BBC Persian is the Persian language radio station and TV operated by the BBC which conveys the latest political, social, economical and sport news relevant to Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, and the world. Its headquarters are in London, United Kingdom. Sadeq Saba is head of BBC Persian.

BBC Persian has had a web presence since May 2001.

In 2008, the BBC announced the launch of the BBC Persian Television, which is based in BBC Broadcasting House: as BBC's Press Office website states

BBC proposals for the service were drawn up by senior BBC management. These were approved by the then BBC Governors – the body that oversaw the BBC and ensures the BBC's independence from the UK Government. They were then submitted to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) for their consent as the BBC is obliged to do under the agreement with the FCO.

The operating cost of £15m a year will be funded by the UK Government. Funding for the new service was announced by then UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in a speech in October 2006. The funding was confirmed by the next Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling in October 2007. Some 140 staff are employed of which about 40 are support personnel.

Alireza Nourizadeh (Persian: علی‌رضا نوری‌زاده‎, born 24 June 1949 in Tehran) is an Iranian scholar, literary figure, journalist and an expert on Iranian contemporary history.

Nourizadeh is a political refugee from Iran. After fleeing to Great Britain, he obtained his PhD from the University of London in International Relations. Nourizadeh him self has been active in the Iranian journalistic milieu since 1967. He is a Senior researcher and director at the Centre for Arab & Iranian Studies strongly opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran. He is also a correspondent for Deutsche Welle(German Radio), a Political Commentator for the radio channel Voice of America, a Senior writer for the Saudi Arabian Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.

Nourizadeh is also the father of director Nima Nourizadeh, director of 2012 film Project X and electronic music producers Omid 16B and Navid.

Hazāra (Persian: هزاره‎) are a Persian-speaking people who mainly live in central Afghanistan and in Pakistan. They are overwhelmingly Shiite Muslims and comprise the third largest ethnic group of Afghanistan, forming about 9% (according to other sources up to 18%) of the total population. Over half a million Hazaras live in neighbouring Pakistan (mostly in Quetta) and a similar number in Iran.

Babur, the founder of the Mughal reign in India, used the name Hazara in his records during the early 16th century for the first time. He, for the most part, referred to the populace of the mountainous region located west of Kabul, as far as Ghor and Ghazni. The word Hazara most likely derives from the Persian word for Thousand (Persian: هزار‎ - hazār). It may be the translation of the Mongol word ming (or minggan), a military unit of 1000 soldiers at the time Gengis Khan. In the passage of time the term Hazar could have substituted the Mongol word and now stands for the group of people.

The origins of the Hazaras have not been fully reconstructed. At least partial Mongol descent is difficult to rule out, because the Hazaras' physical attributes and parts of their culture and language resemble those of Mongolians. Thus, it is widely accepted that Hazaras have Mongolian ancestry, especially after genetic testing showed Hazaras carried the highest frequency of the Y chromosome attributed to Genghis Khan anywhere. Some Hazara tribes are named after famous Mongol generals, for example the Tulai Khan Hazara who are named after Tolui, the youngest son of Genghis Khan. Theories of Mongol or partially Mongol descent are plausible, given that the Il-Khanate Mongol rulers, beginning with Oljeitu, embraced Shia Islam. Today, the majority of the Hazaras adhere to Shi'ism, whereas Afghanistan's other major ethnic groups are mostly Sunni. However, the Sunni and Ismaili Hazara population, while existent, have not been extensively researched by scholars.

Antony Loewenstein is an atheist Jewish-Australian political activist, freelance journalist, author and blogger who is based in Sydney.

Loewenstein has written for The Guardian, Haaretz, The Washington Post, Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Sydney's Sun-Herald, The Bulletin, ZNet, The Big Issue, Crikey, CounterPunch and others. He wrote a regular column for the online magazine newmatilda.com and is a board member of Macquarie University’s Centre for Middle East and North African Studies. He appears regularly on radio, in public and at universities discussing current affairs and politics.

Loewenstein contributed a chapter to Not Happy, John (2004), a book on the controversy over the awarding of the Sydney Peace Prize to Hanan Ashrawi that was a bestseller in Australia. His book on the Israel/Palestine conflict, My Israel Question, (2006 and in new editions in 2007 and 2009) was described as "one of the best treatises which presents in the most lucid way possible why anti-Zionism can not be equated with anti-Semitism" by Ilan Pappe.The Weekend Australian wrote that it "deserves a strong readership ... because it makes us uncomfortable". It was short-listed for the 2007 NSW Premier's Literary Award. The book was criticized in a review in Australian Jewish News. His next book, The Blogging Revolution (2008), is about the impact of the internet in countries with repressive regimes. He contributed to the Verso Books release, A Time to Speak Out (2008), on the rise of global Jewish dissent. He is currently working on a book about disaster capitalism in Australia and the world.

Prince Reza Pahlavi (Persian: رضا پهلوی‎, born 31 October 1960) is the last crown prince of the former Imperial State of Iran and current head of the House of Pahlavi. He is the older son of the late Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and his Shahbanou Farah Pahlavi. In 1979, Reza Pahlavi left Iran at the time of the Iranian Revolution.

Reza Pahlavi was born in Tehran, Iran, as eldest son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, and Empress Farah Pahlavi. Reza Pahlavi's siblings include his sister Princess Farahnaz Pahlavi (12 March 1963), brother Prince Ali-Reza Pahlavi (28 April 1966 – 4 January 2011), and sister Princess Leila Pahlavi (27 March 1970 – 10 June 2001), as well as a half-sister, Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi (27 October 1941).

He left Iran at the age of 17 for air force training. He spent a year at Williams College, but was forced to leave because of the turmoil in Iran. With the monarchy overthrown and an Islamic Republic established, Reza Pahlavi did not return to Iran. He received a BSc degree by correspondence in political science from the University of Southern California, because Williams did not offer that option. A jet fighter pilot, Reza Pahlavi completed the United States Air Force Training Program at the former Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock, Texas. In 1980, at the start of the Iran–Iraq War, Pahlavi, a highly-trained fighter pilot, wrote to General Valiollah Fallahi, Chief Commander of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic, offering to fight in the air force for Iran in the war. The offer was rebuffed.