Kaveh L. Afrasiabi

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Kaveh Lotfollah Afrasiabi ({{langx|fa|کاوه لطف الله افراسیابی}}, born 1958) is an Iranian-American political scientist and author, living in Boston, Massachusetts.

In January 2021, Afrasiabi was arrested by the FBI on charges of working as an unregistered agent of the Iranian government. On September 18, 2023, Afrasiabi received a presidential pardon by President Joe Biden as part of an Iran–United States prisoner release mediated by Qatar.{{cite news |title='The nightmare is over': Americans freed by Iran in prisoner swap |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-66841137 |access-date=18 September 2023 |work=BBC |date=18 September 2023 |language=en}}

Career

Afrasiabi is a prominent Iranian-American political scientist and author of more than thirty five books on Iran, Middle East, international affairs, theology, as well as novels, plays, and poetry books.{{Cite web |url=https://www.amazon.com/Books-Kaveh-Afrasiabi/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AKaveh+Afrasiabi | website=Amazon }} Afrasiabi gained a PhD in Political Science from Boston University in 1998, with a thesis titled "State and Populism in Iran" under the supervision of historian Howard Zinn.{{cite thesis |type=PhD |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/35582919 |title=State and Populism in Iran |publisher=Boston University |date=1998

|first=Lotfolah |last=Afrasiabi |via=ResearchGate}}{{Cite web|url=https://mronline.org/2010/02/03/remembering-howard-zinn/|title=MR Online | Remembering Howard Zinn|first1=Kaveh L. Afrasiabi|last1=Culture|first2=Education|last2=Iran|first3=United States|last3=Commentary|date=Feb 3, 2010}} Afrasiabi has also studied theology at Andover-Newton Theological School and has published a seminal article on communicative theology in Harvard Theological Review.{{Cite journal |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/harvard-theological-review/article/abs/communicative-theory-and-theology-a-reconsideration/2F4A64A5D63833FDDC3912ACF520813C |doi=10.1017/S0017816000006453 |title=Communicative Theory and Theology: A Reconsideration |date=1998 |last1=Afrasiabi |first1=K. L. |journal=Harvard Theological Review |volume=91 |pages=75–87 }} Afrasiabi's articles have repeatedly appeared in the UN Chronicle, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, London's the Guardian, and the New York Times.{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/search?query=afrasiabi | title=The New York Times - Search | website=The New York Times }} Afrasiabi has won a number of literary awards including the Spring 2024 award by literature.com for the best short story, titled Love and Death in Iran.{{Cite web |url=http://www.literature.com/book/love_and_death_in_iran_3138 |title=Love and Death in Iran by Kaveh L. Afrasiabi, Ph.D. }}

Afrasiabi has taught political science at the University of Tehran, Boston University, and Bentley University.{{Cite web |url=http://www.bentley.edu/offices/sites/www.bentley.edu.offices/files/registrar/200801-lsm-gpap.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2014-04-05 |archive-date=2014-04-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407081611/http://www.bentley.edu/offices/sites/www.bentley.edu.offices/files/registrar/200801-lsm-gpap.pdf |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web |url=https://www.bentley.edu/offices/sites/www.bentley.edu.offices/files/registrar/200801-lsm-eegs.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2014-04-05 |archive-date=2014-04-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407081228/https://www.bentley.edu/offices/sites/www.bentley.edu.offices/files/registrar/200801-lsm-eegs.pdf |url-status=dead }} Afrasiabi has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University (1989-1990), University of California, Berkeley (2000-2001),[http://ias44.ias.berkeley.edu/Newsletters/fall2000newsletter.pdf Newsletter Fall 2000]berkeley.edu {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407094146/http://ias44.ias.berkeley.edu/Newsletters/fall2000newsletter.pdf |date=April 7, 2014 }} Binghamton University (2001-2002){{Cite web|url=https://www.binghamton.edu/fbc/archive/nwslt-25.htm|title=Fernand Braudel Center, Newsletter No. 25|website=www.binghamton.edu}} and the Center for Strategic Research, Tehran. During 2004-2005, Afrasiabi was involved as an advisor to Iran's nuclear negotiation team and in various books, articles, and TV interviews fully supported the 2015 Iran nuclear deal as a "win-win.".{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/28/international/middleeast/28iran.html?_r=1&scp=7&sq=afrasiabi&st=cse | work=The New York Times | first=Nazila | last=Fathi | title=Iran Reasserts Its Right to Enrich Uranium as Standoff Persists | date=2004-11-28}}

Afrasiabi has been a consultant to the United Nations "Dialogue Among Civilizations", for which he interviewed the former Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami.{{cite web|last=Khatami |first=Mohammad |author-link=Mohammad Khatami |author2=Kaveh L. Afrasiabi |title=Mohammad Khatami on the Dialogue Among Civilizations |publisher=United Nations |date=2006-09-11 |url=https://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2006/webArticles/102006_Khatami.htm |doi= |access-date=2009-06-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090614054842/http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2006/webArticles/102006_Khatami.htm |archive-date=2009-06-14 |url-status=dead }} Afrasiabi is a member of the advisory board of the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran. Afrasiabi is also the founder of the inter-faith group, Global Interfaith Peace, and has repeatedly called for mandatory education in Iran on the Holocaust.

