Tehran

The Shahid Shiroudi Stadium is a sports stadium in Tehran, Iran, currently used only for Athletic competitions. Until 2009 it was used mostly for... football matches. The stadium is able to seat 30,000 people and was opened in 1942. It was called Amjadieh Stadium until the Iranian Revolution. It was also home to Esteghlal F.C. and Persepolis F.C. before Azadi Stadium was constructed. The stadium was host to the AFC Youth Championship 2000. The stadium was to be the final departing site for Operation Eagle Claw, the aborted mission to rescue 52 American hostages being held in Tehran during the Iran Hostage Crisis. The proposed extraction would have involved a rescue force being transported to the embassy, releasing the hostages, and then escorting the hostages across the main road in front of the embassy to the stadium, where helicopters would have retrieved the entire contingent. The stadium was named after Shahid Ali Akbar Shiroudi, a Cobra chopper pilot who was killed in the Iran–Iraq War.
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Takhti Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Tehran, Iran. It is used mostly for football matches. The stadium is able to hold 30,000 people and was... opened in 1973. But, in recent years the stadium has been abandoned and there is no grass field. In 2011 a Russian organization showed interest in bringing Takhti Stadium back to life.
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The Azadiye Stadium was a proposed new 40,000 seat covered stadium in Tehran, Iran. It is a set to be a purpose built sports complex to be used by... women only. It was supposed to be completed in 2009 ahead of the Women's Islamic Games set to be held in Tehran. But, it never was. It was near the Azadi Stadium.
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The Azadi Basketball Arena is an all-seater indoor arena located in Tehran, Iran. It is part of 5 Halls Complex within the Azadi Sport Complex. It seats 3,000 people.

Niavarān Palace Complex is a historical complex situated in the northern part of Tehran, Iran. It consists of several buildings and a museum.... The Sahebqraniyeh Palace, from the time of Naser al-Din Shah of Qajar dynasty, is also inside this complex. The main Niavaran Palace, completed in 1968, was the primary residence of the last Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the Imperial family until the Iranian Revolution. The main palace was designed by the Iranian architect Mohsen Foroughi. The Niavarān Palace Complex traces its origin to a garden in Niavaran, Tehran, that was used by Nasir al-Din Shah as a summer residence. The palace erected by Nasir al-Din Shah in this garden was originally referred to asThe Niavarān Palace and was later renamed The Sahebqraniyeh Palace. During the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi all the peripheral buildings of The Sahebqraniyeh Palace, with the exception of The Ahmad-Shahi Pavilion , were demolished and the buildings and the structures of the present-day Niavarān Palace Complex were built to the north of The Sahebqraniyeh Palace.
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Christiane Amanpour is CNN’s chief international correspondent based in New York. Amanpour has reported on most crises from the world’s... many news hotspots, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Somalia, Rwanda and the Balkans. Christiane was born in London, England, 1958 to her Iranian father Mohammad and British mother Patricia. She studied journalism at the University of Rhode Island, graduating Summa Cum Laude wth a BA in journalism, 1983. She joined CNN in 1983 and since then has been a very familiar face in the network reporting from all over the world. She also joined CBS 60 minutes as a correspondent and won a Peabody award for some of her work with the program. She has received numerous awards including 9 Emmy's for news and documentary, Edward Murrow Award, Polk Award and many more. In 2007 she was recognized in the birthday honors list of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with a highly prestigious CBE in the UK.
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Abbas Kiarostami is an internationally acclaimed Iranian film director, screenwriter, photographer and film producer. An active filmmaker since... 1970, Kiarostami has been involved in over forty films, including shorts and documentaries. Kiarostami attained critical acclaim for directing the Koker Trilogy , Taste of Cherry , and The Wind Will Carry Us . Kiarostami has worked extensively as a screenwriter, film editor, art director and producer and has designed credit titles and publicity material. He is also a poet, photographer, painter, illustrator, and graphic designer. He is part of a generation of filmmakers in the Iranian New Wave, a Persian cinema movement that started in the late 1960s and includes pioneering directors such as Forough Farrokhzad, Sohrab Shahid Saless, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Bahram Beizai, and Parviz Kimiavi. These filmmakers share many common techniques including the use of poetic dialogue and allegorical storytelling dealing with political and philosophical issues.
