Website of Kourosh Ziabari, award-winning journalist and reporter

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: The detention of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange by British police on April 11 has generated an international media frenzy. Assange has been sheltering in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012, having sought asylum to avoid extradition to Sweden where he was facing sexual assault and rape charges. The government of President Lenin Moreno revoked Assange’s Ecuadorian citizenship and, after months of coordinated efforts, asked the Metropolitan Police to remove him from the embassy premises. Julian Assange founded the whistleblowing website, WikiLeaks, in 2006 to expose corruption, human rights violations and war crimes. The publication of the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, as well as a trove...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: Why is reading so important? It’s a question that academics, governments and families have considered essential for children. Indeed, reading helps to broaden the mind. Those who read books experience stronger family relationships, improved communication and better critical thinking skills. Reading books is highly important for a child’s development. That is why there is so much investment on children’s literature and media. Aside from the psychological benefits for young people, reading helps to expose children to creative wisdom and assists in shaping their personality. Children’s reading skills are pivotal to their success in school since the act helps improve their communication and...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: On March 15, 2019, New Zealand witnessed the deadliest mass shooting in its modern history. A 28-year-old Australian gunman opened fire on worshippers at the Al Noor Mosque in the Christchurch suburb of Riccarton, and went on with the shooting rampage at the Linwood Islamic Centre, killing 50 and injuring 50 others. He was driven by ideas of white supremacy, Islamophobia and far-right extremism. The victims came from all over the world and all walks of life — teachers, engineers, accountants, a three-year-old toddler born in New Zealand to Somali parents, Afghan, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indonesian, Indian and Egyptian natives, and Syrian refugees. According to the New Zealand police, the assailant...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: Nestled in the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and Tunisia, Malta is the smallest member state of the European Union, having joined the bloc in May 2004. A strong economic performance, especially in the face of the 2008 global financial crisis, and high levels of social capital have helped Malta climb to 19th place out of 149 nations on the Legatum Prosperity Index. The country performs best on safety and security, social capital and economic quality markers in the rankings. Malta adopted the euro as its official currency in 2008, replacing the Maltese lira, and survived the eurozone crisis due to low debt and sound banking practices. Freedom House refers to Malta as a “parliamentary democracy with...

Kourosh Ziabari - ODVV: Saudi Arabia is the world’s leading exporter of crude oil and one of the top 20 major economies of the world. It’s the largest economy of the Middle East and the fastest growing healthcare market among the GCC countries. The largest state in Western Asia, the kingdom is the biggest Middle East trading partner of the United States and Britain. Despite huge strides towards becoming a stable economy, Saudi Arabia has been lagging behind for many years in addressing shortcomings in its human rights record. Reports about the suppression of civil rights activists, journalists, clerics, religious minorities and women emerge from Saudi Arabia frequently. Over the past months, the Arab monarchy has been under fire...

Kourosh Ziabari - ODVV: France is home to a sizeable Muslim population that is rapidly growing in number. The state does not collect religious or ethnic census data in accordance with an 1872 legislation, so it’s difficult to ascertain how many Muslims of different nationalities and racial backgrounds live in France. However, it’s estimated that there are 6 million Muslims in France, half of whom are born or naturalized French citizens. Muslims of Algerian descent make up the largest subgroup. With the global refugee crisis looming large, the number of France’s Muslims is expected to rise. In 2012, the Interior Ministry estimated that there are around 2,500 mosques in France. Notwithstanding, a 2016 report by the Senate put the...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: Nowruz is the ancient Iranian celebration of the new year. Although it is difficult to say with certainty when it was first marked, there are some accounts that suggest Nowruz may be 3,000 years old. Literally meaning “new day” in Persian, Nowruz is shared by several countries in West and Central Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, as well as the Iranian diaspora across the world. At the initiative of several countries celebrating this occasion, 21 March was declared International Nowruz Day by the United Nations in 2010, and since then the the Persian New Year has been marked at the organization’s headquarters in New York. In 2009, Nowruz was inscribed on the UNESCO’s...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: Uighurs are a Turkic people native to Central and East Asia and one of the 55 ethnic minorities officially recognized by the government of China. Over 11 million Uighurs live in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in the northwest of China, making up around 45% of the local population. The majority of Uighurs practice Sunni Islam. Xinjiang is a historically restive region, and after the 9/11 attacks, Chinese state media started to single out Uighurs as terrorists, separatists and extremists, branding them as China’s number one enemy within. According to the Hong Kong-based group the Uyghur Human Rights Project, Uighurs lead “predominantly secular lives,” which contradicts the Chinese...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: New Mexico is the fifth largest state in the US. It borders Mexico to the south, its capital is Santa Fe and its largest city is Albuquerque. The state is known for many reasons, including the detonation of the world’s first atomic bomb in the town of Alamogordo in 1945, as well as its large Hispanic population who make up 46.7% of the state’s population. An ethnically diverse community, Spanish is widely spoken in New Mexico. It became the 47th state in 1912 and has two official songs, one in English and the other in Spanish. It was inhabited by Native Americans for thousands of years, and its yellow and red flag was first brought to New Mexico by Spanish explorers in 1540. The state is home to...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: Strangulating economic sanctions are no novelty for the Iranian people, who have borne the brunt of international embargoes for almost four decades now. The United States introduced its first set of punitive measures against Iran shortly after the 1979 hostage crisis. After that tragic episode, the United States added to its sanctions on Iran on multiple occasions, rendering it a pariah state disconnected from the global banking, financial, energy and transportation sectors. The latest round of sanctions by the United States targeting Iran were announced in August and November 2018, sparking panic among Iranians, unprecedented fluctuations in the exchange market and the closedown of hundreds of...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: Iran’s relations with the United States seem to have come to a nadir under the current administration. One of the first decisions President Donald Trump took after entering the White House was to introduce a widely-contested “Muslim ban,” preventing the entry of the citizens of Iran and several other Muslim-majority countries into the United States. He also withdrew the US from the UN-backed Iran nuclear deal and reimposed hard-hitting economic sanctions against Tehran. The proponents of the sanctions say they will result in a change in the Iranian government’s behavior and compel Tehran to restrain its regional influence and militarism. Opponents say the measures are controversial because of...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Iran’s 1979 revolution was such an all-encompassing movement that it influenced almost all aspects of life. Shortly after the kingdom of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was toppled, revolutionary entities were established to take charge of emerging responsibilities in the new theocracy: revolutionary courts, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution. Iran’s movie industry was not impervious to the ripple effects of the revolution. Many actors and actresses who had appeared in shah-era films left the country, fearing persecution by the religious zealots. Censorship was rife and films produced in the early years of the revolution were heavily vetted to ensure the...