Ashraf Qandehari-Bahadorzadeh was a humanitarian and the co-founder of the Kahrizak nursing home, south of Tehran.

She devoted her life to helping those in need and was praised and honored for her charity works. She joined the founding committee of Kahrizak in 1972 and helped building the charity complex as we know it today.

In her interviews she has described Kahrizak at the time of taking on its responsibility as “…a wreckage with two small rooms and full of stink. Patients were in the worst possible condition. There wasn’t any healthy water and you could see the lack of amenities. Also the stack of trash worsened the situation.”

She couldn’t bring herself to leave the place in that state, so she talked to Dr. Mohammad Reza Hakimzadeh (the late founder of Kahrizak) and decided to help improve the place. Now Kahrizak has been developed into a town in south of Tehran and has a campus covering 420,000 sq.m. with 130,000 sq.m of built-up area. 500 male and 1100 female patients reside in 22 separate units. About two thirds of the patients are elderly and one third are physically disabled. The patients are so satisfied and well provided that “They don’t like to go back home,” as Qandehari stated.

She was also the founder of The Ladies Charitable Society consisting of 3000 members today, who were among the first to rush to the rescue in Roudbar earthquake. They took in about 650 orphans. Later they did the same with Bam’s earthquake survivors. Now, they support 500 disadvantaged women and children.

In 2014, Qandehari received an honorary award from Mohammad-Hassan Aboutorabi-Fard, the then first deputy speaker of Majlis (the Iranian parliament).

Qandehari’s some other contributions and activities include performing voluntary service in Kahrizak, holding art courses for disadvantaged women, writing books on managing the charity groups and their activities and doing many international activities on Entrepreneurship.

Qandehari-Bahadorzadeh passed away on February 23, 2017 at the age of 91. May she rest in peace!

Balam Jerk, a 400-year-old village in Minudasht city, the northern province of Golestan, with only 210 families is almost unknown.  The inhabitants mostly pursue farming, livestock breeding, and on top of everything, sericulture, silk weaving, and yarn spinning. Women of Balam Jerk village are mostly occupied with weaving silk and spinning yarn to make an honest living. They obtain silk from scratch by rearing larvae of silkworms to form cocoons.  The silk cloth and yarns woven and spun skillfully will be exported to other cities or in some cases to other countries. While the village has untapped potentials for growth and becoming a tourist hub in the province, people are experiencing economic deprivation. Tehran Times / Fatemeh Abedi

Iran will take part at the 2017 Asian Canoe Slalom Championships to be held in Nakhon Nayok, Thailand. The competition will be held in Thailand from February 22 to 24.

Iran will participate in the competition with three women and eight men rowers. Roxanna Razeghean, Donya Mohammadi and Faezeh Ronasi are Iranian women participants.

Iranian men’s team consists of Amir Mohammad Fattahpour, Mehdi Karimi, Homayoun Mohammadpour, Amir Rezanejhad, Reza Khalili, Danial Khosravi, Mahan Edrisi and Mohammad Mehdi Konarang.

The Asian Canoeing Championship is a Canoeing championship organized by the Asian Canoe Confederation for competitors from the Asian countries. / Tehran times /

Three Iranian short films won awards at the Atlas Awards International Film Festival, which was held in Boston from January 15 to 31.

“Hunting” directed by Zahra Jafari won the Best Art Film Award while “Silence”, also directed by Jafari, brought Saeid Hesari the award for best cinematographer.

The acclaimed short animation “Junk Girl” co-directed by Mohammad Zare’ and Shalaleh Kheiri won the Best Production Design Award for the directors.

“Junk Girl” is an adaptation of a poem from Tim Burton’s book “The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories”.

The animation is about a lonely girl who is ignored by other people because of her strange appearance.

/ Tehran times /

Iran’s first hydrographic and oceanographic survey ship called Persian Gulf Explorer was launched after being delivered to National Institute for Oceanography and Atmospheric Science.

On the fifth day of Fajr Decade, the first Iranian hydrographic and oceanographic survey ship, which has been designed and built by the Iranian Defense Ministry’s Marine Industries Organization, was officially put into the water during a ceremony in Bandar Abbas.

Addressing the delivery ceremony, Head of Marine Industries Organization Rastegari commemorated victory of the Islamic Revolution saying “professional directors and specialists of Iran’s Defense Ministry, inspired by the late Leader of the Revolution Imam Khomeini as well as wise orders of the Leader, have managed to build oceanographic survey ship with advanced capabilities in accordance with global standards.”

On distinguished characteristics of the newly-built vessel, the official said “Persian Gulf Explorer enjoys an operating range of three thousand sea miles, lasting 40 days at sea and a maximum speed of 15 knots with excellent maneuverability, power, satellite communications systems, advanced CCP propulsion systems, the data transfer system and the DP system for dynamic stabilization of the ship.

“The vessel is also equipped with three laboratories and two freezers,” highlighted the official adding “the ship has received approval from reputable domestic and foreign institutions and offers numerous applications in the field of physical oceanography, marine chemistry, marine biology, geology, sea geophysics, professional climatology including atmospheric and meteorology in addition to sea mapping.”

Rastegari went on to underline that 85 mechanical, mobility, propulsion, electrical and electronics, navigation and telecommunication systems were embedded in the vessel; “a total of 150 industrial, research, academic and knowledge-based centers as well as various industry organizations of the Defense Department spent more than 300 thousand hours and carried out about 12 thousand administrative activities in order to construct the ship.

He deemed the project as a symbol of Resistance Economy commenting “sanctions imposed by enemies led to formation of the national achievement.”

The official went on to enumerate further advantages of the Iranian oceanographic survey ship including boosting self-esteem and self-reliance in marine science and industry, localization of new technologies, creation and strengthening of a network of capable partners in the supply chain and manufacturing subsystems, job creation, foreign exchange saving as well as training specialized human resources. / Meher news /

Iran wheelchair basketball team traveled to Bangkok, Thailand Friday night to take part in the U23 Asia Oceania Zone qualifying tournament for the U23 World Championships.

Six countries will participate in the championship, which will commence on the 23rd January in Bangkok, Thailand.

The six teams from across the Zone will be competing for three spots at the U23 World Championships in Toronto this June. The competing teams are: Thailand, Iran, Australia, China, India and Japan.

“I can say we are 90 percent ready for the competition,” Iran coach Hassan Palar told Paralympic.ir. “Our main goal is winning the title as well as booking a place in the U23 World Championships.”

Traditionally Australia, Iran and Japan have been favorites to win the tournament. However at the last Zone tournament China showed that they are also to be taken as a serious opponent when they defeated Japan in their final pool game but after a successful Kitakyushu Cup last December,  Japan are expected to continue their strong form in the tournament in hope to guarantee them a place at the U23 World Championships.

The tournament promises to have high level games with many close results. A simple loss of concentration from any team could easily see them eliminated from the medal round and consequently miss the opportunity to go to Canada. / Tehran times /