Sunday, October 29, 2 PM

First Unitarian Church, Salmon Street Sanctuary
At 12th and Salmon in downtown Portland
Free Admission

William Beeman, author of "The ‘Great Satan' vs. the ‘Mad Mullahs' - How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other." W. Beeman is Professor of Anthropology and Director of Middle East Studies at Brown University. Dr. Beeman has traveled to Iran many times and speaks fluent Persian. In his book he approaches possibilities for conflict resolution to the crisis from an anthropological point of view and with impressive insight.

Abbas Maleki, Unfortunately Dr. Maleki could not join us in this forum due to his mother's illness and extension of his stay in Iran.

Soheila Vahdati, is a Human Rights advocate and researcher. Dr. Vahdati is passionately involved with Iranian democracy movement in general and the women struggle in particular. She frquently writes about the women's movement in Iran for Persian journals .

Rostam Pourzal, has been a journalist and human rights activist in Washington, DC. He currently heads the U.S. branch of Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (http://www.casmii.org/). He holds a B.A. and an M.A. in cultural anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied modernization and social upheaval."

Ronault Latang Sayang Catalani ('Polo'), author of "talking-stories." Polo is a civil rights attorney and community activist. He writes for the Asian Reporter, for Oregon Public Radio and for WUWM Wisconsin. Polo has lived in Iran as a research graduate student in late 1970s.