TEHRAN— Some 100 handicrafts markets in Tehran played host to special storytelling performances in commemoration of Ashura.

The purpose of holding those Pardeh-khani sessions was to highlight the stance of traditional arts and handicrafts in the narration of Ashura and Muharram, Mehr quoted the organizers as saying on Friday.

Pardeh-khani (literally, "reading aloud from the screen/from the curtain"), is one of those skills through which storytellers give life to illustrations on a large canvas. The time-honored dramatic form of art is still occasionally performed across the country to commemorate the slaying of Imam Hussein (AS), grandson of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), in the battle of Karbala in 680 CE.

Pardeh-khani is a type of storytelling combined with a laudation that is always accompanied by pictures. It is probably acting like an educational- entertainment media to form a kind of stream of consciousness for audiences to virtually travel to different times and places.

There are illustrations on a large canvas named parde, and a person called pardekhan (storyteller or minstrel) stands before the crowd, points to an illustration with a stick, and narrates its story. This was a kind of street art and people, mostly children, and teenagers would gather in a square, where pardekhan would tell his stories. With a long wooden stick, he would show the images and at the same time would tell the story of each majlis (act).

AM