Maryam Nayeb Yazdi

[Urbano Bozman]

Itwas just before Christmas 2010 and Maryam Nayeb Yazdi was doing what she does most days and nights: sitting in her room in her shared Toronto apartment, eyes fixed on the screen, fingers flashing over the keyboard.

It was then that she saw Habib Latifi was about to die. The young Kurdish law student and political prisoner was in a regional Iranian jail, condemned to death. The clerical authorities picked that time to announce his impending execution.

Barely stirring from her computer, Nayeb Yazdi missed Christmas with her family. But the instant social media campaign that spread through many countries bore startling results. People in major cities chained themselves to the gates of Iranian embassies in protest. More than 300 Iranians risked their lives to demonstrate outside the regional prison where Latifi was being held.

With her porcelain skin and dramatic sweep of raven hair, the 30-year-old activist has the makings of a media star. But her struggle is to stay in the background, steering an exhausting and ongoing campaign for Iranian human rights. An effort she says is no easier after the election of moderate President Hassan Rouhani.

Nayeb Yazdi is in demand by mainstream media (and blogs for the Huffington Post) though she shies away from the limelight. She is invited to international conferences and consulted by politicians. Her tweets (@maryamnayebyazd,) attract a mass following, including celebrities like Lady Gaga.

At first, Nayeb Yazdi fell in love with the beauty and culture of Iran, revelling in the lively fashion and entertainment scene that flourished in spite of the clerical regime. Under President Mohammad Khatami, it was a relatively liberal period, and international sanctions had not yet shredded the economy.

All that changed when hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power, and news of human rights violations escalated. In 2007, while watching Persian satellite TV to brush up her language skills, NayebYazdi heard a riveting account of psychological torture and solitary confinement by young human rights activist Kianoosh Sanjari, who had escaped Iran after being jailed.

As tensions mounted inside and outside of Iran, Nayeb Yazdi saw misunderstandings, suspicions and anger spread on the Internet. Factions attacked each other instead of uniting to change the regime. Caught in the middle as an independent activist, she often felt besieged, battered and alone.

But as her audience builds, so do her hopes and goals. Her current mission is to build an international civil society network, connecting people around the world through the Internet so they can understand their common issues, and get down to examining the complex questions that underlie them. Then they can pressure the authorities to work out solutions.

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