Marjan Nahavandi is a member of World BEYOND War’s Board and is an Iranian-American who grew up in Iran during the war with Iraq. She left Iran one day after the “ceasefire” to pursue her education in the U.S. After 9/11 and the ensuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Marjan curtailed her studies to join the pool of aid-workers in Afghanistan. Since 2005, Marjan has lived and worked in Afghanistan hoping to “fix” what the decades of war had broken. She worked with government, non-government, and even military actors to address the needs of the most vulnerable Afghans across the country. She has seen the destruction of war firsthand and is concerned that shortsighted and poor policy decisions of most powerful world leaders will continue to result in more destruction. Marjan holds a Masters in Islamic Studies and is currently based in Portugal trying to make her way back to Afghanistan.
