'Charter 91' Seeks to Unite Iranians Around a Tolerant Vision
Al Monitor / Barbara Slavin
10-Oct-2012 (5 comments)

Inspired by the successful liberation movements of Eastern Europe and South Africa, a group of Iranian exiles including an Oscar-nominated actress has launched a new initiative to unite Iranians inside and outside Iran around a tolerant, non-violent vision of their country’s future.

 

“Charter 91” — named for the current Iranian year of 1391 — is a both a document and a plea to overcome the cynicism and passivity of those confronting a repressive regime and the tendency of Iranians to expend as much  effort criticizing each other as on seeking solutions. It seeks to unify the Iranian diaspora as well as to influence the debate in Iran.  “We are talking about Iranian society and not only about the Iranian government,” Ramin Jahanbegloo, an Iranian-Canadian philosopher and professor who was instrumental in drafting Charter 91, told Al-Monitor in an interview.


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Darius Kadivar

Crown Prince Reza and Trita Parsi Sign Charter 91

by Darius Kadivar on Wed Oct 10, 2012 06:50 AM PDT

Since the Charter 91 was first publicized on Facebook and on a website a month ago, about 400 people have signed it, including about 60 in Iran, Jahanbegloo said.
Among them are Shohreh Aghdashloo, an actress nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in the 2003 film House of Sand and Fog, journalists Maziar Bahari and Nazila Fathi, former student leader Ahmad Batebi, and Reza Pahlavi, son of the late shah of Iran.





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vildemose

  Janhanbegloo said his

by vildemose on Wed Oct 10, 2012 08:59 AM PDT

 

Janhanbegloo said his inspiration came from the Charter 77 manifesto of the late Czech leader Vaclav Havel and the 1955 Freedom Charter of South African activists. “Charter 91 had a very long incubation,” Jahanbegloo said. “When I was a student in Paris in the 1980s, I was quite active in the anti-apartheid movement and also in the East European movement” against Communist rule. He returned to Iran while Mohammad Khatami was president and achieved considerable popularity for advocating tolerance and reform. Janhanbegloo left Iran after he was jailed for four months in 2006 and has taught since then in India and Canada.

Read more: //www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2012/al-monitor/irancharter91.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#ixzz28udAgU1u

 

 

All Oppression Creates a State of War--Simone De Beauvoir


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vildemose

Excellent idea.   All

by vildemose on Wed Oct 10, 2012 08:46 AM PDT

Excellent idea.

 

All Oppression Creates a State of War--Simone De Beauvoir


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Bavafa

This is a great stop forward for Iranian opposition....

by Bavafa on Wed Oct 10, 2012 08:19 AM PDT

and Iranians as a whole.

'Hambastegi' is the main key to victory 

Mehrdad


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Darius Kadivar

Related ...

by Darius Kadivar on Wed Oct 10, 2012 06:55 AM PDT


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