April 2019 NEWSLETTER ISSUE II

April 2019 Newsletter Issue II

Save the Date - June 2, 2019

Iranian American Women Foundation is hosting its 18th Iranian American Women's Leadership Conference. The conference will take place at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Waterfront on June 2, 2019. It will feature speakers from various industries sharing their empowering stories. This event will be a great opportunity to connect with members of the IAWF community. You can register and purchase your tickets here .

April 27th: Celebration of Iranian American Women Day in Los Angeles

We would like to congratulate all Iranian American women every where for having been recognized by the City of Los Angeles as a formidable group of immigrants who have impacted one of the greatest cities in America. Los Angeles is the third largest economy in the US, and benefits greatly from the contributions of Iranian-American women across the city. We are proud to have been recognized by LA City Council, and Mayor Garcetti, with a day to call our own: April 27th. As of 2018, April 27th is officially recognized as "Iranian American Women's Day" in Los Angeles! IAW Foundation is honored to be the force behind this accomplishment for our community in Los Angeles, and we thank Maryam Zar for spearheading the effort and helping write the Resolution that passed in City Council.
To expand the scope of this incredible recognition, everyone is invited and encouraged to publish the attached flyer on their social media (#IranianAmericanWomensDay). It is our hope that by spreading the word about this amazing recognition, we can inspire other cities to follow the example of Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti to recognize and celebrate April 27th as "Iranian American Women's Day".

IAWF Calls for Collective Assitance to Flood-stricken communities in Iran

(Photo courtesy of ISNA)

Iranian American Women Foundation (IAWF) is saddened by the recent flooding in vast parts of Iran, millions of Iranians are displaced and have lost all their belongings. As numerous organizations inside and outside the country have gathered their forces to assist the flood-stricken areas and their residents, IAWF encourages everyone to take it upon themselves to donate to accredited relief and humanitarian organizations in order to help those in need in our home country. We encourage our supporters to contribute to "Moms Against Poverty" ( MAP ) in Northern California and Keep Children in School ( KCIS ) in Southern California who are raising fund for this cause.

Chapter Member Spotlights

Fatemeh Ziai New York	Fatemeh Ziai is Chief of Staff of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Field Support at the United Nations. She has also held a number of other leadership positions at the Organization, including as a Director in the Office of Human Resources Management, working on internal UN reform, Chief of Staff/ Director of Political Affairs in Lebanon, and Chief of the Peacekeeping Training Service. From November 2001 - July 2002, she was a member of the UN team at the Bonn Peace Talks and helped set up the UN Mission that followed in Afghanistan. You can read more here .
Maryam Zar Southern California	Maryam is a Commissioner on the Los Angeles Commission on the Status of Women. She is an Iranian born American and former Middle East Correspondent based in Iran. She is Chair of the Pacific Palisades Community Council, Vice-Chair of the Westside Regional Alliance of Councils, founding Chair of the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness and an elected Assembly Delegate. In 2016, she was LA County Volunteer of the Year and named LAFD Honorary Fire Chief. You can read more here .
Malekeh Amini Northern California	Malekeh Amini is the Founder and CEO of Ava Health Technologies, a healthcare software company dedicated to improving diagnosis and treatments in Autism, ADHD and other brain disorders. Prior to Ava Health, Malekeh was the Senior Vice President of Product & Business Development at Base Health where she provided the vision connecting new breakthroughs in medical science to the needs of healthcare organizations and consumers. A former consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and the Parthenon group, Malekeh has provided strategic, operational, and fundraising advice to healthcare and education organizations globally. You can read more here .

Circle of 1000s Featured Member

Sima Talai inspires those around her with her work ethic and her knack for connecting people. Along with raising two successful sons, she has worn many hats. Her varied work experience includes owning a retail boutiques, working as an event planner and consultant, and managing an enormous furniture and design showroom at the SF Design Center finally currently she is with Berkshire Hathaway home services. Having said that, she's truly found her calling in helping the underprivileged, particularly children.

You can read more here .

Circle of Men

Faraj Aalaei , an Iranian American immigrant and a 35-year veteran of the communications industry, has raised funds in excess of $370 million for his semiconductor companies from private and public investors, executed several M&A deals and taken his previous start-up through IPO. Prior to joining Aquantia, Faraj was the guiding force behind Centillium's successful track record as a leading innovator of high performance, cost effective semiconductor solutions for broadband access networks. Under his leadership, Centillium went from seed financing to NASDAQ IPO in 3 years, the fastest ever for a semiconductor company. An industry pioneer and holder of three patents, Aalaei has spent the last three decades at the forefront of technical advancements - from helping develop the world's first broadband modem for CATV networks to the introduction of Centillium's high capacity convergent technology for DSL, optical and VoIP applications.

Emotional Escapes: Affective Sites and Spaces of Cultural Dissent in Iran


	(Photo Courtesy of Stanford University website)

Pamela Karimi, Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture at the University of Massachusetts will deliver a talk titled " Emotional Escapes: Affective Sites and Spaces of Cultural Dissent in Iran" on May 9, 2019 at the Stanford University in San Francisco. Dr. Karimi analyzes the "underground" life of Iranians inside the country, "zirzamini" is a term that is commonly used by many who refer to activities and daily lives that defy the Islamic ruling system in the country and practice civil disobedience in the sphere of thier private lives. Stanford University website writes "Examining selected covert designs and underground spaces from several decades, Karimi illuminates the corporeal and visceral forces that have served to drive creative agents in Iran toward increasingly original forms of resistance that are played out across counter-institutions, escapist sites, underground art scenes, and other defiant spaces. Intertwining the accounts of the production and consumption of architecture and artistic sites with theories of affect, the talk shows how creative dissent in Iran takes place and evolves across human bodies and non-human agents. Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies and the Art, Social Space and Public Discourse Initiative has sponsored this talk. Pamela Karimi is an architect and an architectural historian who earned her Ph.D. from the History, Theory & Criticism of Art and Architecture Program at MIT in 2009. Her primary field of specialization is art, architecture, and visual culture of the modern Middle East. She is the author of Domesticity and Consumer Culture in Iran: Interior Revolutions of the Modern Era You can read more about Pamela Karimi's research and her upcoming talk here .

Book of the Month


	(Photo courtesy of Routledge)

Iranian Culture: Representation and Identity

Dr. Nasrin Rahimieh's " Iranian Culture, Representation and identity explores Iranian identity inside and outside the country. Prof. Rahimieh dives into the paradoxes of culture, identity and the paradoxical though parallel paths of each among the nation. The book analyzes the complex relationship between the way Iranians view their identity and culture in the post-1971 Islamic revolution and among Iranians in diaspora. Nasrin Rahimieh studies the impact of 1979 revolution and the dominance of religion on a nation that was ruled by monarchy and a long period of dreams and hopes and aspirations between the pride and the disavowed manifestation of the Iranian identity. Nasrin Rahimieh is the Howard Baskerville Professor of Humanities in the Department of Comparative Literature at UC Irvine. Her research focuses on intercultural encounters between Iran and the West, modern Persian literature, literature of exile and displacement, women's writing, and post-revolutionary Iranian cinema.