Iran came from three goals down to beat Kuwait 6-4 in the 2023 Asia-Pacific Deaf Futsal Tournament final on Tuesday in Tehran.

Earlier in the day, Japan beat Iraq 5-2 in the third-place match.

Team Melli defeated Thailand, Iraq, China, Japan and Kuwait in the event and suffered a defeat against Malaysia.

Iran’s women’s futsal team also won a silver medal in the competition.

The Asia-Pacific Deaf Futsal Tournament 2023 was held in Tehran, Iran from May 1 to 9, 2023. / T.T/

Iran lost to defending champions Thailand 3-1 in the final match of the 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s Asia and Oceania Championship on Sunday.

Team Melli had defeated India 17-1, Kuwait 20-0, Kyrgyzstan 26-0, the UAE 14-0 and Singapore 3-0 in the competition.

Earlier in the day, Singapore beat India 3-1 to win the bronze medal.

The event started on April 30 in Bangkok, Thailand finished on May 7.

The IIHF Women’s Asia and Oceania Championship is an international women’s ice hockey tournament run by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).

It was the IIHF women’s debut for Iran and Kyrgyzstan. /T.T/

The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2023 has placed 29 Iranian institutions among the world’s top 1,000 universities, ranking the country fourth in Asia after China, India, and Japan.

Countries such as Saudi Arabia (18), South Korea (18), Taiwan (16), Russia (15), Switzerland (15), Pakistan (14), Netherlands (13), Egypt (13), Finland (12), Belgium (12), and Sweden (11) follow Irn in the ranking.

The United States (154), the United Kingdom (94), China (59), Italy (49), Germany (49), Australia (44), India (38), Spain (36), France (36), Japan (33), and Canada (32) ranked first to eleventh.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2023 include 1,799 universities across 104 countries and regions, making them the largest and most diverse university rankings to date.

The table is based on 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across four areas: teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and international outlook.

This year’s ranking analyzed over 121 million citations across more than 15.5 million research publications and included survey responses from 40,000 scholars globally. Overall, we collected over 680,000 data points from more than 2,500 institutions that submitted data.

In the 2023 ranking of the Times Higher Education Institute, which was published in 2022, the names of 66 Iranian institutions were included in the list of the world’s top institutions in 10 different scientific fields, and in total, the names of these institutions were repeated 167 times in scientific fields.

These 10 scientific fields include “arts and humanities”, “business and economics”, “clinical medical sciences, basic medicine and health”, “computer sciences”, “educational sciences”, “biological sciences”, “physical sciences”, “engineering and technology”, “law and psychology” and “social sciences”.

In the 2023 ranking of the Times Higher Education Institute, which was published in 2022, the names of 66 Iranian institutions were included in the list of the world’s top institutions in 10 different scientific fields, and in total, the names of these institutions were repeated 167 times in scientific fields.

These 10 scientific fields include “arts and humanities”, “business and economics”, “clinical medical sciences, basic medicine and health”, “computer sciences”, “educational sciences”, “biological sciences”, “physical sciences”, “engineering and technology”, “law and psychology” and “social sciences”.

Reviewing the status of universities worldwide shows that the number of Iranian universities has increased in nearly all subject rankings.

At the beginning of its formation, rating systems provided a comprehensive view of institutions and evaluated them from all aspects and as a whole. But in the past few years, many of these systems evaluate and rank institutions in various scientific fields.

This new ranking method has emerged to meet the needs of users who seek to know the position of an institution in a special field.

Some of these systems evaluate broad scientific fields such as humanities and social sciences, technical and engineering, and medicine, and others measure special fields such as chemistry, mathematics, artificial intelligence, anthropology, and nursing in institutions.

According to the latest statistics of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, 1,452 scientific journals are being published in the country.

Out of all the mentioned journals, 289 are indexed in the Scopus database and 67 journals are indexed in the Web of Science database./T.T/

A group of eight social media influencers from Kuwait has recently arrived in Iran for a familiarization tour, IRNA reported on Friday.

The group is scheduled to visit travel destinations in the provinces of Tehran, Isfahan, Kordestan, and Hormozgan, the report added.

As part of the tour, Kuwaiti influencers will be exposed to tourist attractions, the hospitality of Iranians, and the development of cities in addition to attractive local events.

They are also obliged to publish the received content on a wide level on social media after completing their trip and visiting the provinces.

In addition, after completing their trip and visiting the provinces, they are required to share the received content widely on social media.

One of the main programs of the foreign tourism marketing section of the tourism ministry is to organize fam tours of the target tourism market countries in order to provide their people with an opportunity to visit and become familiar with Iran’s tourism capability.

