Speaker Biographies
October 12, 2005
Ali Al-Taie, a professor of sociology at Shaw University, is also Dean and founder of the College of Social Sciences at Shaw University. A specialist in social movements and social change as well as race and ethnic relations, he has written several published manuscripts on the Arabs of al-Ahwaz/Khuzistan, and Arab-Iranian social issues. He is the author of Ethnic Identity Crisis in Iran (Shadegan Publisher, 2000) and Arabs Are Not Traitors (Shadegan Publisher, 1997).
Reza Hussein Bor is an executive committee member of the Baluchistan United Front. He was one of the first individuals who introduced federalism as a solution for establishing democracy in Iran and in the Arab world. In addition to a comprehensive list of Iranian opposition television networks, he has given numerous interviews to Voice of America, BBC, Voice of Israel, and French radio. Moreover, he is a leading authority on self-development and a master trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. He has written extensively about federalism and is currently working on A New Vision for the Islamic World: Transformational Strategies for Creating a Better Future; a project based on 20 years of research exclusively aimed at establishing democracy and creating prosperity in the Islamic world.
Morteza Esfandiari, a political activist since 1970, is the North American representative for the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan. He moved to the U.S. in 1973 and attended George Washington University. He then moved to Texas and attained his PhD in Mathematics/Information Technology. He joined the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan in 1996 and was elected as the DPIK representative for North America in 2004. As DPIK North American representative, he has worked for the rights and the plight of the Kurds of Iran as they strive for self determination.
Michael Ledeen, a resident scholar at AEI, is an expert on U.S. foreign policy. His research areas include state sponsors of terrorism, Iran, the Middle East, Europe (Italy), U.S.-China relations, intelligence, and Africa (Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe). A former consultant to the National Security Council and to the U.S. State and Defense Departments, he has also written on leadership and the use of power. He is the author of The War against the Terror Masters: Why It Happened, Where We Are Now, How We’ll Win (St. Martin's Press, 2002).
Rahim Shahbazi is vice president of the Azerbaijani Societies of North America. He initiated the first Azerbaijani News Net and continued to build many websites about North and South Azerbaijan. In 1995 he became a technical officer of the Azerbaijani American Cultural Society (AACS). In 1997 he co-founded the Azerbaijani Societies of North America and has been vice president of this organization for the past 8 years.
