Iran and Turkey will collaborate on a joint film project, which will focus on the lives of the Persian poet and mystic Molana Jalal ad-Din Rumi and Shams-i Tabrizi, the wandering sage who later became the mentor of Rumi in the 13th century CE.

Hassan Fat’hi, director of the popular Iranian TV series “The Tenth Night”, “Zero Degree Orbit” and “Shahrzad”, will direct the movie titled “Drunk on Love”, a public relations team for the movie announced on Sunday.

Palme d’Or winning actor Shahab Hosseini from Iran is due to play the role of Shams. He was named best actor for his role in Asghar Farhadi’s “The Salesman” at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016.

A cast and crew of A-list Iranian and Turkish actors will join the project in the near future.

The entire film will shot in Konya, a Turkish town that is home to the mausoleum of Rumi.

Fat’hi and Farhad Tohidi are co-writing the screenplay, and Mehran Borumand from Iran and an unnamed person from Turkey will collaborate as producers on the project.

Rumi (1207-1273) undertook one or two journeys to Syria, during one of which he met the dervish, Shams.

However, he was deeply influenced by Shams during their second visit in Konya on November 30, 1244.

For months, the two men constantly interacted, and as a result, Rumi neglected his disciples and family, who could not tolerate the close relationship.

One night in 1247, Shams disappeared forever. This experience turned Rumi into a poet. The Divan of Shams is a true translation of his experiences into poetry./T.T/

Times Higher Education has published its annual ranking of the world’s top universities for 2020, listing 40 Iranian universities among them.

Iran has 11 more ranked universities compared to the last year’s listing to take its representation up to 40 institutions, according to The Times Higher Education website.

Babol Noshirvani University of Technology tops the list of Iranian universities with 5,744 full-time equivalent (FTE) students, 29.6 students per staff, and 32:68 female to male ratio, making it to the 351–400 bracket.

Yasouj University fell in the 401–500 bracket, while Amirkabir University of Technology, University of Kashan, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Sharif University of Technology, and Tehran University of Medical Sciences all fell in the 501–600 bracket.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings are the only global performance tables that judge research-intensive universities across all their core missions based on 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. It includes almost 1,400 universities across 92 countries, standing as the largest and most diverse university rankings ever to date.

For the fourth year in a row, the University of Oxford leads the rankings in first place, while the University of Cambridge falls to third. The California Institute of Technology rises three places to second, while Stanford, Yale, Harvard and Imperial College London all appear in the top ten.

Mainland China now provides both of Asia’s top two universities, with Tsinghua and Peking universities finishing at 23rd and 24th place respectively. The country’s universities have continued to expand their influence and presence on the world stage.

The U.S. is, once again, extremely well-represented among the global elite, while Canada’s top universities have risen up the table.

In Europe, Italy’s top institutions all make headway among the elite top 200 and German representation remains strong. However, the UK faces declines.

The performance indicators are grouped into five areas: Teaching (the learning environment); Research (volume, income and reputation); Citations (research influence); International outlook (staff, students and research); and Industry Income (knowledge transfer) with the following percentages:/T.T/

Iran will send four women to the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Weightlifting Championships for the first time ever.

The prestigious competition will kick off on Sept. 18 and will run for nine days in Pattaya, Thailand.

The entry list showed record-setting numbers, including a total of 734 athletes from 105 nations. Out of those athletes, 339 women are set to compete alongside 395 men.

This number of female weightlifters participating is a promising sign ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where gender equality is at the forefront. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, the number of male and female weightlifters will be equal for the first time ever in Olympic history, barbend.com reported.

According to the IWF, there are some countries that include more women athletes than men. Some of these teams with more women representing them include Brazil, Denmark, Great Britain, and Ecuador.

For context, in 2017, the Iranian Weightlifting Federation announced that women weightlifters from the country could officially compete in the sport, and now two years later Iranian female weightlifters will make history at the IWF Worlds.

Poupak Basami, who wrote her name into the history book as the first Iranian woman to participate at the Asian Weightlifting Championships, will represent the country in the 55kg weight category.

Abrisham Arjomandkhah (64kg), Elham Hosseini (71kg) and Parisa Jahanfekrian (87kg) are the other Iranian women participating in the competition.

The Iranian female team will be headed by Maryam Amrollah in the competition.

The Iranian sportswomen have shown that they have the potential to make the nation proud after shining in the international events in the last years. / T. T/

Having a 0.53 percent share of the global economy, Iran holds the 27th place in the list of world’s top economies, according to the World Bank (WB).

