Roya is a fellow at Yale University's Whitney Humanities Center. She is a founding member of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, and serves on the board of Refugees International. She speaks on the subject of the Middle East and human rights and has appeared on CSPAN-Book TV, CNN International, CBS Early Show, and Now with Bill Moyers. Her memoir of growing up a Jewish teenager in post-revolutionary Iran, Journey from the Land of No : A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran (Crown) was a Barnes & Noble's Pick of the Week, Ms. Magazine Must Read of the Summer, Publishers Weekly's Best Book of the Year, and Elle Magazine's Best Nonfiction Book of 2004. It also won the Persian Heritage Foundation's 2006 Latifeh Yarshater Book Award and has been nominated by the Connecticut Center for the Book as a finalist in the memoir category. Journey from the Land of No has been translated into several languages and is available in Canada , Australia , New Zealand , Belgium , the Netherlands , Germany , and Spain. Born and raised in a Jewish family in Tehran, Roya came to the United States in May 1985 on political asylum. She lives in Connecticut. For more information, visit www.RoyaHakakian.com.

(Source: Roya Hakakian.com)