About Ardeshir
The name
“Ardeshir” is an ancient Iranian name derived from the Middle Persian Ardašīr / Ardaxšēr. The name broadly means “righteous kingship” or “just rule.”
What we are
Ardeshir is a volunteer collective of Iranian monarchists, and friends of the Iranian nation, building free software for the Iranian people. We are loyal to the Shah of Iran. We are independent - no party, no faction inside the opposition, no foreign sponsor - and the collective answers only to the work and to the principles set out in the Manifesto.
What we believe
Iran’s legitimate political tradition is the monarchy, and the Iranian nation deserves modern, careful, dignified tools built by its own. We work against the Islamic Republic’s surveillance, censorship, and control over Iran and Iranians.
What we build
Free software for the Iranian people in their present situation: tools that respect their privacy, resist surveillance, work on the connections they actually have, and do not depend on institutions they have reason not to trust.
Every released project is open source under its chosen licence. Once a project ships, the release cannot be taken back.
How it works
- Members are invited by people who already know them. The founder approves every invitation, and the sponsor is accountable for the member they bring in.
- Each project has a maintainer who leads it. Other members contribute by invitation from the maintainer.
- Every change to a project’s main branch is reviewed before it ships.
- Contributions belong to the project under its licence; no individual member can claim them as personal property.
The full explanation is in How It Works.
Open and closed
The collective is closed: membership, governance records, the invite chain, decision logs, and unreleased source code are visible to members only. This is by necessity, given who we are and who we work against.
Released projects are public. Each one is published under its chosen open source licence, in its own repository. The licence is permanent.
Joining
There is no public application in the ordinary sense. Someone already in the collective needs to know you and propose your membership, and the founder needs to approve it. There is a public Join page for cases where someone has been told to apply and needs to send their details, but membership without an existing sponsor is rare.
Contact
- Security issues: see Security
- For Iranians inside Iran: see Safety before using anything we publish
- What we collect, retain, and delete: see Privacy
- Use, liability, responsibility: see Disclaimer
- General questions: see Contact