The Middle East Institute is proud to host Carol Prunhuber, Sharif Behruz and Idris Ahmedi and for a lecture about the political, social and human rights status of Iran's Kurds, one of the country's largest ethnic groups. Iran's Kurdish population has long pushed for autonomy, and in 1979 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declared a "holy war" against the Kurds in Iran seeking self-rule. Since then the relationship between Iran's Kurds and the Islamic Republic has been characterized by frequent military crackdowns.

Prunhuber will speak about Kurd leader Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou whose untimely assassination by the Iranian regime twenty years ago robbed the Kurdish nation of one of its most prominent and forward-thinking leaders. Her recently published book The Passion and Death of Rahman the Kurd: Dreaming Kurdistan (iUniverse, 2010) situates the life and political struggle of Ghassemlou in the wider Iranian political context. Sharif Behruz will address the impact of Iran’s Green Movement on minority groups like the Kurds and the need for Iran’s opposition to be more inclusive in order to gain significant political ground. Idris Ahmedi will discuss contending perspectives on the future of Iran with respect to its ethnic diversity. Is diversity a threat to Iran's territorial integrity, or a facilitator to the rise of meaningful democracy?


BIO:

Carol Prunhuber is the author of The Passion and Death of Rahman the Kurd: Dreaming Kurdistan (iUniverse, 2009), which has been published in Spanish, Turkish and Kurdish. Through Gamma TV, Prunhuber traveled to Iranian Kurdistan in 1985 to film the struggle of the Kurds in Iran. She currently writes for the Venezuelan journal El Nacional and travels extensively speaking on the Kurdish issue.

Sharif Behruz is the current US Representative of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), the first modern Kurdish political party and one of the most prominent Iranian Kurdish opposition groups. Behruz graduated with honors from the University of Western Ontario with a degree in political science. Aside from his political involvement with the Kurdish resistance movement in Iran, he has also appeared before the US Congress and Canadian Parliament to provide testimony on human rights conditions in Iran - in particular the treatment of the Kurds in Iran by the regime of the Islamic Republic.

Idris Ahmedi is a visiting scholar at Georgetown University. He is a PhD candidate at the Department of Political Science, Stockholm University, where he also teaches political theory and international politics. Ahmedi's main areas of research include US foreign policy toward Iran and Iraq, and Kurdish politics. He has published articles about US policy toward Iran in Internationella Studier, a journal published by the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, and articles pertaining to the Kurdish issue in the Kurdish press.

Because of the popularity of MEI programs and limited seating, MEI anticipates a capacity audience for the program.  MEI wishes to accommodate all registered guests but will give MEI members and supporters priority seating.  We encourage you to become an MEI member if you wish to avoid sitting in the overflow room. Early arrival for all is encouraged.

Please RSVP online or by email to rsvp@mei.edu

To unsubscribe from this list, please send a request with your name and email to rsvp@mei.edu.