Iran event with journalist Omid Memarian

Lecture Series no. 4 On Iran’s Green Movement ”A Nation’s Struggle for Democracy and Human Rights” Omid Memarian 22 Bahman 1357: A Dream Realized – A Dream Lost  

On Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 7.30 PM At Smith Memorial Union, Room 327 Portland State University SW Broadway and Hall Admission free For more information call 503.998.5115    

Omid Memarian is a journalist and blogger known for his news analysis, regular columns and blog. He writes for the IPS (Inter Press Service) news agency and has published op-ed pieces in Rooz Online, the Huffington Post. the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He was chief researcher for Reese Erlich’s book entitled Iran Agenda: the Real Story of U.S. Policy and The Middle East Crisis. Omid Memarian was a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism from 2005-2006 and is currently a Rotary Peace Fellow at the Journalism School. He was awarded the Golden Pen Award at the National Press Festival in Iran at 2002. He received Human Rights Watch’s highest honor in 2005 the Human Rights Defender Award for his courageous work as a human rights activist. On 10 October, 2004, Memarian was arrested on the orders of the Tehran Prosecutor's Office. He was detained for two months for posting articles in several reformist newspapers, his blogs and online publications. Shortly before his arrest in 2004, Memarian had tried to attend a conference on Iranian civil society in New York. He had obtained a US visa, but en route in Frankfurt, US authorities refused to allow him to board his flight, saying that he was on a No fly List. They provided no other information. He was arrested a few days after his return to Tehran. Memarian can speak to what it means to grow up and work as an underground journalist in today’s Iran.   This event is made possible in part by a grant from the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation. http://portlandstandswithiran.org, http://www.aifcpdx.org