I am one
of the several Iranian reformists/analysts who now live abroad.
For more than 15 years, I was organizing, writing, editing and
publishing and
was always pessimistic about the future. I sympathized with the
anti-Shah demonstrations even as I was mostly an observer. From my
point of
view, as the son of the son of an undereducated farmer, I have always
looked at
education as a way of class promotion. Many of us in the Iranian boomer
generation, burdened with low expectations for financial success, found
revolution as a way out of the circle of poverty and
disenfranchisement. I also
got to experience the "college" life and building lots of intimate
relationship that has lasted for three decades in public sphere and
polity.
I have been always interested in
how people can get together, work together and live together in peace
while
they have different ideas, and interests. My research addresses
democracy,
civil society, non-violent protest, peace, civil and human rights and
rule of
law. I wrote the first book on civil society in Persian language. My
curiosity
has always been the driving force behind democratizing and stabilizing
actions.
The majority of my work experience has been in analyzing the violent
situations
and how we can deal with these phenomena. For me, the question of
"how" has always been more important than the question of “what”
I've worked in workshops to draft
legislations; I have taught college courses on politics, media and
religion; I
have written 27 and translated 7 books, have been granted lots of funds
to do
my researches, and have been consulted by a number of press, public
institutions,
and research centers. I do not understand lots of things about
individual and
collective agency but I enjoy reading and learning about new areas of
human
activities and life and how we make a little change. As a freelane
writer and
consultant, I got to work with different editors, presidents and CEOs
and to
communicate with a diverse pool of intellectuals and activists.
I was born in