Russia’s luxurious train dubbed “Golden Eagle” arrived in Iranian holy city, Mashhad on Sunday morning.

The train left Moscow for Tehran with 40 tourists from Britain, US, Australia, Spain, Canada and South Africa. Golden Eagle had already passed Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan in 18 days to get to the city.

Iran has become a destination for 40 tourists from all across the world, who have paid 20,000 euro for the trip and are eager to visit fabulous tourist attractions.

Railway Director General of Khorasan Razavi welcomed the tourists at Mashhad railway station and expressed hope that they would enjoy their stay in the country.

He stated that this is the first time that Mashhad hosts tourist train after 20 years from the opening of the Sarakhs border.

The arrival of the train coincided with mourning rituals on Arba’een, which marks the 40th day after the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hossein.

There are a lot of people that in the especial day flock to Mashhad, Iran’s holy city, to the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Imam of Shias, , northeastern province of Khorasan Razavi. Annually about 5 million domestic and foreign pilgrims make pilgrimage in the city. According to a governmental statistics we have more than one million pilgrims during these days in 2016.

While in Iran, the train will take the visitors to Iran’s tourism hubs of Kerman, Yazd, Isfahan, and Shiraz. The train is expected in Tehran on November 27 where it will stay for two nights. It will later return to Mashhad and then to Turkmenistan and further on its way back to unwind its 18-day tour.

The main route of the Trans-Siberian Express — which is equipped with a four to five star hotel service — was always through Russia, the Trans-Siberian route, as well as the Silk Road through Central Asia.

The Trans-Siberian Express had to change the cars and truck wheels, so they fit the Iranian track which has a different gauge of railways than that of Russia.

Tim Littler, the president of Britain’s Golden Eagle Luxury Trains Limited that operates the railway cruise to Iran, had earlier told Sputnik that the luxurious cruise is not a one-time trip. “This is a real active project that will have a permanent schedule of tours,” Littler had said.

“The luxury train from Moscow to the Persian Odyssey will run on a continuous basis. They will go twice a year. In Iran, the best time to go is in spring and autumn. At other times of the year, it is virtually impossible to conduct tours, as it is either very hot or cold. Therefore, we will travel in October and November and in March and April.”

The Golden Eagle Luxury Trains had already conducted three rail trips to Iran from Europe.

Shandiz, Mashhad

37 Kilometers southeast of Mashhad contains the countryside and tourist city of Shandiz. It has a moderate weather and concerning the green nature, vegetation, thick and dense trees, the river, and southern and western altitudes, it is cool in summer and very cold in winter. The average annual temperature of it is 25 degrees Celsius.

The most important garden product of this city is cherries. Significant souvenirs of the city are handicrafts, especially sheepskin clothes. The well-known food of the city is called Shishlik which is made of six pieces of lamb prepared in a very special method and it is world famous. There are restaurant all over Iran and the world bearing the name of this beautiful city catering the delicious Shishlik of Shandiz.

A festival of tulips flowers is underway in Park Mellat in the holy city of Mashhad, northeast of Iran. Photo: Tasnim

 

Legendary vocalist master Mohammadreza Shajarian, who was known as Iran’s king of song and once called himself the “son of Iran”, died on Thursday at 80 at Tehran’s Jam Hospital years after suffering from kidney cancer.

It was deeply shocking for his fans and the Iranian music community when the icon of Persian traditional music appeared in a video in the early days of Noruz, the celebration of the Iranian New Year celebration, in March 2016, wishing a happy New Year for Iranians and announcing that he was suffering from chronic kidney cancer.

The two-time Grammy Award nominee called the disease “a 15-year-old guest” that is “friendly” with him and added that he would soon return to the stage, a dream that would never come true.

He soon left the country for Sacramento, California to receive treatment for the disease and returned home in September that year to resume his medical treatment in the country.

His fans were shocked several times over the past few years each time they heard that their beloved, highly popular artist was admitted to the hospital. In post-revolution Iran, no other artist could capture the hearts and souls of his people as much as him.

