Akbar Ganji

Akbar Ganji
Ganji in 2006
Born (1960-01-31) 31 January 1960 (age 64)
Tehran, Iran
NationalityIranian
Alma materUniversity of Tehran[1]
Occupation(s)Journalist, writer
AwardsWorld Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, Milton Friedman Prize, John Humphrey Freedom Award
Military career
Service/branchIslamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
Years of service1980–1984

Akbar Ganji (Persian: اکبر گنجی English pronunciationⓘ, 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]

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.

  1. ^ Karen L. Kinnear (2011). Women in Developing Countries: A Reference Handbook. ABC-CLIO. p. 152. ISBN 978-1-59884-425-2.
  2. ^ "Inside".
  3. ^ "Akbar Ganji – BetterWorldHeroes.com – Biography". Betterworld.net. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
  4. ^ "Biography: Akbar Ganji". Cato Institute. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  5. ^ Kahn, Paul W. (23 December 2008). "Akbar Ganji in conversation with Charles Taylor". Ssrc.org. Archived from the original on 6 May 2009. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  6. ^ "Iranian dissident freed from jail". BBC News. 18 March 2006.
  7. ^ Ebadi, Shirin, Iran Awakening, by Shirin Ebadi with Azadeh Moaveni, Random House, New York, 2006, p.193
  8. ^ "Iranian Political Prisoner on Hunger Strike Nears Death". NPR. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  9. ^ "A top dissident refuses to give in". The Economist. 8 December 2005. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  10. ^ "Katajun Amirpur, Akbar Ganji: Beggars of the state". signandsight. 18 July 2006. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
  11. ^ "Prominent Iranian Journalist Receives Press Freedom Award in Moscow". Payvand. 5 June 2006. Archived from the original on 22 May 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  12. ^ Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders Archived 29 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine