رضا فانی یزدی

Reza Fani Yazdi is a political analyst and activist. His history of activism goes back to his youth when he joined a radical leftist group before the 1979 revolution in Iran. Although his views changed to moderate left, Reza was arrested after the revolution on 1982. Initially, he was sentenced to death for his political activities and his leftist views. After spending 2 years in death row, his sentence was commuted to 20 years of imprisonment. He was released at the end of Iran-Iraq war after having spent 6 years of his life in Vakil-Abad prison in Mashhad. Consequently, he escaped the country and immigrated to the United State where he has been actively involved in Iranian politics for the past 2 decades. Reza is one of the founders and an active member of the Unity for a Secular and Republic Iran, Etehaade Jomhourikhahan Iran, a political organization in exile. He has published tens of articles about Iranian politics and human rights.
He graduated from university of California at Berkeley as an Electrical Engineer; for the last fifteen years he has been working as an IT manager for the state of California. He has two children Mitra and Alborz and lives with his wife Soheila in city of El Sobrante in northern California.