Sharmin Meymandi Nejad

Sharmin Meymandi Nejad (Persian: شارمین میمندی نژاد‎) is an Iranian writer, director, researcher of social sciences and the establisher of the Imam Ali Society (Society of Students Against Poverty NGO). Sharmin was born in 1970 in Tehran. His father was Professor Mohammad Hosein Meymandi Nejad, a famous scientist and author and his mother was Fateme Lord

شارمین میمندی نژاد Sharmin Meymandi Nejad
Born	(1970-03-30) March 30, 1970 Tehran, Iran
Alma mater	University of Tehran
Occupation	Theatre director, Playwright, Humanitarian, Researcher, Founder of the Society of Students Against Poverty
Spouse(s)	Zahra Rahimi
Parent(s)	Mohammad Hossein Meymandi Nejad (father),Fateme Lord (mother)

Education

He studied practical science in high school and then in 1991 he started to study dramatic arts in University of Tehran's fine arts college. After that, he chose dramatic literature for M.A. in the same university and in 1998 he graduated.

Works

Theater

Since the beginning of his academic education, Sharmin showed a great interest in writing for plays and soon he became one of the most acclaimed young playwrights in Iran.
Sharmin made his writer - director debut in 1993, with the critically well-received play called Mehr-e-Giah.
This play was held for 45 days in Charsoo Hall in the famous theater complex of City Theater (Theatre Shahr).
At that time, Charsoo Hall was only for the most experienced and known directors and this incident made Sharmin very famous among his colleagues.

After that, Sharmin wrote several other plays including:

Dorj-e-Meshkin: 1994, writer – director, charsoo hall
Ahh! Sooske aziz salam! (Ahh! Hello Dear Beetle!): 1995, writer – director, Molavi hall, Student Theater festival
Akharin Navadeye Namrood (The Last Descendent of Namrood): 1995, writer – director, Theatre Shahr hall no.2, Special Part Fadjr International Theater Festival
Naghle Ghole Aasheghan (Citation of Lovers): 1995, writer, Theatre Shahr Main hall
Ghesseye Eshgh (Love Story): 1996, writer, Tarbiat Modarres University Hall
Hameye Farzandane Khorshid (All the Children of the Sun): writer – director, Theatre Shahr hall no.2, Special Part Fadjr International Theater Festival

Teaching

Sharmin instructed from 2004 to 2006 in Islamic Azad University of Art & Architecture. At the same time, he was teaching Basic of Acting as an assistant in University of Tehran's Fine Arts College.
He was the teacher of theater-therapy classes held from 1996 to 1999 in Alzahra University and educational workshops about hypnosis and its usage to help children with cancer.

Books

Published

1. Mehr-e-Giah – Play – 1999 – Jahad Daneshgahi
2. All the Children of the Sun – Play – 2000 – Namira Publication[1]
3. Contemporary Iranian Literature – Selected Plays – 2001 – Neyestan Publication[2][3]
4. Dorj-e-Meshkin – Play – 2003 – Golpar Publication[4]
5. When Alladin had No Magic Lantern and the Tales of Old Shahrzad in New York – Play – 2004 – Namira Publication[5]
6. The Secret of Sultan's Harem – Play – 2005 – Namira Publication[6][7]
7. Museum of Death – Novel – 2009 – Albourzfar Danesh Publication[8]

Ready to Publish

1. Pathway of the Prophets – Collection of letters
2. The Inverse of a Butterfly is a Butterfly – Novel
3. Apocalypse of Shahrzad – Play
4. Teymoor Shah – Play
5. Children of Helle – Screenplay

Awards

1. The prize of Dialogue among civilizations center in Iran in 2003
2. First Prize for playwriting in Biennial Drama Festival -2005

Researches

1. Ways of Teaching Theater to Orphan Children and its Therapeutic Influence – 1995 – Shahid Ghoddoosi Behzisti
2. Linguistic and Symbols in Divine Books – 1999
3. Typology of spurious jobs of children - 2014 - child labor in Iran seminar in University of Tehran
4. philosophy of Romani people – 2016

Humanitarian Works

Sharmin is the founder of the NGO called Imam Ali Popular Students Relief Society, also known asSociety of Students Against Poverty. The NGO was founded in 1999 in Iran and today (2016) is Active all around the country with more than 3000 women and children under protection and more than 10 thousand volunteers. Imam Ali NGO is also active in Iraq.

