A Safavid era (1501-1736) caravanserai in the north-central city of Semnan was finally handed over to the city’s municipality after being used as a prison for over 40 years.

The Shah-Abbasi caravanserai, which was inscribed on the National Heritage list in 1973, is planned to be repurposed to a cultural center after being fully restored, IRNA reported on Monday.

The monument was set free after the demolition of the surrounding fences and high walls, which was took place after obtaining the necessary permits and transferring inmates to a new prison, the official explained.

The mud-brick structure is named after Shah Abbas the Great (r. 1588 – 1629), who ordered the construction of such roadside inns across the country.

Extensions of the last few years and the parts that damage the original building are first removed under the supervision of cultural heritage experts, then the parts in need of restoration will undergo some rehabilitation works, IRNA quoted Semnan’s mayor Mohammad Nazem-Razavi as saying.

However, the interior of the caravanserai is expected to be ready for people to visit in the New Year’s holidays (starts on March 20), he added.

Last August Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Minister Ali-Asghar Mounesan announced that Semnan Municipality is ready to purchase the historical monument and turn it into a tourist complex. He also noted that using a historical structure as a prison is not that interesting and turning it into a cultural center could boost tourism in the region and attract more travelers.

Caravanserai is a compound word combining “caravan” with “Sara”. The first stand for a group of travelers and Sara means the building. They often had massive portals supported by elevated load-bearing walls. Guest rooms were constructed around the courtyard and stables behind them with doors in the corners of the yard.

Iran’s earliest caravanserais were built during the Achaemenid era (550 -330 BC). For many travelers to Iran, staying in or even visiting a centuries-old caravanserai can be a wide experience as they have an opportunity to feel the past, a time travel back into a forgotten age. /T.T/

Iran’s chef de mission for the Tokyo Paralympic Games Hadi Rezaei says that a total of 50 Para athletes have earned their quota places for the Games so far but it’s not the final list.

Iran sent a record 110 athletes to Rio 2016, returning eight golds, nine silvers and seven bronzes to finish 15th in the medals table.

Speaking during a webinar ran by Iran’s National Paralympic Committee (NPC), Rezaei, who won gold medals in sitting volleyball at Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996 as a player, said that they are going to send nine sports to the prestigious competition.

Iran will compete in athletics, archery, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball, taekwondo, rowing, judo, shooting and powerlifting at next year’s Paralympics.

“We are preparing for the Paralympic Games and will participate in the warm-up tournaments but we would rather take part in the high-level events,” Rezaei said.

“Two male taekwondo practitioners have so far won their place in the Games but there is a chance we send a female to Tokyo. In shooting, three female shooters have booked their place so far. We will also send a female rower to the Games,” he added.

“In archery, four male and one female will partake at the competition and in Judo we are going to send two practitioners to Tokyo but it could be increased to three,” the Iran sitting volleyball head coach went on to say.

“Six powerlifters as well as nine Para athletes will be sent to Tokyo. Two sitting volleyball and wheelchair basketball teams consisting of 24 athletes will partake in the Games,” Rezaei concluded.

About 4,400 competitors from more than 160 countries were due to head to the Japanese capital for the Games this summer before it was postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. /T.T/

Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Alireza Razm Hosseini has said that the country’s automobile production is going to increase by 50 percent in the second half of the current Iranian calendar year (September 22, 2020-March 20, 2021) and the prices of this product will decrease.

Speaking in a meeting with the members of the parliament’s Industries and Mines Committee, the official said: “Immediately after I took office in the Industry Ministry, we started implementing a program to increase car production, and despite the problems that the country’s industries are facing, this program is well underway.”

“Recently, also a good financial package has been provided to support automakers in collaboration with the Central Bank of Iran (CBI),” Razm Hosseini was quoted by IRIB.

He further noted that the car prices are following a downward trend and the Industry Ministry’s policy is to make the car market competitive and eliminate intermediaries between producers and consumers.

