Bodog.com Artist Participate in Amnesty Event
UNITED STATES – (PRESS RELEASE) -- Iranian-born human rights activist, BodogMusic recording artist and former Miss World Canada Nazanin Afshin-Jam has been invited to participate in two prestigious events. On October 8 at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, she will be the main speaker for Amnesty International's "World Day against Death Penalty," which will focus on barring executions of child offenders in Iran.
Says Nazanin: "We will put up eight gallows, each with the names and ages of the eight juveniles who were executed in Iran last year. We will hang postcards addressed to the head of Judiciary, highlighting the case of minors currently in imminent execution. During my speech, I will ask the public to cut down the hanging postcards with scissors, thus symbolically cutting them from the noose and gallows."
Nazanin will talk about a 17-year-old girl who shares her first name and who has been sentenced to death for defending herself and her niece from rape by three men. Nazanin's campaign collected more than 200,000 signatures online, which garnered major media attention and support from the UN, EU, Canadian parliament and many human rights organizations, including Amnesty International. To support the "Save Nazanin Campaign" go to HelpNazanin.com.
On October 5, Cambridge University, England, is again honoring Nazanin with her second invitation to debate at the legendary Cambridge Union for the first debate of the year. Historically, the Cambridge Union has been host to international celebrities and political leaders, such as Hans Blix, Michael Moore, Ronald Reagan, Helmut Kohl, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Queen Noor and King Hussein of Jordan, the Dalai Lama, to name a few.
Nazanin is a recording artist for Bodog Music who resides in Vancouver, Canada. Her first single "Someday" from her debut album to be released in early 2007 is a story of her family's experience escaping Iran during the revolution. Nazanin says: "It is written and performed in such a way so that people can relate to those who have experienced great loss or upheaval in their lives, hopefully it will motivate others to reach out to those in need and less fortunate than ourselves. My family and I were extremely lucky to have eventually settled in a country like Canada that allowed us the opportunity to live in freedom and rebuild our lives. But no matter how young I was when we fled Iran the emotional scars still remain with my family, we are still attached."