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Hooman Majd      

Author / Journalist

Hooman Majd was born in Tehran, Iran in 1957, and lived abroad from infancy with his family who were in the diplomatic service. He attended boarding school in England and college in the United States, and stayed in the U.S. after the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Majd had a long career in the entertainment business before devoting himself to writing and journalism full-time. He worked at Island Records and Polygram Records for many years, with a diverse group of artists, and was head of film and music at Palm Pictures, where he produced The Cup and James Toback's Black and White.

He has written for GQ, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New York Observer, Interview, and Salon, and has been a regular contributor to The Huffington Post from its inception. A contributing editor at Interview magazine, he lives in New York City and travels regularly back to Iran.

Speech Topics

Modern Iran: The People, Their Lives, and What Makes Them Tick

Did you know that most Iranian college students are virtually identical to their American counterparts? That they drink, smoke, watch The Daily Show, and obsess over pop culture? What else don't you know about Iran? In this talk, Hooman Majd offers a corrective to what the media shows you—or rather, what it doesn't—about this proud country (which is Muslim, Shiite, and, above all, Persian). From women cab drivers to reform-minded Ayatollahs, Iran is a country that is deeply religious yet highly cosmopolitan, a country that indeed wants better relations with the US, but with respect. Discussing the paradoxes inherent in the Iranian character, Majd bridges an understanding between two countries—Iran and America—that, deep down, may not be so different after all.

Understanding Iran's Impact on the World Economy

We must be prepared for the day when Iran re-enters the global economic community—and enormous future investment possibilities open up. That means understanding Iran, and its economy, now. In this keynote, Hooman Majd offers himself as nascent tour guide, and reveals a country that already has a large economic impact far outside of its borders. Iran has a large entrepreneurial class, a strong industrial base, a highly educated population, and is on the forefront of medicine and various technologies. It manufactures and exports everything from machinery to agricultural product, and delivers them to the Middle East, Africa, Latin America. It is, in fact, the biggest manufacturer of automobiles in the region, exporting them to South America and Russia and the former Soviet states. No matter the regime, Majd explains, Iran will be one of the most advanced countries not just in the region, but also the world. There is tremendous wealth in Iran, and that wealth—once sanctions are lifted or there is a better political situation—will be managed by international banks. Relations will improve with the West one day, but we have to be ready today. We have to understand Iran and Iranians, and that’s not an easy task. Thankfully, Hooman Majd helps us see where Iran has come from, and where it is going, and how it will eventually interact once again with the West.

From Israel to Afghanistan and Beyond

In this timely talk, Hooman Majd makes sense of the military situation around Iran—helping us understand the potential conflict with Israel over the nuclear issue, and also mapping out other conflicts, as well as the possibility of wholesale change within the regime. Iran's position on Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel is crucial to a stable Middle East, and we have to do a better job in comprehending the motivations of the Iranian government (and even the opposition) to see where it all might lead. The key, Majd insists, is to figure out the Iranian psyche: we have to view things from a new perspective, an Iranian perspective—not just Western analysis, which may be removed, biased, dated, or inaccurate. Majd opens up a window, allowing us to clearly see what the Iranian regime is looking to achieve, what the opposition is looking to achieve, and what the future holds as far as most Iranians are concerned, regardless of whether there is actual military conflict.

News

From Sulking To Sanctions, A Street-Level View Of Life In Iran
Well Hooman Majd, welcome back to FRESH AIR. You know, early in this book you describe a trip to Iran you made with an NBC crew, and this was before you ...
The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay, by Hooman Majd ...
The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay: An American Family in Iran, by Hooman Majd, Allen Lane, RRP£20 / Doubleday, RRP$26.95, 272 pages One ...

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