Jacqueline Saper

Jacqueline Saper is the author of "From Miniskirt to Hijab: A Girl In Revolutionary Iran", winner of the Chicago Writers Association 2020 Book of the Year Award. The book is also a finalist for the 2021 Eric Hoffer Award, the 2021 Feathered Quill Award, the 2020 Clara Johnson Award, and Foreword Reviews “Diversity Book of the Week.” The book is available throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, and Israel. Her opinion columns and essays appear in national and international publications, including The Seattle Times, The Jerusalem Post, The Forward, Foreign Policy News, American Thinker, The Sun-Sentinel, Persian Heritage, Aish, and L.A. Journal. The Times of Israel's article titled, Miniskirted no more featured her story, which was shared 6,090 times within the first 24 hours. Saper speaks about Iran and human rights and has appeared on Fox32, WTTW Chicago Tonight, Channel 5 News, U.K., Think Tank India, The Tamar Yonah Show Israel, JLTV, and Homa Sarshar Show (In Persian).

Commissioned by Left Brain/Right Brain Productions, Saper subtitled the award-winning movie Alex and Ali, winner of the Frameline39 Jury Award for Outstanding Documentary. She has also collaborated with the Jewish Women’s Theatre of Santa Monica, California. Fluent in Farsi and English, she serves as a translator/interpreter for the National Immigrant Justice Center and works with supervising attorneys on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers, and the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Saper earned the designation of CPA (Certified Public Accountant) from the Board of Examiners of the University of Illinois and is the 2018 recipient of the Oakton College Distinguished Alumni Award for excelling professionally and providing inspirational service to the community.

Saper was born and raised in Tehran in a Jewish family with an Iranian father and a British mother. She witnessed the Iranian revolution as a teenager. She then lived in the Islamic republic for eight years as a wife and mother of two. Saper fled Iran with her husband and two young children in March 1987 and was granted asylum in the United States.