Sharmin speech in "Kuche gardane ashegh"

Society of Students Against Poverty

Society of Students Against Poverty (Imam Ali Society), is the first nonpartisan, student NGO in Iran. It was founded in 1999 and had its first official office in Sharif University of Technology in 2000. The major activities are social problems, especially about children. There are more than 30 centers in marginalized areas of the country where labor children, and marginalized women enjoy medical and educational services, including nutrition, arts, sports and etc. There are also different projects and seminars held during the year, with especial look at national and religious ceremonies, finding ties between ceremonies and social volunteering movements.

Sharmin in Mahmoodabad klin district

Rahyaft

Sharmin Meymandi Nejad is the initiator of Intelligent Charity. Intelligent Charity Organization means an organization in which all the members are like a body, they evaluate the circumstances especially in social problems and present solutions in every case. Solutions are given by the university students that have expert and knowledge in that case. The solutions are based on students’ theory and domain researches and make program and schedules.

In 1996, Sharmin started a series of classes called Rahyafti Be Daroon (Acceding Inside) in Sharif University.

This class is actually Organizations tutorial class and has the following syllabuses:

1. Theology
Bases and origins of the world’s live religions.
2. Cosmology
Origin and initiation of the world in accordance with religions and science.
3. Sociology
4. Psychology
5. Philosophy
6. Linguistics
The origin of different languages, comparison of eastern and western languages, and the effect of the language on the way we think.
7. Mythology
8. history of religion
9. Social work
10. Symbols
It will be possible if we stop word-thinking and begin to concentrate our attention on the symbols and concepts.
11. Healing methods

Rahyaft in Sharif University of Technology

In most of these syllabuses, the contents presented are practical and theoretical subjects are mostly new and innovative. That is why these classes are so popular and students from all the universities attend the classes actively.

The actual goal of these classes is helping other people with the knowledge, experience and exercises in the process of studying these syllabuses in order to train altruistic, committed and pragmatist social activists who are effectively active in social issues.

This NGO tries to help people both physically and spiritually. So after a few classes, Sharmin gathered a team and started a Spiritual Laboratory in Ali Asghar Hospital of children. This team used different healing methods to help children with cancer alongside normal therapeutic procedure. Nowadays a lot of new members of this society are taking part in these classes in order to help other people and Sharmin has dedicated his life to this.

Saving teenagers sentenced to death

Since 2006, Sharmin has tried to help young offenders. In this regard, firstly he entered Tehran Penitentiary Center and reviewed the judiciary cases of children and teenagers in that center. During a period till 2008, 70 teenagers were released in “Teflan-e-Moslem” program of Imam Ali Society while some of them were involved in heavy crimes and were sentenced to death. Furthermore, Sharmin trained some social workers of Imam Ali Society in order to be active in “Teflan-e-Moslem” program. During the years from 2014 to 2016, the social workers of Imam Ali Society converged their efforts to support under 18 years teenagers, and they have saved 28 teenagers from execution.

Sharmin believes that: "Forgiveness is the light in which all the beauties of the world can be seen. No one can justify forgiveness with worldly reasons. It is a spiritual power that leads one from difficulties to a better place." This is why he and the members of the NGO he founded try hard to make a family reach to a point to forgive the murderer of their family member, not to execute the big penalty. ¹³ Here we can review some data of 21 teenagers rescued from death penalty by the efforts of Imam Ali NGO founded by Sharmin and his direct contribution and efforts. (Names of the children rescued from execution are abbreviated as an alphabet.)

