Best-Selling Author And Journalist Hooman Majd To Speak At Manhattan College

Acclaimed author is a new voice on one of America's top foreign policy concerns.

RIVERDALE, N.Y. – Best-selling author and journalist Hooman Majd, a new voice on Iran, one of the United States’ top foreign policy concerns, will speak at Manhattan College on Thursday, Feb. 19 at 4:00 p.m. in the William J. Scala Academy Room of Leo Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

A resident of New York City, Majd is the author of The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran, a New York Times best-seller. The book, which spent time as the No. 1 foreign policy book and the No. 1 book on Islam on Amazon.com, is a critical but affectionate portrait of Iranian politics and culture. It attempts to explain Iran’s history and quirks to Western observers.

Born in Iran and raised and educated in the U.S., Majd continues to travel frequently between the two countries. The son of an Iranian diplomat and the grandson of an eminent Ayatollah, he has worked as an advisor and translator for two Iranian Presidents, Mohammad Khatami and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on their trips to the U.S. and the United Nations.

Majd writes for several publications, including Time, The New Yorker and GQ. He is a writer and contributing editor for Interview and was an original blogger at The Huffington Post, for which he continues to write. He also served as executive vice president of Island Records and is the co-founder of Palm Pictures.

For more information about this event, please contact Dr. Pamela Chasek, director of Manhattan’s international studies program, at (718) 862-7248 or e-mail pamela.chasek@manhattan.edu.

Members of the media who would like to cover the event should call Scott Silversten at (718) 862-7232 or e-mail scott.silversten@manhattan.edu. Manhattan College is located at West 242nd Street near Broadway in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, one mile from the Westchester County line and accessible by MTA subway line 1.

Founded in 1853, Manhattan College is an independent, Catholic, coeducational institution of higher learning offering more than 40 major programs of undergraduate study in the areas of arts, business, education, engineering and science, along with graduate programs in education and engineering. For more information about Manhattan College, visit www.manhattan.edu.