Nadia Shahram

Early life

Shahram was born in Tehran, Iran, one of six daughters. Her parents had an extensive library where reading the classics and traditional and famous author works was encouraged and rewarded. Her father was an activist for citizen and human rights and was jailed by the Secret Police (SAVAK) for his outspoken views, and Shahram vividly recalls her father being taken from their home in the middle of the night.

Transition to America

Shahram traveled to the United States with the ambition of becoming a broadcast journalist. Shahram received her B.S. in Business Administration (1988) and her J.D. (1997) from the State University of New York at Buffalo. During these years Shahram married and had two daughters of her own.

Career

After receiving her law degree, Shahram trained as a family mediator at the Rochester Mediation Center and has been a practicing mediator in the field of Matrimonial Mediation since 2001. Shahram’s interest in mediation and resolving disputes outside the courtroom developed during the years she lived in Paris and Zurich, where mediation is a common practice in dispute resolution.

Shahram's cultural, educational and professional experiences have provided her with a broad knowledge base from which to offer expert opinions and assist courts and attorneys in dealing with Moslem clientele in matrimonial and family law. She has been extensively interviewed by, and written for the press, on occasions where culture and the law clash. She also writes at length in situations where her mediation training and skills offer a peaceful and subtle approach to life.

Shahram was an Adjunct Professor in the Law and Government Program at Hilbert College from 2001 through 2007. She continues to teach as an Adjunct Professor at the Buffalo State University Law School. She organizes and chairs conferences and symposiums on Divorce Mediation in the Buffalo area on a biannual basis.

Community Service

Shahram is a board member of the Family Justice Center of Erie County, a member of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York, and a board member of the New York State Council of Divorce Mediation.

Awards and Recognition

Shahram has received awards for her contributions to the community, including “Women of Influence” from Business First, and the “Legal Elite” Award of Western New York in 2013. Shahram is the founding member of “Raising Hope”, an annual fashion show fund-raiser to benefit the Family Justice Center. During the years 2012 through 2014 this project raised over $100,000 for women victimized by domestic violence in the Western New York area.

Activism

After the events of September 11, 2001, Ms. Shahram began to re-examine her faith of Islam, the role of Muslims in the international arena, and the perceptions of Islam in the West. She later developed a course at the University of Buffalo Law School, "The Effects of Religion and Culture on Family Laws." It was during one of these courses, discussing the issue of prevalence of misogyny within Moslem culture that Shahram recognized the need to address this issue publicly. Shahram is an outspoken critic of Moslem culture and frequently writes letters-to-the-Editors, which are published on various topics.

Declaration of Equalities for Moslem Women

Shahram unveiled the first Declaration of Equalities for Moslem Women on July 19, 2014, during Convention Days in Seneca Falls, New York. The Seneca Falls Convention is the birthplace of the women’s rights movement, where the first Women’s Rights Convention was held in 1848.

Shahram’s Declaration is written in the spirit of Elizabeth Cady Stanton (a “calls to arms for female equality”) and aspires to address laws and cultural practices which are unjust, and discriminatory to women in Islamic countries. Shahram’s goal is to raise one million signatures and present the Declaration to the United Nations. Once presented, the goal is to encourage the UN to assist in gender equalization in Moslem countries in the courts.

Shahram has a number of small groups of graduate students making ongoing presentations throughout the New York State University system informing and securing additional signatures on the Declaration. Shahram herself continues to promote the Declaration and educate people around the State of New York. She made an artistic presentation of the Declaration at the “Declaration of Sentiments: The Remix, A Celebration of the 200th Birthday of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Women’s Suffrage Centennial” on November 12, 2015, and another presentation at the High Falls Film Festival in High Falls, NY on November 15, 2015.

Media

While visiting her native country of Iran in 2004 and 2005, Shahram conducted hundreds of interviews and attended Islamic courtrooms as part of an extensive research project. Shortly after Shahram returned from her trip she was the focus of a feature article in the Hilbert College quarterly “Connections” Magazine. Shahram published her first novel, "Marriage on the Street Corners of Tehran” in 2010. This book was based on research and the true stories of Iranian women, with whom she conducted extensive interviews during her time in Iran, and who shared in detail their experiences.

As an expert in Family law and Islam, Shahram has been interviewed by local as well as national radio and TV stations, and numerous print media sources.

Shahram lectures and gives presentations across New York State and is often interviewed by media sources such as CBC News, for her opinion. She contributes frequently to the Buffalo News and often writes for the Erie County Bar Association monthly newsletter.