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Posts published by “Roya Lotfi”

Roya Lotfi (she/her) is a second-year MA student in International Relations at NYU and the Editor-in-Chief of JPI Online. She received a BS in Biology from Montclair State University but always had a fierce interest in domestic and international politics, and decided to follow her passion by transitioning into the IR field. Before starting at NYU, she worked in the field of video production and hopes to utilize those skills to widen JPI’s multimedia content. Her long term career goal is to produce video content on the topics of current events and international relations at a media journalism organization. In her free time she likes to read and take long walks around Central Park.

Perspective | The Everyday Oppression of Iran’s Hijab Rule

Iran’s compulsory hijab rule has always been about so much more than appearances and religious loyalty. It’s about allowing women the ability to experience so many of the joys in life that other women around the world take for granted – playing a sport comfortably outside on a warm day, feeling the wind in your hair, expressing yourself through your favorite outfit, taking off a layer when the weather finally thaws in early Spring, lying on the beach and feeling the sun bake into your skin. The women in Iran born after the 1979 revolution have never been able to experience those things in their entire lives, at least not while in their home countries. It's the form of oppression that is experienced every day, multiple times a day, and that eats away at one's humanity. It's what women in Iran are now willing to risk their lives fighting against.

A Brief History of the US Labor Movement

The first national federation of unions, the National Labor Union, was created in 1872 after workers demanded for an eight-hour workday. In the following decades, unions representing an assortment of trades and demands sprang up across the US. Their goal was to protect the rights – to safety, humane conditions, and social and economic freedom – of workers as booming corporations seemingly sought to eliminate them.