Speakers 2014

Abbas Milani

Abbas Milani is the Hamid & Christina Moghadam Director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University and a Professor (by courtesy) in the Division of Stanford Global Studies. He has been one of the founding co-directors of the Iran Democracy Project and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. …more

Mehrangiz Kar

Mehrangiz Kar is an attorney, writer and activist working toward the promotion of democracy, the rule of law and human rights within the framework of Islamic law in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Despite her efforts being frequently impeded and curtailed by the intelligence services of the Islamic Republic, she has been an active public defender in Iran’s civil and criminal courts, and has published regularly in several influential and independent Iranian journals.  …more

Farhad Sabetan

Farhad Sabetan teaches Economics at California State University, East Bay for the past seven years and has been a research economist in the private and public sectors for more than 15 years. He is currently a spokesperson for Bahá’í International Community, United Nations, and has been involved in the human rights field in the past thirteen years.  …more

Shohreh Aghdashloo

Shohreh Aghdashloo was born in Tehran, Iran, on May 11, 1952. In the 1970s at age 20, she achieved nationwide stardom in her homeland of Iran, starring in some prominent pictures such as The Report (1977) (The Report) directed by the renowned Abbas Kiarostami, which won critics awards at the Moscow Film Festival. In 1978, she won wider acclaim and established herself as one of Iran's leading ladies with Desiderium (1978) (Broken Hearts) directed by the late Ali Hatami.  …more

Homa Sarshar

Homa Sarshar is a published author and an award-winning journalist, writer, media personality, and lecturer. She is the author of two books and the editor of twelve other volumes, including five volumes of the Iranian Women's Studies Foundation Journal and four volumes of The History of Contemporary Iranian Jews. Her latest book Shaban Jafari was the number one best seller Persian book in Iran and abroad in the year 2003.   …more