Based on the latest data released by WB, Iran’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) tops that of many other countries in the region and world including Norway, UAE, South Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, and Finland, IRIB reported on Sunday.

According to WB, the United States and China are the world’s most powerful economies, accounting for 23.89 percent and 15.86 percent of the world’s economy, respectively, followed by Japan, Germany, Britain, France and India.

The data, however, indicates that the gap between China and the U.S. is gradually decreasing.

The world’s top 15 countries account for 75 percent of the total global GDP, which based on the WB report on global economy in 2018, amounted at $85.8 trillion.

Back in January, WB predicted a 1.1 percent GDP growth for Iran in 2020 and 2021.

The bank saw a -3.6 percent growth for the country’ GDP in 2019 but expected it to experience 1.1 percent of GDP growth in the following two years.

Global economic growth is projected to slow to 2.9 percent in 2019 from a downwardly revised 3 percent in 2018 amid rising downside risks, the World Bank said in its Global Economic Prospects report published that month.

The World Bank said the outlook for the global economy “has darkened” as global financing conditions have tightened, trade tensions “have intensified,” and some large emerging markets and developing economies have experienced significant financial market stress. /T.T/

Environmental education will be included in the country’s pre-primary schools’ curriculum in the new school year (beginning September 23) to prepare children for environment protection.

In Iran, pre-primary school is a 1-year education process for children aged 5 to 6 years to be prepared before entering elementary schools. It has been made compulsory over the past few years.

Environmental education aiming to make the students committed and informed of the environmental values in early ages has become a great challenge for the Iranian schools’ curriculum, so that educational materials on environment protection have been included in 11th grade curriculum since 2017, which turned out mostly inefficient.

Early childhood is a time when skills are well acquired, not the age of 16 when all the cognitive and behavioral characteristic of the child is already formed; making changes to what has been formed before is not easy at all.

While these educational materials on environment protection are entering the pre-primary schools to be acquired at earlier childhood ages to make favorable cognitive and behavioral changes in the students, ISNA quoted Reza Shayesteh, , an official with Tehran department of environment, as saying on Wednesday.

“The first step we have taken in this regard was preparing an educational package for the teachers and trainers, through which they will be able to teach environmental education to children in a comprehensible way,” he explained.

The book, which is entitled “human and environment” and comprises 7 lessons focusing on the importance of water, soil, air, energy, waste, biodiversity and environment, will also be taught in pre-primary school, he noted.

He went on to say that environmental experts attend schools on important environmental occasions such as World Environment Day, adding, these experts familiarize the students with environmental concepts by holding competitions and offering various prizes.

The students are trained to protect environment and natural resources and employ them in their very life; so only textbooks cannot contribute much to this end, he lamented, adding, therefore, educational materials must be taught in different methods in universities as well as all school grades.

He further called on the citizens to participate defending the environment and cooperate to preserve the natural resources.

One of the main concerns for every nation is the environment and the interaction between the people and their surrounding environment; for the life of human as well as all other animals depends on the environment. Yet, in the past two centuries with the apparent great advances, human beings have caused damages to the environment consciously or unconsciously, and Iran is no exception.

In spite of the fact that Iran is dealing with 4 major environmental issues, including water scarcity, soil erosion, air pollution and endangered biodiversity, neither of the responsible officials, nor the public have the necessary knowledge to find proper solutions for containing the issues, thus their poor natural resource management along with not being committed has exacerbated the country’s environmental issues.

So, one way to contain environmental issues in the country is training the people not to hurt the environment and wildlife while making them aware of the values, but this will be achieved through education processes from early childhood.

But, for environment to be an all-encompassing concern for the public, it should be based on the educational materials and school curriculum at different grades of education which in turn requires proper programming, fine materials and curriculum, providing textbooks in line with its objectives, and well-trained and informed teachers capable of perceiving the concepts and making them comprehensible for the students to consider environment safeguarding not only as a material, but a human responsibility. /T.T/

Export of non-oil goods, with gas condensates included, registered about a 5.9 percent growth last year (from March 21, 2018 to March 20, 2019) as compared to 2013.

According to the Plan and Budget Organization (PBO), a report on the performance of Rouhani’s government in the economic sector showed that the export of non-oil commodities, with gas condensates included, hit $44.310 billion last year, recording about a 5.9 percent hike compared to 2013.

According to this report, the export of non-oil goods, with gas condensates included, hit $41.847 billion in 2013.

Also, statistics showed that the import of goods decreased in the same period and dropped from $49.709 billion in 2013 to $42.612 billion in 2018, registering a 14.3 percent decline.