Afrasiabi is a permanent resident of the U.S., living in Boston, Massachusetts.

Controversy

=''Afrasiabi v. Mottahedeh''=

From 1996 to 2003, Afrasiabi was involved in a legal conflict with Roy Mottahedeh, former director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, who had been his superior during Afrasiabi's time as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, and Harvard University itself. The conflict started with an alleged extortion against Mottahedeh's subordinates and a "pre-dawn" arrest of Afrasiabi by Harvard police, and terminated in 2003 with a civil rights case against Harvard, Mottahedeh after Afrasiabi's exoneration and after a high-profile ten-day jury trial in the federal court in Boston ultimately reached the Supreme Court of the United States,{{cite news |first=Geoffrey C. |last=Upton |pages= |language= |title=Former Post-Doc Will Stand Trial; Afrasiabi Denies Extortion Charge, Cites 'Mind-Blowing Conspiracy' |date=1996-02-08 |publisher=Harvard University |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=120480 |access-date=2009-06-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050505045656/http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=120480|archive-date=2005-05-05 |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |first=Kaveh L. |last=Afrasiabi |pages= |language= |title=A letter to America |date=2005-02-17 |publisher=Asia Times |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GB17Ak02.html |access-date=2009-06-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090623090712/http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=120480 |archive-date=2009-06-23 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |last= |first= |author-link= |title=KAVEH L. AFRASIABI, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. HARVARD UNIVERSITY; HARVARD UNIVERSITY POLICE DEPARTMENT; RICHARD W. MEDEROS; FRANCIS RILEY; LAUREEN DONAHUE; CENTER FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES; ROY P. MOTTAHEDEH; REZA ALAVI and SHOBHANA RANA, Defendants, Appellees. |publisher=United States Court of Appeals |date=2002-07-01 |url=http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/getopn.pl?OPINION=99-1295.01A |format= |doi= |access-date=2009-06-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090621233523/http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/getopn.pl?OPINION=99-1295.01A |archive-date=2009-06-21 |url-status=dead }} in which Afrasiabi acted as his own attorney, alleging that he was a victim of gross human rights abuses at Harvard. During associated controversies, Afrasiabi was supported by Mike Wallace of the US television program 60 Minutes,{{Cite web|url=http://www.iranian.com/Afrasiabi/2006/May/Me/index.html|title=Between Mike Wallace and Me}} author David Mamet,{{Cite web |title=The David Mamet Society |url=http://mamet.eserver.org/review/1999/99_newfor.html }}{{Dead link|date=April 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} linguist Noam Chomsky, former Iran deputy oil minister Farhang Mehr and political scientist Howard Zinn.{{Cite web|url=http://www.iranian.com/main/2008/reading-kafka-harvard-3|title=Reading Kafka at Harvard}}

=2021 arrest for acting as an unregistered agent of Iran and 2023 Presidential Pardon=

Afrasiabi was arrested on January 18, 2021, for acting as an unregistered agent of Iran.{{cite news |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/19/us/kaveh-lotfolah-afrasiabi-charged-foreign-agent/index.html |title=Boston-based political scientist accused of acting as an unregistered agent of Iran |last1=Moghe |first1=Sonia |last2=Sanchez |first2=Ray |publisher=CNN |date=19 January 2021 |access-date=21 September 2023}}{{Cite web|date=2021-01-18|title=Political Scientist Author Charged With Acting As An Unregistered Agent Of The Iranian Government|url=https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/political-scientist-author-charged-acting-unregistered-agent-iranian-government|access-date=2021-02-05|website=www.justice.gov|language=en}}

He strongly denied the charges against him and represented himself in court, arguing that his limited international affairs consulting was perfectly legal under the UN guidelines and that it had no bearing on any of his publications, some of which are very critical of Iran, particularly on restricted elections and women's rights in Iran; Afrasiabi has published a feminist novel and a poetry book in defense of women's rights in Iran. According to Professor Chomsky, in a letter to the court, Afrasiabi collaborated with him for the successful release of three American hikers held in Iran. He was released on bail in January 2021, and ultimately all the charges against him were dropped at the pre-trial stage on September 18, 2023 as part of a presidential pardon.

Selected works

After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Books, 1994)
Islam and Ecology (Harvard University Press, 2003)
Iran Nuclear Negotiations: Accord and Détente Since the Geneva Agreement of 2013 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015)
Iran Nuclear Accord and the Remaking of the Middle East (Rowman & littlefield, 2017)
Trump and Iran: From Containment to Confrontation (Lexington Books, 2019)
Shiraz Diaries and Jallad: A Novel (2016)
UN Management Reform: Selected Articles and Interviews in UN Chronicle (2011)
Looking For Rights at Harvard (2010)
The Agent of Peace: Response to US Accusation (2022)
The Pandemic Mirror: Poems (2021)
John Quincy Adams and the Origins of Critical Legal Thought in America: A Heideggerian Interpretation (2022)
Ode to Ukraine: Poems (2023)
Warhol the Sketch Artist: A Play (2023)
Romeo & Juliet in Kherson: A Play (2023)
Noam Chomsky: Exchanges (2024)