Dr. Mahnaz Shirali is an Iranian author and political sociologist professor at a university in France. Her Ph.D. thesis was about the crisis in the Iranian youth generation.
She was a professor at the Paris Institute of Political Studies as a political sociologist and an expert on Iran, as well as director of studies at the Catholic University of Paris.
She, as a writer and expert on Iran, has collaborated with various media around the world and Huffington Post.
She wrote several books in French and English. Among them is The Mystery of Contemporary Iran.
She is a human rights and Iranian women’s rights activist and has lectured at various congresses in the field.
Masih Alinejad
Masih Alinejad is an Iranian-American journalist, author, and women’s rights activist. Alinejad currently works as a presenter/producer at VOA Persian Service, Radio Farda, Manoto television.
In 2019, Alinejad sued the Iranian government in a U.S. federal court for harassment against her and her family. She released a book in 2018 called The Wind in My Hair that deals with her experiences growing up in Iran. In 2021, U.S. prosecutors charged four Iranian intelligence officials with plotting to kidnap a critic of the Iranian government; the target was not named, but Masih believes it was her.
Nazanin Boniadi
Nazanin Boniadi is a British actress and activist. Born in Tehran and raised in London, she went to university in the US. Her first major acting role as Leyla Mir in the medical drama General.
She was a spokesperson for Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), with a focus on the unjust conviction and treatment of Iranian youth, women, and prisoners of conscience, from 2009 until 2015. She has her own official blog page on the AIUSA website and continues to partner with them. In 2020, she was appointed as an ambassador for Amnesty International UK, with a focus on women and Iran.