The exiled Iranian dissident and philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo has been awarded the 2009 Peace Prize by Spain’s Association for the United Nations. The award recognizes his intellectual contribution to advancing non-violence both as philosophy and political strategy.
“I feel like it means I’m on the right path after fighting, struggling, and teaching non-violence for nearly 30 years,” says Jahanbegloo, a former Reagan-Fascell democracy fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy.
He has characterized the ongoing political turmoil in Iran as a clash of two sovereignties: one divine and one popular. Divine sovereignty, derived from God’s will, bestows power on the faqih, currently Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, while popular sovereignty has emerged from the social and political work of Iran’s resilient civil society.
“The present crisis in Iran after the presidential election is rooted in the popular quest for the democratization of the state and society, and the conservative reaction and opposition to it.”
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