The Wilson Center’s Middle East Program is honored to host leading women’s rights advocate and former Minister for Women’s Affairs in Iran Mahnaz Afkhami at the 2023 Haleh Esfandiari Forum.

Afkhami launched her journey in activism more than four decades ago. Prior to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, she played a key role in the passage of the progressive 1975 Family Protection Law as Iran’s Minister for Women’s Affairs, founded the Association of Iranian University Women, and served as Secretary General of the Women’s Organization of Iran. Afkhami has gone on to co-found and head several organizations advocating for women’s rights. She is the founder and president of Women’s Learning Partnership, a partnership of 20 women’s rights organizations based in the Global South working in 28 languages in 60 countries to promote women’s leadership and human rights.

In conversation with MEP Director Merissa Khurma, Afkhami will address the history and background of the women’s uprising in Iran, as detailed in her new memoir The Other Side of Silence: A Memoir of Exile, Iran, and the Global Women’s Movement. Afkhami will discuss the most imminent challenges facing women today, and ways the international community can band together to support women and girls globally, but particularly in Iran where young girls and women are leading protests and calls for change.