J. Daryl Byler\u2019s 11th trip to Iran marks the culmination of nearly a quarter-century of bridge-building efforts between North American Mennonites and Iranians.<\/p>\n
Byler, who is executive director of EMU\u2019s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP), last visited Iran in 2009, before Iran severely restricted visas for visitors from the United States and Canada for an extended period.<\/p>\n
With the 2013 election of president Hassan Rouhani and subsequent diplomatic talks between Iran and the West, Iran\u2019s doors have opened again.<\/p>\n
Daryl Byler \u201979, MA \u201985 (religion)<\/strong>, was among a 10-member group in Iran from Feb. 19 to Feb. 25, 2014, sponsored by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). The delegation spent a whirlwind six days in Iran on a tightly managed schedule of workshops, meetings with religious and academic officials, and visits to sites of cultural and religious significance with the purpose of exploring \u201cif this is indeed a new time in which MCC work in a country often perceived as the enemy can and should be reinvigorated or even expanded,\u201d said an MCC press release.<\/p>\n Before becoming executive director of CJP, Byler and his wife Cindy Lehman Byler represented MCC in Palestine and Israel, Iran, Iraq and Jordan from 2007 to 2013.<\/p>\n With only a few days in Iran on this trip, every opportunity to connect and to share with Iranians in face-to-face contacts was potentially precious, beneficial, and rejuvenating to MCC\u2019s goals of promoting \u201cunderstanding, friendship, and interfaith connections between the people of Iran, Canada, and the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n The MCC-Iran relationship has been growing and changing since MCC first reached out to Iran after a devastating earthquake in 1990, offering relief supplies in partnership with the Iranian Red Crescent Society. Two more relief efforts followed in 2004 and 2012, as MCC\u2019s outreach has focused and strengthened into \u201cpeacebuilding through shared knowledge,\u201d according to an MCC press release.<\/p>\n This work continues in spite of the dissolution of formal diplomatic relations with Iran by both the United States, since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and Canada, which closed its Tehran embassy and expelled Iranian diplomats from its borders in 2012.<\/p>\n MCC has facilitated and supported many student exchanges, sending American and Canadian students to study in Iran, and Iranian students for advanced studies in Canada and the United States. Ten Iranian students have attended the Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) on EMU\u2019s main campus, and two have gone on to earn their master\u2019s degrees in conflict transformation.<\/p>\n Ten female students from Jami\u2019at al-Zahra are expected to come to SPI this summer. They will be escorted by Dr. Mohammad Shomali, director of the International Institute for Islamic Studies (IIIS) and also director of international affairs at Jami\u2019at al-Zahra, the world\u2019s largest women\u2019s seminary for Shi\u2019a Islam. Shomali\u2019s wife, Mahnaz Heidarpour, will also accompany the group.<\/p>\n During the trip, the delegation visited with three of the 10 Iranian SPI alumni, all of whom are in prominent roles: Mohsen Ghanbari Alanagh (SPI \u201911)<\/strong>, president of Al-Mustafa Open University; Mohsen Danesh Pajouh (\u201912)<\/strong>, completing his PhD in philosophy of religion; and Seyed Mostafa Daryabari (\u201913)<\/strong>, deputy of education at the International Institute for Islamic Studies.<\/p>\n For Byler, reconnecting with SPI alumni in his new role as CJP director was a special experience, as each of these attendees said they had been deeply affected by the peacebuilding concepts shared at SPI and appreciated exploring the application of these concepts and dialogue in Iran.<\/p>\n Byler says MCC\u2019s return visit to Iran is a \u201chopeful sign\u201d that the deep foundations of interfaith dialogue and friendship can continue to grow.<\/p>\n