Nazanin

Meet Nazanin Afshin-Jam. She's young, she's beautiful, she's accomplished, and she's Iranian. As tensions build toward military confrontation between the US and Iran it is helpful to learn as much as we can about Iran and its people.

So in the interests of national security I have launched an investigation and turned up these interesting facts:

She was born in Tehran, her parents fled the Islamic Revolution and settled in Vancouver. She represented Canada in the Miss World competition and finished first runner-up.

That's not all she's done:

She is a pilot, certified in both gliders and aircraft.

She holds degrees in both International Affairs and Political Science from UBC.

She has studied at both l'Institut d'Etudes Politiques in France and the International Studies Center in England.

She is a major object of desire for hordes of Iranian youth, but has been denounced by the Mullahs.

She has just launched a recording career, singing in French, English and Persian.

Her first CD is titled "Someday."

She is leading an international effort to defend a young Iranian woman [also named Nazanin] who was recently sentenced to death for killing a man in self-defense during a rape attempt. Here's why:

When I first heard about Nazanin I was horrified. I instinctively thought, “It could have been me”. If three men tried to rape my 16-year-old niece and me and I had possession of a knife I would have defended myself in the same way. The only difference is that I thankfully live in a country that understands JUSTICE. I feel terrible that a victim of attempted rape is being treated as a first rate criminal.

I do not only worry about the case of Nazanin, since she represents a larger problem. She is just one of many people being wrongfully tried in Iran, Pakistan, and around the world. Nazanin’s case is particularly concerning because Iran is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and is therefore under obligation NOT to impose the death penalty on those under the age of 18. Nevertheless, Amnesty International has recorded 18 executions of child offenders in Iran since 1990. In 2005 alone, at least eight executions of child offenders were recorded. Nazanin was 17 years old at the time of commission of the offense and therefore Iran is in breach. If Iran is in breach of this treaty could they do the same for other treaties particularly those in relation to nuclear energy?

Read the whole interview here.

Here's her homepage;and here she is on MySpace [just in case you wanted to send her a message or do further research on your own].

Hat tip: K-Lo down on the Corner.

UPDATE:

AFP is now carrying the story. Interestingly they do not identify her as Iranian but only as a "Canadian beauty queen" and accompany the story with a very demure head shot. Who can figure the French?

Read it here.