Nazanin Afshin-Jam
| Nazanin Afshin-Jam | |
|---|---|
Nazanin Afshin-Jam at TEDxVancouver 2010
|
|
| Born |
April 11, 1979 Tehran, Iran |
| Residence | Vancouver, British Columbia |
| Title | Miss World Canada 2003 |
| Spouse(s) | Peter MacKay (m. 2012) |
| Children |
|
| Parents |
|
| Awards |
Miss World Canada 2003 (winner) Miss World 2003 (1st runner-up) |
Nazanin Afshin-Jam (Persian: نازنین افشینجم, born April 11, 1979) is an Iranian-Canadian entertainer, public speaker and human rights activist. She is a former Miss World Canada. She is also president and co-founder of Stop Child Executions. She immigrated to Canada with her family in 1981. She is married to Peter MacKay, as of 2013, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.
Nazanin Afshin-Jam was born on April 11, 1979 in Tehran, Iran. Her father was the head of the Sheraton Hotel in Tehran (now the Tehran Homa Hotel) which was frequented by westerners. During the Iranian revolution her father was jailed by revolutionary guards. After he was freed from prison he fled Iran with his family to Spain, and after a year moved to Canada, settling in Vancouver.
Afshin-Jam graduated from the University of British Columbia with degrees in international relations and political science. Following her matriculation, Afshin-Jam served with the Red Cross as a Global Youth Educator, becoming involved in such matters as land mines, children and war, the poverty-disease cycle, and natural disasters. She returned to university and received M.A. in diplomacy with a concentration in international conflict management from Norwich University.
In 2003, Afshin-Jam became Miss World Canada and joined in the Miss World contest in Sanya, China, where she ranked second.
Afshin-Jam was opposed to the death penalty being applied to 18-year-old Iranian woman Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi, who was sentenced to hang for stabbing one of three men who tried to rape her and her niece in Karaj in March 2005. She started a campaign to help save the life of this minor including a petition which attracted more than 350,000 signatures worldwide. She has also dedicated her song Someday, one of the twelve songs on her similarly titled album Someday to Nazanin Fatehi. Eventually, with pressure from the international community, Nazanin Fatehi was granted a new trial by the head of Judiciary in June 2006. In January 2007, Nazanin Fatehi was exonerated of murder charges and was released after Afshin-Jam raised $43,000 on-line for bail while her lawyers worked on her case. For her efforts in helping save Nazanin Fatehi, Afshin-Jam was awarded the "hero for human rights award" from Youth For Human Rights International and Artists for Human Rights.The Tale of Two Nazanins by Afshin-Jam and Susan McClelland, chronicling the divergent lives of the 2 Iranian Nazanins whose lives intersected during Fatehi's trial, was published by HarperCollins.
...
Wikipedia