At a conference entitled “Breaking Barriers: What will it take to achieve security, justice, and peace,” Manhaz Afkhami highlighted the threat of fundamentalism to human rights, peace, and women’s rights. “The characteristics of fundamentalism – fear of rapid change, modernity, an individual’s place in society, science, evolution, and all of the ramifications of those new…
Tag: Middle East
Mahnaz Afkhami Testifies at U.S. Senate Hearing "Women and the Arab Spring"
Mahnaz Afkhami testified at a US Senate Hearing on November 2, 2011, on the subject of women and the Arab Spring. “It is therefore of utmost importance for women’s equality in these countries undergoing radical transformation that the United States give its explicit support for women’s full and equal participation in national reform processes,” Afkhami…
Challenging the Architecture of Human Relations
In an interview with openDemocracy, Mahnaz Afkhami discusses the role of transnational women’s networks in promoting women’s rights around the globe. “We decided to establish a transnational women’s organization that focused on finding ways to dent if not immediately change this “architecture of human relations,” the way people relate to each other, make choices, and…
What Will Uprisings Mean For Women's Rights In The Arab World?
NPR News speaks with Mahnaz Afkhami and Lina Abou-Habib on the role of women in the pro-democracy uprisings of the Arab Spring. Afkhami speaks about democracy-building, family laws, and making space for inclusive civil society.
KQED Interview: Women in the Middle East
Mahnaz Afkhami speaks to KQED Public Radio on the revolutionary role of women in the Middle East. She is joined by Isobel Coleman, senior fellow for US foreign policy at the Council on Foreing Relations, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of books including “Infidel” and “The Caged Virgin.”
Learning Center Conducts Workshops on Empowerment of Women
VOA news interviews Mahnaz Afkhami on her work empowering women to be leaders through the Women’s Learning Partnership. In the article, Afkhami discusses the transnational nature of the partnership, the importance of horizontal leadership, and the need to provide women with a comprehensive set of skills to succeed.
A Beaten Path
At the time of the Constitutional Revolution of 1906, Iran was a society organized on precepts that for centuries has defined the subordinate position of women as the natural order of things. The nascent civil society faced the issue of women mostly as a problem between traditionalism and modernism. But as the moderns grew in…
Women are Driving Iran Toward Democracy
The images from Iran in the last two weeks have stunned the world: hundreds of thousands of women and men marching peacefully, first in support of reformist candidates and later protesting the government’s version of the results. Women played a prominent role at every level in this movement; in fact what unfolded in Iran would…