Great job Khalil !!! Gran trabajo!, Reading it helped me to know a little bit more about Iran. I’m from Barcelona (Spain) and I appreciate realizing how reality is in places far away from me, so stereotypes are broken. Television and mass-media don’t help western people to understand eastern people, rather the contrary. That’s why I love the proximity of comics: people “talking” directly to people… THANKS!!!
Dear Amir: It was a pleasure and honour meeting you at India Comic Convention this sunday and getting your book signed. You and your collaborator Khalil’s work is most inspiring. BTW I couldn’t locate your email on facebook as mentioned, so writing to you here. I too make docu films and write. A link to one of my books is at http://www.agelessmindandspirit.com/ A link to one of my recent films produced for YLE, Arte, BBC and other broadcasters can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4BQ3SsjXWs Thanks. Vijay Jodha, Delhi, India
Querido Victor,
Gracias por tu mensage. El libro esta dispuesto en Español (“Paraiso de Zahra,” Norma Editorial) y es possible comprarlo en liña, en Amazon.com, y talvez pedirlo directamente a tu libreria local en Peru. Me gusta mucho tener lectores en tu lino pais.
Por favor de disfrutar el libro y compartir con otros.
Un abrazo,
Khalil
Is there also a version available in farsi ? I am learning Farsi, and I am quite disappointed because many interesting Iranian books or comics seem to be available only in European languages (English, French, Spanish…)
Dear Toto,
The Farsi version is being completed as we speak, so there’s hope yet! I’m not sure exactly if and when it ill be made available on the web, though, but stay tuned.
Zahra’s Paradise is also available in Arabic, Korean, Hebrew, Turkish, with more coming later – not just European languages, thankfully.
Cheers,
Dear Amir and Khalil
I am an Egyptian who had been following the aftermath of 2009 presidential elections, and who is personally very interested in Iranian society and culture. I have been three times to Iran, have close friends there, and learned a good bit of Persian throughout the past years.
I am very happy to read your beautiful account of the events, which makes the story of the ongoing oppression and brutality against millions of iranians known outside Iran. The book is precious.
I have been approached here in Egypt by friends who are starting up a publishing house (as a branch of a Lebanese publishing house) to translate the book into Arabic. I read in various places online though that an Arabic version exists. Is that true? If not, I would be very delighted to take up the job. You know Iran 2009 is similar in many ways to Egypt 2011, and the book touches me personally. I would be grateful if you could send me the means to contact you for possible advice during the translation process.
Khaste nabashin
Rime
this is fantastic! i’ll make a note to buy the comic! does it come in both english and persian? i’m learning persian and i really think an interesting comic will help.
Welcome to the West. Or at least the world wide web.
Your comic is mild compared to the ones over here. Especially in Canada , where we suspect the government cheated on the election with robot calls and we are roasting them over the fires (figuratively , not actually)
I hope you don’t get in trouble for writing this, the Defenders of Islam have no sense of humor , I’ve noticed.
Greetings from the US…congratulations on the success of your comic. It is a very original concept of spreading the word of the Iranians daily plight. I wish you much continued success.
From February 2010 to September 2011, Zahra’s Paradise was up on the web, free for all to read, but now the book’s publishers need to recoup their investment – let’s not forget that it was thanks to them that this graphic novel became a reality – and so the best thing to do now is to go to your local book store and purchase a copy to support the effort, and perhaps then will there be enough support for a ebook version, if the paper book is successful enough.
Thanks for your interest and feedback!
Khalil
Congratulations for the comics. The world really needs to understand what happens in Iran and your work gives us the opportunity to be aware of that. But, please, where are the other pages, guys?
God bless and protect you and your work!
Wating for more… =)
Hi Amir and Khalil. Is there a way to send you an email, perhaps to an anonymous address? or will you be able to contact me at my entered email address above? I’d like to share a story with you that might be of interest and spark a new story. Thanks.
Dear author & edotir of this book,
I have not read your book yet but I saw a small reportage about it on BBC. So, i decided to check your website out of curiosity.
Please don’t understand me… i just came here for a better understanding (but not to attack your work). My main question is: why should Iranian people go to shops and buy the story of their own efforts and revolution?
