President’s Day is a peaceful day for family gatherings and commemorating our past U.S. Presidents. However this year there are over 230 President’s Day protests planned to fight President Trump’s Declaration of a National Emergency to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The National Emergencies Act is a codified federal law which provides the President emergency powers once such […]
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This year marks the 23rd Annual Iranian Film Festival hosted by the American Film Institute (AFI) Silver Theater and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, and co-presented by the Smithsonian Freer-Sackler museums of Asian Art in Washington, D.C. The Festival begins in mid-January and lasts through February. These premier foreign films offer an introspective political and cultural commentary of life […]
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Limited cultural freedom, western sanctions In February, Iran is celebrating its 40th anniversary since independence. For Iran, independence has been a mixed success. Between 1953 and 1978, it was effectively ruled by a sovereign monarch. The state is presently dominated by clerics beginning with Ruhollah Khomeini, a radical Muslim cleric, in 1979. While the clerics supported an Islamic Revolution, its […]
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