Maryam Nayeb Yazdi

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Maryam Nayeb Yazdi
Born1983
Mashhad, Iran
Other namesMai Love

Maryam Nayeb Yazdi (also known as Mai Love) (Persian: مریم نایب یزدی) is an Iranian-Canadian writer, editor, and consultant working in the field of human rights and online activism for social change. She is active in communicating news about human-rights infractions in Iran to Western audiences. She is also the founder of Seed Operations, a 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization.

Early life[edit]

Nayeb Yazdi was born in Mashhad, Iran, in 1983, but in 1989 she and her family filed for asylum in Canada and received refugee status. She grew up in Toronto and moved to the United States in 2019 to pursue nonprofit work. She is currently residing in Washington, DC.[1]

Career[edit]

While writing a piece on violence against women in Iran as part of her women's studies course at York University, she noticed that information about Iran is scarce in the English language. She created Faryad, an English-language cultural magazine meant to bridge the gap between Iranians in Iran and the Diaspora. In 2008, while she was working on Faryad, she created the inaugural edition of a publication created for the Tirgan Festival.[1][2] But when the protest movement erupted in Iran in 2009, she shifted her focus to human rights and became one of the pioneers of online activism. She created Persian2English.,[3][4] an acclaimed translation blog that ran from 2009 to 2016.

The Islamic Republic authorities had banned all international media and arrested many journalists and reporters. The human rights activists present in the country were exposing the situation in Persian language, making the international community more reliant on translations to know about the situation in Iran. Persian2English gathered the attention of international media, including Maclean's Magazine,[5] The Atlantic,[6] The Guardian,[7] Amnesty International,[8] LA Times,[9] Al Jazeera, PBS,[10] CNN,[11] and also attracted Columbia University, Santa Clara University,[12] Brigham Young University,[13] and the Australian Government.[14]

Nayeb Yazdi has been a part of various panels, forums, conferences, and consulted by influencers, including media and politicians.[15]

In 2012 and again in 2016, she teamed up with Senator Linda Frum as a consultant and writer to shed light on the plight of prisoners of conscience in Iran.[16] In 2013, she was a featured speaker at the annual Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF). She discussed how the Iranian authorities use the death penalty to suppress civil society. In 2018, she delivered a speech at the Geneva Summit on the human rights situation in Iran.

Nayeb Yazdi has written for various publications, including Foreign Policy,[17] Wall Street Journal,[18] Huffington Post,[19] Atlantic Council,[20] and the Nobel Peace Center.[21] And has been cited in multiple outlets, including Reuters,[22] Toronto Star, National Post,[23] The Guardian,[24] and the Danish government.

In 2017, she created Oslo Women's Rights Initiative in collaboration with the Nobel Peace Center and Civita. The initiative featured frontline women's rights leaders from countries with extreme gender inequality.[25]

Saeed Malekpour case[edit]

Nayeb Yazdi is the co-founder and spokesperson for the global campaign to free Canadian Permanent Resident Saeed Malekpour, who, while visiting his sick father in Iran in 2008, was abducted by the Iranian authorities and tortured until he provided them with false confessions that led to the Iranian Judiciary to issue him a sentence for the charge of sowing corruption on earth.[26] The Iranian authorities accused Malekpour of moderating pornographic websites and forced him to confess to this act, which the Iranian authorities consider a crime punishable by death. To this day, the only evidence that the Iranian authorities have against Malekpour are his forced confessions.[27][28][29] In 2010, after the Iranian authorities aired Malekpour's forced confessions on national television before his trial and sentencing, Malekpour wrote a letter from prison defending himself that his confessions were extracted under torture. Nayeb Yazdi and her team translated his letter into English and published it on Persian2English, which garnered the attention of media, governments, and human rights organizations. That same year, the Iranian judge Moghiseh, sentenced Saeed Malekpour to death based on the forced confessions. It was then that Nayeb Yazdi launched a global campaign to gain support for Malekpour.[30][31]

Nayeb Yazdi's efforts led to Iran's Supreme Court to halt Malekpour's execution sentence in 2011 pending a new trial that would investigate the allegations in Malekpour's letter that his confessions were extracted under torture. However, that same year, the new trial was held, presided by Judge Moghiseh again, and Malekpour was sentenced to death for the second time without investigations conducted into his claims that his confessions were extracted under torture. This time, under pressure from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran's Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence, which put Malekpour in imminent danger of execution. Nayeb Yazdi's efforts led to the Parliament of Canada to pass a unanimous motion in support of Malekpour calling on the Iranian authorities to release him.[32][33]

