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Iran

Prospects for Plural Societies in Central Asia

Landlocked and lying at the heart of the Eurasian continent, Central Asia once served as a vital overland hub in the "Silk Route" that linked East and West for more than 200 years. It was a crossroads for the movement of whole peoples, cultures, and religions. New conquerors would replace old, but each soon absorbed the region's culture and melded with groups already there.

Fishers Among the Mangroves

The inhabitants of the small villages of Thailand's mangrove swamps, who have fished for thousands of years, have recently initiated several efforts to restore their environment and safeguard their fish supply. However, since the early 1970s a seemingly innocuous creature - the black tiger prawn - has threatened their way of life.

As the prawn industry has expanded through Asia and Latin America,d it has destroyed large tracts of mangrove forests, which are ideal sites for prawn farms.

Editorial: Brave New World Order

If the suffering of the Kurds in Iraq is a preview of the much-touted new world order, then we all are in for some rough times. George Bush's use of opportunistic politics and disposable allies seems all too familiar, nowhere more so than with the Kurds.

The Real Victims of the Iran-Iraq War

On 22 March 1988, the hitherto obscure Kurdish town of Halabja in the northeastern mountains of Iraq suddenly skyrocketed to prominence in the Western press as the site of the most recent and perhaps most grievous atrocity of the Iran-Iraq war.

The Hagahai: Isolation and Health Status in Papua New Guinea

The Hagahai are a recently contacted group of seminomadic hunter-horticulturalists living in the fringe highlands of Madang Province in Papua New Guinea. Although occasional explorers and miners probably walked through their territory in the Schrader Mountains as early as the 1930s and several attempts were made to census them during the 1970s, the Hagahai effectively remained hidden from mission and government influence until the 1980s.

Heroin - An Overview

In the 1970s Turkey was the world's leading source of opium poppies and heroin, their derivative. Backed with $20 million from the US, Turkish authorities paid farmers to switch from poppies to alternative crops to help stem the illicit drug trade and confine poppy cultivation to licit uses. Other poppy growing regions rushed to take Turkey's lead in the heroin market, and in the past five years, worldwide production of heroin has past five years, worldwide production of heroin has increased more than 50 percent.

The Prospects for Pakistan's Opium Farmers - Relief or Oppression?

A decade ago most American images of Southeast Asia were of the Vietnam war. A sidelight to the conflict was drugs - marijuana and heroin - both locally produced in the region known as the Golden Triangle. Today the Golden Crescent - Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan - has overtaken the Triangle as the world's leading region of heroin production. As much of this heroin is smuggled to the West, countries including the United States have taken a keen interest in this problem and initiated efforts to stem the production and trafficking of the drug.

The Islamic Revolution and the Lutis of Iran

Prior to the Islamic Revolution, the Lutis of Luristan, southwest Iran, largely earned their income as entertainers. They performed at wedding celebrations, as well as at circumcision ceremonies and the New Year (Now Ruz) festivities.

The Lurs of Iran

The Lur or Lor are an Iranian people living mainly in southwest and south Iran. Their exact population is not known, but they number over two million. The territories occupied by Lurs include three provinces: Luristan (the land of Lors), Bakhtiari and Kuh-Gilu-Boir Ahmed. In addition, Lurs constitute a significant proportion of the population in several provinces including Khuzistan, Fars, Ilam, Hamadan and Bushehr.

Language

Most Lurs speak an Iranian dialect known as Luri; however, nearly half the Lurs of Luristan province speak Laki, another Iranian dialect.

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