Mahnaz Afkhami

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Mahnaz Afkhami
Mahnaz Afkhami

Mahnaz Afkhami (مهناز افخمي) is Founder and President of Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP), Executive Director of Foundation for Iranian Studies, and former Minister for Women's Affairs in Iran. Born in Kerman, Iran, she founded the Association of Iranian University Women and served as Secretary General of the Women's Organization of Iran prior to the Islamic revolution.

Living in exile in the United States, Afkhami has been an advocate of women's rights for more than three decades, having founded and headed several international non-governmental organizations focused on advancing the status of women. Formerly, she was President of the Sisterhood Is Global Institute. Afkhami is a Co-Chair of the Women Leaders Intercultural Forum and the Global Women’s Action Network for Children. She serves on the boards and steering committees of a number of international organizations including Global Fund for Women, International Museum of Women, Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, Women's Human Rights Net, Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, and World Movement for Democracy. She created the concept and mobilized support for the establishment of the Asian and Pacific Centre for Women and Development (APCWD) and the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW). She served as a member of Iran's High Council of Family Planning and Welfare, the board of trustees of Kerman University, and the board of trustees of Farah University for Women. Additionally, Afkhami has led numerous task forces on democratization, leadership, and women's human rights in the Global South including multinational delegations to the UN Human Rights Conference in Vienna (1993) and the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (1995).

Afkhami has lectured and published extensively on the international women’s movement, women's human rights, women in leadership, women and technology, and women's participation in civil society building and democratization. Among Ms. Afkhami's publications, which have been widely translated and internationally distributed, are Women and the Law in Iran (Foundation for Iranian Studies, 1993), In the Eye of the Storm: Women in Post Revolutionary Iran (Syracuse University Press, 1994), Women in Exile (University Press of Virginia, 1994), Faith and Freedom: Women's Human Rights In the Muslim World (Syracuse University Press, 1995), Claiming Our Rights: A Manual for Women's Human Rights Education in Muslim Societies (Sisterhood Is Global Institute, 1996), Muslim Women and the Politics of Participation (Syracuse University Press, 1997), Safe and Secure: Eliminating Violence Against Women and Girls in Muslim Societies (Sisterhood Is Global Institute, 1998), Leading to Choices: A Leadership Training Handbook for Women (Women's Learning Partnership, 2001), and Toward A Compassionate Society (Women's Learning Partnership, 2002).

Contents

[edit] Chronology

  • 2000– Present Founder and President of Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace
  • l981–Present Founder and Executive Director of Foundation for Iranian Studies
  • 1996–1999 President of Sisterhood Is Global Institute
  • l992–1996 Executive Director of Sisterhood Is Global Institute
  • 1989–1996 Vice-President of Sisterhood Is Global Institute
  • l979–l981 Consultant on Women and Development, Palo Alto, California
  • 1976–1978 Minister for Women's Affairs, Government of Iran
  • 1970–1979 Secretary General of the Women's Organization of Iran
  • 1968–1970 Chairman, English Department, National University of Iran
  • 1967–1968 Assistant Professor, Department of English, National University of Iran
  • 1966–1967 Lecturer, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Colorado
  • 1965–1966 Assistant Editor, Abstracts of English Studies, Boulder, Colorado

[edit] Books

  • Leading to Choices: A Leadership Training Handbook for Women, co-authored, Women’s Learning Partnership, Bethesda, MD, 2001. Published in Maghreby-Arabic, Shamy-Arabic, Assamese, English, French, Hausa, Malay, Meiteilon, Persian, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, and Uzbek editions forthcoming.
  • Safe and Secure: Eliminating Violence Against Women in Muslim Societies, co-authored, Sisterhood Is Global Institute, Bethesda, MD, 1998. Published in Arabic, English, French, and Persian.
  • Muslim Women and The Politics of Participation, co-edited with Erika Friedl, Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY, 1997.
  • Claiming Our Rights: A Manual for Women’s Human Rights Education in Muslim Societies, co-authored with Haleh Vaziri, Sisterhood Is Global Institute, Bethesda, MD, 1996. Published in: Arabic, Azeri, Bangla, English, Hindi, Malay, Persian, Russian, Urdu, and Uzbek.
  • Faith and Freedom: Women's Human Rights in the Muslim World, Syracuse University Press and I.B. Tauris, 1995.
  • Women and the Law in Iran (1967-1978), a compilation with introduction, Women's Center of the Foundation for Iranian Studies, 1994 (in Persian).
  • Women in Exile, The University Press of Virginia, 1994. Published in Bulgarian, English, German, Persian, Spanish, and Turkish.
  • In the Eye of the Storm: Women in Postrevolutionary Iran, edited with Erika Friedl, Syracuse University Press and I.B. Tauris, 1994.
  • Iran: A PreCollegiate Handbook, with Charlotte Albright, the Foundation for Iranian Studies, l992
  • Notes on the Curriculum and Materials for a Women's Studies Program for Iranian University Women, Tehran, l978. Manuscript prepared for the Women's Organization of Iran Center for Research on Women.
  • Iran's National Plan of Action for Integration of Women in Development: Theory, Structure and Implementation, Manuscript prepared for the Women's Organization of Iran, Center for Research on Women, Tehran, l978.