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Mohsen Makhmalbaf is an Iranian film director, writer, editor, and producer. During 2007 he was the president of Asian Film Academy. Makhmalbaf's... films have been widely presented in international film festivals in the past ten years. The multi-award-winning director, belongs to the new wave movement of Iranian cinema. Time magazine selected Makhmalbaf's 2001 film, Kandahar, as one of top 100 films of all time. In 2006, he was a member of the Jury at the Venice film festival. Makhmalbaf left Iran in 2005 shortly after the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and now lives in Paris. As of June 12, 2009, and following the events of the 2009 Iranian presidential election, Mohsen Makhmalbaf has claimed that he has been appointed the official spokesman of Mir-Hossein Moussavi's campaign abroad. Mohsen Makhmalbaf is a major figure in Iranian cinema. His films have explored the relationship between the individual and a larger social and political environment. As a result, his work serves as an extended commentary on the historical progression of the Iranian state and its people.
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Majid Majidi is an internationally and critically acclaimed Iranian film director, film producer, and screenwriter. Majidi's films have touched on... many themes and genres and he has won many international awards. Born in an Iranian middle class family, he grew up in Tehran and at the age of 14 he started acting in amateur theater groups. He then studied at the Institute of Dramatic Arts in Tehran. After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, his interest in cinema brought him to act in various films, most notably Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Boycott in 1985. In 1998, Majidi directed the film Children of Heaven, which was nominated to receive the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Though it lost to the Italian film Life Is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni, Children of Heaven is the first Iranian film to have been nominated by the Academy. Majidi has directed several other feature films since Children of Heaven: The Color of Paradise in 2000, Baran in 2001, and The Willow Tree in 2005; alternate English title One Life More.
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Shohreh Aghdashloo Persian: شهره آغداشلو‎, IPA: [ʃohˈɾe... ɒɢdɒːʃˈluː]; born May 11, 1952 is an Iranian American actress. After establishing a theatre and film career in Iran, Aghdashloo moved to England during the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and subsequently became a citizen of the United States. After several years playing supporting roles in television and film, her performance in House of Sand and Fog brought her several film critics' awards and a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has continued to play supporting and character roles in film and television and won an Emmy Award for her work in the television drama House of Saddam . Aghdashloo was born in Tehran, Iran as Shohreh Pari Vaziri-Tabar , to a wealthy Muslim family. Aghdashloo started acting at the age of 18. Following numerous starring roles on the stage, she was offered her first film role in Gozāresh directed by director Abbas Kiarostami, which won the Critics Award at the Moscow Film Festival.
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Nazanin Afshin-Jam is an Iranian-Canadian model, singer, and human rights activist. She is a former Miss World Canada and Miss World first... runner-up, and has been an advocate for human rights in her role as president and co-founder of Stop Child Executions. She immigrated to Canada with her family in 1981. She is the wife of Peter MacKay, Canada's Minister of National Defence. Afshin-Jam graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and Political Science, and studied at Science Po in Paris and the Queen's University International Study Centre Herstmonceux Castle in England. After graduation she worked with the Red Cross as a Global Youth Educator, teaching on subjects ranging from the Landmine Crisis, Children affected by War, the Poverty-Disease Cycle to Natural Disasters. She returned to school and earned a Master of International Diplomacy from Norwich University. In February 2008, Afshin-Jam was appointed by the Prime Minister's Office to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.
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Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri is a semi-retired Iranian professional wrestler and actor better known by his ring name The Iron Sheik. He is known for... ending the near six-year World Wrestling Federation Championship reign of Bob Backlund, and for being the man Hulk Hogan defeated for his first WWF Championship. A heel throughout the 1980s, he later gained popularity on Opie and Anthony, Kidd Chris, The Howard Stern Show, and on the internet due to his shoot interviews and outbursts on the wrestling industry and the hatred he expressed for various wrestlers. Khosrow was born in Tehran, Iran. He made a name for himself as an amateur wrestler, and also worked as a bodyguard for Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his family for several years. Khosrow competed to become part of the Iranian Olympic Greco Roman team for the 1968 Summer Olympics held in Mexico. After this, he moved to the United States and became the assistant coach of two US Olympic squads in the 1970s. In 1971, he was the Amateur Athletic Union Greco-Roman wrestling champion at 183.5 pounds. He was assistant coach to the USA team for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.
