world, was a nominee for best short documentary at several festivals around the world. Actor Robert De Niro narrates the film, while one of the children featured is played by Ishmael Beah. Hakakian has also appeared on a variety of podcasts and radio stations, for example on WQXR in collaboration with The Metropolitan Opera in a conversation about Giuseppe Verdi and the experience of exile, as well as on the podcast EconTalk, where she spoke about A Beginner's Guide to America." Social activism In 2020, Hakakian signed the controversial "A Letter on Justice and Open Debate," which appeared on July 7 in Harper's Magazine; other signatories include feminist Gloria Steinem, writer J.K. Rowling and linguist Noam Chomsky.[13][non-primary source needed]She later explained her decision to sign the letter in a subsequent article where she argued that the well-being of the American democracy was entwined with the well-being of other democracies and democratic activists around the world. Following the 2022 attack on British-American writer Salman Rushdie in New York, Hakakian read excerpts of Rushdie’s work at the New York Public Library alongside other writers, including Gay Telese and Colum McCann, to promote free expression. After the killing of Mahsa Amini led to massive demonstrations in Iran, Roya Hakakian has been an outspoken supporter of the movement. In September 2022, she gave a testimony to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the state of women fighting authorianism in Iran. She has since published several essays for The Atlantic about the ongoing movement and offered commentary on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS and MSNBC. Victim of hacking In February 2015, Hakakian's Gmail and Facebook accounts were hacked, as well as her personal cellphone. It is believed the government of Iran was behind the incident. Bibliography Journey from the Land of No: A girlhood caught in revolutionary Iran Assassins of the Turquoise Palace (For the Sake of Water) (A Name to Worship) A Beginner's Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious See also List of famous Persian women Iranian American Women Foundation References External links Roya Hakakian's Website Roya Hakakian's Facebook Page 1966 births Living people American documentary filmmakers American memoirists American people of Iranian-Jewish descent Brooklyn College alumni Hunter College alumni Iranian documentary filmmakers Iranian emigrants to the United States Exiles of the Iranian Revolution in the United States Iranian human rights activists Iranian Jews 20th-century Iranian poets Iranian women poets Iranian