Roya Hakakian

Roya Hakakian is an Iranian-American writer, journalist, public speaker, and a renowned voice on Middle Eastern women's rights, particularly focusing on the plight of women in Iran. Her opinion columns, essays, and book reviews appear in leading English language publications, including the New York Times, New York Review of Books, and The Atlantic. She contributes to the Persian Literary Review and served as the poetry editor of Par Magazine. Hakakian's works often explore themes related to Iran, including societal and political issues.

Hakakian is the author of several significant works, including "Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran," which was a Publishers Weekly's Best Book of the Year and an Elle Magazine's Best Nonfiction Book of 2004. Her latest book, "A Beginner's Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious," provides insight into the unique position of America as a beacon of hope for immigrants and refugees, and has been praised as a contemporary Tocquevillian account by The Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe. She also authored "Assassins of the Turquoise Palace," a detailed account of Tehran’s terror campaign against Iranian dissidents in Western Europe, which was named a Notable Book of 2011 by the New York Times Book Review. Additionally, Hakakian has written two collections of poetry in Persian, the first of which, "For the Sake of Water," received honorable mention in the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World and was nominated as the poetry book of the year by Iran News in 1993.

A recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction in 2008, Hakakian has engaged with numerous prestigious institutions and has spoken on a variety of platforms, including CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS and MSNBC. She has also appeared in Washington D.C. for the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and the State Department with US Secretary Antony Blinken. Hakakian's insights have been sought after at various venues, addressing issues such as the historic trial following the assassination of Iranian Kurdish leaders in Berlin and the complexities surrounding the hijab in both Western democracies and autocratic societies. Born and raised in a Jewish family in Tehran, Hakakian came to the United States in May 1985 on political asylum, continually drawing from her personal experiences to enrich her discussions and writings.