His popularity was not just limited to his art. His strong affinity with the people over the course of his lifetime made Shajarian their beloved artist. He was never once apathetic about the pain and suffering they went through.

For example, shortly after the devastating 2003 earthquake in Bam, Kerman Province, which claimed tens of thousands of lives and flattened the town, Shajarian and his group, composed of his son Homayun, tar virtuoso Hossein Alizadeh and kamacheh master Kayhan Kalhor, organized benefit concerts titled “Compassion for Bam” to raise funds for the victims of the disaster.

The Bam Art Garden was born out of the rubble of the earthquake based on an initiative from Shajarian and his friends.

“I was like a drop that fell from the cloud, heading to the sea,” Shajarian once said during a celebration to mark his 73rd birthday in September 2013 organized by his friends and a number of Iranian art elites, including vocalist Shahram Nazeri, filmmaker Masud Kimiai and writer Javad Mojabi.

“For me, the people of Iran and the world are the sea. And from childhood, I learned from my parents to share my happiness with others… I follow the way that people are going and the people are my most important asset. Today, many people live inside me and I live for them. Because I believe that life finds its mean with ‘you,’ therefore, I have tried to do my art for humans and humanity.

“We should first abandon our evil ways and wickedness to enable ourselves to live with others and hold meetings with them; meetings with others have always been important for me and I have tried to ignore my personal pride for the sake of national pride and culture.

“Life is difficult when we are under others’ steady gaze and spotlights, but today, the present the people give us is for having always loved them; I have tried to share my happiness with others and have regard for their concerns.”      

Born in the religious city of Mashhad, Shajarian began his vocal career from childhood with his father who taught him Quran recitation. His recitations of the Holy Quran were aired by Mashhad Radio when he was only 12.

At the same time, he was also pursuing a career in vocal music. 

In his early twenties, he left his hometown to pursue his singing career in Tehran. His father wanted him to respect his family’s reputation for their affinity with religious figures, so his singing was aired by Tehran Radio under the alias Siavash Bidgani.     

Tar virtuoso Ahmad Ebadi, who was one of Shajarian’s close friends, met his father later, convincing him to allow Shajarian to sing using his true name.

His collaborations with Golha, a professional music program of Tehran Radio that had many top musicians, in 1972 opened a window of opportunity for Shajarian. He started a friendship with many elites of Persian traditional music who played a key role in the development of his virtuosity.

As he was completing his education with the top maestros such as Framarza Payvar, Nurali Khan Borumand and Abdollah Davami, he also pursued his Quran recitations professionally. In 1978, he finished first in Iran’s nationwide Quran competition. In summer 1979, he took second place in the recitation category of a Malaysian Quran contest.

He split from Golah, and consequently, radio in early 1978. “At that time, the program was not in harmony with my feelings. I felt that the radio’s policy was being made by cabarets and cultural triviality.”   

His friends in the Sheida and Aref music ensembles also separated from the radio in protest at the killing of demonstrators on Black Friday on 8 September 1979. They teamed up to produce some protest songs, which were released in album series named Chavosh.    

The epic song “Sepideh” (“Dawn”) composed by Mohammadreza Lotfi with a poem by their close friend Hushang Ebtehaj, who is also known by his pseudonym “Sayeh”, become a smash hit that Shajarian performed with the Sheida ensemble at National University in Tehran in 1980. “In Memory of Aref” and “The Soul of the Beloved” were among the albums Sheida recorded with Shajarian.

In 1980, a recitation of an invocation, known as “Shajarian’s Rabbana”, that he improvised for his students was recorded at Iran’s national radio. The divine recitation, which is composed of four verses of the Holy Quran, opens with a prelude featuring verses of a mesmerizing Rumi poem promoting the fast during Ramadan. 