If I was the creator of this book I would have made it available (free of charge) for everybody online (or even as you have mentioned that there were so many interested publishers) I would have made books and gave them to people free of charge. Iranian peoples efforts and demostrations in 2009 shouldn’t be commercialized like this. This is my opinion.
On the BBC reportage at the beginning I was very happy and positive about your initiative until Khalil said that there were so many publishers interested in us and so you decided to make a book out of it for selling.
Why did you loos interests in making your work available online for everybody (especially Iranians in Iran) free of charge and make justice to it.
I am very upset about your decision. The 2009 revolution was not made for you to make business out of it.
I totally agree with you Banafsheh. It’s a great idea, a very nice concept. But why sell it to the people who have been part of the creation of this book?
Yes, of course you guys have put a lot of time and effort into producing this, but does selling this mean you guys decided on creating this work when you thought you could gain money from other people’s misery?
Dear Banafsheh and Sahar,
Thank you for your vigilance on behalf of the Iranian people, which honors you. Rest assured, that, when it comes to potential sales of the book in Iran, Zahra’s Paradise will not be a “profit center” for anyone other than perhaps individual Iranians making copies and selling on the black market, (just like one of our favorite character, Taymour, the print shop owner, does in Zahra’s Paradise) since it will be automatically banned by the authorities, of course.
We have not even found a publisher in Farsi yet, and are subsidizing the translation into Farsi with our own resources so that it can become widely available to Iranian readers. So, no worries there.
Having said that, Zahra’s Paradise was created and produced for the sake of alerting the world to Iran’s plight, not for monetary reasons and, thankfully, it has been very warmly received worldwide, in many different languages, which means that it is starting to accomplish its important mission.
However, in the real world, all these helpful publishers have had to invest many thousands of dollars each in order to make this book a reality, and they need to get back their investment. That’s how a book can come to life. Artists also have to spend months and years of their lives working hard to produce this book, and they too, like everyone else (unless they’re independently wealthy) need to eat while devoting so much of their energy to this effort. Only a dedicated, professional effort can produce a work of the quality of Zahra’s Paradise. Readers from across the world have chosen to support such an effort and Amir and I hope that we’ll earn your support and encouragements as well once you’ve read and enjoyed the book.
Salam,
Khalil
Hi, guys. I’m a journalist from Brazil and I’m going to recommend your fabulous book in our magazine, o “Guia do Estudante Atualidades”.
Our readers are students in university entrance exam. I need some more information about your work. Could you, please contact me? ana.ramos@abril.com.br
Thanks for such an impressive, powerful achievement. The artistry is amazing. I will try and get my own copy of the book here in New Zealand as soon as possible. But please, you should really get your web site fixed to help visitors. Most of the English front page has Brazilian content, rather confusing. The link to ‘sample chapter 2′ takes you to chapter 5. There is no way to find part 2 after reading part 1 until one reads some comments (!) and realise that its not available on the site. There is no clear headline message to say that you can’t read the whole comic online. There is even no link to ‘Buy this book on Amazon’ which would make you a few $$$ in more ways that one. So for the best success for your book, and to help further spread the word of the oppression in Iran please, take my advice spend a little time in getting your website more user friendly. Otherwise some of your great publicity – I heard about you via the BBC – may be wasted. Best, Nick
Thank you, Nick. Your point is well taken, and we want to address some of those issues as soon as we’re able.
It’s a bit complicated, logistically speaking, but we’ll get to it. Thanks so much for your support, and Hi to New Zealand!
I read this for the first time today.
I think it’s sad that money became more important than spreading your message.
With events in the world today, you would have many millions more readers if you go back to free.
I read many online novels that are free.
Dear Robin,
The issue of cost is a very delicate one, as I was explaining to another one of our commentors. Publishers need to recoup their investment, which is quite high, and though they were all quite generous in providing this content for free the first 18 months (Feb. 2010 to September 2011) while the book was being serialized on the web, they are not able to do it forever, alas, and need for readers to support the effort by buying copies of the book. I know many younger readers are not quite used to buying actual books anymore, but the economics of publication are such that in order for a book to be produced, readers have to help make it possible by purchasing a copy and telling their friends about the book.
thank you for your feedback.
