Events
Mahnaz Afkhami is frequently engaged as a speaker on a range of topics, including human rights, participatory leadership, women and peace, women’s political participation, the global women’s movements, and the fight for women’s rights in Iran.
Family Advocacy, Family Law and Violence Against Women
Time: 5:00 pm Location: Bioethics Library at Georgetown University, Washington D.C. Description: Mahnaz Afhkami will present introductory remarks at the launch of WLP’s newest publication, Feminist Advocacy, Family Law and Violence against Women: International Perspectives. On November 1, 2018, in conjunction with the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security (GIWPS), leading women’s rights advocates from around the globe will provide remarks on the status of discriminatory family laws and structures that perpetuate inequality and violence both in the home and in communities. This event is part of WLP’s global advocacy effort, the Equality Starts in the Family campaign, carried out in close partnership with GIWPS, UN Women Global Fund for Women, and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada. For more information, visit the Women’s Learning Partnership Events calendar.
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16th Annual Iranian American Women Foundation (IAWF) Conference 2018
Time: 8:30-5:30pm Location: Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, Los Angeles, CA 90071 Description: Mahnaz Afkahmi will be honored with the Shirzan Award for life-long leadership and community involvement at this year’s Iranian American Women Foundation (IAWF) Conference. The IAWF is a non-profit organization providing networking, leadership, and mentorship services to women of Iranian descent across all professional industries in the United States and internationally. The conference will bring together accomplished representatives of academia, business, entertainment, and politics who advocate for women’s leadership. Azita Raji, the first female U.S. ambassador to Sweden, and the first Iranian-born American to serve as a U.S. ambassador, will serve as the keynote speaker for the event. Link to the Women’s Learning Partnership Blog about this Award.
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The Commission on the Status of Women 62 (CSW62)
Location: United Nations, 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017 Description: Every year, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women meets at the UN Headquarters in New York, joined by government and civil society representatives from around the world. The priority theme of CSW62 is the challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls. The conference spans a host of discussion topics, such as, but not limited to, Human Security Training, Family Law, Meeting with Rural Speakers, and Data approaches for measuring progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Mahnaz Afkhami will speak on a panel titled, Human Rights Defenders: A Panel Discussion with Leading Female Activists. She will first address the Women’s Rights climate in Iran and then later discuss her work with 20 grassroots organizations for the past 25 years and the importance of a global women’s movement. …
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Rutgers Global Feminist Journeys Conference
Location: Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ Description: The Rutgers Global Feminist Journeys Conference is a small international strategic consultation that will take place at the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) at Rutgers University. CWGL is holding this conversation as part of a project tentatively titled Global Feminist Journeys: Stories of a Generation of Women’s Human Rights Activists (1985-2005). This project will contribute to the vast richness of the past 30-40 years of global feminism, especially in relation to human rights, and to draw lessons from it for the future. These discussions will include thinking about what forms of documenting we each are doing or want to do, and what would be most useful at this time, such as: Written essays/stories/books that record the history of this period and analyze lessons learned; Video or tape recorded reflections that can be short, provocative & aimed at particular audiences; Longer oral history …
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Election 2016 and the Global Women’s Movement
Location: Chicago Council on Global Affairs Conference Center, 130 East Randolph Street, Chicago, IL 60601 Description: In recent years the US government has incorporated gender equality as a metric of policy development and program investment of its domestic and foreign policies. Yet despite many indicators of progress for women and girls everywhere more work remains, and strong collaborations are still needed in areas regarding women’s economic and political leadership, eliminating violence against women and girls, and supporting women-owned businesses and entrepreneurs. As the US prepares for new governance what would a change in leadership mean for women’s rights, domestically and internationally? And how can we best continue to provide US leadership to women’s issues in the next twenty years? Panelists will include: Mahnaz Afkhami, Founder and President, Women’s Learning Partnership Catherine Bertini, Distinguished Fellow, Global Food and Agriculture, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs Ellen Chesler, Senior Fellow, Roosevelt Institute …
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Consultation Day: Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 59)
Location: 777 United Nations Plaza, 1st Floor, New York, New York 10017 Description: For the 30,000 non-governmental representatives attending the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, as well as for the many who could not, the meeting was a glorious achievement. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA) was the “can do” result of advocates for women’s rights from around the world who came together to network and lobby governments to develop a framework of comprehensive commitments promising to change the lives of women and girls everywhere. As we revisit the commitments of the past during this CSW, let us begin to forge a renewed commitment to the future. As “all issues are women’s issues”, let us reach out to mobilize the many and diverse voices of all women and girls, of men and boys, and of all engaged in social justice movements to together create transformative change …
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Women and Girls Rising: Progress and Resistance Around the World
Time: 3-4 pm Location: Wilson Center, Woodrow Wilson Plaza, 1300 Pennsylvania, Ave., NW Washington, D.C. 20004 Description: The Women in Public Service Project at the Wilson Center will host the event “Women and Girls Rising: Progress and Resistance Around the World.” The event will be moderated by Foreign Policy Correspondent Indira Lakshmanan. Opening remarks will be made by Gwen Young, Director of the Women in Public Service Project. The panelists will include Mahnaz Afkhami, founder and President of the Women’s Learning Partnership; Ellen Chesler, Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and co-editor of the anthology Women and Girl Rising: Progress and resistance around the world; and Shad Begum, Reagan-Fascell Fellow with the National Endowment for Democracy and the founding director of the Association for Behavior and Knowledge Transformation. Copies of Women and Girls Rising: Progress and Resistance Around the World will be available. An event write-up can be found here.
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International Conventions on Women– Successes or Failure?
Location: The World Bank, Washington DC 20433 Description: What have been the successes and failures of United Nations Global Conferences over the past forty years? How has the debate and focus changed over time? What can be learnt from the past for the implementation of the SDGs? The Gender and Development Chapter of the 1818 Society is pleased to invite you to a session with Mahnaz Afkhami, one of the most active and influential contributors to this agenda since the 1975 Mexico Conference. Ms. Afkhami is a former Minister for Women’s Affairs in Iran, and the Founder and President of Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP), a network of 20 autonomous and independent organizations in the Global South. The title of Mahnaz Afkhami’s presentation will be International Conventions on Women– Successes or Failures?
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Lifetime Achievement Award Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans 2015
Time: 6:00 pm Location: Metropolitan Club in New York City Description: Mahnaz Afkhami will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans’ Annual Gala at the Metropolitan Club in New York City. The Gala will celebrate the PAAIA’s accomplishments over the past year, as well as honor three distinguished Iranian Americans: Mahnaz Afkhami, Fereydoun Nazem, and Cyrus Amir-Mokri. Awardee Fereydoun Nazem will be presented with the Philanthropist of the Year award, and Cyrus Amir-Mokri will be bestowed with the Career Achievement Award. A write-up of the event is available here.
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The World We Seek: Reigniting the Dialogue on Human Security
Time: 9:00 am – 5:30 pm Location: Kenney Auditorium (Johns Hopkins SAIS), 1740 Massachusetts Ave Washington, DC 20036 Description: The Women’s Learning Partnership and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies will present a day-long event examining and re-imagining the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the foundation for global security and sustainable development, using conversation, poetry, film, and music. International experts and young activists will reignite and reorient dialogue on the place of human rights in policy-making, and underscore the integral role of women’s advancement in sustaining human rights. The program will feature proven models for alleviating poverty, improving health and sanitation, and countering violent extremism, as well as the Washington D.C. premiere of the WLP documentary film: Human Rights: The Unfinished Journey. Mahnaz Afkhami, President and CEO of WLP, and Vali Nasr, Dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, will present opening …
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