In 2017, the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization registered “Rabbana” on the National Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

In his works, he began to perform in dastaghs and gushehs, the totality of melodies of the Persian traditional music system, which were sinking into oblivion at that time. This trend was highly inspiring for his pupils, helping save these unique systems.

In the 1980s, he pursued a teaching career in music courses, one of the outcomes of which was that his son, Homayun, is now a popular vocalist of the new generation.

His collaboration with Aref, which was led by eminent composer and santur virtuoso Parviz Meshkatian, resulted in the creation of “Injustice”, “At Presence of the Beloved”, “The Dome of the Sky” and several other albums, which are considered an unparalleled treasury of Persian traditional music.   

He worked with many musicians and finally in 2008, founded his own group Shahnaz named after his master and tar virtuoso Jalil Shahnaz. His daughter Mojgan and composer and tar virtuoso Majid Derakhshani were among the members of the ensemble, along with whom he embarked on a world tour in 2010, using his innovative instruments, including the sorahi, arghanun and barbad.        

Shajarian was also quite agreeable to the innovations made by his son, Homayun, in the traditions of Persian song.

“Despite objections from those who are adherents of Persian traditional music, they [Homayun and his colleagues] are not in the least incorrect. However, they should beware of deviations. They should follow their own path based on the culture of their society; they should never go beyond due bounds in modernity, letting the next generation try their new items,” he once said in an interview.      

He was nominated for a Grammy Award in Best World Music 2004 and 2006, and was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a UNESCO Golden Picasso Medal in 1999. He was also decorated with France’s Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in June 2014.

Shajarian was also known for his skills in Persian calligraphy, and showcased his works in several exhibitions.

Once in an interview, he called himself “son of Iran” and added, “My vice is among the ancient vices of Iranians who wanted to be remembered for the type of people they were; people of humanity, love, peace and purity.

“We have no other message for the world than that of friendship, love, life and happiness. And if we complain it is to rid ourselves of social problems so our people can live.”

Shajarian married Farkhondeh Golafshan in 1961, but divorced her in 2000. He is survived by his widow, Katayun Khansari, and his sons Homayun, Farzaneh, Afsaneh and Mojgan from his first marriage, and Rayan, another son from his second marriage.  

FM Zarif offers condolences over Iranian legendary singer’s departure

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a message expressed condolences over death of Iranian legendary singer Mohammad Reza Shajarian.

“Maestro Shajarian was a great & true Ambassador of Iran, her children and—most of all—her culture,” Zarif wrote in his Twitter account on Thursday.

“I extend my deepest condolences to Iranians across the world and partcularly to his loved ones” he added.

“From God we come and to Him we return.”

Tributes pour in for world-renowned Iranian vocalist

United Nations, diplomats, Iranian and foreign ambassadors and embassies in separate messages late on Thursday offered condolences on the demise of the veteran Iranian singer Maestro Mohammad Reza Shajarian.

UN representative office in Iran said in a message that the demise of the great Iranian vocalist Mohammad Reza Shajarian caused deep grief and sorrow.

“We on behalf of the UN family in Iran express condolences to Shajarian’s family and all his lovers in Iran and world. May the departed soul rest in peace,” the message said.

Iran’s Embassy in Zagreb in a tweet also extended condolences to the honorable and culture-loving compatriots, as well as lovers of Iranian culture and art, the death of the great Iranian vocalist and the internationally acclaimed figure.

Meanwhile, Swiss Embassy to Iran expressed sincere condolences on the demise of Maestro Mohammad Reza Shajarian. “Switzerland will cherish the memories of his concerts in Lausanne and Zurich.”

The British Embassy in Tehran also extended condolences to all his fans on the departure of one of the most prominent figures in Iranian traditional music of the last century.

Iran’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan Republic also paid homage to the late vocalist on his Twitter, expressing deep regret over the loss of “a towering figure in international music”.

The 36th Fadjr International Theater Festival (FITF) ended in a ceremony after announcing the winners in different categories.

