Persian Culture

Spotlight on Iran: an evening of political readings, live music, dialogue, and a fusion of Eastern European and Iranian food.

How do we come together in collective power when, by design, our attention is violently split between different geographies?

Co-learning in Public is a new event series dedicated to alternative political education through shared practices, lived experience, and collective learning. With each event, Eastern European histories and issues are brought into conversation with struggles and lessons from other regions, working towards transnational solidarity.

The first event sheds light on Iran at a time when the uprising sparked by the collapse of the country’s currency was met with disproportionate violence, especially augmented by US threats. Revolution is no stranger to Eastern Europe. We know well the seduction of neoliberal ideas of freedom, where liberation is built on alignment with Western models. We also know, through feminist and anti-violence movements, that isolation is a deliberate tactic used to obstruct paths toward genuine freedom. Iran is being sealed off.

During the evening:

• Writer, curator, producer, and former political prisoner Aras Amiri will read and discuss her latest text, The Eros of Revolution in Iran, which looks at how movements like Woman, Life, Freedom grow out of and continue the struggles of the 1979 Revolution
• Saxophonist Omid Amiri will perform a mix of Persian, Eastern European, and contemporary jazz throughout the evening
• Aras Amiri will facilitate a conversation with the audience about the rise of the far right across different geographies, and how people are organising collectively in response (through unions, art collectives, social and political groups, university spaces, and beyond). You are invited to bring a short text to read (fiction, non-fiction, or theory), or to share a personal experience that feels relevant
• A fusion of Eastern European and Iranian food will be offered at the start of the evening.

WHEN: Friday, 27 February 2026, 7pm
WHERE: Event Space, Pelican House, 144 Cambridge Heath Road, E1 5QJ London

### ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Aras Amiri
I am an Iranian writer, curator, and art producer, born in 1986 in Amol. I grew up in the language and nature of Mazandaran. The meanings of the 1979 revolution, my parents’ love of music, art, and folklore, their leftist library, and the suppression of the regime formed my understanding of the world. My childhood imagination found its ground in writing which has stayed with me-when I was writing regularly, participating in literary scenes in Amol and Tehran, and during periods when I no longer wrote stories.
Since moving to the UK in 2007, I have curated exhibitions of Iranian contemporary artists, published critical writing, and worked as Art Manager for Iran at the British Council, producing collaborative and international projects across artforms and publishing poetry, short stories, and a bilingual art magazine.
Imprisoned in Iran from 2018 to 2022, I wrote poetry and fiction and completed my MA dissertation, The Truth Content of Art and Its Relation to Freedom, under Peter Osborne’s distant supervision. I now live in Jersey, co-founded The Moving Arts Collective, and continue to write in Farsi.
Omid Amiri
I am an Iranian musician and music educator. I was born amidst the beautiful nature of the Mazandaran region, where the forest, the sea, and the mountain come together. I was raised in a politically active family with a profound admiration for the arts, yet I grew up during the dark times of post-revolution Iran. My first two years were spent missing my imprisoned father, and I entered a society where social freedoms and the arts were strictly limited, all while a war raged with a neighboring country.

In a time when carrying a musical instrument in public was forbidden, I found my sanctuary in music. Thanks to my music-loving and audiophile father, I spent my youth practicing freedom, expression, and imagination through playing piano and listening to sounds from diverse cultures and different music styles. Music became my greatest passion and remains my way of life up to this date.
Later in my musical growth, I was deeply influenced by Black American Music—what the Western world knows as Jazz. I was first moved by the richness of this music itself, and then by its history of resilience. I studied BAM formally at ARPEJ Paris and I was mentored by the likes of Tony Kofi and Michel Goldberg, and have spent the last 22 years performing across the scenes of Tehran, Paris, and London. My repertoire spans BAM, Blues, Rock, Soul/R&B, African, Latin and Middle Eastern music, Persian fusion, and electronic music, often collaborating with poets and performance artists.
For the past eight years, I have shared my love for music through saxophone lessons, music theory, and BAM history classes plus leading ensemble workshops. My musical journey is one of self-discovery, connection and sympathy. I have a deep desire to fuse different sources of music, finding joy in the interaction and unity and plural expression. To me, music is a service to humanity. I believe the intent and the soul are far more important than technique; humanity, honesty, and love are what truly enrich a musician’s creation.

Chetori,

This fresh prose translation by Maryam Mafi of 105 short teaching stories by Rumi, which form the core of the six-volume Masnavi, explores the hidden spiritual aspects of everyday experience. Rumi transforms the seemingly mundane events of daily life into profound Sufi teaching moments. These prose gems open the mystical portal to the world of the ancient mystic.

Join us at SOAS for a free discussion with author Mattin Biglari about his book Nationalising Oil and Knowledge in Iran (2025).

Nationalising Oil and Knowledge in Iran: Labour, Decolonisation and Colonial Modernity, 1933–51 by Mattin Biglari

Iran’s nationalisation of oil in 1951 was a key catalyst for the rise of resource nationalism as an animating force of global decolonisation, expelling the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC, now known as BP) after nearly fifty years of domination in southwest Iran. Nationalising Oil & Knowledge in Iran turns attention to the origins of nationalisation in the everyday struggles between the oil company and subaltern actors in the city of Abadan, then home to the world’s largest oil refinery and deeply imbricated in networks of colonialism and racial capitalism.

Engaging with energy history, postcolonial/subaltern studies, and science & technology studies, the book focuses on the politics of expertise: how nationalisation reproduced the epistemic coloniality of the oil company, which rested on local dispossession, social engineering, as well as racial and gendered segregation. It argues that nationalisation diverged from subaltern contestations of oil expertise in Abadan, which presented a more fundamental challenge to colonial modernity.

Looking at Afghanistan through the photo-journalism of Lorenzo Tugnoli.

The Frontline Club has long been a home for journalists, photographers, and thinkers who care deeply about how the world is represented. This event proposes a presentation and discussion around It Can Never Be The Same, the new book by Pulitzer Prize–winning photojournalist Lorenzo Tugnoli, created in collaboration with Francesca Recchia and pubblished with GOST Books.

Made in Afghanistan between 2019 and 2023—a period marked by the collapse of the Western-backed government and the Taliban’s return to power—the work examines not only the country’s upheaval but also the act of representation itself. The book opens a conversation about how countries at war or under occupation are portrayed and how media narratives shape public understanding.

The event will feature a dialogue between Lorenzo Tugnoli and Stuart Smith, designer, publisher, and co-founder of GOST Books, exploring long-term photojournalism, the evolution of the photobook, and the responsibilities embedded in visual storytelling. The NGO EMERGENCY, which contributed to the publication and has worked in Afghanistan since 1999, will introduce the discussion. Afghan scholar and policy expert Dr Orzala Nemat will moderate the event.

I’ll be at there 15 minutes before the event. We’ll meet at Frontline Club’s bar to discuss the screening at 8.30pm.