Ali Shakeri ( fa, علی شاکری) is an

Iranian-American Iranian Americans are United States citizens or nationals who are of Iranian ancestry or who hold Iranian citizenship. Iranian Americans are among the most highly educated people in the United States. They have historically excelled in busine ...

businessman and activist. He graduated from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

with a business administration degree. He serves on the Community Advisory Board of the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

. Shakeri was one of four dual-nationality Iranian-Americans detained by the

Iranian government The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran ( fa, نظام جمهوری اسلامی ایران, Neẓām-e jomhūrī-e eslāmi-e Irān, known simply as ''Neẓām'' ( fa, نظام, lit=the system) among its supporters) is the ruling state a ...

in May 2007.

Activism

Shakeri has also been a founding and active member of Ettehade Jomhourikhahan-e Iran (EJI), which advocates a democratic and

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

republic in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Imprisonment

In 2007 Shakeri went to Iran to visit his mother, who was ill and died during his visit. On May 8, 2007, while in Iran, he was detained by the

, one of four Americans detained in a short period. The others were Kian Tajbakhsh,

Haleh Esfandiari Haleh Esfandiari ( fa, هاله اسفندیاری) (born March 3, 1940) is an Iranian-American academic and former Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Her areas of expert ...

and Parnaz Azima. On June 8, 2007, the

Iranian Student News Agency The Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) is a news agency run by Iranian university students. Position It covers a variety of national and international topics.Engber, Daniel. What's With the Iranian Students News Agency?, ''Slate'', 2 Februa ...

confirmed the detention. He was released on September 25, 2007, and the other three were also released "in phases, from prison or allowed to leave the country ... in the run-up to President Ahmadinejad's" September 2007 speech before the United Nations. Shakeri called the

American Iranian Council The American Iranian Council (AIC) was formed in 1990 as a US-based bi-partisan think tank focused upon promoting better relations between the United States and Iran. Former United States Secretary of State Cyrus Vance was the original honorary C ...

on October 2 to thank the AIC and its members for diplomatic actions taken to gain his release from prison in Iran.American Iranian Council – AIC – A Platform for Dialogue
/ref>

References

External links

American Iranian Council

Much-admired UC Irvine figure is missing in Iran
Los Angeles Times, May 26, 2007 Living people American anti-war activists American businesspeople American people of Iranian descent Iranian activists Iranian businesspeople Iranian prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of Iran American people imprisoned abroad American people imprisoned in Iran Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-activist-stub

Activism

Imprisonment

See also

References

External links