this is azi square, the most famous in tehran. these tiny black flags hanging around the tower are not there an ordinary times like this, but now these small black flags are symbols, they are the signs of one of the most important morning ceremonies in iran. i a filmmaker and you can only hear my voice. i am the narrator of the documentary and this is azadi square. these days all of us are grieving for the martterdom of noble man imam hussain the third shia imam. he said once, if you have no faith, at least be a free man. our home is near azadi square. in persian,

azadi means freedom. like many other young people, i write the imam's name on my car's rear windshield. i'm heading to a city lying 677 km from here. it's one of the most beautiful historical cities in the country known holding vigorous ceremonies for the imam every year. yaz, a desert. city in southeastern iran with very humble and warm-hearted people who also speak with a charming persian accent. it is the city of beautiful, tall wind catchers, the most important mutbrick city in the world, the city of winds and wind catchers. wind catchers are in fact towers acting as ventilators. yazd has dry climate with very hot summers and the wind catchers are built to cool the inside of the houses. this is dola tobat garden, home to some of the tallest wind catchers. since the advent of

islam, yazd has been known as daral ibad or the place of worship. yaz means pure and holy. it is named as the holy city or the land of odd. first of all, i have to find hotel. i have plenty of time until tomorrow, which is a holiday. meanwhile, i can start seeing the sights. the hotel staff is shrouding the white columns with black cloth. before i go upstairs, at the entrance lobby a man captures my attention, he is talking on the phone aboutura ceremonies. من اگر ۴۰ بار شما بپرسید چهل جور میگم یه جور نمیتونم بگم. اولیش عارف کامل بود به ذات حق که این صفت معصوم و صفت ولی خداست و چون به یقین رسیده بود.

building is one of the architectural masterpieces of the ninth lunar hijra century. scaffolds have now been elected around the mosk in order to refurbish the building. the old janitor says the area spans 10,00 square meters. the musk is famous for its wide dome, tall entrance, lofty

minarettes and its unique and beautiful tiles. when i was filming the old gates of the musk i heard some people almost whispering in spanish. i was surprised that was an iranian translator and two female spanish doctors, ilma, a long specialist, and lola, an ent. me llamo inma, ella es lola, mi amiga, somos médicos, las dos trabajamos en sevilla, en españa, bien, pues, nos dijeron que había una ceremonia religiosa en en esta ciudad concretamente que se llama la ceremonia azura y que bueno podía puede ser muy interesante. y hay mucha gente en españa que se preguntan cómo es esto porque según parece es un es similar nuestra semana santa pero con otras características y bueno pues están esperando cuando yo vuelva que les cuente cómo ha sido esto y hemos tenido oportunidad de verla nos nos ha sorprendido

nos ha resultado curiosa eh es una ceremonia curiosa que creo que no vamos a tener oportunidad de ver nunca más. when they start to leave, i hear a charming ellergy from handicraft store. the name of the store is hori khan, miss son. said, the shop owner, is watching a morning ceremony held for imam hussein on his computer. he fights back his tears for a while, but very soon he gives up. korshed, the son, is said's grandmother's name. he named his store after his grandmother and carved the emblem of the sun on all its handcrafts. he says the old door locks and the lanterns are his favorites. although i try hard to convince

him to have an interview on imam hussein, he refuses to accept saying he is too shy, but when i turn off the camera, he says, i hate lying. 'i love imam hussain because he never lied under any circumstances and he only sought to get the truth out. on his hard disk he has lot of religious music from yazd'. give him a flash drive and he copies some of the songs onto it for me, then i buy a map of gas from him shows me the locations of the tswa and ashura ceremonies in the city, look at the postgards from yaz. they have

photos of all the historical and tourist attractions of the province. said tells me amir chakhmak square is close, so i go there on foot to show you nakh sheer. but what is a... there is lot to say about that. in the same neighborhood, there are other handicraft stores that have really beautiful stuff. i like to stay longer to take a look, we never get tired of looking at and buying iranian handicrafts, how about you?

there is mosk named amir chakhma, one of the most beautiful in the whole country. it was built in the ninth lunar hijrah century. in 1935, it was registered as national treasure. next to the musk there is nach. the oldest wooden one in yes, it is 9 m high and 450 years old, like all other nachls, this one looks like a ceder as the symbol of freedom, it weighs around 4.5 tons and takes at least 150 people to lift it up. the nachle is here only for public display and has not been lifted for years because of its old age and the likelyhood of damage. یکی از سمbol های شهادت سیدالشهداست و در جایجاه استان یزد و شهرهای یزد میبود جاهای دیگه می تونید ببینید

نمادی از تشییع شهدای کربلا چون بعد از شهادت امام حسین و یارانش جنازه اونها بر زمین موند و اون ها رو به خاک نسدند تا چند روز عاشورا بعد از مراسم این نقل برداشته میشه با اینکه وزن سنگینی داره دور یک در حقیقت میدون توسط مردم منتقل میشه. he's from germany and now studies persian at decora school in tehran. he's just arrived from shiraz and takes tens of photos of amir chakhmak. i live in hamburg in germany and today i'm here in yaz, we're in the month of muharram and in the next two days we're going to have the ashura. the iranians have like this really really big and important holiday tomorrow and the after.

