Roya Hakakian Keynote Author and Poet · The 17th largest country in the world, the Islamic Republic of Iran commands attention not just because of its burgeoning nuclear program but because of its many roles in world affairs -- as the most important state sponsor of terrorism, as leader of the "rejectionist front" vis-à-vis the Israel-Palestine conflict, as the inspiration for radical Islam elsewhere in the Muslim world. There is also the matter of its suppression of the Green Movement in 2009 and ever since. In this intensive weekend-long conference for high school teachers, we looked at Iran in its larger historical, cultural, and geopolitical context, with lectures by the best scholars in the country.

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