Javaad Alipoor (born September 1984) is a British-Iranian theatre-maker and writer from

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

. His work explores the interactions between technology and society, inviting audiences to engage with the kinds of technologies which shape how knowledge is created, shared and contested.

Early life

Alipoor was born to an Iranian Shia Muslim father who fled the Shah regime and an English Catholic working class mother and grew up on a

council estate Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council housing or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011, when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in social housing. D ...

. Alipoor studied Regeneration Project Management at

University of Bradford The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but ...

and is a member of University Court there. He then pursued a Masters; his thesis was about psychoanalysis and

Sufism Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

Career

Alipoor has worked as a social worker and as resident associate director at

Sheffield theatres Sheffield Theatres is a theatre complex in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It comprises four theatres: the Crucible, the Lyceum, the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, and (as of January 2025) the Montgomery Theatre. These theatres make up ...

and creative projects manager at Royal & Derngate theatre. His eponymous theatre company was established in 2017. Alipoor has won two

Scotsman Scottish people or Scots (; ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland (o ...

Fringe First Awards (For 'Believers are But Brothers' 2017 and 'Rich Kids: A history of Shopping Malls in Tehran' 2019) and has been hosted at The

Traverse Theatre The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded as The Traverse Theatre Club in 1962 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes, Richard Demarco, Terry Lane, Andrew Muir, John Martin and Sheila Colvin. The Traverse Th ...

during the Edinburgh Festivals

Writing

'The Believers Are But Brothers' takes its title from a quote in the

Qur’an The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

and concerns online radicalisation and how young disaffected men access

Islamic State The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS ...

propaganda sites and

4Chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from video games and television to literature, cooking, weapons, mu ...

In 'Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran' Alipoor performs with Peyvand Sadeghian using

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

and

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

to tell stories of how Iran's young, wealthy elite live extravagant lifestyles on social media. Alipoor's play 'Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World' (not to be confused with Girard's ''

Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World ''Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World'' () The title is a quotation of the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Mathew (Mt 13:35): "I will proclaim what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.” is a 1978 book by the French cri ...

''') explores the story of Iranian singer

Fereydoun Farrokhzad Fereydoun Farrokhzad (; October 7, 1936 – August 7, 1992) was an Iranian showman, host, poet, actor, political activist, singer, humanitarian, and writer. He is best known for his television variety show, ''The Silver Carnation'', which introdu ...

and together with Chris Thorpe, Me-Lee Hay and Raam Emami (

King Raam Ramin Seyed-Emami (; born in Bushehr, Iran in 1981), better known by his stage name King Raam (), is an Iranian-born musician and singer and a resident of Vancouver, Canada. Currently, he resides in New York City as part of his enrollment in the mu ...

)) comments on the way the internet shapes knowledge and research and how colonial structures are reproduced and perpetuated online, particularly in the multiple language versions of Wikipedia. Alipoor encourages his audience to browse

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...

and follow links down a

wiki rabbit hole The wiki rabbit hole (or wiki black hole) is the learning pathway which a reader travels by navigating from topic to topic while browsing Wikipedia (through hyperlinks in articles) and other wikis. The metaphor of a rabbit hole comes from Lew ...

Personal life

Alipoor lives in Manchester with his wife Natalie Diddams. He speaks fluent Persian. In 2018, Alipoor said he is not religious, but does take part in local Shia cultural events.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alipoor, Javaad Living people 1984 births Alumni of the University of Bradford English dramatists and playwrights English people of Iranian descent Writers from Bradford]