In the international competition section Best Play Award was jointly presented to ‘The History Boys’ by Ashkan Khalilnejad, and ‘Melancholy of the Dragons’ by Philippe Quesne of France, honaronline.ir wrote.

Khalilnejad also received the Best Directing Award and Best Stage Design Award for ‘The History Boys’.

Mehdi Ziachamani won the Best Playwriting Award for ‘The Omissions’.

Special Jury Award for Best Dramatic Composition and Best Acting Award (male) went to Masoud Delkhah for ‘Mephisto’ and Morteza Esmaeil-Kashi respectively.

The Best Costume Design Award went to Neda Nasr for ‘The List of the Dead’.

Best Offstage Play (Unusual Places) was given to ‘Guilty Landscapes’ by Dries Verhoeven (the Netherlands).

The 36th Fadjr International Theater Festival was held from January 18 to 28 in Tehran.

Winners

Best Play Award:

Jointly won by ‘The History Boys’ by Ashkan Khalilnejad, and ‘Melancholy of the Dragons’ by Philippe Quesne, France

Best Directing Award:

Ashkan Khalilnejad for ‘The History Boys’ – Iran, Tehran

Best Playwriting Award:

Mehdi Ziachamani for ‘The Omissions’ – Iran, Mashhad

Special Jury Award for Best Dramatic Composition:

Masoud Delkhah for ‘Mephisto’ – Iran, Tehran

Best Acting Award (male):

Morteza Esmaeil-Kashi for ‘Mephisto’ – Iran, Tehran

Best Acting Award (female):

Katja Bürkle for ‘Hamlet’ – Germany

Best Stage Design Award:

Ashkan Khalilnejad for ‘Boys of History’ – Iran, Tehran

Best Costume Design Award:

Neda Nasr for ‘The List of the Dead’ – Iran, Tehran

Best Music/Sound Design Award:

Valentijn Dhaenens for ‘Big Mouth’ – Belgium

Best Offstage Play (Unusual Places):

‘Guilty Landscapes’ by Dries Verhoeven – The Netherlands

Special Mention:

Remote Tehran, Rimini Protocol Company – Germany

The 36th Fajr International Theater Festival was held January 18 to 28 in Tehran.

As Christians around the world celebrate Christmas, the holiday season is also observed in Iran. Iranians go to shops and buy Christmas gift and accessories in Tehran.

Decorated trees, along with Nativity scenes of the Virgin Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, can also be seen in shops along Mirza Shirazi Avenue and Ostaad Nejatollahi (Villa Avenue) and its surrounding neighborhoods in central Tehran, where many Iranian Christians reside.
Some Iranian Christians celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25 and New Years’ on Jan. 1, while Armenians celebrate Christmas at the same time as the Epiphany on Jan. 6.

Despite being a minority, Iran’s Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians are recognized as established religious minorities and are represented in parliament, and also enjoy freedom to practice their religions and perform their religious rituals.
Unlike other countries in the region where public celebration of Christmas is limited to hotels frequented by foreigners, there is no such restriction in Tehran. The sale of Christmas ornaments, which during the first years of the Islamic Revolution was limited to Christian districts, can now be seen around town.

 

In fact, festive Christmas decoration and celebration take place throughout the country, specifically in major cities such as Isfahan, Shiraz, Tabriz and even religious cities such as Mashhad.

German industrial group Siemens is about to undertake financing rail and power plant projects worth 3 billion euros in Iran, a senior Iranian official says.

“On a trip to Germany, we had discussions about Siemens’ participation in Iran’s railway and power plant projects,” Deputy Minister of Road and Urban Development for International Affairs Asghar Fakhriyeh-Kashan said on Tuesday.

In the rail sector, Iran is going to buy a number of wagons from Siemens for use on a high-speed line between Tehran, Qom and Isfahan, he said. Siemens will also cooperate on providing signaling equipment and installing communication signs.

“Through financing a number of construction projects, Siemens plans to enter into a joint venture with Iran’s MAPNA company both in the power plant and locomotive manufacturing sector in order to boost domestic production,” he said.

