Colvin Center to Host Panel on Women’s Uprising in Iran, Nov. 16

Women. Life. Freedom.

Those three words and the fires women are using to burn their hijab have ignited a protest across Iran, challenging the Islamic republic and the face of a nation.

The Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting at the School of Communication and Journalism and the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives will host a conversation on Wednesday, November 16, at 6 pm to discuss the growing movement, its significance and its potential impact on the future of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The panel will include:

• Leili Soltani, director of Voice of America’s (VOA) Persian language broadcasts to Iran. Born in Tehran, she is an award-winning broadcast journalist, investigative reporter and anchor who served for the past five years as VOA’s Persian executive producer in charge of live and special programming. 
• Roya Hakakian, poet, writer, journalist and human rights activist. Roya came to the U.S. from Iran as a refugee. She is the author of several books, including Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran. She is a co-founder of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center and is a member of the Council for Foreign Relations. 

The discussion will be moderated by Sara Valinejad Lejuez, journalism instructor and former producer with Radio Farda and Voice of America. Lejuez lived in Tehran, the capital of Iran, until she was 19. 

The event will begin with a special recorded video message by Christiane Amanpour, chief international anchor for CNN and a longtime friend and colleague of Marie Colvin, who was killed by the Syrian regime in 2012.

The conversation will begin at 6:30 pm in the Charles B. Wang Center Theater. A reception, beginning at 6 pm, will precede the conversation in the theater lobby.

The event is free and open to the public. Registration is recommended.