Majid Rafizadeh

Majid Rafizadeh
(Persian: مجید رفیع‌زاده‎‎)

Global and World Leaders Event and Forum, 2015
Born 25 December 1980[1][2]
Residence Washington, DC, United States[1]
Citizenship United States
Alma mater Harvard University[1][3]

Majid Rafizadeh (Persian: مجید رفیع‌زاده‎‎) (born 25 December 1980 in Esfahan, Iran) is a businessman, political scientist,[4] keynote speaker,[5] philanthropist[6] and TV commentator.[3] He is the president of the International American Council: on the Middle East and North Africa (IAC) and serves on the board of Harvard International Review and the US-Middle East Chamber for Commerce and Business.[7]

Biography

According to BBC World biographical story of Rafizadeh, he was born into poverty and went from being homeless to becoming a self-made millionaire, an American citizen, and completed his studies at Harvard University.[8][9] During his childhood, his family struggled to survive in poverty. He became a human rights defender and serves on the board of International Commission for the Refugees.[8]

Rafizadeh earned a Doctorate degree (Ph.D) in Government, Masters degree in Global and International Studies, Masters degree in Journalism and Communication, Masters degree in Linguistic and teaching, Bachelors degree in Linguistic and languages (English, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, French and Dari), and was recipient of scholarships including from the US State Department Fulbright Teaching program and Oxford University.[1][8]

Rafizadeh is regularly invited to brief governmental institutions, parliaments, politicians, and business companies.[8] He is a keynote speaker for international forums and has taught in universities including the religious studies department at University of California Santa Barbara as a Fulbright teaching scholar.[8]

Rafizadeh commentates on media outlets including CNN, BBC TV and Radio, Fox News, and ABC.[10] His work has appeared and been quoted in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, CNN, Foreign Policy magazine, Bloomberg News, and Yale Journal of International Affairs. Rafizadeh writes weekly columns.[11][12] According to BBC, a book entitled America: Our Sacred Honor, and Voice of America, Rafizadeh grew up in an ethnically-mixed family.[13] An American citizen, Rafizadeh has ancestors from Iran, Lebanon and Syria. He gained multi-lingual knowledge and learned several languages as a native speaker including Persian-Farsi, Syrian-Fusha, and Dari.[8] His father (Muhammad Ali Rafizadeh) is an Iranian Sunni Muslim, and his mother (Amira) is Syrian Shia. Accordingly, growing in different societies, religions, and cultures "gave Majid a distinct, unique perspective and firsthand experience in understanding the Persian and Arab world, the Sunni and Shia branches of Islam, as well as the differences between the social, political, ideological, and religious landscapes of the Middle East, Islamic world, and the West".[1] He came to the US by winning Fulbright Teaching scholarship. He was the only Iranian to receive the scholarship of that year. Rafizadeh argued for peaceful reformation from within in Iran's Islam.[8][9]

According to CNN and France 24, several of Rafizadeh's family members have been harassed and killed since the Syrian uprising and civil war, as part of a campaign to silence Rafizadeh for his outspokenness regarding social injustice, gender inequality, freedom, non-democratic and authoritarian governments, and for being a human rights defender and activist. During his childhood, his father was tortured in Damascus by techniques such as "the German chair" (al-Kursi al-Almani) and "the ladder" (sullam), for criticizing corruption and nepotism among the Iranian and Syrian police, secret police, and politicians, as documented by Amnesty International.[1][11]

Books


References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "حکومت مطلقه، مشروطیت و جمهوریت". Ketab. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  2. ↑ "Majid Rafizadeh - Huffingtonpost". Huffingtonpost. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Harvard University Scholar Majid Rafizadeh". 14 October 2015. Harvard University. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  4. ↑ "Political Scientist on Syria". CCTV America. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  5. ↑ "Amazon A God Who Hates Women". Finger Prints. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  6. ↑ "Dr. Majid Rafizadeh Books". Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  7. ↑ "Harvard International Review". Harvard International Relations Council. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "BBC Outlook". BBC. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  9. 1 2 "Voice of America on Majid Rafizadeh". Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  10. ↑ "Did Iran just make a big economic mistake?". Heather Long. CNN. 6 January 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  11. 1 2 AL-ASSAD, BASHAR (1 September 2012). "Syrian scholar says family held by 'fake rebels'". France 24. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  12. ↑ "Jobs key to Middle East's revolutionary wave". 7 August 2012. CNN. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  13. ↑ "For Syrian Shiites, civil war isn't simply rebels vs. government". CNN. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
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