Name Abr.	Age of committing crime	Crime	Reason	Result of Efforts to rescue from execution
M	17 years old	Murder	Street struggle	forgiveness by providing 10000$ as a revenge
Kh	17 years old	Murder	Ethnical struggle	forgiveness by providing 15000$ as a revenge
Fz	16 years old	Murder	Street struggle	forgiveness by providing 8000$ as a revenge
Fr	17 years old	Murder	family struggle	forgiveness by providing 15000$ as a revenge
H	17 Murder	Murder	Street struggle	forgiveness by providing 5000$ as a revenge
A	17 years old	Murder	Street struggle	forgiveness by providing 5000$ as a revenge
S	16 years old	Murder	family struggle	forgiveness by providing 25000$ as a revenge
Fb	15 years old	Murder	family struggle	Legally acquitted
K	17 years old	Murder	Street struggle	Legally acquitted
R	17 years old	Murder	Street struggle	forgiveness by providing 20000$ as a revenge
S	17 years old	Murder	Street struggle	forgiveness by providing 50000$ as a revenge
A	17 years old	Murder	Street struggle	forgiveness by providing 50000$ as a revenge
M	15 years old	Murder	Family dispute	forgiveness by providing 50000$ as a revenge
H	17 years old	Murder	Street struggle	forgiveness by providing 3000$ as a revenge
MRz	18 years old	Murder	Street struggle	forgiveness by providing 11000$ as a revenge
V	16 years old	Murder	Clash	forgiveness by providing 25000$ as a revenge
Vd	15 years old	Murder	Street struggle	forgiveness by providing 22000$ as a revenge
P	16 years old	Murder	Street struggle	forgiveness by providing 13000$ as a revenge
E	17 years old	Murder	Street struggle	forgiveness by providing 7000$ as a revenge
Ay	17 years old	Murder	Clash	forgiveness by providing 55000$ as a revenge
S	16 years old	Murder	Street struggle	forgiveness by providing 30000$ as a revenge
Ar	16 years old	Murder	Family struggle	forgiveness by providing 29000$ as a revenge
Hm	17 years old	Murder	Clash	forgiveness by providing 30000$ as a revenge
Meh	16 years old	Murder	Family struggle	forgiveness by providing 20000$ as a revenge
Im	16 years old	Murder	Street struggle	forgiveness by providing 5000$ as a revenge

Theater for disadvantaged children

Sharmin performs social theaters with the acting of deprived children in order to develop the state of children and publicize social issues. Some of these plays are:

Teymour: 2011, writer – director, House of arts of Imam Ali Society
Haftomin barkhoon khane Rostam (7th bloody passage of Rostam): 2013, writer – director, Social and Cultural Student Center of University of Tehran
Tasmime jome siahe Kobra (The decision of Kobra on the Dark Friday): 2014, writer – director, House of arts of Imam Ali Society
Ejdeha bar doush (ِSerpent on shoulder): 2015, writer – director, Milad tower Conference Hall
Gharibkhani: 2016, writer, University of Zanjan, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Artistic forum of Sari, and University of Isfahan

References

1. http://opac.nlai.ir/opac-prod/search/briefListSearch.do?command=FULL_VIEW&id=588248&pageStatus=0
2. http://www.adinebook.com/gp/product/9643372936/ref=sr_2_1000_1/821-4619324-4887049
3. http://opac.nlai.ir/opac-prod/search/briefListSearch.do?command=FULL_VIEW&id=680354&pageStatus=0
4. http://opac.nlai.ir/opac-prod/search/briefListSearch.do?command=FULL_VIEW&id=694855&pageStatus=0
5. http://opac.nlai.ir/opac-prod/search/briefListSearch.do?command=FULL_VIEW&id=684227&pageStatus=0
6. http://www.adinebook.com/gp/product/9647144172/ref=sr_2_1000_2/821-4619324-4887049
7. http://opac.nlai.ir/opac-prod/search/briefListSearch.do?command=FULL_VIEW&id=623511&pageStatus=0
8. http://opac.nlai.ir/opac-prod/search/briefListSearch.do?command=FULL_VIEW&id=1659530&pageStatus=0

9- Imam Ali Society Website: http://www.sosapoverty.org/
10- collection of Sharmin's Speeches: https://web.archive.org/web/20090208150548/http://smnblog.blogfa.com/
11- ISNA: https://web.archive.org/web/20110613030207/http://isna.ir/Isna/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1191706 (Arabic)
12- Imam ALi Religious Arts Museum Website: http://www.iaram.ir/index.php?sn=fairs&id=37&category_id=80&lang=fa
13- A Narrow Escape: a documental by Thomas Erdbrink. Starring Sharmin Meymandi Nejad efforts: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/29/world/middleeast/iran-our-man-in-tehran.html
14- BBC World Service: Seeking forgiveness on Iran's death row: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02tg9vf/
15- Brookings: Sharmin discusses the social and cultural implications of public executions: www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/headlines-2014/05/21-hassan-rouhani-javad-zarif-visit-china/
16- Goodreads: books by Sharmin Meymandi Nejad: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4033153._
17. Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/mar/31/iran-juveniles-saved-death-row-imam-ali-society
18. Mercy and Social Media Slow the Noose in Iran: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/world/middleeast/mercy-and-social-media-slow-the-noose-in-iran.html