“The grim truth is that women who are struggling to advance human rights and create secular, pluralistic, democratic societies, face grave challenges rooted in tradition and history. Traditional social and cultural norms have relegated Middle Eastern women and girls to a private space, and they often lack the social, economic, and political power they need to overcome antagonistic groups and regressive policy,” Afkhami stated as a witness testifying at the hearing before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Operation and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy, and Global Women’s Issues and Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Central Asia Affairs spotlighting Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.
CNN / By Christiane Amanpour / Part 2; Part 3
Women’s rights have advanced in many Muslim countries, but women still suffer from more inequality than anywhere else. Joining Christiane Amanpour are three women who’ve made it their mission to promote gender equality: the president and CEO of the Women’s Learning Partnership, Mahnaz Afkhami, she’s a former minister for women’s affairs in Iran; Asma Khader, who is secretary general of the Jordanian National Commission for Women and a former culture minister; and Lina Abou Habib, executive director of a Lebanese organization that tries to empower women.
New School for Social Research / By Mahnaz Afkhami
Mahnaz Afkhami delivers the opening remarks during a one-day conference in cooperation with the Social Research Journal, entitled “2020 Vision: Mobilizing for Women’s Rights and Eliminating Violence Against Women.” The conference keynote speakers were Shirin Ebadi, Thoraya Obaid, Mary Robinson, and Melanne Verveer.
BBC Persian Hardtalk / By Enayat Fani Afkhami looks back on the complex issues of advancing women’s rights in Iran: from her time working as Minister for Women’s Affairs under the Shah, and using economic development goals as a ways of promoting women’s development, to the progresses made and lost in family law, to the [...]
Washington TV / By Amir Irani-Tehrani
On November 6, Ms. Afkhami was featured on Mehdi Falahati’s Persian-language program “Rou dar Rou” (Face-to-Face), produced by Voice of America. During the interview she discussed her professional journey, as well as the role of women in Iran’s democracy movement and their use of ICTs to take their message to the international community.
At The American Academy in Berlin / Watch
The most taxing contradiction women leaders in Muslim countries face today is the one between the demands of modernity and the requirements of tradition as determined in advance by the modern Islamist world view. At the center of this conflict is the dilemna of Muslim women’s human rights: whether muslim women have rights because they are human beings or whether they have rights because they are Muslim women.
Urdu VOA News / By Tabinda Naeem
Mahnaz Afkhami, president of the Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development and Peace and Sabira Qureshi, Women and Human Rights Activist and Ex Member of the Pakistan Commission on the Status of Women voice their thoughts about increasing extremist approach of Taliban on women rights in Islam and how women of Pakistan can stop this religious extremism.
Women’s Learning Partnership
Women’s Learning Partnership president Mahnaz Afkhami welcomes participants to the final session of the national institute for women’s leadership and training of trainers held in Brazil in 2008.
VOA / By Julie Vahdati
A Woman’s World: Films About Muslim Women From Around The World
War, violence, extremism, fundamentalism, and restrictive legislation are but the most striking of the hurdles women must overcome as they strive for the most rudimentary of rights. The 25-minute documentary tells the stories of women activists from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East who, working in partnership, have developed and implemented strategies to overcome these challenges.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011