Opening Remarks by
Dr. Akbar Ghahary, President
The Persian Cultural Foundation

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

On behalf of the Persian Cultural Foundation (PCF), I am delighted to welcome you to the Conference on “Private Lives and Public Spaces in Modern Iran.” This conference is exactly in line with at least two of the missions we have enunciated for the PCF, first, Iran’s historical and contemporary contributions to world civilization” and, second, fostering greater recognition of our national heritage. I am also thrilled that the importance of such endeavors is reflected in the caliber of the international scholars gathered here for this purpose.

As you are all well aware, Iran has had a long and eventful history. Research, however, has shown that the emphasis has been placed for centuries on political history rather than on cultural history in the narrow sense of the history of wielders of power, either political or poetic.

Since my youth, I have had the dream of rescuing Iran’s past from the grip of kings and great men, returning it to the men on the street. Fortunately, recent scholarship seems to be moving in that direction with fruitful results. Private life not only has its own history, but it also has its significant impact on the course of public events, even though the connection may not always be visible or direct. In the next three days, you will be examining the lives of merchants and moneychangers, clerics and cloth-sellers, and many other social groups in Iranian society. You will explore not only issues of free expression of political views, but you will also delve into issues related to their private lives. You will analyze student movements, body images, and many more topics vital to recording this type of history. It is a great privilege for PCF to have had a small part in making this conference possible, and I look forward to substantive deliberations on every one of these topics included in the program.

Let me take this opportunity to thank the other sponsors of this conference, Oxford University, of course, but also Iran Heritage Foundation, Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute, and the Toronto Initiative for Iranian Studies. Above all, my thanks and appreciation goes to Professor Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi who has worked tirelessly to gather us all here. Thank you.