I just read about this book on BBC and started looking for a pdf version of it right after. Such a pity that there’s only two chapters of it available online. I’d love to have a original copy but since i’m in Iran…! Anyway, thanks for the great job guys and congratulations for this innovative master piece! Hope you achieve greater success every day. Btw, is there any way you could notify us when the other chapters will be available online?
Dear Saleh,
Zahra’s Paradise was serialized and available in full on the web for 18 months,
but now that the book is out, the publishers had to remove all chapters but two, in order to encourage
readers to buy the book, in order to recoup their investment. After all, they’re the ones
who made this story possible.
Salam,
Khalil
Regards from Brazil! I am definately buying this book and I congratulate the initiative you guys had. All the world MUST be aware of what happens in your country!
Milad-jan,
The book is not officially available in Iran, of course, but we’re hoping it will end up circulating there anyway, soon… Perhaps in the basement of our our character Taymour’s print shop. But seriously, our dream is that soon, inshallah, Zahra’s Paradise will be widely read in Iran, yes! Readers from the whole world are rooting for their brothers and sisters in Iran.
uhh, my comment disappeared, so once again: Hi guys, I wonder if anybody already contacted you to translate the book into minor languages such as Czech or Hungarian, because I could do it and for free.
Dear Aziz, Thank you for your generous offer to translate the book in those important languages which, by the way, are NOT minor. I’ll let Amir or Mark, our editor, answer you in more detail, but basically, of course we’d love to have Zahra’s Paradise translated and published in those two countries, which have both shown real leadership in demonstrating what people power can accomplish in the nineteen fifties and sixties.
Thank you for your enthusiasm and generosity!
Khalil
Hi guys, I wonder if anybody already applied to translate the book in minor languages, such as Czech or Hungarian … I would be happy to do it, and for free.
Haerd about this “Comics” via hearsay. It’s very good indeed and will pass it on to my friends. Well done guys. It’s just harrowing to see one of the oldest and most “civilised” civilisations in the world being sent back to the middle ages by these Mullahs.
Since the book came out in mid-September, we’ve only kept two of the chapters on the web site, hoping that our fans, readers and supporters will want to get their own copy of the BOOK, in their own language, and recommend it to all their friends! I think the Brasilian Portuguese Zahra’s Paradise is either out or about to come out very soon. Please check your local book store, and please let us know what they tell you, so we can tell our other Brasilian friends.
Thank you for your support, and happy readings!
Amir and I are working hard to make the Farsi version of Zahra’s Paradise available as soon as possible. We may have found a good publisher and we’re hoping the book, both in English and Farsi, will find its way soon to Iranians everywhere, including in the motherland. We’ll make a big announcement on this site as soon as this all happens.
Thanks for your support.
Amir commented on Chapter 1: Aftermath Dear Beverly,
Delighted that you have enjoyed the website and book. We will have more news for you soon! As far as paperback, the publisher will make that decision this year. Kind regards, Amir Reply to This Comment
Xavier commented on Chapter 5: Watermelon Juice Great job Khalil !!! Gran trabajo!, Reading it helped me to know a little bit more about Iran. I'm from Barcelona (Spain) and I appreciate realizing how reality is in places far away from me, so stereotypes are broken. Television and mass-media don't help western people to understand eastern people, rather the contrary. That's why I love the proximity of comics: people "talking" directly to people... THANKS!!! Reply to This Comment
Beverly commented on Chapter 1: Aftermath Thank you for this wonderful website and book! I purchased the book from Amazon. My bookclub is interested - however, we only select paperbacks for the club. Will Zahra's Paradise be published in paperback anytime soon? Thank you so much, Beverly Reply to This Comment
English
sorry, thanks also to Amir!!!
Great job Khalil !!! Gran trabajo!, Reading it helped me to know a little bit more about Iran. I’m from Barcelona (Spain) and I appreciate realizing how reality is in places far away from me, so stereotypes are broken. Television and mass-media don’t help western people to understand eastern people, rather the contrary. That’s why I love the proximity of comics: people “talking” directly to people… THANKS!!!
Muchas gravias, Xavier.
Un abrazo!
Khalil
Thanks for the great work. How can I get a persian version of the book?
Dear Maral,
Persian translation will be posted and available for free soon.
