Mansoureh Shojaee
is a leading 

Iranian

The Official Website of Mansoureh Shojaee




Non, Je ne regrette rien
پادکستِ پشیمان نیستم

نام پادکست الهام گرفته از برترین ترانه ادیت پیاف خواننده ملی فرانسوی به نام «نه! من از هیچ چیز پشیمان نیستم» است. این ترانه‌ای است ساختهٔ شارل دومو بر روی متنی از میشل وُکر که در .۱۹۵۶ با صدای ادیت پیاف ضبط شد
در پلتفرم‌های زیر و دیگر جاها به این پادکست دسترسی خواهید داشت و می‌توانید بدون نیاز به نصب هیچ برنامه‌ای، پیام صوتی یک دقیقه‌ای برای این پادکست بفرستید

Biography of Mansoureh Shojaee

The founder of Iranian Women's Movement Documentation Center

Introduction

Who is Mansoureh Shojaee?

Mansoureh Shojaee (Persian: منصوره شجاعی‎; born 21 August 1958 in Tehran, Iran), is a leading Iranian women's rights activist and writer.

Mansoureh Shojaee was born in Tehran in 1958. For over 20 years, she has been one of the leaders of the Iranian women’s rights movement and her involvement in politics spans over 30 years. She was a librarian at the National Library in Tehran for 22 years and worked as a journalist, freelance writer and literary French translator. From 1994 to 2004, as part of the Children’s Book Council of Iran (IBBYP – International Board on Books for Young People), she worked with blind children and enabled them to access literature by teaching them the use of audio books. For her efforts, she received the 2010 Testimonial Statute Honors Award from the IBBYP. She also worked with other organizations including UNICEF to develop travelling libraries geared towards Iranian women and children. A close confidant of Shirin Ebadi (the Iranian 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate living in exile in London), Mansoureh Shojaee was committed to fulfilling Ebadi’s dream of an Iranian women’s museum. The project was scheduled to start in the Banu library in Evaz in the southwest of Iran, but was banned in the early stages. In 2000, Mansoureh Shojaee co-founded (with the journalist, feminist and political activist Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani and other like-minded women) the women’s cultural center Markaze Farhangi-ye zanab, where she opened the Women’s Library Sadige Dolatabadi in 2003. She is one of the initiators of the One Million Signatures Campaign for Equality and co-founder of the website The Feminist School. Because of her dedicated efforts, she was imprisoned several times, most recently on 27 December 2009. After a month, she was released on bail and was free to leave Iran. Having already suffered a four-year travel ban, she promptly went into exile. She was initially accepted at the Heinrich Böll Foundation and was part of the Writers in Exile Program from 2011 until 2013. In 2013, her book 'Sharzade’s Sisters' was published. She continues to work as a women’s rights activist, writer and journalist while in exile. In 2007, Mansoureh Shojaee  studied in The Hague at the International Institute of Social Studies of the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, for Masters in Human Rights, Gender & Conflict Studies.

In 2020, she founded Iran Women's Movement Documentation Center (IranWomen.Center) as a platform that brings all the projects together. IranWomen.Center is a platform that you can find the recent projects and support the upcoming projects of Mrs. M. Shojaee and her companions. 

2000-2003

Women's Cultural Centre and Sediqeh Dowlatabadi's library

In the 1990s Shojaee, along with e.g. Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani and others, established the Women's Cultural Centre (Markaz-e Farhangi-ye Zanan), which since then has been a center for forming opinions, analyzing and documenting the women's issues in Iran. She is also one of the founding members of Sediqeh Dowlatabadi's library. The Library is for Iranian women and about Iranian women' researchers.

1994-2004

 library for blind Children

One of her activities was in The Children Books Council of Iran (IBBYIR) for 10 years from 1994 to 2004 where she was in charge of providing library for blind Children through talking books and learning how to provide a talking book. She was awarded the Testimonial Statute Honors through IBBYIR (the international Board of Books for young People) in 2010.

2006

One Million Signatures Campaign

Mansoureh Shojaee is one of the founding members of the One Million Signatures Campaign, attempting to collect a million signatures for women's equal rights. As part of the campaign, she has taken part in protests that have been violently silenced.

2007

THE MUSEUM OF IRANIAN WOMEN'S MOVEMENT INITIATIVE

In 2007, Iranian Noble Prize laurate Shirin Ebadi, inspired by the Women’s Museum Meran in Italy, introduced the idea of the IRWMM to Mansoureh Shojaee after her return from Italy. 
In 2008, Mansoureh started the initial stages of this project in collaboration with a group of women activists, artists, and academics. They include: Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani, Mansoureh Ettehadieh, Parastoo Forouhar, Soheila Shahshani, Azita Sharaf Jahan, Rozita Sharaf Jahan, and Nasrin Sotoudeh.

2009

Mansoureh Shojaee was arrested at her home

Mansoureh Shojaee was arrested at her home in the early hours of December 29 after Ashura Protests
Police agents arrived to her home at 11:30 p.m. on 28 December 2009 and waited for her with her son present, until Shojaee and her husband arrived home at 3:30 a.m. The agents then arrested Shojaee and transferred her to prison
Police officials inspected her house and collected some of her personal belongings as well as her mobile phone and computer, before taking her to prison.
Security officials refused to reveal the location of her detention or the charge she has been arrested for.
Shojaee was arrested twice before; once in the airport while she was traveling to New Delhi for an educational journalism workshop on January 26, 2007 and for the second time, during campaign activities in Khorramabad on September 14, 2007. Since then she has not been allowed her passport and is prohibited to leave the country.

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