[edit] Articles

  • Readings in Feminist Theory, An Anthology (in Persian), with Goli Emami, forthcoming.
  • “Rights of Passage: Women Shaping the 21st Century,” in The Future of Women’s Rights: Global Visions & Strategies, edited by Joanna Kerr, Ellen Sprenger, and Alison Symington, 2004.
  • “Rights of Passage: Women Shaping the 21st Century,” Occasional Paper No.7, Association for Women’s Rights in Development, October 2002.
  • “Human Security: A Conversation,” in Social Research. The New School, New York: Vol. 69, No. 3, Fall 2002.
  • Biographical chapter in Narratives of a Middle Eastern Childhood edited by Elizabeth Fernea. University of Texas Press: 2002
  • “Epilogue: Our Shared Human Values” in To Mend the World edited Marjorie Agosín and Betty Jean Craige. White Pine Press, New York, 2002
  • “The Women’s Organization of Iran: Evolutionary Politics and Revolutionary Change,” in Women in Iran From the Rise of Islam to the Islamic Republic, edited by Lois Beck & Guity Nashat, 2002.
  • “Our Shared Humane Values,” In Touch, Women of Washington, Los Angeles & Orange County, April 2001, Vol.8. No.4.
  • “Harnessing Technology to Advance Women’s Human Rights,” Raising Our Voices, The Global Fund for Women: February 2001.
  • “Gender Apartheid, Cultural Relativism, and Women’s Human Rights in Muslim Societies,” in Women, Gender, and Human Rights: A Global Perspective, edited by Marjorie Agosín, Rutgers University Press, 2001.
  • “At the Crossroads of Tradition & Modernity: Personal Reflection,” SAIS Review, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Summer-Fall 2000, Vol. XX, No. 2.
  • Essay in Architects of Peace: Visions of Hope in Words and Images, a compilation of essays by 75 leading peacemakers–spiritual leaders, politicians, scientists, artists, and activists, edited by Michael Collopy and Jason Gardener. New World Library: October 2000.
  • “Cultural Relativism and Women’s Human Rights,” in Women and International Human Rights Law, edited by Kelly D. Askin and Dorean M. Koenig. Transnational Publishers, Inc., New York: 2000.
  • “A Vision of Gender in Culture” in Culture in Sustainable Development: Investing in Culture and Natural Endowments edited by Ismail Serageldin, Joan Martin-Brown. From a conference sponsored by the World Bank and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Bank, 1999.
  • “Gender Apartheid and the Discourse of Relativity of Rights in Muslim Societies,” in Religious Fundamentalisms and the Human Rights of Women, edited by Courtney Howland. St. Martin’s Press: 1999.
  • “A Woman in Exile,” in A Map of Hope, edited by Marjorie Agosin. Rutgers University Press: May 1999.
  • “Evolutionary Politics and Revolutionary Change,” Iran Nameh, Summer 1997.
  • “Towards Global Feminism: A Muslim Perspective,” in Radically Speaking: Feminism Reclaimed, edited by Diane Bell and Renate Klein. Spinifex Press: 1996.
  • “Universality and Relativism in the Beijing Platform for Action,” AWID News: March 1996.
  • "Identity and Culture: Women as Subjects and Agents of Cultural Change," in From Basic Needs to Basic Rights, The Institute for Women, Law, and Development: 1996.
  • “Beijing and Muslim Women,” in Muslim Politics Report. Council on Foreign Relations: November/December 1995.
  • “Resisting Fundamentalisms,” in Canadian Human Rights Foundation Newsletter, Fall 1995.
  • "Middle Eastern Women and Human Rights," in Women, Culture and Society: A Reader. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company: 1994.
  • “Rethinking Women’s Human Rights in the Middle East,” in Women, Culture and Society: A Reader, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1992.
  • "Other Voices: An Oral History of Iranian Women," in Nimeh Digar, November 1990.
  • "Exiles in Their Own Land," Ms. Magazine, November 1990.
  • "Iran: A Future in the Past— The Pre-revolutionary Women's Movement," in Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology, ed. Robin Morgan, New York, l984.
  • "Modern Poetry of Iran," Jahan Now, Tehran, l972.
  • "Influence of the Haiku on Modern American Poetry," Jahan Now, Tehran, l971.
  • A Comparative Study of the Translations of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Boulder, University of Colorado, l967.

[edit] External links