TORONTO, February 13, 2004 -- Two York University professors are reflecting on this week’s 25th anniversary of the revolution in Iran with mixed feelings. Like many of their fellow Iranians, Haideh Moghissi and Saeed Rahnema welcomed the end of an unpopular monarchy only to see it replaced by a repressive republic. Both professors continue to work on studies related to their homeland and will participate in events this week marking the anniversary of the departure in 1979 of Shah Reza Pahlavi and the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomiani.
A social science professor at the School of Social Sciences, Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies, Moghissi is a widely published scholar of religion, gender and politics in the Middle East. She is director of a major collaborative research project titled "Disaspora, Islam and Gender: A Comparative Study of Four Displaced Communities from Islamic Cultures." Her research is aimed at assisting new and native-born Canadians understand the cultural difficulties which many immigrants face. Prof. Moghissi is also coordinator of York’s Certificate for Anti-Racist Research and Practice (CARRP) program.
Prof. Rahnema, a political science professor at the School of Social Sciences, continues to comment on developments in his home country and is a co-investigator on the Diaspora project. He is the author of Re-birth of Social Democracy in Iran (1996) and co-author of Iran After the Revolution: The Crisis of an Islamic State (1995).
Both scholars are taking part in a joint-conference this weekend titled "Reflections on the Iranian Revolution: A Quarter Century After". Prof. Moghissi will chair the Friday session (in English) on "Nationalists, Islamists and Socialists and the Revolution" which includes Prof. Rahnema as a panelist. Prof. Rahnema will chair the closing session of open discussion with the panelists and the audience (in Persian) on Saturday evening.
The conference is being held at the Earth and Science Auditorium, room 1050, 5 Bancroft Ave. and is organized by York University’s Diaspora, Islam and Gender project and the University of Toronto’s Institute for Women’s Studies and Gender Studies.
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David Fuller |
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