Professor Monshipouri: Why Engaging with Perpetrators Isn't Possible in Iran (Yet)

OPEN DEMOCRACY (UNITED KINGDOM) -- Mahmood Monshipouri is a professor of International Relations at San Francisco State University. He wrote this op-ed. “Iranians have frequently fought — though not often successfully — to break the yoke of tyrants. But upon examination of the policies and practices of four subsequent administrations in post-Khomeini Iran, it remains unclear whether these changes have positively or adversely affected the country’s human rights situation. The possibility of a top-down change or negotiating with those who violate human rights in Iran remains remote and, at best, impractical. Human rights activists and advocates would have more success by concentrating on a different strategy—that is, the need to strengthen the struggle for human rights in Iran by underscoring the importance of education, international organizations such as the United Nations, and local and regional non-governmental organizations in fostering the interaction between internal and external political dynamics.”