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.[1] 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.[2] 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, Mohsen Sazegara, Mohammad Maleki, Nasser Zarafshan and Abdollah Momeni, co-authored a petition calling for a national referendum 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.[3]
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 and The Wall Street Journal. Atri serves on the board of the Committee on the Present Danger, 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.[4]
On March 2, 2006, Atri and Ali Afshari 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 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.
^Pearl, Daniel. "Mainstream Iranian Students Distance Selves From Radicals - WSJ.com". online.wsj.com. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
^"My View: Iranians hungry for U.S.-style rights - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial". Sacramento Bee. Archived from the original on March 21, 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
^"National Review Online". www.nationalreview.com. 16 May 2005. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
^"Mission & History". Tavaana. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
AkbarAtri (Persian: اكبر عطرى) is an Iranian democracy and human rights activist. He is the co-founder and co-director of Tavaana: E-Learning Institute...
students all over the country. Ali Afshari (leader of OSU) Ali-Akbar Mousavi Khoeini AkbarAtri John Pike. "Iran: Students Wonder Whether They Should Vote"...
BBC, Agence France Presse and The Irish Times. On March 2, 2006, he and AkbarAtri gave talks on human rights and democracy in Iran at a panel discussion...
Rodolfo Acquaviva was the son of Giangirolamo Acquaviva, the 10th Duke of Atri. He was the great-grandson of Andrea Matteo Acquaviva, condottiere and man...
Memarsadeghi, Mariam; Atri, Akbar (3 November 2009). "The President Snubs Iran's Democrat". The Wall Street Journal. Memarsadeghi, Mariam; Atri, Akbar (16 May 2009)...
Acquaviva was born on 2 October 1550, at Atri in the Kingdom of Naples. He was the fifth child of the Duke of Atri and nephew of Claudio Acquaviva, the fifth...
sentenced them to life in prison. Two other Lebanese, Youssef Amin and Mohamed Atris, were convicted of being accessories to murder. A dissident ex-President...
Yaghoubi — 1960 Rome — Gholamreza Takhti Ebrahim Seifpour 1964 Tokyo — — Ali Akbar Heidari Mohammad Ali Sanatkaran 1968 Mexico City Abdollah Movahed — Aboutaleb...
biography of Tulsidas' contemporary Akbar, called Tulsidas "the greatest man of his age in India and greater than even Akbar himself". The Indologist and linguist...
to attain moksha. Seven sages or Saptarishis, namely Kashyapa, Vashishta, Atri, Vishvamitra, Jamadagni, Bharadvaja and Gautama, are said to have meditated...
Premanand wrote a version of the Ramayana in the 17th century.[citation needed] Akbar, the third Mughal Emperor, commissioned a simplified text of the Ramayana...
Raja Man Singh built the temple during Akbar's reign but Orthodox Hindus boycotted it as Man Singh had let Akbar marry his sister and Jehangir his daughter...
would suggest, was the place where seven sages, namely Kashyapa, Vashisht, Atri, Vishwamitra, Jamadagi, Bharadwaja and Gautam, meditated. As per the mythological...
Puri, and the Purusha came to be known as Jagannatha. Sages like Bhrigu, Atri and Markandeya had their hermitage close to this place. Its name is mentioned...
construction of the temple had been completed. A non-Hindu textual source, the Akbar-era text Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl dated to the 16th century, mentions the...
Beginnings" Harish Patel, Lalit Mohan Tiwari, Pallavi Joshi Draha, Shulgi, Atri A street play based on the Epic of Gilgamesh is also depicted in the episode...
tastes of the Mughal courts in the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly by Akbar, but stagnated and went into decline during the British colonial era, then...
"Legendary Bengali poet Shankha Ghosh dies of COVID". Frontline. 21 April 2021. Atri, Mitra (21 April 2021). "Bengali poet Shankha Ghosh passes away due to Covid-19...
of Hindu ruler Hemu Vikramaditya during 1553–1556 when he had defeated Akbar at Agra and Delhi and had taken up the reign from Delhi as a Hindu 'Vikramaditya'...
tolerance that had defined the rule of his predecessors beginning with Akbar, who famously studied with the yogis and other mystics. Haṭha yoga remained...
Global Information