Kamin Mohammadi – Frontline Club

Insight with Kamin Mohammadi: Rediscovering Iran

Millicent Teasdale — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 19:00:00 +0000

When nine-year-old Kamin Mohammadi fled to London with her family in June 1979 escaping Iran after the revolution that brought down the Shah little was she to know that she would not step foot in the country again for 17 years.

She had watched the revolution unfold as her friends slowly stopped coming to school, and her neighbours started to disappear in fear of the secret police. Now, as an Iranian exile in Britain, Mohammadi struggled to fit in and pushed away her Iranian background.

She will be joining us at the Frontline Club in conversation with Pooneh Ghoddoosi from BBC Persian TV to talk about her journey back to her homeland to find the family she left behind, and to rediscover her Iranian identity after 17 years away from the country that she loved.

Now splitting her time between London and Florence, Mohammadi is a writer, broadcaster and journalist specialising in Iran. Her work has seen her nominated for awards such as the Amnesty Human Rights in Journalism Award and the American Society of Magazine Editors for a National Magazine award 2011. She has also controversially covered issues such as the ‘epidemic’ of drug abuse in Iran post-1979 and Western attitudes to Iranian women.

The week ahead: Return to Iran, Cocaine Unwrapped and reporting Sri Lanka’s civil war

Julie Tomlin — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:24:22 +0000

Tomorrow night journalist and broadcaster Kamin Mohammadi will be talking to BBC Persian TV’s Pooneh Ghoddoosi about her book The Cypress Tree and the story it tells of her return to Iran 17 years after her family fled the country in 1979.

Our Change season continues on Friday with a screening of Cocaine Unwrapped, which exposes the human cost for those caught up in a global operation that brings this drug to the UK’s streets. On Monday The Truth That Wasn’t There is a fascinating film shot by novice student journalists which raises important questions about journalistic responsibility in the midst of an internationally significant story.

Next Tuesday, we will be looking at counterinsurgency strategies launched in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that took place almost 10 years ago – were they doomed to fail? Our In the Picture with Toby Smith on China’s new energy pioneers has been rescheduled to Wednesday, 24 August.

Life in a Day, return to Iran and challenging street crime – coming up at Frontline Club

Julie Tomlin — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:49:22 +0000

Following the recent screening of his film Life in a Day, we will be joined by Academy Award winning Director Kevin Macdonald tomorrow night to talk about the project that used crowd-sourced footage from people all over the world.

Next week Iranian born writer, broadcaster and journalist Kamin Mohammadi will be in conversation with BBC Persian TV’s Pooneh Ghoddoosi to discuss how she rediscovered her country after 17 years of exile.

Screenings in the week ahead include The Interrupters, documenting the radically different approach to reducing crime used by three ‘violence interrupters’ working on the crime-ridden streets of Chicago.

There’s also an investigative look into the effects of Donald Trump‘s proposed luxury golf resort being built on the "crown jewels" of Scotland’s natural wildlife that reveals the influence, power, privilege and bullying tactics of the man who has expressed interest in becoming a candidate for President of the United States.