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By admin, January 31, 2016 3:55 am

Dear Friends,
I would like to thank all those family members and friends – official and unofficial – who expended great effort over the course of many years to help resolve my case, finally allowing us to leave Iran for the US.

I would like to thank the US and Swiss governments for their tremendous diplomatic efforts and support.

In particular, I would like to thank my friend Pamela Kilpadi, who launched a formidable campaign in my defense and worked persistently year after year to coordinate and facilitate various efforts on my behalf.

My oldest friend, Andrew Parker, did not hesitate to offer help at critical moments.

President Lee Bollinger of Columbia University has been a source of steadfast support, as have colleagues at Columbia and The New School.

I look forward to getting back to work in academia and rebuilding a life in the US.

Kian

The family requests that all media respect their privacy during this time of private reunion and celebration.

Kian and family in Phoenix, Arizona (Jan. 30)

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By admin, March 12, 2010 10:24 am

The New School for Social Research in New York City, where Kian served as a professor for many years, organized a conference on February 12 dedicated to Kian, entitled “Iran: Politics of Resistance.” The full conference proceedings are now available online here.

Numerous speakers were featured, for example including Kian’s former colleague Ramin Jahanbegloo and Hadi Ghaemi of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

[Link to full conference]

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By admin, February 10, 2010 1:46 pm

A conference dedicated to Kian entitled “Iran: The Politics of Resistance” is scheduled to be held at the New School in New York City this Friday, Febraury 12.

[Conference program]

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By admin, September 11, 2009 4:16 pm

The NYRB has published the petition calling for Kian’s release organized by the New School for Social Research and signed by Juan Cole, University of Michigan; Arien Mack, New School for Social Research; Steven Pinker, Harvard University; Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; and more than 1,000 others:

“We, the undersigned, are compelled to express our outrage at the arrest on July 9 of the noted Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh. Though not involved in the recent protests in Iran, Kian was arrested in his home by agents of the Iranian security police and is being detained in an unknown location.

Kian Tajbakhsh spent four months in prison in solitary confinement in 2007 on unspecified charges of trying to foment a “velvet revolution” against the Islamic regime. After his release from prison, Tajbakhsh decided to stay and work in Iran and deliberately avoided politics. We believe that Kian is again being held in solitary confinement and may be being tortured in order to extract a false confession.

We strongly deplore and condemn the detention and persecution of Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh and call upon all international organizations, academic and professional associations, and other groups and individuals devoted to the promotion and defense of human rights to strongly protest and condemn his arbitrary detention, to call for his immediate and unconditional release, and to urge the officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran to respect, guarantee, and implement the provisions and principles of human rights as specified in international conventions and treaties to which Iran has long been a signatory.”

[Full article]

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By admin, July 28, 2009 7:16 pm

Officials at the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York have refused to receive a petition including some 800 signatures by individuals calling for the unconditional release of Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh from detention in Iran. Those signing the petition, organized by the New School for Social Research in New York, “strongly deplore and condemn [the] detention and persecution of Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh…call for his immediate and unconditional release, and urge the officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran to respect, guarantee, and implement the provisions and principles of human rights as specified in international conventions and treaties to which Iran has long been a signatory.”

New School Professor Arien Mack confirmed that an attempt was made to deliver two envelopes containing the petition, addressed to Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamene’i care of the Ambassador, to the Iranian mission to the UN on Wednesday, July 22, but the envelopes were refused. The New School left a message with the Mission’s legal department inquiring about the refusal, but has yet to receive a response.

Other prominent groups including the 3,300 members of PEN American Center, the International Cooperation Agency of Dutch Municipalities, Columbia University, and the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives in Pakistan have called for Kian’s release. PEN, an international organization of writers dedicated to protecting freedom of expression, stated in their appeal that they are “deeply concerned that Kian Tajbakhsh has been swept up in a crackdown on peaceful scholars and journalists following the disputed presidential elections in violation of their right to freedom of expression, as guaranteed in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a signatory.”

Iranian agents arrested Kian Tajbakhsh, an American citizen, and took him away from his wife and small daughter at their home in Tehran at 9:00pm on July 9, 2009. We still have no information about where Kian was taken. We are concerned that he is being held in an attempt by the Iranian authorities to obtain forced statements from him to use in a televised show trial to falsely accuse ‘foreign powers’ of interference in Iran’s postelection crisis. Such statements are repeatedly extracted under conditions of torture for the sole purpose of staging televised show trials in an attempt to deceive the Iranian public.

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By admin, July 13, 2009 5:06 pm

The New School for Social Research has setup an online petition for the release of Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh on their website.
Please sign their petition. (Don’t forget that we have an online petition as well.)

Below is an excerpt from their petition:

… We strongly deplore and condemn his detention and persecution of Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh and call upon all international organizations, academic and professional associations, and other groups and individuals devoted to the promotion and defense of human rights to strongly protest and condemn his arbitrary detention, to call for his immediate and unconditional release, and to urge the officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran to respect, guarantee, and implement the provisions and principles of human rights as specified in international conventions and treaties to which Iran has long been a signatory.