The non-oil trade balance, which was a negative $8 billion in 2013, became positive and reached about $2 billion last year (ended March 20, 2019).

Exports of gas condensates was nearly reduced by half last year as compared to 2013. However, the export of petrochemicals and other products increased last year and hit about $14.25 billion. / MNA/

Iranian short film ‘Room No. 13’, directed by kasra Tirsahar, will compete in three international film festivals in the UK and the US.

“Room No. 13” is about an author who becomes engrossed in what she writes and puts herself in the role of her characters.

The short film, produced and directed by kasra Tirsahar and written by Mohammad Taghi Khaterizadeh, will take part at the Lift-Off Global Network Sessions in the UK, scheduled for 13-20 October 2019.

It will then compete at the First-time Filmmaker Sessions in the UK, slated for 20-27 October.

Tirsahar’s short film has also made it into the competition program of New York Film Academy festival in the US. The event will be held on January 31st, 2020. / MNA /

Iranian writer Behnaz Zarrabizadeh has received the Eurasian Literature Award for her book, “The Eleventh Golestan”, which contains memories of Commander Ali Chitsazian’s wife, Zahra Panahirava.

The award was handed to the Russian publisher of the book in Moscow on Thursday, Sureh-Mehr, a publisher affiliated with the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization, announced on Saturday.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has written a commendation for the book.

“This is a sensational narrative of the devotional and jihadi life of a man who was able to attain the place of great divine men in his youth,” the Leader has written about the book.

“The narrator, the partner of his short life, has also clearly expressed her honesty and kindness in her innocent narratives,” he added.

The Eurasian literature award was established by Kazakhstan, Russia, Iran, Belorussia, Tajikistan and India in 2013. The award is dedicated to the best literary work, documentary and best journalist.

Zarrabizadeh is also the writer of “Daughter of Sheena”, a book which recounts the memories and experiences of Qadamkheyr Mohammadi during the 1980s when her husband, Sattar Ebrahimi-Hajir, left his family to join Iranian combatants in the Iran–Iraq war.

She wrote the book based on her interviews with Mohammadi. She passed away in 2009 months after she ended narrating her memories for Zarrabizadeh.

“God bless this patient and faithful lady and also the pure young mujahid who never gave up despite the immense sorrows his beloved wife felt,” the Leader wrote in praise of “Daughter of Sheena”. / T.T/

The 20th edition of the Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship is set to begin on September 13 in Tehran, the capital city of Iran.

The event is a biennial international volleyball tournament organized by the Asian volleyball governing body, the Asian Volleyball Federation (AVC). The tournament will be held from Sept. 13 to 21.

Top eight teams of this tournament will qualify for the 2020 Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament.

The 2020 Men’s Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament will be held in Jiangmen, China from 7 to 12 January 2020. A total of eight teams will play in the tournament, where the winners will qualify to the 2020 men’s Olympic volleyball tournament.

Iran are pooled against Australia, Qatar and Sri Lanka in Pool A.

Pool B consists of Japan, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong and Thailand.

Kazakhstan, China, Oman and India are in Pool C.

South Korea, Indonesia, Kuwait and Pakistan are drawn in Pool D.

Iran will start the campaign with a match against Sri Lanka on Friday and will meet Qatar and Australia on Saturday and Sunday respectively. / Tehran times /

Head of Law Enforcement Force of the northeast Iranian Province of Golestan announced on Saturday that 40 different antique objects, dating back to 1,000 years ago, have been discovered and confiscated in Gonbad-e Kavus, Golestan province.

Following comprehensive intelligence activities, some 40 pieces of ancient objects including coins, dishes and bracelets have been discovered and seized in Gonbad-e Kavus, Genreal Rouholamin Ghasemi said.

“According to the experts, the discovered objects are 1000 years old,” he added.

On September 2, Iranian authorities seized 47 pieces of gold plaques dating back to pre-Islamic era, which were kept unlawfully by smugglers in Zanjan, western Iran.

“51 objects, including 47 gold plaques, were recovered from smugglers while making a deal,” Abolfazl Moradi, a police official in charge of protecting cultural heritage.

Iran is a major center of ancient culture. It is rich in valuable natural resources, especially metals, and played an important role in the development of ancient Middle Eastern civilization and trade.

From prehistorical times, Persia (Iran) was home to talented and well-trained artisans and goldsmiths who were able to produce intricate yet delicate jewelry without any modern tools. They made everything from necklaces and bracelets to finger rings, anklets and hair pins in both gold and silver. /  MNA /