History of Tehran: What Lies Beneath
One of Iran's most venerable journalists and editors gives us an insider's history of one of the world's great if lesser-known cities.
Masoud Behnoud
Masoud Behnoud has founded more than 20 newspapers and magazines since he began as a prominent writer, journalist and editor in 1964. He was editor-in-chief from 1971 of Iran’s most influential and popular daily, Ayandegan, when on orders of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 it was shut down and its editor and senior staff imprisoned. The same year, he became chief editor of the weekly Tehren-e Mosavar, which was also shut down after 30 issues by the Islamic authorities. In 1985 Behnoud was one of the founders of the social and literary monthly Adineh, which championed freedom of expression for 13 years. In 1995 he joined the Tehran daily Jame’eh. When this was closed down, he went to work for other dailies: Tous, Neshat, Asr-e Azadegan and Bonyan, all of which were closed down. In 1999, he was imprisoned “for provoking public opinion” and “insulting the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic”—a sentence protested by Reporters Sans Frontières, PEN International and Amnesty International. The author of innumerable books, Behnoud lives in London.