Amir Soltani is an Iranian-American writer, journalist and activist.
Amir has worked in media, nonprofits, business and philanthropy, most recently as Executive Director of the Semnani Family Foundation, a foundation focused on poverty, health and human rights. His Iran work includes "Zahra's Paradise," a real-time online graphic novel about Iran's 2009 protests. It was recognized as a first in publishing, dissent and human rights activism, featured as part of "The Graphic Novel Renaissance" by Newsweek, nominated for two Eisner awards. Zahra's Paradise has been translated into 16 languages, and covered by news outlets around the world. In 2013, Zahra ran as a virtual presidential candidate in Iran's 2013 elections. She was the only female candidate to run on a human rights platform calling for an end to executions, equality for women and freedoms of speech, assembly and religion.
Amir's other publications include directing the research for the Ayatollah's Nuclear Gamble, a study on the human costs of military strikes on Iran's nuclear sites, as part of a campaign against an Iran war, and directing a study titled "Where is My Oil?" On Corruption in Iran's Oil and Gas Industry, part of a campaign against corruption in the Islamic Republic. His latest publication "The Keys to Paradise: Children, Martyrdom and War" appeared in the LA Review of Books. More recently, as a former board member of PEN Center, Amir has been working with PEN on international collaborations to secure the freedom of Nasrin Sotoudeh and other political prisoners in Iran.
Amir's film work includes DOGTOWN REDEMPTION, an Emmy-nominated ITVS documentary film about poverty in West Oakland honored with a Congressional Commendation. Amir is a producer on "Hold Your Fire," Stefan Forbes' acclaimed documentary film on racism and police violence in the United States, winner of the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns prize. He is a co-producer on Skin of Glass, Denise Zmekhol's documentary on Sao Paolo's tallest high rise favella; a co-producer on Delnaz Abadi's the Secret Fatwa, a documentary on the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran; and consulting producer on Jeff Kaufman and Marcia Ross's Nasrin, a feature documentary about Nasrin Sotoudeh
Amir studied history and international relations at Tufts University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and Harvard University. He has a mutt named Louie.
Amir’s personal statement:
I trace my roots in human rights activism back to an encounter with Sherman Teichman, an educational visionary and entrepreneur who has since become a lifelong friend and mentor. I was amongst the first batch of students at Tufts to participate in an EPIIC course and symposium on International Terrorism in 1985. Sherman created the space in which I found my voice as an activist, a space where the intellectual, emotional and artistic could fuse as one," he says. "In a way, I joined Convisero--a radically new model for education 35 years ago. Education was not packaged by semester, discipline or even college. It was a lifelong quest that linked the generations. I did not know it then but I had become part of a community that dared to breathe life into the idea of a global citizenship."
Amir was selected by his peers, my students, to introduce the first symposium I conducted at Tufts in 1986, on International Terrorism. It was notable for many reasons. He was a freshman, and the majority of the students were seniors. Far more significantly he knew, and poignantly articulated the important distinction between terrorism and political violence, and thus the critical different ways to confront such violence, this from the personal experience of his family who had suffered under Khomeini and his conversion of Islam into a revolutionary ideology for purging his political opponents and purifying Iranian culture.
Our friendship endured over decades. He worked with me as an aide, mentored my students as a graduate TA, critiqued and influenced the evolution and growth of the Institute. Our contacts were many. We consulted over the years on human rights initiatives. He worked closely with our mutual friend Geralyn White Dreyfous on his documentary on race, class and poverty and I had the honor of being invited by Amir to accompany him to the Emmy ceremony at Lincoln Center, when I had the privilege and pleasure of meeting his wonderful family again. Most recently we collaborated closely over the Convisero webinar for Nasrin Soutedeh.