Kind regards,
Amir
Dear Amir: It was a pleasure and honour meeting you at India Comic Convention this sunday and getting your book signed. You and your collaborator Khalil’s work is most inspiring. BTW I couldn’t locate your email on facebook as mentioned, so writing to you here. I too make docu films and write. A link to one of my books is at http://www.agelessmindandspirit.com/ A link to one of my recent films produced for YLE, Arte, BBC and other broadcasters can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4BQ3SsjXWs Thanks. Vijay Jodha, Delhi, India
Muy bueno el comic
sobretodo el tema que trata , tan de actualidad
y de denuncia.
Como hago para conseguir comprarlo.
Saludos de Peru
Querido Victor,
Gracias por tu mensage. El libro esta dispuesto en Español (“Paraiso de Zahra,” Norma Editorial) y es possible comprarlo en liña, en Amazon.com, y talvez pedirlo directamente a tu libreria local en Peru. Me gusta mucho tener lectores en tu lino pais.
Por favor de disfrutar el libro y compartir con otros.
Un abrazo,
Khalil
Dear Kalil,
Is there also a version available in farsi ? I am learning Farsi, and I am quite disappointed because many interesting Iranian books or comics seem to be available only in European languages (English, French, Spanish…)
Thanks for your answer!
Dear Toto,
The Farsi version is being completed as we speak, so there’s hope yet! I’m not sure exactly if and when it ill be made available on the web, though, but stay tuned.
Zahra’s Paradise is also available in Arabic, Korean, Hebrew, Turkish, with more coming later – not just European languages, thankfully.
Cheers,
Dear Amir and Khalil
I am an Egyptian who had been following the aftermath of 2009 presidential elections, and who is personally very interested in Iranian society and culture. I have been three times to Iran, have close friends there, and learned a good bit of Persian throughout the past years.
I am very happy to read your beautiful account of the events, which makes the story of the ongoing oppression and brutality against millions of iranians known outside Iran. The book is precious.
I have been approached here in Egypt by friends who are starting up a publishing house (as a branch of a Lebanese publishing house) to translate the book into Arabic. I read in various places online though that an Arabic version exists. Is that true? If not, I would be very delighted to take up the job. You know Iran 2009 is similar in many ways to Egypt 2011, and the book touches me personally. I would be grateful if you could send me the means to contact you for possible advice during the translation process.
Khaste nabashin
Rime
this is fantastic! i’ll make a note to buy the comic! does it come in both english and persian? i’m learning persian and i really think an interesting comic will help.
Hi, Need to discuss something about Zahra’s Paradise and it’s distribution in India. Please drop me an email
Welcome to the West. Or at least the world wide web.
Your comic is mild compared to the ones over here. Especially in Canada , where we suspect the government cheated on the election with robot calls and we are roasting them over the fires (figuratively , not actually)
I hope you don’t get in trouble for writing this, the Defenders of Islam have no sense of humor , I’ve noticed.
Greetings from the US…congratulations on the success of your comic. It is a very original concept of spreading the word of the Iranians daily plight. I wish you much continued success.
Thank you, Dawn. I hope you’ll help us spread the word by telling your friends about it and asking them to tell their friends.
Khalil
Would love to have the e version of it. In Persian or in English, Kindle or PDF, all the same! Best regards, m.
Dear Mits,
From February 2010 to September 2011, Zahra’s Paradise was up on the web, free for all to read, but now the book’s publishers need to recoup their investment – let’s not forget that it was thanks to them that this graphic novel became a reality – and so the best thing to do now is to go to your local book store and purchase a copy to support the effort, and perhaps then will there be enough support for a ebook version, if the paper book is successful enough.
Thanks for your interest and feedback!
Khalil
Great story and illustration. Will look forward to reading one if it comes out to Malaysia or Singapore.
Tarimah kasih, PV. It will, eventually. An Indonesian publisher may be willing to publish the book in Bahasa Malay.
Khalil
Congratulations for the comics. The world really needs to understand what happens in Iran and your work gives us the opportunity to be aware of that. But, please, where are the other pages, guys?
God bless and protect you and your work!
Wating for more… =)
Hi Amir and Khalil. Is there a way to send you an email, perhaps to an anonymous address? or will you be able to contact me at my entered email address above? I’d like to share a story with you that might be of interest and spark a new story. Thanks.
Hi Dean,
If you’ll give us an email where we can email you directly, we’ll answer you there.
