Mahnaz Afkhami

Mahnaz Afkhami (Persian: مهناز افخمی; born January 14, 1941) is an Iranian-American women's rights activist who served in the Cabinet of Iran from 1976 to 1978. She is founder and president of Women's Learning Partnership (WLP), executive director of the Foundation for Iranian Studies, and former Minister of Women's Affairs in Iran's pre-Revolution government. She has lived in exile in the United States since 1979. Afkhami has been an advocate for women's rights since the 1970s. She has founded and headed several international non-governmental organizations focused on advancing the status of women in Iran and later around the world. She has lectured and published extensively on the international women's movement, women's human rights, women in leadership, women and technology, the status of women in Muslim-majority societies, and on women's participation in civil society-building and democratization. Her books have been translated into multiple languages and distributed internationally.