 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
Ramin Jahanbegloo (Persian:رامین جهانبگلو, born 28 December 1956[1] inTehran) is an Iranianphilosopher and academic based inToronto, Canada.
Ramin Jahanbegloo was born in Tehran, Iran. He has a doctorate inphilosophy fromSorbonne University in Paris, France, where he lived for twenty years.[2] He was a post-doctorate fellow in Middle Eastern Studies atHarvard University. He is married to Azin Moalej and has a daughter named Afarin Jahanbegloo.
Jahanbegloo's intellectual activity focuses on fostering constructive dialogue between divergent cultures. He has written numerous books and articles inPersian, English, and French on the subject ofWestern philosophy andmodernity. In 1991 he published his bookConversations with Isaiah Berlin in French, which was translated into English and published the following year. The book records a series of interviews with the famous philosopherIsaiah Berlin, which cover intellectual questions ranging from the moral philosophy of Tolstoy to the meaning of liberalism. Between 1997 and 2001, he was an adjunct professor of Political Science at theUniversity of Toronto in Canada.
In 2001, he served at theNational Endowment for Democracy as a fellow at the federally funded program known as theReagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program[3]
Upon returning to Tehran, he was appointed head of the Contemporary Philosophy Department of the Cultural Research Center. In his efforts to promote dialogue, he has interviewedscholars andintellectuals from all over the world, among themGeorge Steiner,Noam Chomsky,Ashis Nandy and theDalai Lama. In recent years, he invitedRichard Rorty,Timothy Garton Ash,Antonio Negri, andMichael Ignatieff and other Western intellectuals to Iran.[4]
In late April 2006, on his way to an international conference inBrussels, Jahanbegloo was arrested by the Iranian authorities.[5]
On May 3, Iran judiciary branch officials confirmed that he was arrested and sent toEvin Prison. Some sources say he was accused ofspying.[6] The following day, a friend toldCBC News that Jahanbegloo had been moved to a hospital.[7]Human Rights Watch expressed concern over Jahanbegloo being detained without charges and called for his immediate release.[8][9]
According to Canadian newspaper reports on May 6, Jahanbegloo's friends suspected he was being tortured. Their fears increased in the wake of reports that Jahanbegloo had been examined twice at the medical clinic of Evin Prison, a detention facility for political prisoners.[10]
An Iranian newspaper,Jomhuri Eslami, accused Jahanbegloo of links to the U.S.Central Intelligence Agency and theMossad. "He is considered as one of the key elements in the American plan for the smooth toppling" of the Islamic regime", the newspaper stated, further charging that the United States was paying him to conduct "cultural activities against Iran."
On May 13, theDefenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), an Iranian human rights group headed by Iran'sNobel Peace Prize laureateShirin Ebadi, voiced concern over the arrest and jailing of the prominent intellectual.[11][12]
On May 15, theCouncil of the European Union, following a meeting inBrussels, issued a press release expressing concerns about the detention of Jahanbegloo, including its underlying message that Iranians ought not to communicate or associate with Europeans:
On May 19, more than 400 prominent international figures, including Nobel laureates, scholars, and human rights activists, demanded Jahanbegloo's immediate release in an open letter. Among the undersigned areNoam Chomsky,J. M. Coetzee,Shirin Ebadi,Umberto Eco,Jürgen Habermas,Timothy Garton Ash,Leszek Kołakowski,Antonio Negri,Richard Rorty,Krzysztof Zanussi, andHoward Zinn.[16][17]
On June 13,Reuters reported from Tehran that Jahanbegloo was barred from seeing a lawyer during his interrogations.[18]
On July 10, the Council of the European Union issued another press release reiterating its concerns about the detention of Jahanbegloo:
On August 30, 2006, Jahanbegloo was released after four months of confinement.[21] His 2014 bookTime Will Say Nothing: A Philosopher Survives an Iranian Prison included a narrative of his imprisonment and interrogation.[22]
On June 29, 2009, commenting on post-election chaos, Iranian minister of intelligence said, "there is no practical possibility of a velvet revolution in Iran" though he accused United States and Britain of trying to orchestrate one.[citation needed] He disclosed that people such as Ramin Jahanbaglou andHaleh Esfandiari had been arrested in connection with such foreign assisted plots to instigate the Iranian intelligentia but due to legal complications, no prosecution could take place.[23]
In 2006 and 2007 he was Professor of Democracy at theCentre for the Study of Developing Societies inNew Delhi, India.[24] In January 2008 he returned to the University of Toronto as a professor of Political Science, Massey College Scholar-at-Risk, and Research Fellow at the Centre for Ethics atTrinity College. In 2009, he wrote a book, Talking Architecture: Raj Rewal In Conversation With Ramin Jahanbegloo. The book was inaugurated on 19 December 2009 in New Delhi, India. He also taught a series of nine online Persian-language lectures on nonviolence and nonviolent resistance forTavaana: E-Learning Institute for Iranian Civil Society.[25] He currently works inO.P Jindal Global University, India as a Vice Dean and the head of the Center for Mahatma Gandhi Studies.
Inspired by Czechoslovakia's renowned Charter 77,[26] Ramin Jahanbegloo along with a group of Iranian intellectuals (Mehrdad Loghmani,[27] Ali Ehsasi,[28] Mehrdad Ariannejad,[29] Mehrdad Hariri[30]) penned Charter91,[31] منشور ۹۱,[32] a document that aimed to unite the Iranian people around a common human rights and civic agenda.
In October 2009, Jahanbegloo became the winner of the Peace Prize from the United Nations Association in Spain for his extensive academic works in promoting dialogue between cultures and his advocacy for non-violence.[33]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Political prisoners in Iran | |
|---|---|
| Activists |
|
| Actors | |
| Artists | |
| Athletes | |
| Bloggers | |
| Doctors | |
| Filmmakers | |
| Journalists |
|
| Lawyers | |
| Military | |
| Musicians | |
| Programmer | |
| Poets | |
| Politicians |
|
| Scientists | |
| Writers | |
