Activities of Iran Culture House
The Culture House has a very rich library consisting of more than 40,000 books in the field of Persian language and literature. Besides books on human sciences, history of Iran, Islamic studies, world history, religions, sufism and philosophy, a large number of books on social sciences, political science, culture and art are also available for readers and scholars. Besides a good number of bilingual and multilingual Persian dictionaries have also been obtained for the benefit of scholars. The membership of the library is open to all.
Film and Art Division:
The film and art division of the Culture House consists of video and audio tapes of classical music, art books, calligraphy models, attractive sceneries, handicrafts and various prominent Iranian films. In addition, film festivals and cultural exhibitions in various parts of India are also organised by this unit of the Culture House.
Persian Research Centre:
This Research Centre, which has thousands of reference and research books concerning various fields of Persian language and literature, is always open to teachers of Persian and all other scholars or persons in India who are keenly interested in their research programmes.
While publishing catalogues of Persian books available in some of the prominent libraries in India, the Centre has established co-ordination with various Indian libraries in the context of research activities. The Centre is busy in editing a trilingual dictionary (Persian, English, Hindi) and it also publishes a quarterly magazine known as "Qand-e Parsi". Not only this the centre also feels happy in extending co-operation to the research scholars writing doctoral and post doctoral thesis and dissertation on any aspect of Persian language and literature.
Public Relations Department:
The department arranges meetings with prominent personalities from the domain of Indian art and culture. Organising seminars, round table discussions and cultural programmes for Iranians residing in India is also an essential component of the activities of this department.
The centre provides necessary information about Iranian art, culture and all other facets of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Distribution Unit:
This unit is responsible for providing Persian books, periodicals, magazines to the Persian loving people figuring on the mailing list of the Culture House.
Persian Language Teaching Centre:
This unit is responsible for organising primary, secondary and advance level Persian courses for interested students. Besides, the unit has decided to introduce Persian language teaching programme through correspondence.
Mathnavi/poetries recitation & discussion in Persian and English language:
The Culture House of the Islamic Republic of Iran has decided to organise a fortnightly Mathnavi/poetry Recitation and Discussion Programme in order to enable the students and scholars to speak Persian language fluently. The programme will start with the recitation of couplets from the 1st chapter of Mathnavi of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi. Later, the learned scholars will express their views on the subject. All the Persian students, scholars, teachers, professors and intellectuals are cordially invited to participate in this discussion.
On the persistent insistence of the scholars and poem loving people, the Culture House of the Islamic Republic of Iran has initiated a step for organizing a scholarly discussion on the Hafiz Shirazi poems
On every first Wednesday of the month instead of Masnavi Khani, there is going to be a scholarly discussion on the poems of Hafiz Shirazi, the shining star of the Persian literature, at the Conference Hall of the Iran Culture House, New Delhi in which eminent intellectual personalities and scholars will express their views on the poetic services of this great scholar who had contributed to the Persian and Iranian culture during the 77 years of his prolific life.
Hafiz was one of the rare poets capable of expressing the lover's grief, the feeling of burning butterflies, a candle's sigh and a nightingale's love with great eloquence. He has preserved his words in an ocean of accessible and unique definitions and images. From his large collection of poems, nearly 400 well-known verses has so far been re-written, printed and translated into tens of other languages
Dialogue Among Civilisations:
All the cultural elite and intellectuals confess that India and Iran are one of the greatest civilisations of the world with a similar cultural heritage which has had exceptional ties and bonds throughout history. Keeping this in mind the honourable President of the Islamic Republic of Iran made a proposal for naming 2001 as the "Year of Dialogue" which was approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations a year back. Realising the significance of the event, the office of the Cultural Counsellor, Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, New Delhi had regularly organised fortnightly lectures on "Dialogue Among Civilisations" in which prominent personalities expressed their views on the various aspects of Dialogue.