Kelman Seminar: Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran’s Crisis as a Civilizational Reckoning
The Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution presents:
Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran’s Crisis as a Civilizational Reckoning
A virtual talk with:
Dr. Sousan Abadian
Executive Director
The Interfaith Council of Metropolitan Washington
Tuesday, February 24, 2026
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm ET (US and Canada)
Free and open to the public.
Register for the webinar here.
About the Talk:
Recent events in Iran are often analyzed through geopolitical frameworks and short-term political or economic explanations. This talk offers a different perspective: a cultural and ethical interpretation rooted in Iran’s indigenous Zoroastrian heritage. Drawing on historical analysis, contemporary survey data on religious affiliation, and the Women, Life, Freedom (Zan, Zendegi, Azadi) movement, Dr. Sousan Abadian argues that Iran is undergoing not only political upheaval but a deeper civilizational reckoning. Through a Zoroastrian lens, Iran’s present moment appears not only as resistance to authoritarian rule, but as a long-delayed effort to reclaim moral agency, human dignity, and cultural wholeness after centuries of collective trauma and religious coercion. The talk explores how the movement’s language reflects long-suppressed indigenous Iranian ethical values—centered on dignity, life, freedom, and responsibility toward the Earth—and what this reawakening may signal about Iran’s possible futures.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Sousan Abadian currently serves as the Executive Director of the Interfaith Council of Metropolitan Washington. She earned a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University, an M.A. in the Anthropology of Social Change and Development, also from Harvard, as well as an M.P.A. in International Development from Harvard’s Kennedy School. She has authored Generative Cultural Renewal: An Effective Resource in Ending Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting & Other Harmful Practices (Waterside, Oct 2022) which offers ethical and culturally-sensitive means of evolving harmful traditional practices. In 2022, she was a Fulbright Scholar in the Specialist Program in Canada consulting with First Nations on International Baccalaureate curriculum, “Indigenous perspectives in a changing world.” Her earlier research on healing the effects of long-standing collective trauma and cultural damage to Indigenous communities was described by Nobel laureate in economics Amartya Sen as “pioneering” and “highly original.” Between June 2017 to June 2019, Dr. Abadian served as a Franklin Fellow at the U.S. State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Her portfolio included preventing violent extremism, rights of religious minorities in the Middle East and South Asia, gender-based violence, and cultural restoration following atrocities. She has also served as a Fellow at M.I.T.’s Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values as well as at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership. She also teaches, coaches, and consults internationally on leadership, building on her earlier work with Cambridge Leadership Associates facilitating workshops and speaking on Adaptive Leadership.
About the Herbert C. Kelman Seminar Series:
The Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution series is sponsored by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.
For more information, contact Donna Hicks at dhicks@wcfia.harvard.edu.
Accommodation Statement:
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School (PON) is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation(s) for persons with disabilities in connection with its programs and activities. Accommodations must not fundamentally alter applicable PON programming and are not retroactive.
Event participants should request accommodations at least two weeks prior to the start date of a program or event, as accommodations may take time to implement. Please note that PON will make every effort to secure services, but these are subject to availability.
To request accommodations please e-mail ponevents@law.harvard.edu.
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