Insider perspective
Born into the revolution. Father killed by the regime. Raised in resistance. Lived experience turns geopolitical analysis into something visceral and hard to dismiss.
Book nowZahra Amanpour
Iranian-American women’s rights activist, voice for democracy, and founder of Main Street Assembly. A firsthand witness to history who spent the other half of her career building economic opportunity in American small business.
The headlines are just the surface
Coverage of Iran reports the protests, the crackdowns, the arrests, the internet blackouts and the death toll. What it rarely explains is what sits underneath any of it.
What the news reports
- Widespread street protests
- Violent security crackdowns
- Mass arrests and internet blackouts
- A surging death toll
What the news misses
- The 45-year pattern of regime terror
- Why this uprising is fundamentally different
- The structurally weakening grip on power
- The viable path to a democratic Iran
She does not analyse Iran.
She has lived it.
Zahra Amanpour is not a commentator watching Iran from a safe distance. She is someone whose entire life has been shaped by the struggle she speaks about.
Born during the 1979 revolution in Tehran and raised within the Iranian Resistance community, her story is inseparable from Iran’s. Her father, a prominent advocate with the MEK and PMOI, was killed in the summer of 1988, one of approximately 30,000 political prisoners massacred following the end of the Iran-Iraq War.
Raised by her mother in a resistance camp, surrounded by women who refused to be silenced, she grew up with courage, clarity and conviction as her foundation. Her biography is not background to the subject. It is the subject.
She draws deep inspiration from the women who have led the movement for a free, secular and democratic Iran, and has dedicated her life to making their voices heard.
Current role
Foreign Affairs Committee, National Council of Resistance of Iran
Board member
Women’s Freedom Forum, amplifying women’s resistance globally
Based in
United States, bridging the Iranian resistance with American audiences
Founder and CEO
Main Street Assembly, building coordinated and resilient entrepreneurial ecosystems. Previously founder of Indiegrove, a coworking community in Jersey City
Senior Advisor
Jobs for the Future, on economic mobility, small business and worker opportunity
Adjunct faculty
LIM College, teaching entrepreneurship. MBA from the University of San Francisco, MA from San Francisco State, BA from George Washington University
Leadership experience
Directed teams of over 90 staff, 70 contractors and 200 volunteers across international cross-sector projects
Four reasons she is
a different kind of guest
Global credibility
A leading voice at the Foreign Affairs Committee of the NCRI, the most recognized Iranian opposition body in the world.
Peak relevance
As protests intensify and executions surge, audiences want someone who can make sense of it with authority rather than another round of speculation.
The third option
She offers an alternative between appeasement and war: regime change led by the Iranian people themselves, with a roadmap rather than a slogan.
Four conversations
The future of Iran
The third option between war and appeasement, regime change led by the Iranian people. She maps a credible route to a democratic, secular, nuclear-free Iran and confronts the biggest misconceptions about the opposition.
Human rights under siege
The regime record, the execution surge, the internal climate, and the case for immediate international action, made with the moral clarity of someone who has personally paid the price of silence.
Women at the helm
Why women are leading the resistance, and what the world can learn from their strategic vision and courage at the frontlines of one of the most consequential freedom movements of the era.
Economic empowerment as activism
How building economic opportunity and community resilience functions as resistance. She uniquely bridges the Iranian freedom struggle with grassroots economic empowerment work in the United States.
Life under crackdown
What it actually looks like to live under a repressive regime, why people keep protesting despite lethal risk, and what that reveals about the regime grip on power.
The long pattern of terror
How today’s repression echoes the 1988 massacre, and a history of atrocity enabled by decades of international silence and normalized diplomatic engagement.
Digital authoritarianism
How internet shutdowns, mass surveillance and state disinformation are used to crush dissent, and why it is increasingly failing.
What makes this uprising different
A comparison against 2022, 2019 and 2017, and the argument that this represents a structural shift rather than another cycle of unrest.
Understanding the reality
- What do you want people to understand about what is really happening in Iran right now?
- What are the biggest misconceptions about this crisis?
- What does a democratic, secular, nuclear-free Iran actually look like?
Viable alternatives
- Is real change possible, and what are the options on the table?
- How do you envision getting to a democratic Iran?
- What are the biggest misconceptions about Iranian opposition groups?
Women’s leadership
- Why are women leading the resistance, and what can the world learn from them?
- What is the role of women in the Iranian Resistance movement?
- Why should young people worldwide care about Iran’s future?
“What gives me hope is the people themselves. Despite lethal risk, they keep coming back to the streets. That is not desperation. That is a people who know their moment has come.”
Zahra Amanpour
Zahra on air
Hard Knox with Amanda Knox
How Iranian women are leading a revolution. How her life was shaped by the resistance after her father was executed, why women must be at the front of any revolution, and how faith can be both weaponized and reclaimed.
United SHE Stands
What is really happening in Iran and how to move forward. The 1988 massacre, growing up inside the resistance, and the movement for a free, secular, democratic Iran.
Jill Wener, episode 123
The movement for a free and democratic Iran. Women’s rights, ways to support the movement, and how the regime uses chaos and violence to sow discord at home and abroad.
Everything you need to book Zahra
Contact
Format
Long-form interview, narrative deep-dive, or documentary-style episode
Availability
In person in New York or Washington DC, or remote, flexible to your production schedule
Experience
Media trained and globally experienced
Topic tags
Iran, women’s rights, democracy, human rights, the 1988 massacre, digital authoritarianism, NCRI, Middle East geopolitics, economic empowerment.
Book Zahra
This is a story of personal loss, historical reckoning, and a woman who turned grief into a global force for change. All booking handled through Heartcast Media.