In front of a sold-out conference of 400, Nazanin Afshin-Jam, a pilot-turned-beauty-queen-turned-activist, led a discussion about Canada’s human rights challenges in the new Middle East, on Wednesday.
On stage at the “Canada and the New Middle East” conference in Toronto, the 32-year-old international activist spoke about Iran as a nuclear threat, and the country’s gross human rights abuses, with unwavering conviction. An Iranian-Canadian, Afshin-Jam is President and Co-Founder of Stop Child Executions.
Despite the former Miss World Canada’s recent notoriety as the bride of National Defence Minister Peter MacKay, Afshin-Jam proved that amongst former beauty queens, she is more Diane Sawyer than Sharon Stone.
“The Iranian people want democracy, freedom, and rule of law,” said Afshin-Jam. “We need to ask the right questions when focusing on the problem being with a nuclear Iran, and instead [look at] the nature of the regime.”
Fluent in English, French and Persian, Afshin-Jam boasts a Master’s Degree and the highest rank in the Royal Canadian Air Cadets. Oh, and she’s dabbled in modeling, acting and singing, too.
Off-stage, Afshin-Jam is charismatic, teeming with newlywed energy and passion for her projects, including her first book the Tale of Two Nazanins, scheduled for release in May of this year. The book weaves together the stories of two non-fictitious women of the same name; herself, and Nazanin Fatehi, a 17-year-old Kurdish-Iranian sentenced to execution, who Afshin-Jam later helped rescue.
Toronto Standard caught up with Afshin-Jam backstage at the “Canada and the New Middle East” conference to chat about politics, the Academy Award-winning Iranian film A Separation — which she still has yet to see, but is looking forward to — and how to create change in Iran.
What did you think of the conference?
Overall, it was an amazing event! There were a lot of experts and speakers from all across the country uniting together to speak on some of the key issues that involve the Middle East and affect Canadians. So, it’s very timely, particularly for me, in terms of Iran, and human rights, and the nuclear question. It was informative.
A Separation came out and it won the Academy Award, the first for an Iranian film. Since then, the government of Iran has called it “a win against Israel,” because there was also an Israeli film in contention. What is your take on this?
I haven’t even seen the movie yet, I mean, as an Iranian, I was proud that this Iranian film got recognized, just because we’ve got such amazing filmmakers in Iran, and of course, as you know, they’re so limited in how they can spread their messages. Sometimes there’s underlying political messages but they have to be so creative in the way that they display them in an artistic form. It was nice that this movie got some recognition, because others equally could have gotten an Academy Award, but it was their time. So, it was nice, but, I don’t think this regime should take any claim to fame for this — it is not their right, it was solely the filmmakers and the artists themselves that should have this glory, and it is unfortunate they’re using this as a political tool to spread a different kind of message. I don’t agree with that.
What can Canadians do to help better life in Iran?
The first thing they can do is just inform themselves on the truth. For a long time in the West; Canadian, American and the European public have been confused about who Iranians are. They might see movies and have this stereotypical image of a terrorist, or some, dirty, bearded man, who wants to annihilate the world, or these women, veiled and submissive to their husbands, but it’s nothing of the sort. There’s a small faction of hardliners in power who abuse the rights of people, and want the continuation of stoning of women, or the execution of children, or the persecution of ethnic or religious minorities, but the vast majority of Iranians want freedom, democracy, the rule of law, human rights, just like anybody here. And Iranian women are actually really strong, strong people. They’re among the biggest fighters.
In Iran, you’ll see the ones coming out and standing up for their rights. I want people to know about the division between hardliners and the rest of Iranians, and know that Iranians want freedom, they don’t want war in their country. They want to be friends with Israel, they want to be friends with the West, they want to have normal relations, so yeah, just first, informing themselves, and then second of all, learning about what’s taking place in Iran in terms of the human rights abuses, and knowing what to do in terms of pressuring our own government and funding different organizations, human rights organizations and pro-democracy organizations so that Iranian people and civil society can regain their country and stand up and fight for their rights.
There is that desire for Canadians and Americans to follow this cause, to get involved — but what’s a good way for Canadians to stay in tune with what is going on?
One of the ways is to let their local media know that they are interested in this, so that when Michael Jackson dies, everything doesn’t stop. That’s what happened when the June 2009 presidential elections took place. Millions of people on the street, news following everyday and then Michael Jackson died, and that was it; that was the last cause for the Iranian people, so, they have to let their news stations know that people want to know, we don’t even know what’s been happening in Iran. Let [the media] know that we’re still interested, sign petitions, get involved in Amnesty International, different human rights groups and volunteer — just be supportive, symbolically of the Iranian people inside the country. There’s nothing more that Iranian people want — they get so much energy when they know those on the outside are rooting for them, whether it’s getting a sign from some celebrity that says, “we support you, the Iranian people,” there are so many creative ways, you don’t have to do the traditional political routes to be an activist, you can write a song, or a poem, or paint a picture and everybody can do their own thing to support the people. Yeah, to keep it going.
You have a book coming out soon. I’m looking forward to reading it. Congratulations. What is your book about?
The Tale of two Nazanins will come out in May. Harper Collins is publishing the book, and it basically weaves my life with the life of Nazanin Fatahi, the other Nazanin who was on death row in Iran. It talks about her struggles, and what I did, and how I led the campaign to save her life.
Do you have a favourite thing about being Canadian?
My favourite thing about being Canadian, is having freedom.
__________
Joanna Adams writes for Toronto Standard. Follow her on Twitter at†@nowstarringTO.
For more, follow us on Twitter at @TorontoStandard and subscribe to our newsletter.
