@BanyenBooksSoundVancouver  hosts Mahnaz Afkhami, leading women's rights advocate who served in the pre-1978 Cabinet of Iran, in conversation with CBC radio host Samira Mohyeddin in conversation on exile, protests, Iran, and the women's movement.

Mahnaz Afkhami is the founder, president, and CEO of Women’s Learning Partnership and former Minister for Women’s Affairs in Iran (1976-1978) . Afkhami has been a leading advocate of women's rights for more than four decades, having founded and served as director and president of several international non-governmental organizations that focus on advancing women's status. Afkhami also serves on advisory boards and steering committees of a number of national and international organizations including the Freer/Sackler Galleries of The Smithsonian Institution, the Foundation for Iranian Studies, The Global Fund for Women, Women’s Learning Partnership, Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, and the World Movement for Democracy. She is the author of several books that have been translated into numerous languages, and has appeared on the BBC, CNN, and PBS and in numerous television and radio interviews on NPR, BBC Persian, VOA Persian and other international outlets.  

Samira Mohyeddin is a multi-award-winning journalist, documentary maker, and producer at CBC Radio One’s The Current. She is the host of CBC's Unforked, a national radio program that picks apart the food we eat to reveal the culture and politics baked into it. Samira has a Master of Arts in Gender and modern Middle Eastern history from the University of Toronto. She is a trained Shakespearean actor and graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City. She also did genocide studies at the Zoryan Institute and is a graduate of Centennial College’s post graduate advanced journalism program. For more than 16 years, Samira has co-owned and operated Banu, a restaurant and market in Toronto's Queen West neighbourhood.