Azadeh N. Shahshahani

Azadeh N. Shahshahani is an American human rights attorney based in Atlanta.^[1] 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.

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 North Carolina and Georgia to protect the human rights of immigrants and Muslim, Middle Eastern, and South Asian communities.^[2][3][4][5] She is the author or editor of several human rights reports, including a 2012 ACLU of Georgia report, Prisons of Profits: Immigrants and Detention in Georgia. Shahshahani has appeared on Democracy Now! and BBC, and has been quoted by the New York Times, 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.

Writings

Shahshahani writes frequently for various journals such as The Nation, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Al-Jazeera America, 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. 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. ^[6]

Bibliography

• Indiscriminate Power: Racial Profiling and Surveillance Since 9/11. University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change, 2015 (co-authored with Carlos Torres and Tye Tavaras).
• Immigration and Racial Profiling. Cultural Issues in Criminal Defense. 3rd & 4th editions, August 2010 and June 2015.
• Challenging the Practice of Solitary Confinement in Immigration Detention in Georgia and Beyond. CUNY Law Review, 2014 (co-authored with Natasha El-Sergany)
• Shattered Dreams: An Analysis of the Georgia Board of Regents' Admissions Ban from a Constitutional and International Human Rights Perspective. Hastings Race & Poverty Law Journal, 2013 (co-authored with Chaka Washington)
• The legacy of US intervention and the Tunisian revolution: promises and challenges one year on. Interface. Volume 4 (1): 67 - 101, May 2012 (co-authored with Corinna Mullin)
• Reflections on the Occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of September 11. Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts. Volume 4, Number 3, 2011
• Reflections. SHIFTING BALANCE SHEETS Women's Stories of Naturalized Citizenship & Cultural Attachment. July 1, 2011

References