Once Upon a Time in Iran (documentary)

2007 Channel 4 documentary about Iranian Shiism and the martyrdom culture the west first became aware of during the Iran Iraq war in the 1980's in which thousands of young men died while making massive human wave attacks to try and seize the holy city of Karbala in Iraq; this documentary tells the story Imam Hussein and follows a group of Iranian pilgrims visiting Karbala in modern day Iraq.

On Green Uprising and Shiism

Stanford’s Abbas Milani discusses the intellectual history of the Green uprising in his article titled “The New Democrats” published in The New Republic [15 July 2009]. Milani examines the link between the political battle underway in Iran and the old theological dispute about the nature of Shiism.

Those who voted for Khatami in 1997; the student movement of 1999; the recent struggle of the bus drivers' union for the rights of its workers; the relentlessly defiant but peaceful women's movement, particularly the attempt to solicit one million signatures in favor of reforming discriminatory laws; and, now, the green uprising of 2009--all owe something to the tradition that Na'ini established more than 100 years ago.”