Film makers
Nora Twomey
Nora TWOMEY (born 31 October 1971) is an Irish animator, director, screenwriter, producer and voice actress. She is a partner in Cartoon Saloon, an animation studio and production company, based in Kilkenny City, Ireland. She is best known for co-directing The Secret of Kells https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_of_Kells, and directing The Breadwinner. Her work on both films earned Academy award nominations for Best Animated Feature Film.
Fateme Ahmadi
Fateme AHMADI is a writer-director living between London & Tehran. An alumna of Berlinale Talents 2017, her short film Bitter Sea is commissioned by Film London, London Calling Plus & nominated for Best British Short Film Award by BIFAs. Leila’s Blues was premiered at Directors’ Fortnight – Cannes in 2018. She is currently writing her first feature & working as the associate producer of Coup 53 a feature documentary directed by Taghi Amirani & edited by the legendary Walter Murch.
Maliheh Gholamzadeh
Maliheh GHOLAMZADEH is born in 1983 in Iran. She obtained an MA of Directing Animation at Sooreh University & a Bachelor of Graphic Arts at the University of Applied Science &Technology. Her film Tangle is an award winner of EARLY BIRD 2019 for best animation & winner of three main awards for best animated short movie of the year at the 11th edition of the Iran Independent Animation Celebration at the Abbas Kiarostami Hall held in 2019.
Dina Naser
Dina NASER is a Jordanian director, writer & producer with Palestinian roots. Her Shamieh (short doc. 2011) portrays an aging Palestinian woman living in the Zizya refugee camp. Her award-winning One Minute (2015) tells the story of a woman in Gaza under attack in 2014. Her short experimental film, Sea Wash (co-directed 2016), pictures refugees who lose their lives at sea. Tiny Souls a doc. project first realized in a 9-min. format, will be her 1st feature length film.
Artists
Patrick Navaï
Patrick NAVAÏ is a Franco-Iranian painter and a poet. A citizen of the world, he has made travel & migration his main theme. Medal-holder of the City of Paris, his art work is present at the MAHHSA, the Musée de La Poste, the Musée International d'Art Naïf Anatole Jakovski, the Musée de la Fabuloserie and the Art et Déchirure, Musée d'Art Singulier. His illustrated collections have been published by various publishers including Carnets-Livres, Le Verbe & L'Empreinte, Voix Tissées.
Yvan Navaï
Yvan NAVAÏ a pianist awarded the First Prize in Piano unanimously with the congratulations of the jury for his Musical Diploma & the International Leopold Bellan Piano Competition Prize of Excellence. He is also the International Piano Competition Les Clefs d'Or’s laureate of excellence. A poly-instrumentalist, he also plays the santur, chromatic accordion & trombone. He performs on numerous stages. Member of SACEM, he composes and has published a CD book The Sea of Sounds, Editions Carnets-Livres.
Hoda Siahtiri
Iranian Brussels-based artist Hoda SIAHTIRI calls herself a narrator of stories muted somewhere in the past. She is a theatre actress, script writer- film editor. She has directed a number of short films shown in int. festivals. She has a Documentary Film Directing MA from Docnomads Joint Masters & is a PhD art researcher at KU Leuven University. She has so far performed in different venues including the Belgian Royal Museum of Fine Arts, BOZAR Brussels & Ghent University.
Speakers
Bahar Azadi
Bahar AZADI is a post-doctoral student at the Institute of Demography of University of Paris 1. Her research focuses on the improvement of screening and management of female genital mutilation in France. Her thesis was on Gender transition after the Islamic revolution in Iran: Trans subjectivities, between pathology and resistance. She is also a temporary researcher at INSERM, University of Paris. Among her publications: "L'identité trans: le changement de sexe dans la République islamique d'Iran", Cités, 2018/3 (No. 75).
Souhayr Belhassen
Honorary President of the FIDH, Souhayr BELHASSEN was Vice-President of the Tunisian League for Human Rights in 2000, and former President of FIDH 2007-2010. She made migrants and women's rights a priority at FIDH and launched major campaigns for the defense of women's rights in the Arab world & sub-Saharan Africa. She is an active member of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women. She co-authored The Women of the Maghreb with Sophie Bessis, Editions Lattès.
Shukria Haidar
Shukria HAIDAR is a leading human rights activist from Afghanistan. She sought refuge in France following the Soviet invasion of her country and founded NEGAR, an association for the defense of women’s rights, after the Taliban seized control in 1996. She has played an influential role in mobilizing progressive actors from around the world in solidarity with Afghanistan women and their rights.
Melinda Holmes
Program Director at ICAN for the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership. Melinda HOLMES is a peacebuilding specialist, writer & strategist focusing on gender & political violence. She is responsible for analysis, advocacy & outreach on gendered approaches for preventing & responding to violent extremism. She graduated with a Master’s in international affairs from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy & was a Visiting Fellow at LSE’s Centre for Women, Peace & Security & worked with The Carter Center.
Guissou Jahangiri
FIDH Vice-President & OPEN ASIA/Armanshahr Exe. Dir. Guissou JAHANGIRI is a life-time committed human & women's rights defender & cultural activist. She worked 15 years as a journalist for Courrier International & spent 5 years in Tajikistan during the civil war as HRW researcher & acting head of UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. In 2006, she founded Armanshahr publishing (280,000 free books Afghanistan /region) & created the Simorgh Int. Peace Prize in 2009 &.Women’s Film Festival-Herat in 2013.
Azadeh Kian
Dr. Azadeh KIAN is Professor of sociology, director of the Centre for Teaching, Documentation and Research in Women's Studies (CEDREF https://cedref.u-paris.fr/) and Director of Les Cahiers du CEDREF journal (https://journals.openedition.org/cedref/). She is also the co-director of the Master's degree in Gender & Social & Political Change: Transnational Perspectives and a researcher at the LCSP at the University of Paris. Among her most recent publications: Women and Power in Islam, Paris, Michalon, 2019.
Isabelle Konuma
A Professor and INALCO's Gender Equality Referent since 2019, Dr. Isabelle KONUMA is a specialist in Japanese law and reproductive policies in Japan. She edited the issue of the journal Cipango Reproduction and Migration in Japan and is the author of various works.
Zia Moballegh
A scholar, researcher & human rights defender Zia MABALLEGH was until recently the Country Director of Heinrich Boell Foundation in Kabul. He has worked as a human/women’s rights activist with Open Society Foundation & UNIFEM (UN WOMEN) & as Director of the Int. Center for Human Rights & Democratic Development. He has published books & articles on gender-equality, HR & legal documents review & reforms. He is a member of Musawa Global Movement & Front Line Defenders.
Raina Neelam
Dr. Raina NEELAM has a BA in History, an MA in Design, Manufacture & Textiles and a PhD in Design & Development. Professor of Design & Development at Middlesex University London her research explores the links between culture, conflict, poverty & development. Her doctoral research analyzed this from the perspective of Muslim women in post-conflict Kashmir. She is the Challenge leader for Security, Protracted Conflict, Refugees and Displacement at the Global Challenges Research Fund UK Research and Innovation.
Zargha Yaftali
Zargha YAFTALI is a UN N-Peace Awardee. She was born into an intellectual religious family in Badakhshan, Afghanistan. She graduated from the Faculty of law and political science of Kabul University at 2006. She joined Women and Children Legal Research Foundation as research assistant in 2007 and is since 2011 working as its Executive director .She has produced reports on Women’s Access to Justice, Early marriages, Violence against women, Girl child situation and Women’s political participation in Afghanistan.