Christmas and New Year are just around the corner. I want to take the opportunity to thank all of you for your support during the past year. Special thanks to the management team {Ali Sadeghi (treasurer and co-founder), Homeyra Doostar (secretary) and Mohammed Hadad (vulnerable person officer)}, and to our enthusiastic friends who attend Shahnameh workshops regularly.

In 2022:
- Through Zoom, Friends of Shahnameh ran 17 workshops which helped us reach a major milestone: over100 online Shahnameh workshops since our workshops went online. 4 of these workshops were autonomous (they were fully organised by people attending the workshops). Thanks are due to everyone who helped running these sessions, in particular Majid Sadati and Abazar.
- The 12th Commemoration Day of Ferdowsi was celebrated in person after two years of running online (due to the pandemic).
- We had two talks {how to Understand Shahnameh better by Homayoun Norouzi and Majis Sadati, Knowledge is the power by Hassan Shabani}, and the Persian New Year celebration.
- Mehrdad Parseh, the guest blogger who responded to our call for bloggers, started to collaborate with the group. We gratefully acknowledge his contribution to the site.
- With the support of Sahba music we had a story session (Zahak and Kaveh) for children.
- Friends of Shahnameh received the support of Forever Manchester for the renewal of its annual Zoom account. We greatly acknowledge their support.
- Using Shahnameh as a supporting umbrella for assisting writers, Manchester Writers Corporation group was formed. Writers were invited to meet up in a group to discuses ways that we can support one another.
Our online Shahnameh workshops (open to all) restarts on the 5th Jan 2023. If you would like to join us: keep an eye on this site (the details of the workshop will be shared on Friendsoshahnameh.com at a later date), comment on this post or send us an email friendsofshahnameh@gmail.com
I cannot talk about our achievements in 2022 without acknowledging the current uprising in Iran. I finish with a couple of stanza from Zahak story in Shahameh.
به یزدان همی گفت زنهار من
سپردم ترا ای جهاندار من
بگردان ز جانش بد جاودان
بپرداز گیتی ز نابخردان
God, I entrusted you with the life of the person who is my sanctuary. Save him and clear the world from unreasonable people.
We wish everyone a peaceful and happy New Year
Stay Safe
Dr Shahireh Sharif (Founder and Creative Director of Friends of Shahnameh)
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