The Oxford English Dictionary defines business as being ‘a trade or profession that involves the purchase and sale of goods or services’. However at BIBA we take the actual meaning of business as having 2 parts: firstly the Exchanging of Ideas and secondly the Implementation of these Ideas. Therefore, without exchanging ideas, there would be nothing to put into action, thus there would be no business. The most important component of business is the exchanging of ideas, because it is only through this that it becomes possible to survey, research, improve, find partners, invent and etc. We believe that one of the most important gifts that BIBA has offered the British-Iranian community, for the last 14 years, is the provision of a forum for the exchanging of ideas and the encouragement of such philosophy. This exchanging of ideas is an inherent part of British culture, which has contributed much to its success. It may take the form of scientific societies, business chambers, commercial and educational institutions, free media, political parties and even the parliamentary systems, but they all fundamentally represent the exchanging of ideas, which flow constantly in these environments. An interesting point to note is that, whilst daytime is dedicated to the implementation of ideas, often the exchanging of them occurs in the evening, during the meeting of these societies and seminars.

This is another aspect of British culture, which can be seen to stem from parliamentary discussions being held in the evening. That is why internationals often perceive Britain to be a Nation of Evenings. Here are some other important organisations; Kanoon Iran, Iran Heritage, British Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Iranian Association, Anjoman, Iran Forum, Iran Medical Society, Artists Without Frontier, etc.

BIBA’s 114th meeting at the London Hilton was a very successful affair and it was refreshing to collaborate with an eager and ambitious King’s College London Persian Society. We would also like to thank the Imperial College, City, Westminster, Kingston and UCL tudents who were present at the meeting.

The evening consisted of a Q&A session with only limited time dedicated to the answering of each question. The panellists were distinguished members in their specialist fields: Dr Dolatshahi-Hawkes, an eye surgeon with the NHS, Henry Azima, CTO NXT plc, Hossein Yassie, CEO Imagination Technology, Dr Takin, oil analyst, Mariam Moshiri, presenter on BBC News 24, Siamak Taslimi, of Cavendish College and Nigel Alliance OBE.

The welcome of BIBA’s chairman, Babak Emamian included the important message that the UK is an expensive country to live in and therefore one cannot afford financially, to waste time. Due to the competitive nature of the UK it is also vital not to lose time intellectually either, in order to keep the creative edge. Comparisons may be drawn between life in the United Kingdom and life on a University Campus, as it is necessary to either be working or studying. That is why we should be constantly adding value, whatever we are doing, even when celebrating.

David Ruffley, Conservative MP, Shadow Minister for Work & Pensions

Saeed Zahedi, OBE, Technical Director, Blatchford Group, awarded OBE for Contribution to Sciences 1999

Mohammad Alavijeh, MD and co-founder Pharmidex, awarded the “Service Company of the Year 2005” by UK Trade and Investment

Homa Farjadi, Architect and Professor in Practice of Architecture at University of Pennsylvania

Sanam Shantyaei, TV producer for Reuters and Channel 4

Mori Tehrani, Executive Director, Data Collecting Centre, Morgan Stanley

At BIBA, we feel it is essential for British Iranians to further integrate themselves into the community. In order to achieve this we believe in the importance of having a solid understanding of British Politics and the Political Parties. Therefore BIBA is planning to introduce British Iranians to these different Parties and encourage their participation in them. We are proud to be able to start this process with the Conservative Party and would like to thank David Ruffley, MP, Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions, for being one of the panelists at the 115th BIBA meeting. Donald Stewart, Secretary of Cities of London and Westminster Conservative Association (CLWCA), will be giving details of Party Membership and enrolling those interested at the meeting. We would like to extend our gratitude to him for being our link and making this possible.

The Shadow Minister for Work & Pensions, David was born in 1962. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge. David worked at Clifford Chance (now the world's largest law firm) between 1985 and 1991 as a corporate lawyer. He then served as Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Education and Science 1991-92; to the Home Secretary 1992-93 and to the Chancellor of the Exchequer 1993-96. David has been Economic Consultant to the Conservative Party (1996-7) and has served as Vice President of the Small Business Bureau since 1996. David won the Conservative seat of Bury St Edmunds in May 1997. The election of May 2005 saw his majority increase to 9,930.

to not give up their dreams and to pursue them...It may seem impossible to them at times. But I believe they can realize their dreams if they keep it in their hearts, nurture it, and look for opportunities and make those opportunities happen." On 18 September 2006, the spacecraft blasted off with Ansari becoming the first ever female space tourist. She landed safely on 29 September 2006 in the steppes of Kazakhstan with US astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov.