The average of international travel to and from Iran fell by 80 percent during the Iranian calendar year 1399 (ended on March 20, 2021) from a year earlier caused by various coronavirus restrictions.

Optimistic forecasts, expect the country would achieve a tourism boom after the coronavirus is contained, believing its impact would be temporary and short-lived for a country that ranked the third fastest-growing tourism destination in 2019.

Some experts believe Iran is still somehow “unknown” to many potential travelers due to the Western “media war”. Several estimates have been released so far on the extent of the tourism-related losses incurred by the pandemic.

Iran is potentially a booming destination for travelers seeking cultural attractions, breathtaking sceneries, and numerous UNESCO-registered sites. /TT/

Iran defeated Singapore 3-0 on Saturday and advanced to the final match of the 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s Asia and Oceania Championship.

Team Melli had previously defeated India 17-1, Kuwait 20-0, Kyrgyzstan 26-0 and the UAE 14-0 in their previous matches.

Earlier in the day, Thailand defeated India 13-0 to book their place in the final.

Iran will play Thailand on Sunday in the final match, while India face Singapore in the bronze medal match.

The event started on April 30 in Bangkok, Thailand and will finish on May 7. /T.T/

Narges Abyar, director of the acclaimed Iranian drama “When the Moon Was Full”, has joined the international jury of the 7th edition of the Women Media Arts and Film Festival (WMAFF) currently underway in Sydney, Australia.

She is also best known for directing “Track 143”, which is adapted from her novel titled “The Third Eye” narrating the story of a woman and her son during the time of war.

Her films sensitively picture the sufferings of women and children caused by society, war, or radicalism.

The WMAFF is a new screen culture and audience development initiative by Cinewest in partnership with Sydney Olympic Park Authority.

The jury also comprises Australian actress and writer Kate Fitzpatrick and the New Zealand-born Australian-based filmmaker Margot Nash.

Three Iranian films are also competing in the festival, which will run until May 7.

“Kal Fatemeh” by Mehdi Zamanpur Kiasari, “Lady of the City” by Maryam Bahrololumi and “The Sun of that Moon” by Setareh Eskandari have been selected to be screened in different sections of the festival.

The documentary film “Kal Fatemeh” is about a woman who lives on her own farm away from the village with her two sons. She runs a farm and rears cattle for a living, meeting many challenges. She grieves over her daughter’s situation, as she has had an unhappy past.

“Lady of the City”, a drama also known as “Shahrbanoo”, follows Shahrbanoo, a woman who has been sentenced to life in prison for being a drug mule. After eleven years in jail, she is released from prison for a few days to attend her son’s wedding. The temporary freedom helps her see a new aspect of her life and that of her family before returning to prison.

The story of “The Sun of that Moon” is set in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, where a Baloch widow named Beeban decides to keep silent and not to speak anymore. She lives in her father-in-law’s house with her son, Miran. When her childhood playmate, Hamraz, returns home, once again they begin feeling in the mood for love. But everyone tries to force her to forget all about this forbidden love. /T.T/

Mohsen Tanabandeh has been picked as best actor for his role in the Iranian dark comedy “World War III” at the Fantaspoa International Fantastic Film Festival of Porto Alegre in Brazil.

He won the award for his portrayal of Shakib, a homeless day laborer who never got over the loss of his wife and son in an earthquake years ago.

Over the last couple of years, he has developed a relationship with a deaf and mute woman, Ladan. The construction site on which he works today turns out to be the set for a film about the atrocities committed by Hitler during WWII. Against all odds, he is given a movie role, a house and a chance at being somebody. When Ladan learns about this, she comes to his workplace begging for help. Shakib’s scheme to hide her goes tragically wrong and threatens to ruin his newfound status and what seemed to be the opportunity of a lifetime.

Tanabandeh was honored with the Orizzonti Award for best actor at the 79th Venice International Film Festival for “World War III”, which also won the Orizzonti Award for best film.

Directed by Hooman Seyyedi, the film was Iran’s submission to the international feature award at the 2023 Oscars.

Fantaspoa, a pioneer festival dedicated to bringing fantastic films to the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, announced the winners on Sunday.

The award for best actress went to Tatum Matthews for her role in “The Artifice Girl” by the American director Franklin Ritch.

The American science fiction comedy “Molli and Max in the Future” by Michael Lukk Litwak was selected as best film in the international competition.

The film is about a man and woman whose orbits repeatedly collide over the course of 12 years, 4 planets, 3 dimensions, and one space cult.

Beth de Araújo won the award for best director for the American film “Soft & Quiet”.

