Photo Stephanie Sinclair/National Geographic/Source
In an age when information equals power, Armanshahr/OPEN ASIA has created a powerful informative tool for Persian-speakers through its weekly thematic bulletins. Generally short of time, individuals usually cannot allocate much time to monitor news or various sources every day and keep abreast of the important political, social, cultural and human rights issues. Social progress, respect for human rights, extensive political participation of men and women as well as accountable government can be achieved only in a society with aware and empowered citizens. Raising awareness and empowering individuals through information sharing is the main objective of Armanshahr/ OPEN ASIA’s weekly bulletins known as “Haftrooznameh” (literally meaning seven-day newspaper).
“Haftroozname” weekly bulletins, as their name suggests, are published on a weekly basis and consist of a selection of information compiled from various sources (news, academic think-tanks, UN sources, NGOs, articles/reports). In the weekly bulletins, one can have an overview of the most important events of the week. Four bulletins (geographic and thematic), namely Afghanistan Human Rights, Women’s Human Rights, International Human Rights and Iran Human Rights are all the results of careful selection of articles and daily monitoring of various sources. Each bulletin is divided into several categories, facilitating the readers’ task in finding information relevant to them. The aim is to expose readers to diversified and categorized pools of information, introduce them to new sources and in this way, increase their level of knowledge and information on different human-rights related issues.
All the bulletins have a special focus on issues related to human rights. Information constitutes an essential tool for all human rights defenders. Through the weekly bulletins, important human rights developments can be traced and followed, encouraging best-practice learning from human rights defenders’ activities in other countries and contexts. For individuals conducting research on specific themes, these bulletins can also help them gain access to a coherent set of information. For instance, the media coverage of the Afghanistan presidential elections can be traced through the Afghanistan Human Rights Bulletin. In an effort to make available information accessible to the Persian-speaking public, short parts of articles in other foreign languages are also translated and included in the International and Women’s Human Rights Bulletins. Providing access to important news, analytical articles and academic articles which are not available in Persian will strongly encourage the Persian- speaking readers to translate the entire article relevant to their research theme, work or general interest.
“Haftroozname” weekly bulletins uniquely serve an informative purpose and are not politically motivated or partisan. They are all results of daily monitoring of important sources of information available in the public domain. It is up to curious minds to extract the information and analyse the important human rights, political, social and cultural trends, either of a specific geography covered by the bulletins, i.e. International, Afghanistan and Iran Bulletins or a specific theme, i.e. Women’s Human Rights Bulletin.
