Akbar Atri (Persian: اكبر عطرى) is an Iranian democracy and human rights activist. He is the co-founder and co-director of Tavaana: E-Learning Institute for Iranian Civil Society. Atri joined the Iranian student movement in 1995 and was elected to a central leadership role in Tahkim Vahdat, Iran’s largest and most prominent student organization, annually from 1997 to 2005. He is a founding member of Iranian Students for Democracy and Human Rights. He spoke widely at universities throughout the country, organized discussion forums and led student protests in favor of freedom of expression and democracy. Atri has been imprisoned, fined, and physically abused at the hands of the regime's militias for his human rights activism. Atri left Iran in 2005 and in the same year was sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison for defiling the Supreme Leader and for other crimes against the Iranian regime. In 2005, Atri, along with

Ali Afshari Ali Afshari (; born 1973 in Qazvin) is an Iranian activist who seeks reform in the Islamic Republic. He is a member of the Central Council of Office for Strengthening Unity and the Central Council of the Islamic Student Association at the Amirk ...

Mohsen Sazegara Mohsen Sazegara (; born 5 January 1955) is an Iranian journalist and pro-democracy political activist. He was the founder of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after the Iranian Revolution in 1979. He held several offices in the government of ...

, Mohammad Maleki,

Nasser Zarafshan Nasser Zarafshan (; born 1946) is an Iranian writer, translator, and attorney. He is known for having been arrested while acting as the legal envoy of two of the families of dissident Iranian writers who were assassinated in November 1998 in wh ...

and Abdollah Momeni, co-authored a petition calling for a national

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

on a new constitution. The referendum would provide Iranians the means to demand a new constitution based upon democratic values and universal principles of human rights. Since its publication, thirty-five thousand civil society activists, human rights organizations, academics, journalists have signed this petition. Since leaving Iran, Atri has spoken on his country’s human rights situation and its civic led movements for democracy at universities, human rights organizations, and conferences worldwide. He has written for several Iranian reformist papers as well as American publications such as

American Spectator ''The American Spectator'' is a conservative American magazine covering news and politics, edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and published by the non-profit American Spectator Foundation. It was founded in 1967 by Tyrrell (the current editor-in ...

and

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

. Atri serves on the board of the

Committee on the Present Danger The Committee on the Present Danger (CPD) is the name used by a succession of American anti-communist foreign policy interest groups. Throughout its four iterations—in the 1950s, the 1970s, the 2000s, and 2019—it has influenced foreign polic ...

, and American organization devoted to countering terrorism and the spread of radical Islam. In 2010, Atri and his wife Mariam Memarsadeghi created Tavaana: E-Learning Institute for Iranian Civil Society, an organization providing free online training and Persian and English learning resources to Iranians. On March 2, 2006, Atri and

were invited to give a talk on human rights and democracy in Iran at a panel discussion organized at the U.S. Capitol. Sponsored by the

Foundation for Defense of Democracies The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is a Neoconservatism, neoconservative 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) non-profit think tank based in Washington, D.C., United States. It has also been described as a pro-Israel, anti-Iran lobby gr ...

and Iranian Students for Democracy and Human Rights, their talk discussed human rights abuses in Iran and the progress of Iran’s democracy movement. Atri earned his BA and MA degrees in political science at Allameh Tabatabaei and Mofid universities. He earned his second MA from George Mason University in Conflict Resolution and Analysis. Atri is from the Azeri ethnic minority and speaks Azeri, Persian, and English.

External links

"Solidarity with Iran" by Akbar Atri"An Undemocratic Iran is Dangerous" by Ali Afshari and Akbar Atri"The Iranian Student Movement's Struggle for Democracy" by Akbar Atri"Tools of Repression Inside Universities" by Akbar Atri"Iran: Round Two" by Akbar Atri"Nuclear Iran and the Wizard of Oz" by Akbar Atri"The Goose, the Gander and Iran" by Akbar AtriAn Iranian Student Leader Makes his Escape in Face of ChargesBBC Persian report: Akbar Atri and Ali Afshari speak at the US Capitol about Iran's human rights situation and the struggle for democracy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atri, Akbar Iranian activists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Sarab, East Azerbaijan Office for Strengthening Unity members