حسین از من است و من از حسین این پیامیست که توسط پیامبر اکرم صلی الله علیه و آل گفته شده یعنی به قدری من به حسنم علاقه دارم که اگر کسی به علاقه داشته باشه علامند حسین هم هست و اگر کسی به حسین علاقه داشته باشه معلوم میشه که به من هم علاقه داره من سعی می کنم در مجلسی که نقل برداری توی از هست شرکت داشته باشم و اون نقلی را که از مسیری عبور می کنه تشی کنم و احساس می کنم که در کربلا بودم و در تشریح جنازه بزرگوار دین ومس همون امام حسین شرکت داشت.

مخصوصاً جوانای امروز ما بارها خدا گواسته که اینجا که نشناس فقط با بدون اینکه کسی در حضور من باشه با نگاه به اسم امام حسین اشک از چشمون سر حاضر میشه خدا را شکر.

اینقدر فشار کاری زیاده که اصلاً ما گذر زمان احساس نمیکنیم از صبح تا ساعت 2 ۳ شب اصلاً زمان کی میگذره. being a follower of imam hussain is national school of thought. during muharram, iranian armenians, christians, sorastrians and all other religious minorities also more. this is the zorastrian fire temple in yaz. the city's best confectionaries are the haji khalifa stores. the sweets and cookies of yast are widely popular in iran and are the main souvenires from the city. baglava with flavors of pistachio, almond and coconut or gotap cookies are really delicious. i'm a fan of freshly cooked cutops myself. when you put it

in your mouth, it just melts away on your tongue. barlava were traditionally served at both celebrations and morning ceremonies in yast during ash you can see lot of people serving or sugar coated almonds among the morners. the clock in my hotel room strikes 11. i lay on my bed exhausted in our official calendar tashura are public holidays i begin surfing the net for pictures of the beautiful views in the city. commenting on imam hussein's uprising a website writes the imam's movement was not personal. it was a universal.

بشاشیت با کمال قدرت و آگاهی خود و اهل بیتشو قربانی این مکتب کرد. it's morning of thaswa, the ninth day of muharram. all businesses are closed today, all the stores and tourist attractions are shut down. today and tomorrow are highly important for all sheia. they think doing business in these two days is insult, tosua, everyone grieves as if they've lost a loved one. a mysterious silence reigns supreme in the city. these mut passages are reminiscent of those days. people hoist flags across the alleys. the flags bear the name of imam hussain. the other imams are sentences in their honor. they are mostly green, black

or red. these are the three colors of moharra. red is the symbol of blood, the blood bathh in carbala. green represents the nobility of the prophet muhammad's family, it's the color of the prophet and islam, and black, the color of grief, as it is in most other religions. people are preparing for today's morning ceremony. young people have written different things on the back windshields of their cars, mostly about the attributes of imam hussein and his family. مردم با داشتن یک سری حاجاتی و با هدف اینکه اون خواسته ای که

یه از نظراتی که مردم انجام میدن آشکنمه اصلیترین چیزی که توش به کاره موادش گوشت هست و گندم ۲۴ ساعت قبل از توزیع آش بین مردم گندمو

میخسونن بعد گندمو میان میجوشون که گندم شکفته بشه بعد که گندم شکفته شد خوب هم میزنن که قشنگ باز بشه بر هم بعد گوشت و هوبات مواد دیگه کم. اضافه می کنن و ۵۶ ساعت می زنن روش عاتش باشه که کم کم جا بیفته و پخته بشه بعد که جا افتاد مثلاً ساعت ۴۵ صبح بین مردم توضیح می کنم و جا داریم که ۱۰۰ تا ۲۰۰ تا دیکم مثلاً گذاشتم برای طبخ آش مردم نظم می کنن.

خنجرش را می کشید. some of the morning ceremonies are specific to yast such as the nach lifting, but the rest such as the chest

beating ceremony are connected all over the country. in yaz, there are many morning groups called hat, each neighborhood have its own hat. gather in the musk or the morning place of their neighborhood a month before and rehearse the elogies and poems that they want to perform during tasua and ashhura. when they are prepared, they immediately stay in line for the main performance so that they can perform their ritual at the time set for them. if someone narrates the tragedy everybody stops to listen, when he sings the eleg they accompany him

each haya takes its turn entering through the main gate and after its performance it exits from another. the ladies usually sit around the hall or upstairs watching the ceremony, they sit in grief in a sign of morning for their among.

really impressive how still today uh give to people the sense the idea of freedom imam hussain's message of defiance against. oppression and dictatorship is relevant for all times and applicable for a broader audience for generations to come. okay, یه سالم بود توی اتوبوس آتش گرفتم تمام

بدنم سوخت من از شهرزا اومدم دنبال پسرم که سرباز بوده الان ۳۴ سال یعنی خدا باعث بانی شما میگذارم زنده بودم حالا زندگی نمیکردم من می خوام تا پدر مادرم زنده هستن خودمون زنده هستیم برادرمونو ببینیم نه پادر پدرمو دیدم نه خواهرامو دیدم چندین ساله میگذره ولی ما به هیچ کدوم از خواسته هامون نرسیم ما خانواده ها هیچ کدوم سیاسی نیستیم وابسته به هیچ حزبی نیستیم ما فقط خانواده ایم یک پرنده که تو قفسه اگر در قفسم باز کنیا جرات نمی کنه بیاد بیرون.

as the election season rolls on, the sense of the tectonic diplomatic plates beginning at last to shift on the issue of palestine is palpable. the victor of the french elections yesterday, jean-luke melanshong made a special point of an important priority, immediate priority for the government he intends to form to recognize. the palestinian state, of course the issue is where and how and what will be the impact of such a thing, but nonetheless, the elections in france, in the united kingdom, in the united states have all, are all proceeding?