Anisa Mehdi and Paolo Marenghi, Producers
Tom Bettag and Alvin Perlmutter, Executive Producer
www.abcnews.go.com/Nightline
Note from the Producer: Each of these programs stands alone as the voice and viewpoint of a single individual. There is no narrator, no correspondent, only the comments of a person on his or her life, faith, and nation. The subjects were selected by Anisa Mehdi to represent a diversity of opinion, life styles, national identity and gender. The series was made possible by a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts and was a co-production of the Independent Production Fund and ABC News Nightline. |
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Ayatollah
Program Description: Ayatollah Mahdi Hadavi Tehrani teaches Islamic jurisprudence at the Islamic Seminary in Qom , Iran . He discusses Islam, Iran and America in this program, introducing viewers to the city of Qom, birthplace of Ayatollah Khomeini and burial site of Fatima, a revered scholar, the daughter of Imam Musa Al-Kadhim, the 7th Shiite Imam; Fatima is buried at the Shrine of Hazrat Massumeh in Qom (www.bamjam.net/Iran/Qom.html). Ayatollah Hadavi compares Iranian and American societies and values, finding much in common and far to go. He plays table tennis with his son and admires the drawings of his daughter. The Ayatollah's wife is a professor at the women's university in Qom . He speaks about the role of women in society in an Islamic ideal and how that plays out in current-day Iran . Air date: February 20, 2002
Bahman Farmanara, Iranian filmmaker
Program Description: Bahman Farmanara lived for many years in the USA and Canada , running a successful textile business and making films. After the Iranian Revolution he decided to return to Iran and give back to his homeland. He opened a textile factory and resumed making films. Farmanara lives outside Tehran , a city he compares to Los Angeles . In this Nightline episode he drives us through Tehran , brings us on location for one of his films, and speaks of his love for the American people and his concerns about the effects of American foreign policy. Air date: April 23, 2002 Inci Mercan, Turkish engineer
Program Description: Inci Mercan (IN-je MER-jan) earned her engineering degree in the United States . While she was here she grew in faith, eventually choosing to cover her hair. Returning to her native Turkey she bumped into restrictions on religious expression: women who covered their hair were not allowed to work for the government and were disapproved of in the corporate environment. An untenable position and a painful choice. In this episode, Nightline explores the tension between practicing her faith and building a career one Turkish woman must face. Zainah Anwar, Malaysian human rights activist
Program Description: Zainah Anwar has a degree in political science from the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston , but her professional specialty is in defending women's rights based on what God grants in the Qur'an. "The word of God, the text of the Qur'an is divine revelation," she tells Nightline. "That is unchangeable. But human beings' understanding of the word of God, this is not divine." She helped establish "Sisters in Islam, a Malaysia-based, international organization urging women and men to re-read age-old interpretations of Islamic text that she says favor men over women.
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