Religion and Democracy in Iran
A Conversation with Akbar Ganji 
March 15, 2007
The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs
Akbar Ganji is Iran's leading investigative journalist. He spoke about the challenges of democracy in Iran at the Berkley Center on the cusp of the Center's 2007 conference on Religion and the Global Politics of Human Rights.
Ganji is the winner of the 2006 World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award and of the 2006 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. Mr. Ganji's most daring articles appeared in 1998, when he uncovered the implication of the Ministry of Intelligence under former president Rafsanjani in a series of killings of regime-critical intellectuals and writers. Mr Ganji was arrested in the spring of 2000 after he took part in an international conference on Iran's future and was imprisoned for nearly six years until his release on March 18, 2006.