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Ramin Jahanbegloo
was born in Tehran, Iran, and received his PhD in philosophy from the Sorbonne. He is the author of 20 books, including Conversations with Isaiah Berlin (1991), Gandhi: aux sources de la non-violence (1998), and Iran: Between Tradition and Modernity (ed.) (2004). Also a citizen of Canada, Jahanbegloo taught in Toronto, Delhi, and Tehran; he has been responsble for bringing scores of prominent Western intellectuals to Iran, including Jürgen Habermas, Richard Rorty, Noam Chomsky, Toni Negri, and Edward Said.
In April 2006 Jahanbegloo was arrested in Tehran on charges of spying. On his release in August he made a public statement in which he admitted acting in the interests of Western bodies seeking to prepare the ground for a "velvet revolution" in Iran and announced his withdrawal from the international intellectual stage. His admission is widely understood to have been the result of pressure from the authorities incuding the bail condition of family property. For more information, see Jahanbegloo's website.Eurozine Articles
Ideas whose time has come
A conversation with Iranian philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo
"For me as an Iranian philosopher, thinking differently is a form of going beyond the challenges of my daily life in Iran. It's an opening up to the world which goes hand in hand with the act of being free." [more]
Beyond the clash of intolerances
Today, we are not experiencing a clash of civilizations, but a clash of intolerances. "We must encourage opposing forces to adhere to values of moderation, tolerance, and non-violence", says the Iranian philosopher. [more]