Reflections on Various Aspects and Impacts of Woman, Life, Freedom Movement in Iran and Internationally

Sunday, March 10, 2024 I 11:30 AM | Zoom

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About the Speakers

Farzaneh Bazrpour has worked as a journalist for 13 years, after being forced to flee Iran in 2009 due to her political beliefs. She served as an editorial member of JARAS website and was an activist in the Green Movement. In Malaysia in 2010, she launched RASA TV channel, featuring a one-hour news program on satellite TV.  RASA TV was a grassroots effort, funded by contributions from many individuals from inside and outside of Iran. Unfortunately, it was shut down in 2012, prompting her move to Norway. Ms. Bazrpour holds a BA in Political Sciences from Beheshti University and studied for an MA in International Relations at Allameh Tabatabaee University, both in Tehran. While in Norway, she pursued an MPhil in Sustainable Development, focusing on natural resource management at the Norwegian university of science and technology (NTNU). She has also worked as a freelance journalist.   In October 2022, she relocated to the United States as press analyzer and now collaborates with Iran International TV channel at their Washington studio.

Azadeh Momeni holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. She has studied International Relations, Foreign Policy Analysis, Middle East Politics, Women’s Studies, Quantitative Methods, and Electoral Politics. She has about 15 years of combined experience in both academia and non-academic environments as a researcher, policy analyst, and policy advisor. Her collaborations extend to UNODC, UNICEF, and Amnesty International with contribution to global policy initiatives. Azadeh is also a painter. She has contributed artistically to the community, messaging socially and politically relevant themes through her works. Some of her paintings were displayed at different exhibitions and galleries including Carleton University Art Gallery in Ottawa, Public Service Alliance of Canada in Ottawa, Gallery 1313 in Toronto, and Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa. Her recent project examines the intersection of Art and Politics with a focus on the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in Iran.

Homa Hoodfar is a Professor of Anthropology, Emerita, at Concordia University, Montreal. Her field-based research and expertise are in political economy and legal anthropology; focusing on reproductive rights; Afghan women and youth refugees in Iran and Pakistan; women in formal and informal politics; hijab and dress codes as political institutions; gender and citizenship; Muslim women’s sports as politics; and gender and the public sphere in Muslim contexts. Describing herself as an academic in the service of civil society, Professor Hoodfar has also been actively involved in the Research for Advocacy and Publication Division of Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) Network’s whose mission is to promote gender equality and plural democracy, since the 1980s.  Her books include Women’s Sport as Politics in Muslim Contexts WLUML (2015); Sexuality in Muslim Contexts: Restrictions and Resistance (edited with Anissa Hellie) London: Zed Books (2012); Electoral Politics: Making Quotas work for women (co-authored with Mona Tajali) London: WLUML (2011); The Muslim Veil in North America: issues and debates (edited with Sajida Alvi, and Sheila McDonough) Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press (2003); Between Marriage and the Market, Berkeley: University of California Press (1997); Development, Change, and Gender in Cairo: A View from the Household (edited with Diane Singerman) Indiana University Press (1996,);and numerous articles based on her different research projects.

Saeed Paivandi has been working as a full Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Lorraine, Nancy, France since 2011. Prior to this, he was associated as a senior faculty with the University of Paris 8 (1996-2011). Paivandi holds Habilitation (HDR), Ph.D. and MA degrees in Sociology of Education from University of Paris and MA in Sociology from University of Tehran. His areas of research and specialization include Sociology of Education. Part of his research focuses on the Iranian education system in a comparative perspective and the experience of the Islamization of schools and universities in Iran since 1979. At the same time, he worked on social movements in Iran and studied the role of intellectuals. His latest article, “Unaccomplished Protest Movements in Iran and the Challenge of Building a Collective Imaginary of Political Change””(Freedom of Thought Journal, n° 13, 2023) is a critical review of the social movements of the last 15 years in Iran.