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Abbas Kiarostami is an internationally acclaimed Iranian film director, screenwriter, photographer and film producer. An active filmmaker since... 1970, Kiarostami has been involved in over forty films, including shorts and documentaries. Kiarostami attained critical acclaim for directing the Koker Trilogy , Taste of Cherry , and The Wind Will Carry Us . Kiarostami has worked extensively as a screenwriter, film editor, art director and producer and has designed credit titles and publicity material. He is also a poet, photographer, painter, illustrator, and graphic designer. He is part of a generation of filmmakers in the Iranian New Wave, a Persian cinema movement that started in the late 1960s and includes pioneering directors such as Forough Farrokhzad, Sohrab Shahid Saless, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Bahram Beizai, and Parviz Kimiavi. These filmmakers share many common techniques including the use of poetic dialogue and allegorical storytelling dealing with political and philosophical issues.
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Samira Makhmalbaf is an internationally acclaimed Iranian filmmaker and script writer. She is the daughter of Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the film director... and writer. Samira Makhmalbaf is considered to be one of the most influential directors as part of the Iranian New Wave. At the age of 20, Samira studied Psychology and Law at Roehampton University in London. "Raised on the set of her father’s films, it is impossible for Samira Makhmalbaf to imagine life outside cinema. She has had minor acting roles in many of her father’s films, and at the age of eight played an important role in The Cyclist. In 1995, at the age of fifteen, Samira abandoned formal education to devote herself entirely to cinema, studying primarily with her father at home." At the age of eight, she played in The Cyclist directed by her father, Mohsen Makhmalbaf the celebrated Iranian filmmaker. She left high school when she was 14 to study cinema in the Mohhmalbaf Film House for five years. At the age of 17, after directing two video productions, she went on to direct the movie The Apple.
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Mohsen Makhmalbaf is an Iranian film director, writer, editor, and producer. During 2007 he was the president of Asian Film Academy. Makhmalbaf's... films have been widely presented in international film festivals in the past ten years. The multi-award-winning director, belongs to the new wave movement of Iranian cinema. Time magazine selected Makhmalbaf's 2001 film, Kandahar, as one of top 100 films of all time. In 2006, he was a member of the Jury at the Venice film festival. Makhmalbaf left Iran in 2005 shortly after the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and now lives in Paris. As of June 12, 2009, and following the events of the 2009 Iranian presidential election, Mohsen Makhmalbaf has claimed that he has been appointed the official spokesman of Mir-Hossein Moussavi's campaign abroad. Mohsen Makhmalbaf is a major figure in Iranian cinema. His films have explored the relationship between the individual and a larger social and political environment. As a result, his work serves as an extended commentary on the historical progression of the Iranian state and its people.
more

Majid Majidi is an internationally and critically acclaimed Iranian film director, film producer, and screenwriter. Majidi's films have touched on... many themes and genres and he has won many international awards. Born in an Iranian middle class family, he grew up in Tehran and at the age of 14 he started acting in amateur theater groups. He then studied at the Institute of Dramatic Arts in Tehran. After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, his interest in cinema brought him to act in various films, most notably Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Boycott in 1985. In 1998, Majidi directed the film Children of Heaven, which was nominated to receive the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Though it lost to the Italian film Life Is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni, Children of Heaven is the first Iranian film to have been nominated by the Academy. Majidi has directed several other feature films since Children of Heaven: The Color of Paradise in 2000, Baran in 2001, and The Willow Tree in 2005; alternate English title One Life More.
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Shohreh Aghdashloo Persian: شهره آغداشلو‎, IPA: [ʃohˈɾe... ɒɢdɒːʃˈluː]; born May 11, 1952 is an Iranian American actress. After establishing a theatre and film career in Iran, Aghdashloo moved to England during the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and subsequently became a citizen of the United States. After several years playing supporting roles in television and film, her performance in House of Sand and Fog brought her several film critics' awards and a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has continued to play supporting and character roles in film and television and won an Emmy Award for her work in the television drama House of Saddam . Aghdashloo was born in Tehran, Iran as Shohreh Pari Vaziri-Tabar , to a wealthy Muslim family. Aghdashloo started acting at the age of 18. Following numerous starring roles on the stage, she was offered her first film role in Gozāresh directed by director Abbas Kiarostami, which won the Critics Award at the Moscow Film Festival.
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