Ali Javanmardi

Biography: Ali Javanmardi (born November 11, 1975, in Mahabad) is a journalist and senior anchor for the Persian section of Voice of America, as well as a political activist. He conducts most of his journalism work in Erbil and has interviewed notable figures such as Masoud Barzani, Fuad Masum, the President of Iraq, and Abdul Basit Sida, the President of the Syrian National Council. Ali Javanmardi hosts live programs throughout the week on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. He is an opponent of the Islamic Republic of Iran and is actively engaged in opposition activities, having met and conversed with high-ranking U.S. officials. As a Middle East correspondent for Voice of America, Javanmardi has reported from Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and the front lines of the battle against ISIS. He was previously a member of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan. He was the first journalist to interview Nadia Murad, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and a group of other Yazidi Kurdish girls who were victims of ISIS's atrocities. Javanmardi is fluent in Persian, Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic, and English. Ali Javanmardi is the founder of "Awatoday," a politically active media outlet opposing the current Iranian government, dedicated to its overthrow. In the pro-democracy meeting in Stockholm, as in the past, he emphasized the overthrow of the Islamic Republic regime.