Last month, the Export-Import Bank of China (EXIM) signed a $1.5 billion deal to finance the electrification of a high-speed rail line between the Iranian cities of Tehran and Mashhad.

EXIM’s Vice President Sun Ping said in Tehran that the institution had provided loans for 26 Iranian projects in the electricity, petrochemicals, non-ferrous metals, oil and gas sectors, worth $9 billion.

China Railway Group Limited (CREC) is carrying out the $1.8 billion electrification of the high-speed rail link between Tehran, Qom and Isfahan.

Iran has announced plans to splurge up to $25 billion over the next 10 years on the modernization and expansion of its railway network.

Siemens was one of the first major companies to agree on a deal with Iran after the lifting of sanctions in January 2016, signing a $1.6 billion memorandum of understanding on Iran’s rail infrastructure and a long-term roadmap with MAPNA on the power sector.

The agreement included a license for manufacturing F-class gas turbines in Iran, under which more than 20 gas turbines and associated generators will be delivered over the next four to five years.

Iranian people across the country took to the streets to celebrate the reelection of President Rouhani in Presidential elections, announced on Saturday.

Cars packed the streets and horns sounded in celebration, as people of Tehran carried flags and portraits of President Rouhani who swept to victory on Saturday and will now begin a second term as president.

The impromptu rallies, which snarled traffic in some cities including the capital Tehran, were a chance for many to breathe easily again after a tense campaign between Rouhani and his main opponent Ebrahim Raeisi.

“I’m happy and a bit relieved after a month of stress,” said 27-year-old Afshin told AFP as he joined a large crowd gathered in Vali-Asr Square in central Tehran.

Across the country, young men and women, many wearing the purple of the Rouhani campaign, chanted slogans and sang together in the streets until the early hours of the morning.

Cars honked amid patriotic chants as more and more people filled the streets after dark, completely blocking traffic across wealthier north Tehran.

One group screamed with joy as a young boy threw batches of Rouhani photos into the air.

“I’m very happy because I’ve reached what I wanted, which was not Mr. Rouhani himself, but the path of reform, freedom and progress,” said Pegah, 25.

Many were determined to ensure Rouhani now kept his vows to improve civil liberties and reform the economy.

“In the same way we campaigned for him, we will demand he keep his promises,” said Afshin.

Videos on social media showed huge crowds in all four corners of the country.

“We didn’t leave Mashhad; we took it back,” chanted young people in the holy city of Mashhad, Raeisi’s hometown.

In the Azeri-speaking city of Tabriz in northwest Iran, crowds performed folk dances and local songs at a packed stadium as teenagers waved lighters in the air, while in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, it was the drum-heavy Bandari music that got thousands of revelers dancing.

The police were deployed to control the exuberance, and despite a few scuffles, no arrests were reported.

In Tehran’s Vali-Asr Square, police tried in vain to disperse the crowds, saying they lacked a permit to gather, only to back down when the numbers became too great, and let the party continue.

Rouhani garnered 23.5 million votes out of 41.2 million ballots cast, while Raeisi bagged 15.7 million votes. Iran has 56.4 million eligible voters.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei praised Iranians for their big turnout after voters queued up for hours to cast their ballots. The strong turnout of around 73% of eligible voters was “massive and epochal,” he said.

As Christians around the world celebrate Christmas, the holiday season is also observed in Iran. Iranians go to shops and buy Christmas gift and accessories in Tehran.

There are about 150,000 Christians living in Iran, most of them Armenians. They mark the holiday at home and in churches across the country. In fact, many Muslim families have adopted some Christmas customs, buying gifts for children and decorating their homes with Christmas trees.

Iran’s Christian Armenian minority has been storming the gift shops in Tehran, buying them out of all their ornaments, Santa figures and pine trees to hang in their stores and homes.
Christmas trees decorated with red, green and gold gift boxes placed behind shop windows or at the entrances of different shopping malls and hotels can be seen, especially in the Christian neighborhoods of Tehran.

