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Akbar Ganji

Akbar Ganji (Persian: اکبر گنجی , born 31 January 1960 in Tehran)[2][3] is an Iranian journalist, writer and a former member of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.[4] He has been described as "Iran's preeminent political dissident",[5] and a "wildly popular pro-democracy journalist" who has crossed press censorship "red lines" regularly. A supporter of the Islamic revolution as a youth, he became disenchanted in the mid-1990s and served time in Tehran's Evin Prison from 2001 to 2006, after publishing a series of stories on the murder of dissident authors known as the Chain Murders of Iran.[6] While in prison, he issued a manifesto which established him as the first "prominent dissident, believing Muslim and former revolutionary" to call for a replacement of Iran's theocratic system with "a democracy".[7] He has been described as "Iran's best-known political prisoner".[8][9]

Akbar Ganji

(1960-01-31) 31 January 1960

Journalist, writer

1980–1984

Having been named honorary citizen of many European cities and awarded distinctions for his writing and civil,[10] Ganji has won several international awards for his work, including the World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award,[11] Canadian Journalists for Free Expression's International Press Freedom Award, the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders,[12] the Cato Institute Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty and the John Humphrey Freedom Award.

America, Honorary member (2000)

PEN

International Press Freedom Award (2000)

Canadian Journalists for Free Expression

The , MESA Academic Freedom Prize (2005)

Middle East Studies Association of North America

Press Freedom Award, Italy (2005)

Golden Pen of Freedom (2006)

World Association of Newspapers

Honorary citizen of the city of , Italy (2006)

Florence

Award for Human Rights Defenders (2006)

Martin Ennals

National Press Club, John Aubuchon Freedom of the Press Award (2006)

Rights & Democracy (2007)[28]

John Humphrey Freedom Award

(2010)

Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty

International Press Institute (2010)[29]

World Press Freedom Hero

2nd of Khordad Movement

Defenders of Human Rights Center

History of political Islam in Iran

Human rights in Islamic Republic of Iran

Abbas Amir-Entezam

Abdolkarim Soroush

Mehrangiz Kar

Saeed Hajjarian

Freedom is not free – Akbar Ganji's website (under construction)

Official website

CJFE Calls for Ganji's Release

IFEX

Ganji and other dissidents silenced ahead of elections

Human Rights Watch: Leading Dissident's Life in Danger.

Ganji in hunger strike

Iran: Radio Farda Interview With Dissident Akbar Ganji

Second Letter written on the 30th day of hunger strike

BBC profile

BBC article on Ganji declining a White House invitation

Iran activist 'snubs White House'

from May/June 2007 Boston Review

The View from Tehran

The US and the Plight of the Iranians – A letter to Ban Ki-moon published in the NY Review of Books (Volume 54, Number 18)

Conversations with History, Islam and Democracy

Changing Iran: May 2008 Interview with Akbar Ganji (interviewed by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, Associate Editor of Boston Review Books)