Azadeh N. Shahshahani

Azadeh Shahshahani is an Iranian American human rights attorney, scholar, and activist known for her work defending immigrant, Muslim, Black, and marginalized communities across the American South. Born in Tehran shortly after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Shahshahani later immigrated to the United States and built a career centered on civil liberties, movement lawyering, and international human rights advocacy. She currently serves as Legal and Advocacy Director at Project South, where she focuses on dismantling systems of detention, surveillance, racial discrimination, and deportation.

Shahshahani earned both her Juris Doctor and a master’s degree in Modern Middle Eastern and North African Studies from the University of Michigan. While in law school, she served as an article editor for the Michigan Journal of International Law, helping shape her future focus on global justice and international legal frameworks. Early in her career, she worked with organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, where she directed the National Security/Immigrants’ Rights Project. In that role, she led litigation, advocacy, and public education efforts challenging racial profiling, anti-immigrant policies, and post-9/11 surveillance targeting Muslim communities.

A nationally recognized legal advocate, Shahshahani became the first woman of color to serve as president of the National Lawyers Guild, one of the country’s oldest progressive legal organizations. Throughout her career, she has combined courtroom advocacy with grassroots organizing, representing detainees, immigrants, and victims of human rights abuses while also supporting social justice movements in the United States and abroad. Her work has included investigations into detention conditions in Georgia, advocacy for immigrant women subjected to abuse in detention centers, and participation in international fact-finding delegations in countries including Egypt, Tunisia, Honduras, Brazil, and Palestine.

Shahshahani is also an accomplished writer and public speaker whose essays and commentary have appeared in publications such as The Guardian, The Nation, Time, Slate, and Al Jazeera. Her scholarship and advocacy often explore the intersections of immigration policy, Islamophobia, state surveillance, racial justice, and U.S. foreign policy. In addition to authoring and editing major human rights reports, she has become a leading voice in the growing movement for abolitionist and movement-centered legal advocacy.

Over the years, Shahshahani has received numerous honors for her legal and humanitarian work, including the Shanara M. Gilbert Human Rights Award from the Society of American Law Teachers and recognition from civil rights, immigration, and legal advocacy organizations nationwide. Widely respected for her commitment to human dignity and social justice, she continues to influence conversations around immigrant rights, civil liberties, and international solidarity movements both in the United States and globally.