We’ll keep your email address private.
Thanks
Regards from Brazil!
Dear author & edotir of this book,
I have not read your book yet but I saw a small reportage about it on BBC. So, i decided to check your website out of curiosity.
Please don’t understand me… i just came here for a better understanding (but not to attack your work). My main question is: why should Iranian people go to shops and buy the story of their own efforts and revolution?
If I was the creator of this book I would have made it available (free of charge) for everybody online (or even as you have mentioned that there were so many interested publishers) I would have made books and gave them to people free of charge. Iranian peoples efforts and demostrations in 2009 shouldn’t be commercialized like this. This is my opinion.
On the BBC reportage at the beginning I was very happy and positive about your initiative until Khalil said that there were so many publishers interested in us and so you decided to make a book out of it for selling.
Why did you loos interests in making your work available online for everybody (especially Iranians in Iran) free of charge and make justice to it.
I am very upset about your decision. The 2009 revolution was not made for you to make business out of it.
Ps: what do you do with the profits?
I totally agree with you Banafsheh. It’s a great idea, a very nice concept. But why sell it to the people who have been part of the creation of this book?
Yes, of course you guys have put a lot of time and effort into producing this, but does selling this mean you guys decided on creating this work when you thought you could gain money from other people’s misery?
Where will the profits go?
Dear Banafsheh and Sahar,
Thank you for your vigilance on behalf of the Iranian people, which honors you. Rest assured, that, when it comes to potential sales of the book in Iran, Zahra’s Paradise will not be a “profit center” for anyone other than perhaps individual Iranians making copies and selling on the black market, (just like one of our favorite character, Taymour, the print shop owner, does in Zahra’s Paradise) since it will be automatically banned by the authorities, of course.
We have not even found a publisher in Farsi yet, and are subsidizing the translation into Farsi with our own resources so that it can become widely available to Iranian readers. So, no worries there.
Having said that, Zahra’s Paradise was created and produced for the sake of alerting the world to Iran’s plight, not for monetary reasons and, thankfully, it has been very warmly received worldwide, in many different languages, which means that it is starting to accomplish its important mission.
However, in the real world, all these helpful publishers have had to invest many thousands of dollars each in order to make this book a reality, and they need to get back their investment. That’s how a book can come to life. Artists also have to spend months and years of their lives working hard to produce this book, and they too, like everyone else (unless they’re independently wealthy) need to eat while devoting so much of their energy to this effort. Only a dedicated, professional effort can produce a work of the quality of Zahra’s Paradise. Readers from across the world have chosen to support such an effort and Amir and I hope that we’ll earn your support and encouragements as well once you’ve read and enjoyed the book.
Salam,
Khalil
That’s a great idea, to be free ….
Cause iranian like me in Iran, have no access to buy this book, The filtering in Iran has limit our access….
In the end, thank you guys……. these two pages, was perfect, and happend in Iran…!!
Soon in Farsi, inshallah!
İs there a way to get the whole book in farsi in the usa?
This is cool stuff! Thanks for posting these chapters online. Going to try to track down a copy now!
Hi
This work is quite intriguing, congradulations to your creativity.
Where can I buy the persian copy ?
ali
We’re still working on the Farsi, Ali-jan. Soon, inshallah.
Thank you- much success for your endeavors. I will spread the word.
Hi, guys. I’m a journalist from Brazil and I’m going to recommend your fabulous book in our magazine, o “Guia do Estudante Atualidades”.
Our readers are students in university entrance exam. I need some more information about your work. Could you, please contact me? ana.ramos@abril.com.br
Thanks for such an impressive, powerful achievement. The artistry is amazing. I will try and get my own copy of the book here in New Zealand as soon as possible. But please, you should really get your web site fixed to help visitors. Most of the English front page has Brazilian content, rather confusing. The link to ‘sample chapter 2′ takes you to chapter 5. There is no way to find part 2 after reading part 1 until one reads some comments (!) and realise that its not available on the site. There is no clear headline message to say that you can’t read the whole comic online. There is even no link to ‘Buy this book on Amazon’ which would make you a few $$$ in more ways that one. So for the best success for your book, and to help further spread the word of the oppression in Iran please, take my advice spend a little time in getting your website more user friendly. Otherwise some of your great publicity – I heard about you via the BBC – may be wasted. Best, Nick
Thank you, Nick. Your point is well taken, and we want to address some of those issues as soon as we’re able.
