Farnaz Fassihi

Farnaz Fassihi (Persian: فرناز فصیحی, born May 25, 1971) is an award winning Iranian-American journalist. She is a senior staff writer for The Wall Street Journal covering the Middle East. .[1] Fassihi is also the author of Waiting for An Ordinary Day, a memoir of her four years covering the Iraq war and witnessing the unraveling of social life for Iraqi citizens. Fassihi won six national journalism awards for her coverage of the Iranian presidential elections in 2009.

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Life

Farnaz Fassihi was born in the United States to Iranian parents and grew up in Tehran and Portland, Oregon. She received a B.A. in English from Tehran University and an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.[1] Fassihi is the great great grand-daughter of Princess Taj al-Saltanah Qajar, the notable daughter of Iran's ruler Naser el-Din Shah Qajar. Taj al-Saltaneh was a pioneer of women's rights in Iran and a prominent member of The Society of Women's Freedom and Iran's first female memorist. Her memoirs, translated into English under the title of "Crowning Anguish: Memoirs of a Persian Princess from the Harem to Modernity 1884-1914", is held in the archives of Iran's National Library.

Career

Fassihi is widely known for penning a famous email in 2004 about the deteriorating situation in Iraq, which was hailed as the first unvarnished account of the war. The email was published in newspapers, websites and blogs around the world and became the subject of a Doonesbury cartoon. Her email is included in an anthology of historical letters written by American women, Women’s Letters, America from the Revolutionary War to the Present.

Fassihi contributed an essay about the Iraq war and propaganda in the book, What Orwell Didn’t Know, Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics.

Her essays on the subject of journalism, conflict reporting and courage have been published by Harvard University’s Neiman Reports magazine and Columbia Journalism Review.

She has been a guest speaker at numerous panels and journalism classes and a commentator for television and radio news shows on CNN, MSNBC, BBC, WNYC, PBS and National Public Radio.

Prior to joining the Journal, she was an investigative reporter and roving foreign correspondent for The Star-Ledger of Newark, NJ, a local news reporter for The Providence Journal in Rhode Island and a stringer for The New York Times in Iran and New York City.

She covered the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center from the foot of the collapsed towers and then followed the story to Afghanistan to cover the war. She served as the Journal's Baghdad bureau chief from 2002-2006 covering the war and its aftermath. From 2006-present she has been based in Beirut, Lebanon covering the Middle East.

She has been covering Iran for more than a decade and spent two months in Tehran during the 2009 presidential elections.

Awards

In 2010, Fassihi won six journalism awards for her Iran coverage, "Hearts, Minds and Blood: the battle for Iran": The Robert F. Kennedy Award for best international reporting in print; The Overseas Press Club's top award--Hal Boyle Award-- for best international reporting in print; Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism from University of Oregon; The Taylor Family Award from Harvard University for Fairness and Accuracy in print journalism; Sigma Delta Chi award from The Society of Professional Journalists for best international reporting; National Journalism Award for best reporting in print from The Asian American Journalists Association.

In May 2006, Fassihi was awarded the prestigious Henry Pringle Lecture Award for her Iraq coverage by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, becoming the youngest person honored with the award. Her coverage of the EgyptAir flight 990 crash won the New England News Executive Award as well as a finalist nomination for the Livingston Award.

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