Poltical Participation in Iran

This event I attended took place on Saturday October 10th from 10:00-2:30 pm at the Kevorkian Center located across from Washington Square Park. The event was broken down into three different sections featuring three different speakers who discussed and explained different aspects of politics in Iran. The first speaker was Kaveh Ehsani who is a professor of international studies at DePaul University. He provided some background information and gave a historical overview of political participation in Iran since the revolution. He emphasized how there is a profound democratic struggle that’s been going on for decades in Iran. He also explained the circumstances and details of the revolution in 1979. The second speaker was Norma Moruzzi, a professor of gender and women’s studies at University of Illinois. She elaborated on the role of women in politics in Iran. She also discussed the inequalities women in Iranian society endure but also addressed some of the misconceptions there are about Iranian and Muslim women and their role in society. The last speaker was Arang Keshavarzian, a professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at NYU. He discussed the details surrounding the presidential election held in June in Iran this past summer.

I found this event extremely informative and interesting. Arang Keshavarzian’s presentation was by far my favorite. He explained the complexities of the election in depth and emphasized it’s significance for Iranian history. He went past the superficial coverage many of us are familiar with from different media resources and really described what happened and what it meant for Iran. He also supplemented his presentation with visual aids of campaign posters and of people protesting against and advocating for different candidates. The pictures he provided were extremely powerful and moving. He suggested analyzing campaign posters as a potential lesson for students as a way to introduce what happened in this election to a classroom. I was extremely satisfied with this event.