Nazanin Afshin-Jam is an international human rights activist and President and co-founder of Stop Child Executions. She is also a singer, songwriter, actor, model, and former Miss World Canada.
Afshin-Jam learned at an early age the threat people face when their human rights are ignored. She was born in Tehran in 1979 at the height of Iran’s Islamic Revolution and a year later her family was forced to flee after her apolitical father was arrested and tortured at the hands of the fundamentalists.
Growing up in Canada after escaping an uncertain future in Iran, Afshin-Jam knew not to take her freedom and good fortune for granted. Her conscience would not allow her to forget those who lived in fear every day, in any country where people’s basic human rights are not respected.
After graduating with a double-major degree in International Relations and Political Science from the University of British Columbia, with study at l’Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, she became a global human rights advocate by volunteering as a Global Youth Educator with the Red Cross, teaching subjects ranging from the Landmine Crisis, Children Affected by War, the Poverty-Disease Cycle and Natural Disasters.
Afshin-Jam searched for a way to gain a stronger voice to spread awareness among the people. After learning the Miss World motto of “beauty with a purpose”, and its objective of raising money for children’s charities around the world, she entered and won the title of Miss Canada and came 1st runner up at Miss World.