This is the 7th episode of the 3rd Season of PR Unmasked. In this episode hosted by Concordia Forum, Muddassar Ahmed sits down in conversation with historian and author Arash Azizi, Founder and Executive Director of Bulbul Collective Banafsheh Madaninejad, Dr. Kamran Bokhari - Director of Analytical Development at the New Lines Institute; and journalist and author Nahid Siamdoust.

This episode will examine the protests that have been taking place in Iran since the death of Mahsa Zhina Amini on the 16th of September 2022. We will be discussing the ripple effect they have triggered both nationally and in the surrounding region as well as looking at what the future may hold for Democracy in Iran.

Arash Azizi is a New York-based writer and historian, whose commentary has been featured in numerous outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, the BBC, Guardian, Vanity Fair and Al-Jazeera. He is the author of “The Shadow Commander: Soleimani, the US and Iran’s Global Ambitions” (Oneworld, 2020) and “Iran’s New Revolution: Women, Life, Freedom” (Oneworld, 2023.)

Dr. Banafsheh Madaninejad is the Founder and Executive Director of Bulbul Collective, a non-profit dedicated to elevating the voices of the US AMEMSA(Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, South Asian) community through facilitating, collecting and disseminating our stories. She is also an anti-racism trainer, gender educator, equity strategist, workshop designer and facilitator for businesses, governments and non-profit organizations.

Dr. Kamran Bokhari is Director of Analytical Development at the New Lines Institute, national security and foreign policy specialist at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute and author of Political Islam in the Age of Democratization (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). He has also contributed chapters to numerous edited volumes.

Dr. Nahid Siamdoust is a cultural historian whose work concentrates primarily on the intersection between politics and various modes of culturalproduction and media forms in Iran and the wider Middle East. She has previously worked as a full-time Iran and Middle East based journalist for TIME Magazine, Der Spiegel, The Los Angeles Times and Al Jazeera English TV and has taught at Oxford University and NYU Steinhardt’s Media, Culture and Communication Department.