Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay
Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay is an award-winning international human rights and democracy activist, a public speaker, and the co-founder and president of the organization Stop Child Executions. She is a former Miss World Canada, singer/songwriter, and director on the board of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. Born in Iran and raised in Vancouver, Nazanin holds a bachelor's degree in international relations and political science, and a master's degree in diplomacy with a concentration in international conflict management. She splits her time between Ottawa, New Glasgow, and Paris. Visit her online at Nazanin.ca.
Bio last updated April 30th, 2018.
Articles by Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay
The Tale of Two Nazanins
By Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay
July 1, 2012
Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay's new book, written with Toronto writer Susan McClelland, is the true story of two young women who shared a first name—and an implacable commitment to life.
I told him I was working on the Save Nazanin petition, and he suggested I contact one of his friends, a prosecution trial lawyer with the International Criminal Court After sending out an email to all my friends and contacts asking if they had any suggestions of ways to help Nazanin, I figured I should draft a petition to be ready for the worst-case scenario: that Nazanin's story was true After what seemed like forever to Nazanin, Judge Mohammadi cleared his throat and stated dryly, "The mother of the young victim has not appeared at this meeting; however, she has asked this court to sentence Nazanin to death Nazanin was having a hard time focusing and she caught only a little of what he said next As Judge Mohammadi explained in Persian the court rules, Nazanin looked around the small, dimly lit room, taking in the dull yellow walls and scuffed floors Mahabad Fatehi, known as Nazanin, guilty of the murder of Yousef Bagheri, son of Ali "Get her out of here," the woman behind the desk ordered the guard, who picked Nazanin up around the waist At the top of the petition, I had put the names of the people it was directed to, including regime officials in Iran, the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Shahroudi, as well as key figures at the United Nations This time, though, it had nothing to do with Nazanin's father but with Nazanin One day as Nazanin lay on the ground, her prayers half finished, Fatemeh whispered to her, "My grandmother once told me to stop seeing with the eyes of my mind, and listen to the voice of my heart "Please call up the first witness," Judge Mohammadi said, motioning to the court prosecutor "You know, Nazanin, I wanted to tell you that there are people on the outside of Iran helping some of us women in prison here," Fatemeh said as she tucked Nazanin into bed one afternoon But we wanted to frighten them so they would go away Nazanin could see the court assistant and her lawyer out of the corner of her eye, but their instructions to her were garbled A few weeks after my decision, I received confirmation, thanks to inquiries sent out by Negar to Iran's law society, that Nazanin existed and that she was indeed a minor on death row for a crime she committed in self-defence