Ali Akbar Abdolrashidi (

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

: علی‌اکبر عبدالرشیدی) (born 9 July 1949 in Kerman) is an Iranian intellectual, journalist, writer, traveler, television host, translator, and university lecturer. During his lengthy career as a journalist, Abdolrashidi conducted hundreds of television interviews with notable international figures, such as Fidel Castro, Rajiv Gandhi, and

Muammar al-Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

. For most of his career, Abdolrashidi has worked for the

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB; fa, صدا و سيمای جمهوری اسلامی ايران, ''Sedā va Sīmā-ye Jomhūri-ye Eslāmi-ye Īrān'', , formerly called National Iranian Radio and Television until the Iranian Rev ...

(IRIB).

Early career

Abdolrashidi started his career in the early 1960s, while still a teenager. It was then that he began to work for a radio station in Kerman. Following this, he joined the national radio network as a researcher, working for a weekly program on

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

Journalism

On becoming competent in English, he joined the news and current-affairs department and worked as a translator of newswires. After seven years, he became the London-based correspondent of the IRIB in 1980. A year later, however, he returned to Iran at the IRIB headquarters in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, where he headed the foreign news desk and travelled the world to cover current events in the United Nations, OPEC, and other international organizations. In 1984, Abdolrashidi returned to London as the British and European correspondent. He covered many historic events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, and the formation of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

Works

Abdolrashidi has visited 40 countries and written and translated a total of twenty books, (at 2012) and is the author of hundreds of articles and essays. He is an amateur photographer and displays some of his works on the Internet.

Awards

Abdolrashidi has received numerous awards for his work as a journalist. His major award is the Japanese Hoso Bunka Foundation top award for a Documentary called ''Hejran'' or Dislocation.This documentary is about the " Plights of Asian Immigrants". 'Hejran' reveals the plights of those immigrants who head for an unknown happy life, after leaving their homeland, members of families and their background. Reaching the new land with a new life, they find it quite different from what they imagined.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdolrashidi, Ali Akbar Iranian journalists 1949 births Living people People from Kerman Province People from Kerman Iranian radio and television presenters Faculty of Letters and Humanities of the University of Tehran alumni