The award for best screenplay was given to “The Uncle” written and directed by David Kapac and Andrija Mardesic

The co-production between Croatia and Serbia appears to be set in Yugoslavia in the late 1980s, as a family welcomes their beloved uncle, who has returned home from Germany for the holidays. /T.T/

Roya Mehboodi claimed a gold medal in the 21st edition of the Asian Arm Wrestling Championship. She won a gold medal in the 90kg senior women left hand.

“I dedicate my gold medal to all Iranian women. This is the result of incredible patience and hard work,” Mehboodi said.

Over 500 athletes representing 16 countries are in the fray at the Asian Arm Wrestling Championship, which kicked off in Ajman, the UAE.

The event is being organized by the Emirates Body Building and Fitness Federation under the auspices of the Asian Arm Wrestling Federation (AAF) and will conclude on May 3. /T.T/

The value of Iran’s tea export rose 34.8 percent in the past Iranian calendar year 1401 (ended on March 20), according to the data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA).

Based on the IRICA data, Iran exported tea worth $44.2 billion to 26 countries in the past year.Iran also imported tea valued at $665 million from 10 countries in the previous year, showing 45.9 percent growth year on year.

About 100,000 tons of tea are consumed in Iran every year. Last year, about 26,000 tons of tea were produced in the country, of which about 10,000 tons (38 percent) were exported due to the received production subsidy and reasonable price.

Among the problems of the country’s tea industry, it can be referred to the development of modern irrigation network, increasing the mechanization factor, and facilities for modernizing factories and processing and branding machines, which can be solved through investment making./T.T/

More than 40,000 Afghan students are currently studying in Iranian universities, Vahid Haddadi-Asl, the Iranian deputy science minister for international affairs, has said.

There are no limitations for admitting Afghan students in Iran, ISNA quoted Haddadi-Asl as saying.

Every foreign student who enters the country must have a passport or an official identity card, he said, adding that the Ministry of Science has announced that if these documents approved by the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are not available for foreign students, it is not possible for them to study.

Many Afghan students are interested to continue online studying in Iran, he noted.

In December 2022, MP Mehdi Esmaeili said in the wake of the Taliban’s move to suspend education for girls, Iran is ready to host Afghan girl university students.

In line with philanthropic values, if the Afghan government does not reconsider its decision, the Islamic Republic of Iran will accept Afghan female students, ISNA quoted Esmaeili as saying.
Iran has spent more than $352 million in the current school year that started on September 23 on the education of Afghan students.

Over 670,000 students of Afghan nationality are studying in Iran, and the cost of educating these students is more than $352 million, IRNA reported.

In the current school year, $17 million of international aid and $335.631 million dollars from internal sources have been spent on the education of Afghan nationals.

However, international organizations have paid less than 3.9 percent of the cost of education for Afghan students in Iran in the last two years.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei issued a decree in May 2015 that allows all foreign nationals, even those who have no identification and are living in Iran illegally, to attend schools in the country.

Relying on moral and Islamic principles, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has created equal conditions in benefiting from educational opportunities for Afghan students.

In the previous school year, some 556,000 Afghan students studied in Iranian schools.

Afghan students are currently studying in 6,000 schools across Iran, of which 88 schools are being built with the participation of international organizations.

The Ministry of Interior has announced to the Ministry of Education a list of 200,000 Afghan children who have the conditions to study in Iranian schools, Ali Hamedi, an official with the Education Ministry, said in November 2022.

The Ministry of Education has the capacity and potential to provide them with educational conditions and facilities equal to other Iranian students, he added.

The literacy rate among refugees has increased significantly in recent decades. So that the literacy rate of Afghan immigrants in Iran is higher than the number of literate people in Afghanistan, according to a report published in June 2022 by the research center of the Iranian Parliament (Majlis).

Iran is home to over 800,000 registered refugees and some 2.6 million undocumented Afghans. Today, more than 500,000 Afghan children- including undocumented Afghans and those who have newly arrived in Iran following the Taliban-takeover-are benefitting from Iran’s inclusive education policies, one of the most progressive in the world.

Many of the refugees living in Iran are second and third-generation, according to the UNHCR.

Iran is among the 15 successful countries in attracting international university students, according to Mohammad Javad Salmanpour, the deputy head of the Organization for Student Affairs.

Iran has the ability and capacity to have more than 250,000 foreign students by 2026, he stated.

These students are studying in different fields of science, research and technology, health and medical education, and also in the fields of humanities, Islamic sciences, Persian language, and literature, law, fundamentals of Islamic law, management fields, economics, psychology, social sciences, as well as engineering, agricultural sciences, animal sciences, and basic sciences. /T.T/