Ramin Jahanbegloo

English PEN's Writers in Prison Committee has taken up the case of Iranian academic and writer Ramin Jahanbegloo.

Here is Janabegloo on 'The Legacy of Isaiah Berlin'.

One of the most important aspects of Berlin's philosophy is his liberal theory of pluralism. His defense of value pluralism as the most essential conception of moral and political philosophy has achieved classical status. He also elaborated with considerable originality a conception of freedom that supports his philosophical view of human ideals. According to Berlin these ideals are inherently rivalrous by nature and they collide in practice. In other words value pluralism is a moral foundation for the political ideal of toleration and peaceful coexistence among genuine goods, since it affirms that there is no one right way of life for men. Berlin’s commitment to a pluralist philosophical anthropology is in fact a rejection of the idea of a perfect society or a perfect human life.
............
For him there is no process of individual self-creation in society without choice-making. As a matter of fact, for Berlin, choice-making is not a subjectivist account of human identities. On the contrary, individual agents who are practitioners of diverse cultural traditions are conceived by him as being conditioned by common forms of life possessing an objective dimension. This commits Berlin to an idea of belonging which he holds not as a political participation, but as a membership in a common cultural tradition.

Bearing witness to that is a very brave thing to do in contemporary Persia. I wish there were more people who understood it over here to be honest.


RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send appeals:

- expressing concern for the safety of Ramin Jahanbegloo, who is detained incommunicado in Evin prison;
- seeking immediate assurances that he is not being tortured or ill-treated;
- seeking full details of the reasons for his arrest, including any charges that may have been brought against him;
- calling for his immediate and unconditional release if held in violation of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a signatory.

APPEALS TO:

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei,
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Shoahada Street, Qom, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@leader.ir , istiftaa@wilayah.org

Head of the Judiciary
His Excellency
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Salutation: Your Excellency

President:
His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency,
Palestine Avenue,
Azerbaijan Intersection,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: Via Foreign Ministry: 00 98 21 6 674 790
(mark: "Please forward to H.E. President Ahmadinejad")
Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir