Akbar Atri

Who is Akbar Atri?

Akbar Atri is a leading proponent of democracy and human rights in Iran. Mr. 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 hundreds of times at universities throughout the country, organized countless 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. Mr. 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.

Mr. Atri believes that a secular, liberal democratic government is the best means for securing the human rights of all Iranians, regardless of their gender, religious views, political aspirations or lifestyle. He believes in an open, tolerant society that respects the dignity of all human beings.

Mr. Atri is a proponent of free market capitalism and strongly opposes corrupt, rentier economies such as that in Iran today.