Guide Note

Akbar Ganji is an Iranian journalist and dissident, imprisoned for five years by the Khamenei government, who has emerged as a leading proponent of democracy.

Fast Facts

1. Born: January 31, 1960
2. Birthplace: Qazvin, Iran
3. Imprisoned 2001-2006
4. Author of The Road to Democracy in Iran (2008)
5. Awards include the Golden Pen of Freedom from the World Association of Newspapers

A youthful supporter of the 1979 revolution against the Shah, Ganji served in the ensuing republic's Ministry of Intelligence. In the mid-1990s, disenchanted with the government's increasing authoritarianism, he became a journalist, publishing widely in pro-democratic journals. Ganji's key investigative work concerned a 1998 rash of killings of dissident writers, which he termed the Chain Murders of Iran, and ascribed to the Ministry of Intelligence and the Ayatollah Khamenei. In 2000 he was arrested and underwent complex legal challenges, eventually spending most of the following five years in prison. Ganji then resumed career as a dissident, adding to his list of targets the Bush administration, saying that talk of military action against Iran "[makes] things extremely difficult for Iranian human rights and pro-democracy activists."