Mehrangiz Kar


Mehrangiz Kar is an Iranian lawyer and human rights activist. She is also author of the book Crossing the Red Line, and an activist of women's rights in Iran.

Early life

Kar was a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University and in the 2005/06 academic year was based at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
She has also been recognized as a Scholar at Risk through an international network of universities and colleges working to promote academic freedom and to defend the human rights of scholars worldwide. She currently works in Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women in Brown University. She is also an instructor of courses on women's rights in Iran at.
In 2002, the U.S. First Lady, Laura Bush, gave her the National Endowment for Democracy's Democracy award.
She is the widow of Siamak Pourzand, a fellow Iranian dissident and former prisoner of conscience who committed suicide on 29 April 2011, after a long period of torture and imprisonment.

Awards and honours