Feminist Advocacy, Family Law and Violence Against Women: Introduction

Author : Mahnaz Afkhami, Routledge

Early in my tenure as Secretary General at the Women’s Organization of Iran (WOI), I traveled with a small group of women to some forty towns and villages around Iran. We wanted to find out what would be most useful to the women themselves. What were their priorities? What were their most important challenges and…

Women’s Learning Partnership’s Project on Family Law Reform to Challenge Gender-Based Violence

Author : Ann Elizabeth Mayer and Mahnaz Afkhami, Faculty Scholarship at University of Pennsylvania Law

An international network of 20 autonomous nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) based primarily in transitioning and fragile states, Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP) is dedicated to enhancing universal human rights and gender equality, strengthening civil society, and empowering women to be active citizens and actors of change in their societies. Our mission is…

VOA Extended Profile: Historical Context for The Women's Movement in Iran, and the life and work of Mahnaz Afkhami

Author : Voice of America

The half hour video produced by VOA provides the historical context for the women’s movement in Iran, focusing on the life and work of Mahnaz Afkhami. The biopic covers her ten-year tenure as the Secretary General of the Women’s Organization of Iran and her three years in the Iranian cabinet as the first Minister of…

CNN's Amanpour: Panel Discussion with Activists on Women's Rights in the Middle East

Author : Christiane Amanpour, CNN

For International Women’s Day, Mahnaz Afkhami is interviewed by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on a panel of women’s rights activists. Afkhami discusses the importance of including women in political positions, the progress made in the Middle East, and hope for the future. Afkhami states: “There are many, many more women in power, in politics, in high-value…

BBC Persian TV Hard Talk [Be Ebarate Digar]: An Interview with Mahnaz Afkhami

Author : BBC Persian

BBC Persian TV’s Enayat Fani interviews Mahnaz Afkhami who looks back on the advancing of women’s rights in Iran, elaborating on the Family Protection Law. “Iran’s Family Protection Law which was ratified some forty years ago is still far ahead of the laws of other Middle Eastern countries,” says Afkhami, adding that the first thing…

Iranian Women Campaign To End Discriminatory Laws Against Them

Author : Judith Latham, VOA News

VOA News interviews Mahnaz Afkhami on Iran’s One Million Signatures Campaign, which seeks to change discriminatory laws against women. “Afkhami says the activists and their followers are extremely resilient, courageous, and inventive. ‘The reason the world heard so much about what was happening in Iran during the election is because of the sophisticated use of…