Director of Iran Programs
Sahar Namazikhah is the Director of Iran Programs at the George Mason University’s Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution. She is also pursuing her PhD at George Mason’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, with a focus on peacebuilding and nonviolence movements. Sahar is a journalist with seventeen years of professional experience in the leading independent and nongovernmental media outlets in Iran and later in the United States. In 2005 Sahar was selected as a Sauvé Scholar at McGill University where she pursued research and wrote about domestic and international conflicts related to Iran. She began her career in journalism when she was 19, completing her studies at the School of Journalism and a Bachelor’s Degree in French Literature. She began as a political reporter at Salam daily newspaper, then the only independent reformist newspaper in Iran. She continued social journalism while writing her Master’s Thesis on Religions and Human Rights. She has been the editor of leading newspapers in Iran, such as Shargh, Ham-Mihan, Bonyan, and Bahar. She has published hundreds of editorials and analytical reports on Iran’s conflicts, religious and cultural conflicts, ethnic minorities, students and women’s movements, civil society in Iran, and international relations.
Her latest pieces in English and Farsi: http://iwpr.net/people/saharnamazikhah
