Azadeh N. Shahshahani facts for kids
Azadeh N. Shahshahani is an American lawyer who works to protect human rights. She lives in Atlanta. She is the legal and advocacy director for an organization called Project South. Before this, she was the president of the National Lawyers Guild. She also directed a project for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Georgia. This project focused on national security and immigrants' rights.
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Her Early Life and Education
Azadeh Shahshahani was born in Tehran in 1979, right after the Iranian Revolution. She studied law at the University of Michigan Law School. There, she helped edit the Michigan Journal of International Law. She also earned a master's degree from the University of Michigan. Her master's studies focused on the Middle East and North Africa.
Helping People Through Law
For twenty years, Azadeh Shahshahani has worked in the southern U.S. She helps protect the human rights of immigrants, Black communities, and Muslim communities.
Important Reports She Wrote
She has written or edited several reports about human rights.
- One report, Imprisoned Justice: Inside Two Immigrant Detention Centers in Georgia, looked at immigrant detention centers.
- Another report, Inside Atlanta's Immigration Cages, helped convince the City of Atlanta to stop holding immigrants for ICE at the city jail.
- In 2020, she worked on a complaint for Project South. This complaint brought attention to medical problems faced by women at the Irwin County Detention Center.
Lawsuits She Worked On
Azadeh Shahshahani has also worked on many lawsuits. She has helped people who faced human rights problems.
- She represented a U.S. citizen who was deported.
- She helped a Muslim woman who was forced to remove her head covering in a courthouse.
- She worked with immigrants held at the Stewart Detention Center. These immigrants were forced to work without proper pay.
- She also helped immigrant women who experienced medical abuse at the Irwin County Detention Center.
Her Work Around the World
Azadeh Shahshahani has traveled to different countries to observe and help.
- She watched trials in Turkey.
- She monitored elections in Venezuela and Honduras.
- She was part of a group that looked into human rights issues in Mexico, the Philippines, and Brazil.
- She spoke to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She shared information about medical abuse against migrant women.
- She also visited Tunisia and Egypt after their revolutions. She joined a group focused on Palestinian political prisoners.
Sharing Her Knowledge
Azadeh Shahshahani often speaks at universities and colleges. She talks about many topics, including:
- How lawyers can support social movements.
- Why people are forced to leave their homes.
- U.S. foreign policy.
- Ending ICE prisons.
- Stopping government spying and unfair treatment against Muslim communities.
She has appeared on TV shows like Democracy Now! and BBC. She has been interviewed by NPR and The World. Her work has been featured in major newspapers like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Guardian.
Her Writings
Azadeh Shahshahani writes often for many national and international publications. These include The Nation, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, HuffPost, Salon.com, Slate, and Time. She writes about immigrants' rights, unfair treatment and spying on Muslim communities, and how international human rights can help people gain freedom.
Awards and Special Recognition
Azadeh Shahshahani has received many awards for her important work. Some of these include:
- The Shanara M. Gilbert Human Rights Award.
- The National Lawyers Guild Ernie Goodman Award.
- The Emory Law School Outstanding Leadership in the Public Interest Award.
- The Emory University MLK Jr. Community Service Award.
- The US Human Rights Network Human Rights Movement Builder Award.
- The American Immigration Lawyers Association Advocacy Award.
- The Fulton County Daily Report Distinguished Leader Award.
- The University of Georgia School of Law Equal Justice Foundation Public Interest Practitioner Award.
She has also been recognized as an abolitionist by the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University & the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives. Atlanta magazine named her one of Atlanta's 500 Most Powerful Leaders. In 2016, the Mundo Hispanico newspaper chose her as an "Outstanding Person of the Year" for defending immigrants' rights in Georgia. In 2017, Georgia Trend magazine named her one of the 40 notable Georgians under 40 years old.
