Iran's New Crackdown on Women

Author : Dana Goldstein, The Daily Beast

In July, 2017, the Daily Beast covered the uptick in violence against prominent women’s rights activists in Iran. “Mahnaz Afkhami, who served as minister of state for women’s affairs under the pre-revolutionary government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and now runs the Women’s Learning Project in Bethesda, Maryland, says that in recent months, the Iranian…

Obama, Ahmadinejad, and the Women of Iran

Author : Mahnaz Afkhami, Women's Learning Partnership

This month, for the first time in 30 years, formal negotiations between the United States and Iran took place in a relatively positive atmosphere. As President Obama had promised during his campaign, dialogue took the place of diatribe. This is an important development. Why now and why during the term of the holocaust-denying, US-bashing President…

Executed But Not Forgotten: Iran’s Farrokhroo Parsay

Author : Liane Hansen, NPR

NPR interviews Mahnaz Afkhami about Farrokhroo Parsa, the Minister of Education in Iran from 1968 to 1977. Ms. Parsa was charged with corruption after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and executed on charges of corruption. In the interview, Afkhami discusses  the role that Ms. Parsay played as both her personal mentor and as a pioneer for…