Pointing to the 23-percent increase in the country’s car production in the first half of the current year (March 20-September 21, 2020), Razm Hosseini said hopefully by the yearend a growth of 50 percent will be achieved.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Industry, Mining, and Trade, car manufacturing in Iran rose 23.4 percent during the first six months of the current year compared to the same period of time in the past year.

Based on the mentioned data, 468,699 vehicles were manufactured during the mentioned six months.

Three major Iranian carmakers, namely Iran Khodro Company (IKCO), SAIPA Group, and Pars Khodro, manufactured 863,263 vehicles during the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19, 2020). /T.T/

A total of eight tourism-related projects, worth three trillion rials (about $71.4 million at the official exchange rate of 42,000 rials per dollar) are scheduled to come on stream in southwestern Bushehr province.

President Hassan Rouhani, and Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Minister Ali-Asghar Mounesan are scheduled to inaugurate the projects via a video conference by the end of this week, the provincial tourism chief has announced.

The projects will help create 275 job opportunities for the locals directly. Moreover, they will be adding 400 rooms and 1088 beds to the hospitality sector of the province, Mohammad-Hossein Arastuzadeh said on Sunday.

Last April, the official announced that the tourism sector of the province is ready to jumpstart after the coronavirus crisis ends. He also stressed that the province needs innovative plans and programs to attract more tourists and travelers to its tourist attractions and historical sites.

With over 6,000 years of history and significant monuments from the Elamite, Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sassanid eras, Bushehr Province is one of Iran’s most important historical centers.

Besides its cultural heritage, beautiful beaches and lush palm groves make it an attractive destination for world travelers.

The historical and architectural monuments of Bushehr include Islamic buildings like mosques and praying centers, mansions, old towers, castles, as well as gardens.

When it comes to cultural attractions, there are many historical mounds in Bushehr including Tall-e Khandaq with Sassanid architectural style, Tall-e Marv located near an Achaemenid Palace, and Qajar era Malek al-Tojar Mansion. Qajar era Kazeruni Mansion, which has been inscribed on the World Heritage List, is another attraction that world travelers love to see among various ancient sites. /T.T/

The first national festival of creative and entrepreneur women opens on Tuesday in Tehran both in person and virtually, according to the National Innovation Fund.

Coinciding with National Women’s Day, the two-day event is held aiming to emphasize the successful presence of women in the development of a sustainable economy in recent years and honor those who are working toward a sustainable economy.

The festival also identifies and introduces the capacities and talents of women in Iran STI eco-system, attracts attention to the role of women in the development of a sustainable economy, models successful and leading patterns in the STI eco-system, and provides platforms and infrastructures for the introduction of hi-tech products by women in creative firms.

Expert meetings and reviewing the experiences of success and failure of women CEOs in high-tech and creative firms, holding an exhibition of hi-tech products and services, and praising selected projects of entrepreneurs and creative women are among the events held during the festival.

Given that women comprise more than half of Iran’s university graduates, they can play a significant role in the transition to a knowledge-based economy.

Although the share of women in the country’s employment is less than 20 percent, the CEOs of about 11 percent of knowledge-based companies are women. These statistics show the prominent role of women in the advanced fields of science, technology, and innovation.

Women’s participation above global average

The participation of Iranian women in research and development fields is higher than the global average, according to the UNESCO 2020 report on Women in Science.

Iranian women’s participation in research and development has increased from 27.7 percent in 2019 to 31.2 percent in 2020, which is above the global average of 30 percent.

The increase in the share of women in research and development is mostly due to their increasing share in knowledge-based companies, Masoumeh Ebtekar, the vice president for women’s and family affairs, said in August 2020. /T.T/

A total of 15 eco-lodges, which are currently being constructed across the eastern South Khorasan province, will come on stream by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (Mach 20).

Establishing eco-lodge units could help boost tourism in the region, while it generates job opportunities in the rural areas, the provincial tourism chief has said.

