to new audiences, photojournalist Iason Athanasiadis pays tribute to the Pulitzer Center for funding his past reporting projects in Iran, Turke
Project
