through August that year. In Washington D.C., December 4, 2003, Bakhtiar was the master of ceremonies for the Iranian American Technology Council Gala. Bakhtiar was also the master of ceremonies for the University of California, Irvine, lecture given by Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, on May 21, 2005. Sexual harassment In 2007, Bakhtiar reported to Fox News about alleged sexual harassment by Brian Wilson prior to his promotion to Washington bureau chief. In public reports published in July 2016, Wilson denied harassing Bakhtiar. At the time when the matter was being addressed in 2007, Bakhtiar's lawyer said that she had been unlawfully treated and terminated, citing a hostile environment of sexual harassment, quid pro quo sexual harassment, and retaliation. In response, Fox News refuted the allegations by stating that it could not be liable for quid pro quo sexual harassment even if her allegations against Wilson were true because he was not her supervisor at the time of the harassment. Fox News further stated that she could not prove a causal connection between her complaint and the termination of her contract. After her case went into confidential mediation in 2007 and Bakhtiar received a favorable ruling from the mediator, a settlement was reached in which Fox News agreed to pay Bakhtiar the $670,000 remaining on her contract and her legal fees. Although she agreed in her settlement not to speak of her experience at Fox News, she decided to speak in the wake of a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Gretchen Carlson against longtime Fox News CEO Roger Ailes in July 2016. A scene showing Bakhtiar being harassed by Wilson is included in the 2019 film Bombshell, in which she is portrayed by Nazanin Boniadi. References External links 1966 births Living people American broadcast news analysts American reporters and correspondents Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni People from Fresno, California University of California, Los Angeles alumni CNN people American writers of Iranian descent Bakhtiari people Journalists from California American women television journalists 21st-century American women