Download as PDF

Dear professor Harvey,

We are a number of socialist political and social activists, writing to share with you our concerns regarding your scheduled speech in Iran and urge you to cancel it.

You have been invited to give a talk at the “Women & Urban Life Conference” from December 11th through December 12th in one of the most neoliberalized cities of the world, namely Tehran, in which public spaces are highly controlled by the state and widely privatized over the recent decade. The conference is organized not by a university or an academic association, or even a non-governmental or people-based organization, but rather by the Tehran Municipality and will be held at the International Center for Conferences in the Tehran Milad Tower, which is one of the most expensive places to which the absolute majority of the Tehran’s citizens have no access. Moreover, the conference entrance fee for the conference is more than a quarter of the monthly minimum wage in Iran, hence it should be clear what kind of audience you are likely to have.

You have been invited by one of the most menacing arms of the oppression of vulnerable urban groups in the heart of the capital city that rendered the overspreading of child labor, homelessness, ghettos, vendors, and the like, and have also deprived from basic services a wide range of elderly, people with health issues, the handicapped, the disabled, or those with special needs. All of these social groups experience the most atrocious forms of structural suppression in public spaces.

You will be hosted by a governmental organization which implements various fearsome scenarios in favor of neoliberal urbanization: confiscating the vendors’ commodities on the streets, attacking, arresting and even killing them with brass knuckles by their black-colored shirts; vendor-cleansing the streets by brutal force and “picking up” the drug addicts by transferring them to government-run rehabilitation camps which are nothing short of torture camps; setting fire to the immigrants’ sheds who live in deprived areas on the outskirts of the towns; as well as prosecuting journalists who expose its corruption and so forth.

We would like to use this opportunity to point out that as a radical academic figure and an brilliant intellectual source of inspiration for countless socialist activists around the world and a major producer of critical interpretation of the ideas of “Social Justice and the City” and your own formulation of the “right to the city” your attendance in this conference will contradict the the basic political principles to which you have thus far steadfastly adhered.

Indubitably, your attendance at a seminar in Iran would be an excellent opportunity and a favorable occasion for all scholars, students, political and social activists who make efforts towards the right to the city in Iran. Nevertheless, we believe that your invitation is part of recent attempts by the Iranian government to co-opt and misuse critical research and activism for its own purposes and legitimation of its governance institutions and practices, led by different organs of the state, all in order to blunt the trenchancy of critical approaches concerning the status-quo power relations.

We, as socialist political and social activists, and as those who have followed your ideas in and outside of Iran, appeal to you not to take part in this seminar funded by the Tehran Municipality which is a major oppressor of the Tehran’s subalterns and a systematic violator of their most elementary rights, and to not grant your seal of approval to the agents of ongoing neo-liberalization policies in Iran.

We sincerely hope you respond to our comradely appeal and stand by the oppressed and suburbanized people of Tehran and say “no” to the oppressors by refusing to attend this conference.

Date: 02 / 12 / 2016

Signatures:

