PAAIA Takes the Noor Iranian Film Festival on Tour

PAAIA Takes the Noor Iranian Film Festival on Tour

January 16, 2013, Washington, D.C. – The Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans (PAAIA) has teamed up with the Noor Iranian Film Festival (NIFF), the first Iranian film festival competition outside of Iran, to bring the “Best of Noor Iranian Film Festival” to PAAIA chapters around the U.S. The 5^th Annual NIFF, which debuted in LA and enjoyed three special screenings throughout the country, will be visiting PAAIA chapters in Chicago, Houston, New York, San Diego, and San Francisco this year. The event is free for PAAIA members.

NIFF was created with the aim of shedding  “noor,” or light, on Iranian culture and heritage through the medium of cinema…

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PAAIA Hosts a Screening  of  “The Iran Job” on Capitol Hill

January 17, 2013, Washington, D.C. – On Monday, January 14, 2013, the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans (PAAIA) hosted a screening on Capitol Hill of the documentary “The Iran Job,” the real life story of an American basketball player in Iran.  The screening was followed by a discussion with the film’s director and producer, Till Schauder and Sara Nodjoumi. 

“The Iran Job” follows American basketball player Kevin Sheppard as he accepts a job to play in Iran. With tensions running high between Iran and the West, Kevin tries to separate sports from politics, only to find that politics is impossible to escape in Iran.

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NexGen DC Hosts Haleh Esfandiari

January 14, 2013, Washington, D.C. – On January 10, 2013, NexGen DC hosted a meeting with Haleh Esfandiari. More than 50 people, including PAAIA DC members, NexGen members, and other guests, attended the event, where they had an opportunity to hear Ms. Esfandiari’s story in a personal setting and network with other Iranian Americans in the area.

Haleh Esfandiari is the Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Her writings have appeared in numerous publications, including Foreign Policy, Princeton Papers in Near Eastern Studies, Middle East Review, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the New York Review of Books, among many others.

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Citing Federal Sanctions, TCF Bank in Minnesota Closes Accounts of Iranian Students

U.S. financial institutions have increased both the quantity and the scope of their sanctions compliance policies over the years, in an effort to comply with various U.S. sanctions programs—particularly sanctions imposed against Iran. However, the complexity of these programs can lead to confusion and misapplication of the law, as may have happened in the TCF case, or even to a conscious decision to shut out account holders deemed to put the bank at risk of sanctions violations.

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