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by Majid Rafizadeh (Author)
Darkness surrounded me before I had the chance to grow. My world was shattered by the explosions of war, and the abuses of everyone aroundme. With each new trauma I waited for it all to come to an end. No one could survive this. Still the sun rose on another tumultuous and torturous experience. As a child I learned that I was worth lessbecause of my gender. As I learned to speak, to stand, it was proven to me again and again that I would never be safe. My body was to beused for the sadistic pleasure of others, my mind was to be filled with nightmares. It was only my soul that remained untouched. Despite my inability to shield my body from violence and rape, despite my inability to protect my mind from persistent trauma, my soul remainedmy own. The day I was forced into marriage, after only nine harrowing years of life, I knew I would be imprisoned and owned for the remainder of my life. When I had my first child at ten, still verymuch a child myself, I knew there was no escape. But through it all, I survived and blossomed.
Author Biography
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, a political scientist, human rights defender, and journalist, is president of the International American Council on the Middle East. Harvard-educated, Rafizadeh serves on the board of Harvard International Review published by Harvard International Relations Council at Harvard University. He is frequently called upon to brief US, EU, and Asian officials, and parliaments about US foreign policy and Middle Eastern affairs. Rafizadeh regularly appears, and is quoted, on national and international outlets, including CNN, BBC TV and radio, France 24, ABC, and NBC. Dr. Rafizadeh's writings and analyses regularly appear on academic and non-academic outlets, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, CNN, Foreign Policy, Yale Journal of International Affairs, The Atlantic, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya English, and Bloomberg News. A recent US citizen, Rafizadeh grew up in Iran and Syria. He said: "My experience with oppression motivated me to use my pen and skills as tools to further the principles of democracy, social justice, and gender equality. Living in both of these countries also allowed me to gain deep insights into the repressive apparatuses used not only to stifle the innovation, creativity, and potential of the youth but also to crush any form of free speech, press, rule of law, equality for women, and religion."
