Iranian journalist and author

Akbar Ganji

Akbar Ganji is an Iranian journalist, writer and a former member of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He has been described as "Iran's preeminent political dissident", and a "wildly popular pro-democracy journalist" who has crossed press censorship "red lines" regularly. A supporter of the Islamic revolution as a youth, he became disenchanted in the mid-1990s and served time in Tehran's Evin Prison from 2001 to 2006, after publishing a series of stories on the murder of dissident authors known as the Chain Murders of Iran. While in prison, he issued a manifesto which established him as the first "prominent dissident, believing Muslim and former revolutionary" to call for a replacement of Iran's theocratic system with "a democracy".

Born

1960

January 31

Died

Living

Era

1960s

Country

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About

Akbar, in brief

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Life timeline

Key dates

1960 Born

Also on January 31

What else happened on this day, through history

314 Pope Sylvester I is consecrated, as successor to the late Pope Miltiades.
1208 The Battle of Lena takes place between King Sverker II of Sweden and his rival, Prince Eric, whose victory puts him on the throne as King Eric X of Sweden.
1266 The Mudéjar of Murcia, who had rebelled against the Crown of Castile during the Mudéjar revolt of 1264–1266, surrender the city to James I of Aragon after a siege lasting a month.
1504 The Treaty of Lyon ends the Italian War, confirming French domination of northern Italy, while Spain receives the Kingdom of Naples.

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The world in 1960

When Akbar arrived

april 1 The TIROS-1 satellite transmits the first television picture from space.
april 13 The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system.
april 15 At Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, Ella Baker leads a conference that results in the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, one of the principal organizations of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
april 19 Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.

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Same-day contemporaries

Also born on January 31

Daniel Tammet 1979– English author and educator Franz Schubert 1797–1828 Austrian pianist and composer (died 1828) Glynn Turman 1947– American actor Gouverneur Morris 1752–1816 American lawyer, politician, and diplomat, United States Ambassador to France (died 1816) Grant Morrison 1960– Scottish author and screenwriter Jersey Joe Walcott 1914– American boxer and police officer (died 1994) Kenzaburō Ōe 1935–2023 Japanese author and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2023) Len Chappell 1941– American basketball player (died 2018) Nolan Ryan 1947– American baseball player

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Same-year contemporaries

Also born in 1960

Aaron Allston 1960–2014 American game designer and author (died 2014) Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor 1960– second son of Elizabeth II Annabella Sciorra 1960– American actress Arjen Anthony Lucassen 1960– Dutch singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Ayuo Takahashi 1960– Japanese-American singer-songwriter Bernard Rose 1960–1996 English director, screenwriter, and cinematographer Cem Uzan 1960– Turkish businessman and politician Craig Hodges 1960– American basketball player and coach Dan Hawkins 1960– American football player, coach, and sportscaster

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Keep going

More to explore

Akbar's birthday January 31 Akbar's zodiac Aquarius When Akbar arrived 1960