Bodog.com Artist Receives Humanitarian Award

NEW YORK – (PRESS RELEASE) -- Former Miss Canada, Miss World runner-up and pop singer Nazanin Afshin-Jam will receive the "Hero Award for Human Rights" and deliver a speech this Friday, August 25, at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The award presentation will be made by actresses Anne Archer and Jenna Elfman, and will be followed by an Artists for Human Rights Concert, an outdoor event open to the public, in Union Square Park (14th & Broadway) from 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Admission is free and all are welcome.

Ms. Afshin-Jam is being recognized by Artists for Human Rights (AFHR) in co-operation with Youth for Human Rights International and the International Foundation for Human Rights and Tolerance. Her recognition comes for the campaign she initiated to help save the life of a 17-year-old Iranian girl, Nazanin Fatehi, who was sentenced to death by hanging for having defended herself and her 16-year-old niece from three men who attempted to rape them.

Nazanin Afshin-Jam has managed to collect more than 210,000 signatures on the petition she started five months ago. Ms. Afshin-Jam has lobbied and received support from the UN, European Union and Canadian Parliament. She has appeared on the cover of the Globe and Mail and has been featured on CNN, BBC, CBC, and in other international media, spreading awareness on the case of Nazanin Fatehi and the plight of women in Iran. She has created the web site HelpNazanin.com to keep the public up to date with the campaign. She has also dedicated her song "Someday" to her namesake and the other oppressed youth of Iran. "Someday", the title track from her forthcoming debut album, is to be released worldwide on BodogMusic later this year.

Nazanin Afshin-Jam, who was born in Iran, encourages everyone who has not yet signed the petition to do so immediately. Nazanin Fatehi's death sentence was commuted earlier this year, but the retrial is scheduled to commence next week.