The University of Michigan Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies (CMENAS)

and The Iranian Graduate Students Association (IGSA) present

 

A Talk by Fatemeh Haghighatjoo

 

Monday, January 8, 2007, 4-6 PM

Room 1636, International Institute

1080 South University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

(click here for directions)

 

(download the flier here)

 

Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, a leading advocate of human rights and democracy in Iran, is a psychologist with a PhD in counseling, and is a professor in the Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology at Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran. Ms. Haghighatjoo was a member of Iran's reform parliament and was one of the bravest and most outspoken MPs who challenged and criticized the hardliners. She was the first to resign in February 2004 when anti-reform measures began to take shape. According to Ms. Haghighatjoo, "democratization is the central issue for Iran." Ms. Haghighatjoo was sentenced in 2001 by Iran's judiciary to 20 months in prison, for "inciting public opinion and insulting the judiciary"; she had criticized the arrest of a female journalist and had claimed that Iran's government tortured prisoners. Her sentence, which she terms illegitimate and which she has not served, was later reduced to 10
months. Dr. Haghighatjoo joined MIT's Center for International Studies (CIS) as a visiting scholar in October 2005. She is now a Fellow at The John F. Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University. This is her first visit to the United States.

 

The Iranian Graduate Students Association is a non-partisan student organization. The views expressed in this talk are solely those of the speaker.