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" As an Iranian woman and activist, Sotoudeh's plight resonated with me on a deeply personal level. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Deeply
Me
Woman
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" I retweet Amnesty International tweets a lot. It isn't just, 'This person is incarcerated unjustly.' It's also, 'This person was just released.' Those are the victories we work toward, so if we don't inform people of the victories, it does become doom and gloom. "
Nazanin Boniadi
People
Work
Person
" History's lesson, of course, is that attempts to suppress free expression have merely confirmed the caricaturists' original critique of heavy-handed and objectionable actions of overreaching governments. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Free
History
Lesson
" I was always fascinated with science, and being Persian, it's instilled in us at a young age to follow something very academic in our career. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Science
Us
Young
" I entered the acting world at a time when there was a higher demand for Middle Eastern actors in the post-9/11 world, and yeah, the roles weren't great. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Time
Higher
Acting
" I was born in Iran, which has a predominantly Muslim population, and I have relatives who are devout Muslims, so I know what it means to be judged based on your appearance and what you're wearing. But your ethnicity and your clothing do not define who you are. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Born
You
Clothing
" The entertainment industry isn't a line of work encouraged in the Persian culture. When I called my dad to say I wanted to quit medicine, there was about three minutes of silence. I'm not sure he knew what to do with himself! "
Nazanin Boniadi
Three
Silence
Medicine
" Medicine, anything academic, is a very Persian Iranian route to take in life, in one's career. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Career
Anything
Medicine
" Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was not engaged in subversive work; she was an apolitical project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the Reuters news agency. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Foundation
Manager
News
" A celebrated and hugely popular actress in her native Iran, Ahangarani first landed on the radar of the Iranian authorities for her open support of opposition figure Mir-Hossein Mousavi, which led to her arrest in July 2009 in the aftermath of a disputed presidential election in Iran. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Election
First
Her
" When you or your loved ones escape repression, you often find yourself committed to ensuring that freedom prevails. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Loved
You
Escape
" I was shocked when I heard that Farghadani had been sentenced to 12 years and nine months in prison on spurious charges, as Amnesty International notes, of 'spreading propaganda against the system,' 'insulting members of the parliament through paintings' and 'insulting the Supreme Leader' with her cartoon. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Prison
Propaganda
System
" Jason Rezaian, held for 544 days in Iran, was not a spy but rather a 'Washington Post' journalist whose work aimed to increase cultural understanding between Iran and the world. "
Nazanin Boniadi
World
Understanding
Washington
" For me, the struggle for women's human rights began the moment I was born in Tehran at the height of the Iranian Revolution, a time when the status of women was quickly deteriorating. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Me
Born
Time
" The people of Iran have had to endure repressive laws that have stifled their freedom of speech and religion for too long. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Religion
People
Long
" I always say, as an actress, I get to portray the human condition, but as an activist, I get to change the human condition. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Actress
Get
Change
" In real life, too, women love to be that girl who tames the bad boy. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Life
Girl
Love
" It's been an interesting progression, going from soap to a sitcom with 'How I Met Your Mother' and now being a series regular on 'Homeland.' "
Nazanin Boniadi
Soap
Going
Interesting
" In my role as a spokesperson for Amnesty International U.S.A. and as a supporter of various charitable causes including Unlock Iran, a campaign to release prisoners of conscience in Iran, I have never been faced with the threat of intimidation or arrest. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Campaign
Never
Role
" We all know in our hearts that forgiveness is the right thing; it's just a matter of being inspired to reach that place. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Matter
Place
Know
" Although each human rights victory energizes us to continue our work, there remains a deep sorrow for those prisoners still wrongfully languishing in jail. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Work
Jail
Deep
" As far as the 2009 elections go, there has been a serious crackdown on human rights in Iran, a clampdown on the media and the wrongful imprisonment of journalists. So it seems what's happening is the government is going after people who have a voice, people who change society or public opinion. "
Nazanin Boniadi
People
Government
Change
" Belgian chocolate is my weakness. I like over 72 percent cacao, which shows you how much of a dark chocolate snob I am. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Chocolate
I Am
Weakness
" Although it is hard to see why any sensible authority would feel threatened by the peaceful expression of one's point of view, there is a long history of trying to repress subversive depictions of political figures - back in the 19th century, for example, France's King Louis Philippe was depicted as a piece of fruit. "
Nazanin Boniadi
King
Political
Peaceful
" I decided to start acting in my mid-twenties. I studied pre-med, and I have a bachelor's degree in Biology, so when I decided to pursue a different career, I got a lot of, 'What on earth are you doing?' But, I gave myself a year and thought, 'You know what, I'm going to just beat the odds.' "
Nazanin Boniadi
Start
Earth
Know
" It's bizarre to be given an award for being empathetic and kind, which is what we all should be. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Bizarre
Being
Award
" To have art suppressed is very dangerous to society. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Society
Dangerous
Art
" The idea that an actress - mostly lauded for her performances in more than a dozen films - somehow represents a threat to Iran's national security is laughable at best. But in Ahangarani's case, far from anything humorous, the allegations have actually resulted in the sober prospect of real prison time. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Time
Sober
Security
" I was very successful, and I graduated with honors. And then I called my dad, who still lives in London, and I said, 'Dad, thanks for college, but I'm going to go act now.' It didn't go over very well. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Successful
Said
Now
" When President Hassan Rouhani was elected in Iran in 2013, he welcomed back the far-flung children of Iran. But one by one, they have been arrested and imprisoned upon their return, a fate that has made me increasingly reluctant to risk going back to a homeland I've not seen since 1992. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Risk
Fate
Going
" Women and girls, men and boys all share the right to live free of violence, which is, unfortunately, experienced by both men and women. Women and girls, however, disproportionately experience violence due to a deeply rooted global culture of gender discrimination. "
Nazanin Boniadi
Women
Men
Experience