1. Abbas Shahrabi

2. Abdee Kalantari

3. Adel Irankhah

4. Aida Eyvazzadeh

5. Ako Pakzad

6. Alborz Zahedi

7. Ali Akbar Masoumbaigi

8. Ali Fathi

9. Ali Rasoli

10. Ali Saleki

11. Ali Soltani

12. Alireza Abbasi

13. Alireza Adinh

14. Alireza Moinian

15. Amer Goli

16. Ammar Goli

17. Amin Hosouri

18. Amin Zargarnejad

19. Amir Chamani

20. Amir Hooshang Eftekhari Rad

21. Amir Javaheri Langroudi

22. Amir Kianpour

23. Amir Memarian

24. Amir Mesbahi

25. Amir Shojaei

26. Amirkhosro Nazeri

27. Anita Kamali

28. Arash Doosthossein

29. Arash Kia

30. Ardavan Tarakame

31. Arman Esmaili

32. Ardalan Bastani

33. Asal Akhavan

34. Ashkan Khorasani

35. Azam Safaei

36. Azadeh Saberi

37. Aydin Gholamzadeh

38. Aydin Halalzadeh

39. Babak Pashajavid

40. Babak Farahani

41. Bahar Naji

42. Baktash Abtin

43. Behnam Amini

44. Behnam Daraeizadeh

45. Behnood Momeni

46. Behrang Mohammadi

47. Behrang Zandi

48. Behrouz Joshani

49. Behrouz Khabaz

50. Bijan Kiarasi

51. Bijan Sabbagh

52. Chnoor Maki

53. Cyrus Bina

54. Darioush Mohammadi Majd

55. Deiako Haghgo

56. Ebrahim Aalipour

57. Ehsan Rostami

58. Ensieh Salmani

59. Elnaz Ansari

60. Elnaz Babaii

61. Faezeh Karimpour

62. Farhad Gooran

63. Farshin Kazeminia

64. Fereidoon Teimoori

65. Firoozeh Mohajer

66. Foad Shakeri

67. Forough Asadpour

68. Forough Saminia

69. Ghazal Khoshabadi

70. Golnaz Khajehgiri

71. Golrokh Jahangiri

72. Hadi Kherdamandpour

73. Hamed Kiaii

74. Hamid Ghamgosar

75. Hamid Mafi

76. Hamid Nowzari

77. Hassan Mortazavi

78. Hasan Razghandi

79. Hatef Soltani

80. Hazhir Pelaschi

81. Hesam Amiri

82. Hesam Salamat

83. Hooman Kazemian

84. Homayon Iwani

85. Hossein Yousefi

86. Iman Vaghefi

87. Iran Mansouri

88. Jamileh Nedai

89. Javad Abbasi

90. Javad Jafari

91. Javid Sobhani

92. Kamal Khosravi

93. Kamran Matin

94. Katayoun Keshavarzi

95. Kaveh Banaei

96. Kaveh Darolshafa

97. Khashayar Niroomand

98. Khosro Sadeghi Broujeni

99. Kianoosh Boostani

100. Laleh Pasha

101. Laleh Derakhti

102. Leila Akhavan

103. Mahboub Tisheh

104. Mahdis Mohammadi

105. Mahsa Asadollahnejad

106. Mahsa Sabbaghi

107. Mansur Tayfuri

108. Maria Abbasian

109. Maryam Ashrafi

110. Maryam Hanifi

111. Maryam Zandi

112. Masoud Hoseini

113. Masoud Ghods

114. Maysam Gandomabadi

115. Mazdak Tousinejhad

116. Mehdi Toopchi

117. Mehdi Saberi

118. Mehdi Salimi

119. Mehran Jangali Moghadam

120. Mehrdad Emami

121. Mehri Abbassi

122. Mehrnoosh Ashtarani

123. Mehrnoush Mirsaeidi

124. Mehrzad Dashtbani

125. Mila Mossafer

126. Milad Jannat

127. Milad Shahraki

128. Mina Ghorbani

129. Mina Khani

130. Mitra Yousefi

131. Mohammad Amin

132. Mohammad Ghaznavian

133. Mohammad Javaheri

134. Mohammad Kalali

135. Mohammad Karim Asayesh

136. Mohammad Nouri

137. Mohammad Pourabdollah

138. Mohammad Shayan Nikbeen

139. Mohsen Emadi

140. Mohsen Fouladi

141. Mojdeh Arasi

142. Nahid Mirhaj

143. Nader Fatourehchi

144. Naser Pishro

145. Nasrin Fayeghi Fard

146. Nazli Mortezaii

147. Nima Barazandeh

148. Nima Saberi

149. Omid Montazeri

150. Pardis Rahmanfard

151. Parisa Amiri Eliasi

152. Parisa Nasrabadi

153. Pasha Shaker

154. Payam Shaker

155. Peyman Fazeli

156. Peyman Piran

157. Pezhman Rahimi

158. Piran Azad

159. Pooya Nodehi

160. Raha Asadzadeh

161. Reza Asadabadi

162. Reza Asadollahi

163. Reza Dehghan

164. Reza Eskandari

165. Rezgar Mahmoudi

166. Roozbeh Dorneshan

167. Saba Hajjafar

168. Sadegh Heydari Fard

169. Saeed Arami

170. Saeed Habibi

171. Saeed Kalaanaki

172. Saeed Naderi

173. Saeed Nadimi

174. Saiedeh Asadipour

175. Sam Salour

176. Saman Aram

177. Samaneh Zakeri

178. Samira Eliasi

179. Samira Khoshbakht

180. Sara Dehkordi

181. Sara Delshad

182. Sasan Amjadi

183. Sediq Esmaili

184. Sepehr Ebrahimi

185. Seyyed Hassan Sajjadi

186. Shabgir Hassani

187. Shadab Alibolandi

188. Shadyar Omrani

189. Shahin Navai

190. Shariar Galavani

191. Sharareh Shahed

192. Shahab Borhan

193. Shakiba Asgarpour

194. Shervin Taheri

195. Siavash Amjadi

196. Siavash Sarkhosh

197. Sina Habibi

198. Soroush Dashtestani

199. Sourena Amidi

200. Syrous Kafaei

201. Taha Zeinali

202. Tika Kalaki

203. Yasamin Mahboobi

204. Yaser Goli

205. Zahra Pourazizi

206. Zohreh Asadpour