Biographical Information
Azadeh Shahshahani

Azadeh Shahshahani is a 2004 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, where she completed a fellowship with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Washington, DC; a research fellowship with a women’s rights organization in Iran; and an internship with an immigrants’ rights organization in Los Angeles, among other public interest work.    

Ms. Shahshahani was born in Iran and moved to the U.S. at the age of sixteen.  She currently coordinates the Muslim/Middle Eastern Outreach Project for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation.  The Muslim/Middle Eastern Community Outreach Project aims to enhance civil liberties awareness within the Muslim and Middle Eastern community through developing and distributing free educational materials and conducting presentations at various religious and cultural institutions.  Another goal of the project is to recruit and train a statewide network of attorneys willing to represent pro bono those facing imminent questioning, surveillance, and detention.  Finally, a Racial Profiling Working Group will be convened to tackle the problem of racial, ethnic, and religious profiling in our state. Four town hall meetings will be organized across the state providing residents an opportunity to testify about instances of profiling.  Using these testimonies and data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, a report will then be issued summarizing the findings and issuing recommendations.