Decorated trees, along with Nativity scenes of the Virgin Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, can also be seen in shops along Mirza Shirazi Avenue and Ostaad Nejatollahi (Villa Avenue) and its surrounding neighborhoods in central Tehran, where many Iranian Christians reside.
Some Iranian Christians celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25 and New Years’ on Jan. 1, while Armenians celebrate Christmas at the same time as the Epiphany on Jan. 6.

Despite being a minority, Iran’s Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians are recognized as established religious minorities and are represented in parliament, and also enjoy freedom to practice their religions and perform their religious rituals.
Unlike other countries in the region where public celebration of Christmas is limited to hotels frequented by foreigners, there is no such restriction in Tehran. The sale of Christmas ornaments, which during the first years of the Islamic Revolution was limited to Christian districts, can now be seen around town.

In fact, festive Christmas decoration and celebration take place throughout the country, specifically in major cities such as Isfahan, Shiraz, Tabriz and even religious cities such as Mashhad.

Iran could become the leading tourism market in the Middle East and North Africa region, says an international market analyst.

Nikola Kosutic the respected international analyst and head of research for the Middle East region at Euromonitor believes that “the potential is enormous when you consider where they are now, and what they could achieve in the near future. Iran is likely to become the leading tourism market in the Middle East and North Africa Region, provided the infrastructure is able to develop and cope with changes.”

Euromonitor International’s full report on travel and tourism in Iran outlines the way ahead, and the threats to achieving the country’s goal of attracting a huge increase in tourists by 2025, amounting to 35 billion US dollars a year. Tourism currently accounts for less than eight billion dollars.

The report will be a main focus for discussion at the inaugural Iran Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference (IHTIC) being organized by Bench Events on 7-8 February – a new high-level gathering of international investors, consultants and local leaders in the hospitality industry, who will come together to meet each other and discuss how to develop the country’s tourism sector.

Iran offers a diversity that is unique in the region, according to the report. Blending Persian and Arab cultures, the list of attractions is long: from the great city of Isfahan, to the mountains of Damavand, the religious tourism site of Mashhad, and the island of Kish.

While the US still has sanctions in place, hotel groups headquartered outside the USA have already started to move in. The French Accor group became the first in 2016. Others are following including the UAE’s Rotana and Spain‘s Melia. It’s expected that by 2018 Iran will have six different international brands.

In response, the country is trying to move fast to develop its infrastructure including increasing airport capacity at Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz, Mashhad and Shiraz. Iranian airlines has purchased more aircraft as international airlines start to focus on the market, including British Airways, which recently launched daily flights to Tehran.

But there are weaknesses, according to the Euromonitor report. Airport capacity is still limited and more investment is needed. The hotel market is massively under supplied often with poorly trained staff. And Internet infrastructure – especially online payment systems – is underdeveloped as a result of banking sanctions.
The report says the current Iranian government wants to encourage international tourism – apart from anything else, it needs the revenue. It is backing – politically and financially – a cultural heritage organisation to co-ordinate 160 projects, including hotels. And it is advertising abroad.

“With culture, ecotourism, and skiing, there are attractions across age groups, they can compete against many regional destinations, notably Egypt, Dubai, Oman and Turkey, the latter of which has recently faced an increase in terrorism. By contrast, Iran is considered to be a safe destination”, Nikola Kosutic added.
The largest source markets at the moment are Iraq and Azerbaijan, but the fastest growth has come from countries in Europe, and Americans are returning as well after decades of Iranian isolation. Nikola predicts that Russians will also arrive in big numbers. Visa procedures are being relaxed – Iran has started issuing 30-day visas for tourists from 58 countries on arrival.
For investors things are not quite as easy. A reliable local partner – to navigate bureaucracy, business rivalry, and even corruption – is crucial. Without one, the task is impossible.