Few Americans have visited Iran, a nation of over 90 million people that has been largely isolated from the United States since 1979. Recent works by artists and journalists from Iran and the Iranian diaspora offer insights into its culture and contemporary politics.
Books
- For the Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran's Women-Led Uprising by Fatemeh Jamalpour and Nilo Tabrizy. This book chronicles the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
- Gold by Haleh Liza Gafori. It provides new translations of 13th-century Sufi poet Rumi's work.
- Martyr!: A Novel by Kaveh Akbar (2024). The novel explores diaspora, identity, and the impact of the 1979 Revolution, referencing the 1988 downing of an Iranian passenger plane.
- The Stationery Shop: A Novel by Marjan Kamali (2019). This is a love story set against the 1950s Iranian coup that installed the Shah.
Movies
- Coup 53 (2019), directed by Taghi Amirani. The film documents Operation Ajax, the 1953 CIA and MI6-engineered coup against Iran's democratically elected prime minister.
- Cutting Through Rocks by Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni (2025). It follows Sara Shahverdi's campaign to become the first woman on her village's city council and her efforts to end child marriage.
- It Was Just an Accident (2025) by Jafar Panahi. A director banned from filmmaking in Iran, this is a thriller about a mechanic confronting his suspected torturer.
- The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024), directed by Mohammad Rasoulof. It portrays a family's suspicions amidst mass surveillance and the Woman, Life, Freedom protests.
Music
- Kayhan Kalhor is a composer and kamancheh virtuoso known for Persian classical music. He has received a Grammy Award as part of the Silkroad Ensemble and three solo nominations, maintaining a career despite official restrictions.
- Saeid Shanbehzadeh, a multi-instrumentalist whose ancestry traces to Zanzibar. He celebrates Afro-Iranian heritage with his band, specializing in Iranian bagpipe and percussion.
- The Underground Metal Scene in Iran continues to exist despite restrictions, including a ban on female singers in mixed-gender public settings. Farbod Ardebelli's 2020 short drama Forbidden to See Us Scream in Tehran, filmed secretly, depicts this scene and the challenges artists face.