Rouzbeh Mircharkhchian

Born in Rasht, Iran, close to the Caspian Sea, Rouzbeh is a petrochemical engineer, a feminist and an ardent supporter of women’s rights and democratic development. As a social activist, he works to combat gender discrimination and stereotypes in Iranian society as well as to reinforce the cultural, social and civil bases of democracy in his country.

In 2015, he writes: “Recent accomplishments have mostly taken place in my professional life. I started my life-after-Sauvé as Deputy Area Manager in an oil service company. Two years later, I was the Head of Drilling Services in an integrated drilling services project and under my leadership we won a big oil services tender. I then re-joined the private sector and am currently leading a 160 M Euros project in drilling services as Deputy Project Manager. I direct some 15 people at the office and more than 20 service companies in the field. Also I am active in oil/energy market analysis and recently have published an article in a well-regarded Iranian magazine, “Tejarat-e-Farda”, about one of Iran’s giant oil fields.”

Rouzbeh’s activities before he left Iran to come to the Sauvé Scholars Program are a study in contrasts. As a drilling engineer and mud logging unit supervisor in oil and gas drilling fields in the Persian Gulf, he monitored drilling operations and parameters. As a feminist and social activist, he fought against gender discrimination and stereotypes in his society.

Rouzbeh holds a BSc in petrochemical engineering from Isfahan University of Technology, one of the most prestigious engineering schools in Iran. As a university student, Rouzbeh took a leading role in founding and managing “Women, Men and Equal Opportunities” – a group whose aim is to promote gender equality by influencing the thinking and behavior within the university community. Since then, he has worked to advance the cause of gender equality in the broader community by collaborating with different feminists groups, mainly Meydaan-e-Zanaan (“Women’s Field”). In Meydaan, as a member of the coordinating group, he led the “open stadiums to women audiences” campaign and supervised the production of a documentary film about a girl who enters a football stadium in men’s clothes. He also wrote several articles and notes on the Meydaan website  regarding these issues.

Rouzbeh’s Sauvé Scholar project “Preparing for a culture of democracy” focused on identifying the civil society bases of democratic governance – the primary requirements for a society to act in democratic ways, the lifestyle through which people engage their democratic system, and the cultural habits that sustain a democratic society.