Iran's Journey To Justice

Iran's Journey to Justice: Narratives and Visions

Honoring the Global Day of International Justice

July 17th 2024

Moderated by Samira Mohyeddin

Central European time

8.00 pm -10.00 pm

Iran

9.30 pm - 11.30 pm

Narratives

Eastern Standard Time

2:00 pm - 4.00 pm

Pacific Standard Time

11:00 am - 1:00 pm

Visions

This bilingual event is organized by a group of activists in Canada to honor the Global Day of International Justice. The first half of the program will feature narratives presented by individuals who have personally experienced injustice during three major turning points in recent Iranian history. In the second half of the event, experts on human rights law, human justice issues, and international courts will discuss Iran's pursuit of justice in the past, present and future. The event aspires to provide an opportunity to inform and inspire members of the community to contribute to worldwide efforts to seek justice and to forge a stronger diaspora.

Iraj Abedian

Chief Executive of Pan-African Capital Holdings

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Hosein Maleki

Former Political Prisoner and Activist in Seeking Justice

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Payam Akhavan

Professor of International Law and Senior Fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto

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Atena Daemi

Human Rights Activist and Former Political Prisoner

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Parastou Forouhar

Artist and Human Rights Activist

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Mehrangiz Kar

Human Rights Lawyer and Writer

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Questions and answers

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Narratives

Visions

Hossein Maleki

Former Political Prisoner and Activist in Seeking Justice

Hossein Maleki was arrested in Tehran in 1980 on charges of supporting the Forqan group. In 1981, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, which was later reduced to 15 years in 1988. Maleki was released in 1991 after serving 11 years. During his imprisonment, he was held in Evin, Ghezel Hesar, Gohardasht, and then back in Evin. During the mass execution of political prisoners in the summer of 1988, he was serving his sentence in Gohardasht prison.

Parastou Forouhar

Artist and Human Rights Activist

Parastou Forouhar was born in 1962 in Tehran and has been living in Germany since 1991. She is a visual artist, a professor at the Faculty of Art at the University of Mainz, a human rights activist, and a writer. Her artworks, which always have a political-social aspect, have been displayed in numerous solo and group exhibitions in various cities around the world and are part of reputable international collections. After her parents, Parvaneh and Dariush Forouhar, well-known and active political dissidents in Iran, were brutally murdered in their home in Tehran by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic on November 22, 1998, Parastou Forouhar has resolutely fought for justice for the political murders of Iranian dissidents. In 2017, following a complaint by the Ministry of Intelligence, she was prosecuted in the Tehran Revolutionary Court and sentenced to six years of suspended imprisonment for "blasphemy" and "spreading propaganda" against the regime.

Atena Daemi

Human Rights Activist and Former Political Prisoner

Atena Daemi, aged 37, has been a prominent human rights advocate in Iran since 2010, focusing on anti-execution, women's, and children's rights. In 2014, after organizing several protests in Tehran, she was arrested by the IRGC and subsequently spent six and a half years in Iranian prisons until 2022. Throughout her imprisonment, Daemi and her family faced continuous harassment by the IRGC and intelligence forces. Despite being incarcerated, she continued her activism by publishing numerous statements and articles highlighting the conditions of women and children detainees. Additionally, she filed multiple complaints against the IRGC and reported on prison conditions to international human rights organizations. Upon her release in 2022, it was discovered that Daemi had developed MS, a condition that worsened due to the lack of treatment during her imprisonment. She resumed her activism by giving interviews about the conditions of women in Iranian prisons. Following the death of Mahsa Amini, Daemi participated in protests and faced renewed persecution, which led her to go into hiding for eight months. Due to severe health issues and increasing pressure on her family, she fled to Iraqi Kurdistan and sought asylum in Canada, arriving in October 2023.

Iraj Abedian
Chief Executive of Pan-African Capital Holdings

Iraj Abedian is the founder and Chairman of Pan-African Capital Holdings (Pty) Ltd, and Pan-African Investment and Research Services (Pty) Ltd. He was professor of economics at the University of Cape Town (UCT), before entering the business sector in 2000. He obtained his BA (Honours) and MA in Economics from the University of Cape Town. He received his PhD in Economics from Simon Fraser University in Canada in 1993. He has served as a consultant on economic policy issues to public and private sector organizations in South Africa as well as internationally. He is a prolific researcher and has written numerous articles and co-authored books. Currently he serves mainly the companies in Pan-African Capital’s portfolio.

Mehrangiz Kar

Human Rights Lawyer and Writer

Mehrangiz Kar is a human rights lawyer and an internationally recognized writer, speaker and activist who advocates for women’s and human rights in Iran and throughout the Islamic world. A common theme in her work is the tension between Iranian law and the core principles of human rights and human dignity. She has a degree in Law and Political Science from Tehran University and was one of the instrumental women attorneys to oppose the Islamization of gender relations following the Islamic Revolution of 1979. She has been an active public defender in Iran’s civil and criminal courts and has lectured and published extensively on social and political issues.

Payam Akhavan

Professor of International Law and Senior Fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto

Payam Akhavan, LLB (Osgoode), LLM, SJD (Harvard), OOnt, FRSC, is the inaugural holder of the Massey Chair in Human Rights. Professor Akhavan is also a Senior Fellow at Massey College, a Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, an Associate Member of the Institut de droit international, and a Special Advisor on Genocide to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. He has published extensively on human rights and international criminal law in leading academic journals. In 2017, he delivered the CBC Massey Lectures titled "In Search of a Better World: A Human Rights Odyssey." Professor Akhavan was the first Legal Advisor to the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (1994-2000) at The Hague. He has defended genocide survivors throughout the world, including the Bahá’ís of Iran, the Yazidi's of Iraq, and Myanmar’s Rohingya minority. He also serves as a Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Global Affairs of Canada and as a member of the Advisory Panel on the Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 Tragedy.