Akbar Ganji: Iran's Post-Election Turmoil in Context: Long Term Implications and the Role of the Diaspora

August 12, 2009

The University of British Columbia’s Simons Centre and Simon Fraser University’s Centre for the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies and Cultures  welcomed Akbar Ganji, Iran’s most prominent political dissident, for the August 14 public lecture, Iran’s Post-Election Turmoil in Context: Long Term Implications and the Role of the Diaspora. 

Mr. Ganji, a well-known journalist and author and former Revolutionary Guard turned activist,  shared his insights about the emergence of the “Green” movement, the post-elections crackdown, the longer term implications of the violence and turmoil on the regime, political culture in Iran, regional relations, foreign policy options, and finally how those outside Iran can play a constructive role in this movement.

Mr. Ganji is the recipient of the prestigious John Humphrey Freedom Award, awarded annually by the organization Rights and Democracy and named in honor of the McGill Law Professor who was principal drafter of the UN Declaration on Human Rights.

When:             Friday, August 14, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Where:           Segal Graduate School of Business, Simon Fraser University,

                       500 Granville St., Vancouver

Akbar Ganji spent six years in Tehran’s infamous Evin prison on charges stemming from a series of investigative articles exposing the complicity of then-President Rafsanjani and other leading members of the conservative clergy in the murders of political dissidents and intellectuals in 1998.

During his time in prison, Mr. Ganji undertook a hunger strike that lasted from May to August 2005. He also produced a series of influential political manifestos and open letters calling for Iran’s secularization and the establishment of democracy through mass civil disobedience. The works were smuggled out of prison and published on the Internet. His books include the bestselling The Dungeon of Ghosts (1999) and The Red Eminence and The Grey Eminence (2000).