It’s a bit complicated, logistically speaking, but we’ll get to it. Thanks so much for your support, and Hi to New Zealand!
I read this for the first time today.
I think it’s sad that money became more important than spreading your message.
With events in the world today, you would have many millions more readers if you go back to free.
I read many online novels that are free.
R
Dear Robin,
The issue of cost is a very delicate one, as I was explaining to another one of our commentors. Publishers need to recoup their investment, which is quite high, and though they were all quite generous in providing this content for free the first 18 months (Feb. 2010 to September 2011) while the book was being serialized on the web, they are not able to do it forever, alas, and need for readers to support the effort by buying copies of the book. I know many younger readers are not quite used to buying actual books anymore, but the economics of publication are such that in order for a book to be produced, readers have to help make it possible by purchasing a copy and telling their friends about the book.
thank you for your feedback.
I just read about this book on BBC and started looking for a pdf version of it right after. Such a pity that there’s only two chapters of it available online. I’d love to have a original copy but since i’m in Iran…! Anyway, thanks for the great job guys and congratulations for this innovative master piece! Hope you achieve greater success every day. Btw, is there any way you could notify us when the other chapters will be available online?
Dear Saleh,
Zahra’s Paradise was serialized and available in full on the web for 18 months,
but now that the book is out, the publishers had to remove all chapters but two, in order to encourage
readers to buy the book, in order to recoup their investment. After all, they’re the ones
who made this story possible.
Salam,
Khalil
Regards from Brazil! I am definately buying this book and I congratulate the initiative you guys had. All the world MUST be aware of what happens in your country!
Muito Obrigado, Occupy Tehran! Abraços
Go ahead ..keep the fight for freedom.
Regards from Brazil.
Abrasos, Brasil!!
Graças ao apoio, queridos Sweethair and Marcus
Good work gentlemen! There’s a problem here! I’m in Iran! means cut of from world. How can I buy the book here?
Thanks
Milad
Milad-jan,
The book is not officially available in Iran, of course, but we’re hoping it will end up circulating there anyway, soon… Perhaps in the basement of our our character Taymour’s print shop. But seriously, our dream is that soon, inshallah, Zahra’s Paradise will be widely read in Iran, yes! Readers from the whole world are rooting for their brothers and sisters in Iran.
uhh, my comment disappeared, so once again: Hi guys, I wonder if anybody already contacted you to translate the book into minor languages such as Czech or Hungarian, because I could do it and for free.
Dear Aziz, Thank you for your generous offer to translate the book in those important languages which, by the way, are NOT minor. I’ll let Amir or Mark, our editor, answer you in more detail, but basically, of course we’d love to have Zahra’s Paradise translated and published in those two countries, which have both shown real leadership in demonstrating what people power can accomplish in the nineteen fifties and sixties.
Thank you for your enthusiasm and generosity!
Khalil
Hi Khalil, I am still waiting and happy to help.
Hi guys, I wonder if anybody already applied to translate the book in minor languages, such as Czech or Hungarian … I would be happy to do it, and for free.
Haerd about this “Comics” via hearsay. It’s very good indeed and will pass it on to my friends. Well done guys. It’s just harrowing to see one of the oldest and most “civilised” civilisations in the world being sent back to the middle ages by these Mullahs.
I regularly read your comic, where are the other pages??
Dear Brazilian Fan,
Since the book came out in mid-September, we’ve only kept two of the chapters on the web site, hoping that our fans, readers and supporters will want to get their own copy of the BOOK, in their own language, and recommend it to all their friends! I think the Brasilian Portuguese Zahra’s Paradise is either out or about to come out very soon. Please check your local book store, and please let us know what they tell you, so we can tell our other Brasilian friends.
Thank you for your support, and happy readings!
nicely drawn! but I wonder how can I get my print in IRAN!
Dear Qmars,
Amir and I are working hard to make the Farsi version of Zahra’s Paradise available as soon as possible. We may have found a good publisher and we’re hoping the book, both in English and Farsi, will find its way soon to Iranians everywhere, including in the motherland. We’ll make a big announcement on this site as soon as this all happens.
Thanks for your support.