Join the UBC Persian Language and Culture Program, UBC Middle Eastern Studies Program, and UBC Persian Club for this lecture by Professor Ali Banuazizi.
While the initial triggers for the recent uprisings in Iran were economic in nature—including high inflation rates, the plunging of the official currency to historic lows, increasing business risks, and chronic unemployment and poverty—in a matter of days, the protests turned into a nationwide political movement demanding the ouster of the ruling elite. The unprecedented scale of violence and brutality with which the security forces responded to the movement, killing thousands and injuring, arresting, and imprisoning tens of thousands, has significantly widened the rift between the theocratic regime and the vast majority of the Iranian people.
Professor’s Banuazizi’s presentation will explore some of the factors and policies that have led to the increasing delegitimization of the “Rule by the Supreme Jurist” (Velayat-e Faqigh), as evidenced by public opinion surveys and several uprisings over the past two decades.
This talk will be presented in English. It is free and open to the public.
Date & Time:
Thursday, February 26, 2026 | from 6:00pm PT
Location:
In-person: Room 2306/2309, UBC AMS Nest, 6133 University Blvd, Vancouver
Online: via Zoom
If you are attending in-person, no registration is required.
If you are attending online, please register here.
Speaker
Ali Banuazizi is Research Professor of Political Science at Boston College and Affiliated Faculty at the Center for International Studies at M.I.T. After receiving his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1968, he taught at Yale and the University of Southern California before joining the Boston College Faculty in 1971. Since then, he has held visiting appointments at the University of Tehran, Princeton, Hebrew University, Harvard, Oxford University, and M.I.T. He served as the founding editor of the journal of Iranian Studies, from 1968 to 1982. He is a past president of the Association for Iranian Studies (AIS) and of the Middle East Studies Association in North America (MESA); associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World; and editor of Freedom of Thought Journal (2021-2025).
Professor Banuazizi is the author of numerous articles on society, culture, and politics of Iran and the Middle East, and coauthor (with A. Ashraf) of Social Classes, the State and Revolution in Iran (2008) and coeditor (with M. Weiner) of three books on politics, religion, and society in Southwest and Central Asia.
