Human Rights and Agents of Change in Iran Towards a Theory of Change

Rebecca Barlow is a Senior Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on the Iranian women’s movement and the politics of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Rebecca is the author of Universal Women’s Human Rights and the Muslim Question: Iran’s One Million Signatures Campaign (2012). Outside academia, Rebecca has worked for the Victorian Local Governance Association, where she played a key role in the production of From Compliance to Culture: A Toolkit for Local Governments to Implement the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities. She has also interned and acted as Consultant for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Gender, Human Rights and Culture Branch, where she worked with a team to implement the United Nations Global Forum of Faith-based Organisations in Population and Development (Istanbul, Turkey, 2008).

Shahram Akbarzadeh is Research Professor of Middle East & Central Asian Politics at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Australia. He has an active research interest in the politics of Central Asia, Islam, Muslims in Australia and the Middle East. Shahram is author of Uzbekistan and the United States (2005), US Foreign Policy in the Middle East (2008 with Kylie Baxter) and Muslim Active Citizenship in the West (2014 with Mario Peucker). He is the founding Editor of the Islamic Studies Series , published by Melbourne University Press, and a regular public commentator. Shahram is a member of the Editorial Board of three leading refereed journals: Global Change, Peace & Security , the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs , the Journal of Asian Security & International Affairs.