Chairman: Babak Emamian

Celebrating the Uncelebrated
II

We wish Favoud Ahmad, the outgoing President of King’s College Persian Society the best and look forward to working with his successor Borzo Baradari (inset) and his team.

Following our 2004 successful seminar on “Career Opportunities in the Metropolitan Police Services”, BIBA is proud to support the Metropolitan Police Services (MPS) in fostering closer ties with the British-Iranian & Farsi-speaking community. The British-Iranian Police Ball will serve as another awareness and recruitment drive for MPS.

During the event by supporting and fundraising for the Police Benevolent Fund, it would provide a further opportunity to show our appreciation for the Metropolitan Police Services.

There are a number of charities, which provide support to serving and retired officers of the Metropolitan Police Services, their widows, widowers, and orphans.

Admission to the Ball: £75 per person

In recent years Iranian women have achieved much and have given us the gift that it is always possible to achieve beyond expectation.

Anousheh Ansari, has shown diversity of talents and strengths, in order to become a scientist and entrepreneur. As the first woman, privately funded astronaut, she has taken us into space exploration. Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel peace prize for her continuous campaign for Human Rights.

Camilla Batmanqlije is the UK woman of the year 2006 as despite the incredible odds and challenges she faced, she has managed to change our approach to child protection and brought to the forefront of national thinking the idea that in helping the children of deprived families it is also possible to assist in crime prevention.
They have become the mothers of inspiration. Since 1997 BIBA has been anticipating these events as it is possible to see from our newsletters, most recently that of January 2006.

Born in 1966 in Iran, Ansari and her parents emigrated to the US in 1984 as a teenager who did not speak English in part, according to CNN, "because her family wanted her to pursue her passion for the sciences to the fullest extent possible." She received her Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering and computer science at George Mason University and her master's degree at George Washington University. After graduation, Ansari began work at MCI, where she met her future husband, Hamid Ansari. In 1993 they co-founded Telecom Technologies, Inc., using their savings and corporate retirement accounts. The company was acquired by Sonus Networks, Inc. in 2000 for $550 million dollars in stock.

Ansari trained for a Soyuz flight to the International Space Station, through Space Adventures, Ltd. Asked what she hoped to achieve on her spaceflight, Ansari said, "I hope to inspire everyone - especially young people, women, and young girls all over the world, and in Middle Eastern countries that do not provide women with the same opportunities as men-

Founder of children's charity Kids Company, she has won the UK's Women of the Year 2006 award, which honours those who show bravery, compassion and try to improve the lives of others. Born in 1963 in Tehran to an Iranian entrepreneur and his Belgian wife, Camila grew up in an "unbelievably sheltered environment". "I had one of the most privileged childhood’s," she says. It was in the midst of this affluence that Camila first became aware of a "powerful drive" to care for less privileged children, which she describes as a "gift". At the age of 12, Camila was sent to the UK to be privately educated but has never been able to return home. She went on to study psychotherapy and was soon counselling children referred to her by local authorities. She has raised more than £20m for Kids Company and won the 2006 Woman of the Year award from The Women Of The Year Lunch And Assembly - a charity which was created in 1955 to celebrate the achievements of women. "I have not forgotten what it feels like to be a child," Camila says.

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her human rights works, Shirin Ebadi was born in 1947 into a well-known family of Iranian civil servants. She studied law degree at Tehran University and became the president of the city’s Civic Court in 1975. The first female judge at the bench in the pre- Revolution Iran until 1979, she had to resign as the new constitution did not recognise a woman’s right to become a judge. She then turned to teaching law at the University and her outspoken criticism of the new legal system on the rights of children and women soon turned her into a national celebrity. Shirin Ebadi has been involved in a number of controversial legal cases in the country, acting as the defence lawyer for the families of Iranian dissidents. Ebadi herself has twice been imprisoned for openly opposing the unconstitutional practices of the judiciary. She is the founding member of the Association for Support of Children’s Rights and has written a number of books on the subject with the support of the United Nations and UNICEF.