Maryam Ahmadi Profile

ProfilesMaryam Ahmadi is a Ph.D. candidate in the Rhetoric, Politics, & Culture program in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Maryam Ahmadi

She holds a BA in English Literature and an MA in Political Sociology from the University of Tehran, and a second MA in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests lie at the intersection of rhetorical theory and history, the study of colonialism and empire, and global/non-Western rhetorics. In her current work, she focuses on the suasive discourse of “occidentosis” (gharbzadegi) within the context of Iran’s encounter with colonial modernity to consider how Persian rhetorical practices and theories emerge from a semicolonial locus of enunciation.


Work for CID:

Maryam Ahmadi translated KC23: Afrocentric and KC24: Asiacentricity into Persian.

Kamali-Chirani: Does Intercultural Dialogue Matter?

“BookKamali-Chirani, Fatemeh. (2019).  Does intercultural dialogue matter? The role of intercultural dialogue in the foreign cultural policy of Iran and Germany. Berlin: Lit Verlag.

Fatemeh Kamali-Chirani examines intercultural dialogue as part of the foreign relations between Germany and Iran. She asks: “What role has intercultural dialogue played with regard to the foreign cultural policy of Iran and Germany towards each other, and why?” (p. 18).

Perhaps the most important quote from the book is this, from page 158, because it applies to all contexts, not just Iran-Germany exchanges:

It is necessary but not sufficient to offer dialogue; it is also necessary that the other side accepts to join the dialogue.

Kamali-Chirani first describes the foreign cultural policy of each country, and then presents details of a series of specific organizations and projects intended to further intercultural dialogue. In Iran, the most typical terms are “interfaith dialogue” and “dialogue among civilizations,” whereas Germany often uses “European-Islamic cultural dialogue.” This section is arranged by organization attempting dialogue, populated with quotes from the main actors. She gained remarkable access, up to and including the separate forewords by Mohammad Khatami (former President of Iran, known for promoting dialogue among civilizations as a goal) and Kurt-Jurgen Maas (former Secretary General, Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations).

In the end, Kamali-Chirani concludes that “Intercultural dialogue was an instrument of political goals, not a goal by itself” (p. 198). Her final thought: “participants mostly agree that it was worth the effort, and that they should continue. This author, after spending five years of research on the topic, tends to agree.”

Fatemeh Kamali-Chirani Profile

ProfilesFatemeh Kamali-Chirani (PhD) is is currently a research associate at the Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism (HAIT), TU Dresden (Dresden University of Technology), in Germany.

Fatemeh Kamali-Chirani

She received her BA (in Journalism) and her MA (in North American Studies) from Tehran University, Iran, where she was a journalist and NGO activist.

Fatemeh completed her PhD (2012-2018) at the University of Augsburg in Germany with a scholarship from Brot für die Welt (Bread for the World) on the subject of intercultural dialogue between Western and Muslim countries. From 2020 until January 2022, Fatemeh worked in Pakistan as a Visiting Research Fellow at SDPI (a development organization) and was a Visiting Faculty Member at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad.

Her publications are in the areas of intercultural dialogue, foreign cultural policy, sustainable development, migrants and refugees (especially Afghans) in Germany and Pakistan.

She is currently working on the project “Women who migrated from, to and within Germany,” focusing on acculturation of Afghan women in Germany, as a researcher at HAIT, TU Dresden (Dresden University of Technology).

For further details, see her LinkedIn profile.

Selected publications:

In English

Kamali-Chirani, F. (2019). Review of Afiya S. Zia’s  Faith and feminism in Pakistan: Religious agency or secular autonomy? Digest of Middle East Studies, pp. 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1111/dome.12192

Kamali-Chirani, F. (2019). Does intercultural dialogue matter? The role of intercultural dialogue in the foreign cultural policy of Iran and Germany. Münster, Germany: Lit Verlag.

Kamali-Chirani, F. (2019). Review of Mohammad Zaman’s Islam in Pakistan: A history. Digest of Middle East Studies, 28(1),  1-5.

Hippler, J., & Kamali-Chirani, F. (2018). Cultural civil war. In European Union National Institutes for Culture, Culture Report: EUNIC Yearbook 2017/2018 (pp. 36-41). Stuttgart, Germany:  European Union National Institutes for Culture.

Kamali Chirani, F. (2018). Review of Baumgartner and Towner’s The Internet and the 2016 presidential campaign. International Journal of Communication, 12, 2940–2943.

Kamali Chirani, F. (2018). Review of Miriam Müller’s A spectre is haunting Arabia: How the Germans brought their communism to Yemen. Middle East Media and Reviews, 6(3).

Kamali Chirani, F. (2018) Review of Yadullah Shahibzadeh’s The Iranian political language: From the late nineteenth century to the present. Digest of Middle East Studies, 27(1), 157-160.

Kamali Chirani, F. (2017). Incapability of institutional structures as an obstacle for the intercultural dialogue between Iran and Germany. In O. Ernst (Ed.), Iran-Reader 2017 (pp. 109-111). Sankt Augustin/Berlin: Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung.

In German

Kamali Chirani, F. (2013). Dialog unter staatlicher Aufsicht [Dialogue under state supervision]. Welt-Sichten Journal, 6, 46-47.

In Farsi

Kamali Chirani, F. (2018). Potānsielhāy-e Goftoguy-e Farhangi dar Jāme’ey-e Ālmān [Potentials of intercultural dialogue in German society] Dialog Center of the Imam Musa Sadr Institut.

Shokrkhah, Y., &Shokrkhah, Y.Kamali Chirani, F. (2009). Ruznāmenegāri Hamrāh va Pušeš-e Xabari Jang-e Iraq: Motāle’āt-e Muredi-ye Foxnews [Embedded journalism and coverage of the 2003 Iraq war: Case study by Foxnews]. Iranian Journal of Cultural Research, 2(5), 156-171.


Work for CID:

Fatemeh Kamali-Chirani has written a guest post, Cultural diplomacy, intercultural dialogue, and sustainable development: A view of the cultural diplomacy potential of the city of Islamabad; and also written KC105: Acculturation. She has also translated KC14: Dialogue into German, and then KC14: Dialogue into Persian. In addition, she was interviewed about international relations and its connection to intercultural dialogue. See the description of her recent report on immigration to and from Pakistan.

Give peace a dance

Maz Jobrani (an Iranian comedian) and Elon Gold (an Israeli comedian) have started an innovative humorous appeal for peace in the mideast, called Give peace a dance.

What would you do for peace?

Post your own dance for peace on YouTube tagged with #GivePeaceaDance.

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