Elham Yaghoubian

Elham Yaghoubian (Persian: الهام یعقوبیان) (born in Tehran) is a political activist, writer^[1] and designer living in the United States.

Elham Yaghoubian
Born	Tehran, Iran
Occupation	Writer, translator, human rights activist

Biography

Elham wrote her first book (Darya ye Khamoosh e. g. The Silent Sea )^[2] at the age of sixteen. She is known as the first female Jewish Iranian writer^[3] in Iran. She received a Bachelor degree in Foreign Language Translation from Tehran Azad University in 1994. She published her second book (Tondbad e Sarnevesht e. g. Storm of Destiny ) in 1996 which was republished four times.^[4] She continued to cooperate with the Jewish journal Ofogh-e Bina as general editor and writer until her emigration to United States. Elham was a founding member and one of the head editors of Bina Magazine e. g. ofogh bina.^[5] In 1998, Elham along with some of her nationalist peers founded the Marz-e Por Gohar, Iranians for a secular Republic. Her third novel (Ashk-e Sham' e. g. Tear of the Candle]^[6] was published in 1999. Elham’s focuses in her novels are the Persian women between tradition and modernity, the absence and maltreating of their rights predominantly by their family members and lack of equivalency in social life. The novel Ašk-e šamʿ is a brilliant example of such disorder within Iranian community.

After the pro-democracy movement of July 1999, she moved to the United States. She started working as a counselor at JVS, one of the Jewish Federation's agencies helping new immigrant and refugees. In the meantime, she continued her pro-democracy activism from the U.S. She has frequently undertaken trips to different cities and states within United States where she gave lectures, interviewed prominent human right activists and high ranked government members. Elhmam’s activities towards elucidating of maltreating of human rights in Iran, denial of Holocaust on behalf of Iranian leaderships and her struggle against antiemetic resentments among Iranian politicians caused harsh verbal attacks of several radical Iranian newspapers and state-financed broadcastings which identified her as Zionist and anti-revolutionary individual.^[7] In 2007, Elham started working as Community Outreach Advisor at California Army National Guard. In 2008, she pursued her studies in the masters program of the International Relations Department of California State University. In 2010, Elham announced the launch of Aryana Fashion a new venture selling trendy handbags and accessories. Elham translated and published the Global Directory of Zorastrian Fire Temples in 2011. Elham Yaghoubian’s open letter in 2013 addressed to the Iranian comedian and actor Akbar Abdi raised and provoked awareness of various news agency inside and outside Iran. This letter has been written as response to Akbar Abdi’s racist remarks towards the Jews during the speech he gave in the ceremony which has been organized to his honour.^[8]

Elham continues to be a prolific writer and activist on behalf of the Jewish Iranian diaspora in Los Angeles and nationwide.

She is board member of few non-profit organizations such as B'nai B'rith, Iranian American Jewish Federation ^[9] and also advisor of 7dorim^[10] She Is a board member of Friends of Westwood Library and Board member and CFO of West LA Chamber of Commerce ^[11]

Books

• The Silent Ocean (Darya ye Khamoosh)
• Storm of Destiny (Tondbad e Sarnevesht)
• The Candle's Tear (Ashk e Sham)
• Global Directory of Zoroastrian Fire Temples (co-author with Marzban J Giara)

References