Nov 27, 2007

Sponsor: Forum

Iran's Resilient Civil Society

Many Western observers perceived the 2005 presidential election of hard-line Islamist Mahmoud Ahmedinejad as a sign of a weak and defeated civil society in Iran. The growing number of protests and subsequent crackdowns by the regime show that this belief was mistaken. Activists for gender and ethnic rights, journalists, and religious leaders, as well as teachers and other workers, have continued to demonstrate their opposition to the regime.

Drawing upon her October 2007 Journal of Democracy article, "Iran's Resilient Civil Society: The Untold Story of the Fight for Human Rights," Dr. Boroumand:

• Explored the many indicators of a strong civil society in Iran
• Updated the findings in her article to take account of new developments
• Discussed the growing controversy over the merits of Western funding to Iranian civil society organizations

Dr. Ladan Boroumand is cofounder and research director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation for the Promotion of Human Rights and Democracy in Iran, a nongovernmental organization that seeks to promote human rights awareness through education and the dissemination of information as a necessary basis for the eventual establishment of a stable democracy in Iran. The Foundation is best known as the home of Omid (www.abfiran.org), a website that details the human rights abuses committed by the Islamic Republic and memorializes its victims. Dr. Bouroumand is the author of articles on the French Revolution, the Islamic revolution in Iran, and the nature of Islamist terrorism. She is also the author of La Guerre des Principes (1999), an extensive study of the tensions throughout the French Revolution between human rights and the sovereignty of the nation.