Kian Tajbakhsh | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nationality | Iranian-American |
| Alma mater | Columbia University University College London |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Social science Urban planning |
Kian Tajbakhsh is anIranian-Americanscholar,social scientist, andurban planner. He has taught at both American and Iranian universities. Tajbakhsh is an international expert in the areas of local government reform, urban planning, civil society capacity building, and international public policy research collaboration. He has also directed international projects in the areas of public health and social policy.
Tajbakhsh was one of the Iranian-American dual citizens arrested and detained for years in Iran for allegedly engaging in activities againstnational security.[1] He was one of five Iranian-Americans held in Iran, includingJason Rezaian, whose release was negotiated by the Obama administration as part of the Iran Nuclear Deal.[2] He was finally permitted to leave onImplementation Day[3] on January 16, 2016.[4]
Tajbakhsh's academic research spans on both theoretical and policy projects related to urbanism and city life. He has conducted empirical research on decentralization, the role of social capital in local government performance, and local economic development in a number of countries.[5]
Tajbakhsh was set to begin a full-time academic teaching position at theColumbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation inNew York City on September 8, 2009, but was unable to do so as a result of his incarceration.[6] He took up his position at Columbia University as Visiting Professor of Urban Planning on February 1, 2016, which ended in 2018. Since 2016, as a Fellow of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia, he has taught the class "Globalization and the Problems of World Order" in the Global Thought MA Program. In 2019, he became Senior Advisor to the Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development at Columbia University working on university-wide initiatives focused on forced migration.[7]
Tajbakhsh is the author of two books,The Promise of the City: Space, Identity and Politics in Contemporary Social Thought (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press 2001), and Social Capital: Trust, Democracy and Development (Tehran: Shiraze Publishers 2005, in Persian). He co-edited the bookCity Diplomacy: The role of local governments in conflict prevention, peace-building, post-conflict reconstruction. Tajbakhsh has also published numerous scholarly articles, as well as essays oncinema andculture inIran andIndia.[8]
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In 2006, he completed a three-year study of the local government sector in Iran with a focus on the reform of the inter-governmental system and its impact on urban policymaking. Between 2004 and 2007, Tajbakhsh coordinated the international project "A dialogue between local government in Iran and the Netherlands" which involved projects and dialogue between Iranian and Dutch Mayors and municipalities both in Iran and the Netherlands.[9]
Tajbakhsh was an advisor to theOpen Society Institute and the International Policy Fellowships program at OSI and theCentral European University.[10] He discontinued his work with OSI following his 2007 arrest.[11]
Tajbakhsh was arrested at his home in Tehran on May 11, 2007,[12] as the fourth Iranian-American, afterAli Shakeri,Haleh Esfandiari, and Nazi Azima, to be incarcerated, detained, or put under house arrest in 2007. He was accused of crimes againstnational security for working with American organizations such as theOpen Society Institute andGulf 2000 project, and held insolitary confinement inEvin Prison for more than four months.[13] In September 2007,Columbia University PresidentLee Bollinger demanded that Iranian PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad release Tajbakhsh in a widely publicizeddebate.[14] Following a global campaign for his release involving high-level diplomatic efforts, he was allowed to leave Evin Prison on parole and be reunited with his wife inTehran on September 19, 2007.[15]
Tajbakhsh was arrested again in Tehran on July 9, 2009.[16][17][18] He was among the thousands of people detained in theprotests that followed the widely disputedpresidential election of the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Theprotest movement sparked Iran's greatest political and popular upheaval since the 1979Iranian Revolution, compared in some reports to civil disobedience in colonialIndia before independence or in the American Deep South in the 1960s.[19]
Tajbakhsh was one of many politicians, academics, journalists, and others forced to participate in awidely condemned mass trial.[20][21][22] During much of this time he was held in an undisclosed location without access to a lawyer, family, or friends.[23] The charges against him included his work for OSI, which the Iranian government had approved earlier.[24]
On October 18, 2009, Tajbakhsh was convicted on two counts ofespionage[25]—"contacting foreign elements" and acting againstnational security—and sentenced to 15 years in prison.[26][27][28] Public statements of support and demands for the charges to be dropped and for Tajbakhsh to be released were issued by universities, nongovernmental organizations, celebrities, politicians—from rock singerSting to theEuropean Union andU.S. Secretary of StateHillary Clinton.[29][30] TheWhite House called the charges baseless, stating that Tajbakhsh "has dedicated his life to fostering greater understanding between Iran and the international community. He embodies what is possible between our two countries."[31] In late November 2009, Tajbakhsh was threatened with new espionage charges carrying thedeath penalty, sparking further international concern and outrage.[32][33][34] He had spent much of 2009 in solitary confinement until being transferred to a villa on theEvin Prison grounds, where he was detained together with prominent reformists who had also been tried in themass show trial.[35]
Tajbakhsh appealed his sentence and on February 7, 2010 theappellate court of theIslamic Revolutionary Court threw out the charges ofespionage and convicted him instead to five years' imprisonment for acting againstnational security.[36] After approximately eight months' incarceration (five months insolitary confinement), Tajbakhsh was provided "compassionate release" in March 2010 and permitted to serve out the remainder of his sentence on parole (furlough) with his family inTehran.[37]
Throughout this time (2010–2016), Tajbakhsh was not permitted to leave the country, work, publish, or teach.[38]
Tajbakhsh's detention has been characterized, at least in part, as a hostage-taking by theRevolutionary Guards.[39][40] He and his family finally received their passports and permission to leave Iran on January 16, 2016—Implementation Day[41] for theUS–Iran deal. On January 28, they left Iran for theUnited States.[42][43]
On January 29, Tajbakhsh posted a message of thanks.[44]
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