Speakers 2019


Masih Alinejad

Masih Alinejad

Journalist

Alijenad was born as Masoumeh Alinejad but uses the first name “Masih” (anointed or Messiah) which is the title of Jesus of Nazareth in Islam and Christianity. Alinejad was politically active from a young age and was arrested as an activist for producing leaflets critical of the Government in 1994. …more

 

Roya Boroumand

Roya Boroumand

Roya Boroumand is the Executive Director of ABC. She has a PhD in history of international relations from France and is a specialist in Iran’s post-Second World War history. She is a former consultant with the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch and has researched and written about women’s rights and family law in North Africa. …more

 

Ladan bo

Ladan Boroumand

Ladan Boroumand has a Master’s degree in political sociology and a PhD in history from France. She is a former visiting fellow at the International Forum for Democratic Studies and is the author of la Guerre des Principes (1999), …more

 

Maziar Bahari

Maziar Bahari

Maziar Bahari is an Iranian Canadian journalist and filmmaker. He was a reporter for Newsweek from 1998 to 2011. A retrospective of Bahari’s films was organized by the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in November 2007. During the 2009 Iranian Election Protests he was arrested without charge, and detained for 118 days. In September 2009, Bahari was nominated for the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord. …more

 

Mehrdad Amanat

Mehrdad Amanat

Founder of The Amanat Trust, Dr. Amanat trained as a Civil Engineer and has been active in the field of housing development in California. He also has earned his Ph.D. in history from UCLA, and is the author of Jewish Identities in Iran: Resistance and Conversion to Islam and the Bahá’í Faith as well as regularly contributing to Encyclopedia Iranica. …more

 

Farhad Sabetan

Farhad Sabetan

Farhad Sabetan teaches Economics at California State University, East Bay for the past seven years and has been a research economist in the private and public sectors for more than 15 years. He is currently a spokesperson for Bahá’í International Community, United Nations, and has been involved in the human rights field in the past thirteen years. …more

 

Gissou Nia

Gissou Nia

Gissou Nia is a human rights lawyer with a passion for world politics, social good and solutions for global displacement. Before her most recent posting, Gissou served as the Executive Director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center and the Deputy Director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. …more

 

Homa Sarshar - Master of Ceremonies

Homa Sarshar (Master of Ceremonies)

Journalist, Author, Producer and Organizer

Homa Sarshar worked as a correspondent, reporter, and columnist for Zan-e Ruz weekly magazine and Kayhan daily newspaper in Iran from 1964 to 1978. During this period, she also worked as a television producer, director, and talk-show host for National Iranian Radio & Television. …more