What Empire Cannot Erase with Prof. Fatemeh Keshavarz and Omid Safi, Facilitated by Mays Imad

Why It Matters

Cultural heritage fuels tourism, creative economies, and diplomatic soft power; its systematic destruction threatens both regional stability and global market confidence.

Key Takeaways

• Poetry endures as resistance against empire's cultural erasure
• War in Iran targets schools, hospitals, heritage sites, violating international law
• Rumi’s teachings urge grief‑filled hearts to seek collective healing
• Global tax dollars fund bombings; citizens bear moral responsibility
• Music and humor become defiant tools amid destruction

Summary

The virtual panel titled “What Empire Cannot Erase” brought together Persian literature scholar Fatemeh Keshavarz, Islamic mysticism expert Omid Safi, and facilitator Maysam Imad to confront the ongoing bombardments of Iran, Gaza, and Lebanon. The conversation framed these attacks as an extension of imperial violence that seeks to obliterate cultural memory, targeting schools, hospitals, universities, and UNESCO heritage sites while cloaking destruction in the language of "surgical strikes."

Speakers highlighted stark data: over 19,000 residential structures, 400 hospitals, and 600 schools have been hit in Iran alone, with 67,000 civilian sites struck worldwide according to UN reports. They argued that poetry and music function as living archives, preserving identity when physical monuments are razed. References to Saadi’s hollow drum, Rumi’s grief‑laden opening of the Masnavi, and contemporary Iranian musicians underscored art’s role as both witness and weapon against erasure.

Omid Safi invoked Rumi’s resilience after the Mongol onslaught, noting that love and courage can outlast genocidal intent. Keshavarz reminded listeners of the timeless beauty of Shiraz, Esfahan, and Tehran, while Safi condemned the use of American and Israeli tax dollars to bomb civilian infrastructure, calling each strike a war crime. The panel also cited the defiant humor spreading on Iranian social media, illustrating how satire sustains morale amid devastation.

The discussion concluded that preserving Persian cultural heritage is not merely an academic concern but a geopolitical imperative. Global audiences, investors, and policymakers must recognize that cultural destruction erodes soft‑power assets, tourism potential, and long‑term stability. By amplifying artistic resistance, the panel urged collective action to hold imperial powers accountable and to protect the intangible assets that define societies.

Original Description

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We are watching, once again, what empire does: not only to bodies, but to the long memory of a people; to the libraries and sacred sites; to art, language, and the ruins that hold the oldest threads of human spiritual inquiry.

We are thinking of the civilization that gave us Rumi, Hafez, Omar Khayyam, Forough Farrokhzad — mystics and rebels and lovers of paradox who understood something about the human soul that we are still, centuries later, trying to catch up to.

This gathering is an invitation to come together: to read poetry aloud, to hear from Iranian voices, to sit with grief and beauty together rather than alone.

We work with political and moral vocabulary shaped by Iranian thinkers such as Ali Shariati, who wrote against domination, spiritual emptiness, and the violence of imposed power.

We make space for what doesn’t fit into headlines or talking points—the complexity of empire, the difference between a government and its people, the authoritarian forces at work not only abroad but here at home. We also gather with the political inheritance of those who taught generations to resist domination and spiritual emptiness, including Ali Shariati.

Fatemeh Keshavarz is the Roshan Institute Chair in Persian Language and Literature and Director of the Roshan Institute Center for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland. She is the author of award-winning books such as Reading Mystical Lyric: the Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi, Recite in the Name of the Red Rose, and Jasmine and Stars: Reading More than Lolita in Tehran, along with numerous articles. A poet in Persian and English and an advocate for peace and justice, she has spoken at the UN General Assembly and received the Peabody Award for her NPR program on Rumi.

Omid Safi is a scholar of the Islamic mystical tradition of Radical Love and serves as a professor of Islamic studies at Duke University. Ten times nominated for professor of the year awards, Omid has published extensively on the foundational sources of Islam and Sufism. He has authored Memories of Muhammad and Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition. He has offered the annual Martin Luther King lecture and appeared as an expert on Islam in the New York Times, Newsweek, Washington Post, Al-Jazeera, PBS, NPR, NBC, BBC and CNN.

Omid teaches online courses on Muslim mysticism and has his own podcast Sufi Heart. He also offers spiritually oriented contemplative journeys and retreats for the general public. Information about the books, podcast, courses, and tours can be found at illuminatedcourses.com.

Mays Imad, PhD, is a neuroscientist, educator, and advocate whose interdisciplinary work bridges neuroscience, philosophy, and education. Fascinated by consciousness and the brain’s profound complexity, Mays explores both quantifiable physical laws and metaphysical dimensions of human experience. Her innovative approach blends scientific methodology with relational and phenomenological perspectives to deeply understand life’s intricacies.

Science and Nonduality (SAND) contemplates and reveres the beauty, complexity, pain, and great mystery that weave the infinite cycles of existence. We explore beyond ultimate truths, binary thinking, and individual awakening while acknowledging humanity as a mere part of the intricate web of life.