The international attention that Malekpour's case received led Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, to eventually commute his death sentence to life in prison. In July 2019, the Iranian authorities granted Malekpour a short furlough, and with the help of Nayeb Yazdi, he managed to flee Iran and make it back to Canada safely.[34]

Honors and awards[edit]

In 2013, the Governor General of Canada awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal to Yazdi in recognition of her human-rights achievements.[1]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "OFF - Maryam Nayeb Yazdi". Oslofreedomforum.com/.
  2. ^ "Tirgan Magazine". Issuu.com.
  3. ^ "Tweeting up a Storm to Fight Injustice in Iran". Huff Post. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
  4. ^ "Persian2EnglishBreaking the Language Barrier on Human Rights". Archived from the original on 2017-01-11.
  5. ^ "Busting through Iran's censorship wall". Maclean's. Michael Petrou. Retrieved December 7, 2009.
  6. ^ "Truth To Power, In Person". The Atlantic. The Daily Dish. Retrieved November 2, 2009.
  7. ^ "Iran urged the release of Nasrin Sotoudehu". The Guardian. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  8. ^ "IRAN SUBMISSION TO THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE" (PDF).
  9. ^ "IRAN: Chinese-made armored anti-riot trucks, equipped with plows, may arrive in Tehran". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 1, 2010.
  10. ^ "Dutch Iranian Held in 2009 Protests Hanged; 'Iranians and the Cult of Death'". PBS. Retrieved January 29, 2011.
  11. ^ "CNN Special - Iran". CNN.
  12. ^ "Some human rights organizations working to improve the position of women in Iran". Lawguides - SCU.
  13. ^ "Appendix 4: Selected Putativ Appendix 4: Selected Putative Iranian-P anian-Perpetrated Extr ated Extraterrit aterritorial Killings and Attempted Killings of Non-Iranians, 1980-2012". BYU ScholarsArchive. Brian Champion & Lee Crowther. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  14. ^ "Country Advice Iran" (PDF). Justice Gov. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  15. ^ "Toronto activist Maryam Nayeb Yazdi is heroine to Iranian prisoners". The Toronto Star. Olivia Ward. Retrieved January 17, 2014.
  16. ^ "Nayeb Yazdi debate with Linda Frum". Senate of Canada.
  17. ^ "The Middle East's Crisis Factory". Foreign Policy. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  18. ^ "Life in an Iranian Dungeon for Being a Tech Expert". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
  19. ^ "Help a Mother Save Her Son From Execution in Iran". Huff Post. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
  20. ^ "A tale of two Americas, a tale of two Irans". Atlantic Council. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  21. ^ "Why the Time is Now". Nobel Peace Center.
  22. ^ "Analysis: Canada may have cut ties with Iran to avoid retaliation". Reuters. Marcus George & Randall Palmer. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
  23. ^ "Full Comment: Iran doesn't hesitate to murder its children — it just uses a loophole". The National Post. Geoffrey Clarfield. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
  24. ^ "Iran confirms death sentence for 'porn site' web programmer". The Guardian. Saeed Kamali Dehghan. Retrieved January 18, 2012.
  25. ^ "Oslo Women's Rights Initiative".
  26. ^ "Iran using Malekpour as 'pawn in a bloody chess game'". CTV News. Vanessa Greco. Retrieved February 20, 2012.
  27. ^ "Protests spread as GTA man faces execution in Iran". Toronto Star. Olivia Ward. Retrieved January 23, 2012.
  28. ^ "Canadian Facing Death Penalty In Iran Loses Appeal". CBC. Retrieved January 18, 2012.
  29. ^ "Senators call for release of Canadian resident condemned to death in Iran". National Post. Retrieved February 7, 2012.
  30. ^ "Offline: Saeed Malekpour".
  31. ^ "Saeed Malekpour's Letter from Evin Prison".
  32. ^ "Iran's death sentence against Canadian in question". The Globe and Mail. Campbell Clark. Retrieved December 2, 2012.
  33. ^ "Canada Calls on Iran to Halt Execution".
  34. ^ "'I would rather die than go back to prison.' Inside Saeed Malekpour's harrowing escape from Iran". Toronto Star. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
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