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/

The Tehran International Book Fair, which once was canceled earlier in spring 2020 due to the pandemic, will go online from January 20 to 25, the organizers have announced.

Last year, the 33rd edition of Iran’s most important cultural event was scheduled to be held in April and Turkey was slated to be the guest of honor, however, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance canceled the fair due to a massive rise in the death toll from coronavirus in the country.

In a webinar held on Thursday, Iran Book and Literature House director Ayyub Dehqankar said that they believe the fair will give more opportunities to the readers that were probably not possible in a physical book fair.

“Iran Book and Literature House had several meetings with the National Headquarters for Coronavirus Control in Tehran and the decision was made to hold the fair in summer, however, with the rise in the death toll, it was decided that the fair be held online,” Dehqankar said.

“We observed the world online book fairs, while we also attended different international book fairs such as Bologna and Frankfurt. We are well aware that we can’t achieve all the goals of a physical fair, however, we believe that the virtual fair can provide some good opportunities,” he added.

“We always had limited spaces for the publishers both in the Imam Khomeini Mosalla, and Shahr-e Aftab Fairground, while the online fair will have no such restrictions, and any publisher that has been active for the past 4 years can request a virtual stand to offer its books, and this can be considered a big step towards fairness,” he added.

“The Iranian books will be offered with a 20 percent discount while the foreign books will have a 50 percent discount at the fair,” he asserted.

He noted that the books will be delivered to all the various cities across the country for free and also that the virtual fair will be open around the clock.

“So far, 1500 publishers have registered, and we hope to witness good growth in the first edition of the first virtual exhibit,” he concluded. /T.T/

The Art Bureau’s Center for Dramatic Arts in Tehran has produced several teleplays on Commander Qassem Soleimani to be broadcasted on IRIB channels.

“The project named ‘Hero of the Nation’ contains seven teleplays, five of which are written based on true stories from the life of Hajji Qassem Soleimani,” Kurosh Zarei, the director of the center, said in a press release on Saturday.

“This is a new project. The first five are written and directed by Morteza Shahkaram, and the other two are written by Meysam Habibi and Mohammad-Amin Minui, and will be directed by Habibi,” added Zarei who is also the television director of the teleplays.

“The team has tried to produce a new project with a different atmosphere. The memoirs of this great man are so interesting and attractive that they will be very appealing to the audience. The military and moral characteristics of the Commander are so extensive that they need more and more works,” he explained.

“Working on projects on Hajji Qassem Soleimani should not be restricted to only his martyrdom anniversary, because he is such a great man who has done great things and acts like our mythical hero. We have closely witnessed his bravery and we need to produce works in different arenas on the Commander to better transfer his characteristics to other people,” he added.

“The teleplays have been recorded in a Chroma key background, a type of visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images together,” Zarei said.

The Art Bureau has organized several programs in memory of the Commander after his martyrdom on January 3, 2020.

The bureau launched a campaign named “My Hero” to remember Qassem Soleimani, a few days before the first anniversary of his assassination.

The campaign takes its name from an album the bureau released featuring nine ballads composed by Alireza Qazveh, Reza Yazdani, Ali-Mohammad Moaddab, Mohammad-Hossein Nemati, Faezeh Zarafshan, Milad Habibi, Mohammadreza Shafiei and Omid Mahdinejad.

Interested applicants can choose, recite and record the ballads and submit them to the bureau, while they can also produce short music videos or even perform and record the ballads in open areas.

The main goal of the campaign is to promote the album “My Hero” and also help the singing style of ballads find its way among the citizens.

The bureau has also organized a contest named “Sarve Ravan Photo Competition”, as people’s love of Soleimani is the main theme.

Photos of the personal ceremonies, which were held at homes by his fans to commemorate the first martyrdom anniversary of Soleimani during the COVID-19 era, and the decorations of the cities and the villages during such ceremonies are eligible for the contest. The top works will be awarded in April 2021. /T.T/