Author, torture survivor spoke with students about social justice and exile

“It is the lack of opportunity to participate in social life that is the trauma of exile,” Ezat Mossallanejad, Ph.D., told Stetson Law students gathered to hear him talk in the Mann Lounge on Oct. 24.

The victim of torture in Iran, Dr. Mossallanejad fled to Canada in 1985 and helped found the Iranian Cultural and Community Centre. He illustrated the struggle for social justice through the experience of being a refugee and newcomer in Canada.

“In order to have a job in Canada, you have to have job experience in Canada, and in order to have job experience, you have to have had a job. It’s a Catch-22,” said Dr. Mossallanejad, who has a doctorate in political economy.

Dr. Mossallanejad is the settlement and trauma counselor/policy analyst and researcher with the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture and the author of the books, Religion and the Cruel Return of Gods and Torture in the Age of Fear.

The Florida Center for Survivors of Torture, Amnesty International and the Center for Inquiry helped sponsor Dr. Mossallanejad’s talk at Stetson Law in Gulfport on “Torture as a Strategy of Oppression.”

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Post date: Oct. 24, 2012

Media contact: Kate Bradshaw
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