Mahnaz Afkhami Tells Her Story of Becoming a Champion of Women’s Rights

BOCA RATON, Fla. (April 21, 2022) – Florida Atlantic University’s Center for Peace, Justice and Human Rights in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters recently hosted Mahnaz Afkhami with the lecture “Defending Women’s Human Rights.” Afkhami relayed her story of going from an unassuming English professor to a champion of women’s rights in Iran, to her exile to the United States.  

Afkhami was the first Iranian Minister of Women’s Affairs. In 1978, while on a visit to the United States, she learned that she could never go home again. She had been declared an apostate and enemy of the Iranian Revolution and was on its death list. She began to rebuild her life in the United States, becoming an architect of the women’s movement in the Global South and a global defender of women’s human rights.

Afkhami is now the President and CEO of the international non-governmental organization Women’s Learning Partnership, an organization consisting of 20 autonomous women’s rights groups in the Global South that promote women’s leadership and human rights. This non-profit, non-governmental organization, which has Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, helps individuals and organizations achieve their potential for promoting women’s advancement through training programs, advocacy campaigns, research and outreach to tens of thousands every year.

 Afkhami’s book “The Other Side of Silence: A Memoir of Exile, Iran and the Global Women’s Movement,” will be available in November 2022 through Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

The Center for Peace, Justice and Human Rights at FAU is a university-wide, multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary effort that brings together scholars, students, practitioners and community leaders engaged in the themes of social justice, human rights, and peace and nonviolence. The evening with Mahnaz Afkhami was co-sponsored by the Chastain Johnston Middle Eastern Lecture Series, and the Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.