Some 80 eco-lodge units have been inaugurated across the province over the past four years, which has provided the ground for attracting more domestic and foreign tourists, Hassan Ramezani announced on Sunday.

Last April, the official announced that the number of eco-lodge units has increased by fourfold in the province within a year.

“Some 25 eco-lodge [units] existed across the province at the end of the [Iranian year] 1397 (March 2019) while the figure has reached 100, eighty of which are operational.”

In December 2019, Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Minister Ali-Asghar Mounesan inaugurated eleven eco-lodges during his visit to the province.

Last November, the minister referred to the eco-lodges inaugurated across the country and noted that increasing the number of units could create job opportunities in rural areas and boost tourist arrivals in these regions.

He also noted that promoting ecotourism can help reverse migration and attract more foreign tourists. Apart from eco-lodge units, there are also boutique hotels and traditional accommodation centers which could flourish the tourism sector and provide infrastructure in these regions, Mounesan mentioned.

The tourism ministry has set a target to help build 2,000 eco-lodges by 2021, believing such guest houses could cater to sustainable development and job creation in the countryside and rural areas.

Experts say each eco-lodge unit generates jobs for seven to eight people on average so that the scheme could create 160,000 jobs.

The culturally-diverse country never disappoints visitors when it comes to eco-tourism, sightseeing, and even tribal tourism as it is home to many regional people including ones with Turk and Arab elements in addition to the Kurds, Baloch, Bakhtyari, Lurs, and other smaller minorities such as Armenians, Assyrians, Jews, and others. / T.T/

A breakout star at national, continental, and international levels, Islamic Republic of Iran’s Mehdi Ghayedi is Asia’s Choice for the Best Young Player of 2020.

The award recognizes Asian men’s players (aged 23 or younger on December 31, 2020) for their performances in senior club and youth and senior national teams during the 2020 calendar year, the official website of AFC reported.

Ghayedi edged out countryman Mehdi Abdi Qara to win the award, with Korea Republic’s AFC U23 Championship Most Valuable Player Won Du-jae finishing third.

A creative forward who turned 22 in December, Ghayedi enjoyed a superb year for club side Esteghlal, attracting attention throughout the continent with three goals in five matches in the AFC Champions League.

He also scored in IR Iran’s Hazfi Cup final, which Esetghlal lost to FC Tractor, and finished as the Iran Pro League’s top provider of assists as his side finished the 2019-20 season as runners-up.

After appearing at the AFC U23 Championship Thailand 2020 last January, Ghayedi made his senior international debut for IR Iran against Uzbekistan in October and scored his maiden goal for Team Melli in his second appearance, against Bosnia-Herzegovina the following month. /MNA/

Iranian film, ‘Careless Crime’ directed by Shahram Mokri has won the Best Screenplay Award at the 19th Dhaka International Film Festival (DIFF) in Bangladesh.

Nasim Ahmadpour and Shahram Mokri, who have written the screenplay, received the award in the competition section of the festival.

The synopsis of ‘Careless Crime’ reads, “Forty years ago, during the uprising to overthrow the Shah’s regime in Iran, protestors set fire to movie theatres as a way of showing opposition to Western culture. Many cinemas were burned down. In one tragic case, a theatre was set on fire with four hundred people inside, most of whom were burned alive. Forty years have passed and, in contemporary Iran, four individuals also decide to burn a cinema down. Their intended target is a theatre showing a film about an unearthed, unexploded missile. Will past and present meet?”

‘Careless Crime’ also won an award for Best Original Screenplay in the International Film Critics’ Week (SIC) during the 77th Venice International Film Festival.

It has been accepted into the 2020 edition of Viennale Film Festival in Austria, too.

Dhaka International Film Festival (DIFF) is a biennial film festival held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Established in 1992, the festival was initially organized on annual basis but became a biennial event since 1995. DIFF is one of the most prestigious film events in Bangladesh, dedicated to introducing the mainstream global cinema to the local filmmakers as well as to promote healthy cine culture within Bangladesh. /MNA/