Persia Ansari Scholarship & Human Rights Day
Friday, 10 December 2021, at 17:00 GMT (UK time)
Earlier this year, in honour of one of Persia Educational Foundation’s founding trustees, Persia established and began to accept donations for the Abdolreza Ansari Scholarship.
It was Mr Ansari’s fervent belief that investing in youth education would further global prosperity. This philosophy and his illustrious career inspired the establishment of the Persia Educational Foundation, to support and empower Iranian youth and young professionals.
Mr. Ansari entered Iranian politics as a hard-working graduate, eager to help modernise his homeland and contribute towards its growth. It is therefore fitting that his legacy should live on in the form of a scholarship fund aimed towards Iran’s best and brightest, those dedicated to a life in public service and human rights.
Applications submitted by eligible Iranian descent students in a Master or Doctorate programme at an internationally accredited university in the UK or beyond, will be reviewed by an independent panel to select the recipient.
To mark the inauguration of this scholarship, and Human Rights Day coinciding with the first anniversary of Mr. Ansari’s passing, Persia and Kayhan Life will hold a webinar at 17:00 UK on Friday, 10 December 2021.
About our Panelists
Nazenin Ansari
Founder and Secretary General of the Board of Trustees of Persia Educational Foundation
The Managing Director of the multimedia Kayhan-London, she is a Trustee of the Foreign Press Association in London, she serves as on the Board of Directors of Encyclopedia Iranica at Columbia University. Elected to the governing Committee of the Foreign Press Association in London, she served as President, Vice President and organised “Women as Agents of Change” symposium. Nazenin has worked with and been a member of a number of educational and charitable foundations, including the Friends of Persian Language Society at Cambridge, Benefactors of Kahrizak, the Iran Heritage Foundation, the award-winning Mihan Foundation, the Popli Khalatbari Foundation and Magic of Persia. She is a member of Chatham House, the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Amir Taheri
Writer, Editor and Author
From 1984 to 1987, Amir Taheri was editor-in-chief of Jeune Afrique, the French weekly specializing in Africa. Between 1980 and 1984 he was Middle East editor for the London Sunday Times. He also wrote for the daily Times and contributed to The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, and the Daily Mail among other leading British publications. Between 1972 and 1979 he was the executive editor-in-chief of Kayhan, Iran’s main daily newspaper. He has been a columnist for the pan-Arab daily Asharq Alawsat and its sister daily Arab News since 1987. Taheri has been a contributor to the International Herald Tribune since 1980. He has also written for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Newsday, and The Washington Post. Between 1989 and 1995 Taheri was editorial writer for the German daily Die Welt. He has also written for other publications including Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung, La Repubblica, L’Express, Politique Internationale, Le Nouvel Observateur, and El Mundo in Spain. Currently he is a contributor to the German weekly Focus. Taheri has published nine books. In 1988 Publishers’ Weekly in New York chose his study of Islamist terrorism, Holy Terror, as one of The Best Books of The Year.
Sam Loni
Program Director at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)
Sam has an extensive background in sustainable development and works at the intersection of public policy, economics, and environmental change. He has been recognised by Forbes Magazine as one of Asia’s top under-30 social entrepreneurs, by the Nobel Peace Prize Forum as a young peacebuilder, and by the NAAEA as an environmental leader. He serves on several international boards and committees, including Mission 4.7, the Lancet COVID19 Commission, the UN-SDSN Leadership Council, the Global Citizen Policy Committee, the UN-MGCY board of directors, and the UN-LEASH Innovation Labs. He is currently undertaking graduate studies at the University of Oxford with a focus on the economics of sustainability, where he has been the recipient of several academic awards including the Sir Walter Raleigh Scholarship, the Rotary Scholarship, and the Saïd Foundation Scholarship.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam
Neuroscientist and Human Rights Advocate
Amiry-Moghaddam completed his medical studies in 1996 at the University of Oslo, and later obtained a PhD at the Center for Neuroscience and Molecular Biology[1] in that university. In 2004, he received the King’s gold medal for the best medical doctorate at the University of Oslo. Amiry-Moghaddam has been a collaborator to Peter Agre, who received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2003. Amiry-Moghaddam spent one year as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School in 2006. Today, he works as a Professor in Medicine and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience at the University of Oslo. He is also co-founder and spokesperson for the NGO Iran Human Rights[6] which monitors the violations of human rights in Iran.
Safoora Biglari
Director of Community at One Young World
responsible for maintaining engagement with OYW’s key stakeholders and its community of 13,700+ Ambassadors who are affecting positive change across every sector, in every country in the world. Safoora and her team create and connect Ambassadors with growth opportunities, bespoke programmes, leadership development, media visibility and impact measurement. Notable 2020 programmes include the Covid-19 Young Leaders Fund which provided nearly $500,000 in support to young leaders on the frontlines of the pandemic response, and successful collaborations with the World Bank, Obama Foundation, Hamilton Commission, and 20+ multinationals.
