Name Azadeh Shahshahani | ||
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Azadeh N. Shahshahani is an American human rights attorney based in Atlanta. She is Legal & Advocacy Director for Project South. She previously served as president of the National Lawyers Guild and director of the National Security/Immigrants’ Rights Project for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Georgia.
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Early life and education
Shahshahani received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, where she served as article editor for the Michigan Journal of International Law. Shahshahani also has a master's degree in Modern Middle Eastern and North African Studies from the University of Michigan.
Career
Shahshahani has worked for a number of years in the US South to protect the human rights of immigrants and Muslim, Middle Eastern, and South Asian communities. She is the author or editor of several human rights reports, including a 2017 report, Imprisoned Justice: Inside Two Immigrant Detention Centers in Georgia, co-produced by Project South and the Penn State Law Center for Immigrants' Rights Clinic. Shahshahani has appeared on Democracy Now! and BBC, and has been quoted by the New York Times, CNN, Atlanta Journal Constitution, and other outlets.
Through the National Lawyers Guild, Shahshahani has participated in international delegations, including to post-revolutionary Tunisia and Egypt, election monitoring delegations to Venezuela and Honduras, as well as people’s tribunals focused on the Philippines, Mexico, and Brazil as a member of the jury.
Shahshahani serves as Chair of Georgia Detention Watch, Co-chair of the US Human Rights Network Working Group on National Security, and on the Advisory Council of the American Association of Jurists. She previously served as Chair of Refugee Women's Network and as Co-chair of the American Bar Association Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section Committee on the Rights of Immigrants.
Writings
Shahshahani writes frequently for various journals such as The Nation, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Al-Jazeera, The Huffington Post, Truthout, and JURIST on a range of issues pertaining to immigrants' rights and national security as well as foreign policy.
Awards and honors
Shahshahani is the recipient of the Georgia Women's Action for New Directions 2016 Peace and Justice Award, the American Immigration Lawyers Association 2012 Advocacy Award, and the University of Georgia Law School 2009 Equal Justice Foundation Public Interest Practitioner Award. She has also been recognized as one of 100 Influential Georgia Muslims and as an attorney "On the Rise" by the Fulton County Daily Report. In 2016, she was chosen by the Mundo Hispanico Newspaper as a "Personaje Destacado del Año" (Outstanding Person of the Year,) for her activism on behalf of the Latino community and defending the rights of immigrants in Georgia.