Iran – COI

Charles W Dunne

Email: szuke@mei.edu or charleswdunne@gmail.com

Charles W. Dunne is a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, a member of the John Hay Initiative, and has recently advised two presidential campaigns on Near East policy. He was Foreign Policy Adviser to the Director for Strategic Plans and Policy at the Joint Staff in the Pentagon (2007-2008), and was director of Middle East and North Africa programs from 2011 to 2015 at Freedom House, where he focused on human rights and democracy promotion in the region. Prior to joining Freedom House, he was Director for Iraq at the National Security Council from 2005-2007. Dunne spent 24 years as a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service, serving overseas in Cairo, Jerusalem, and Madras, India, and later served as a member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, where he contributed to the development of presidential initiatives to advance political reform and democracy in the Broader Middle East and North Africa. He is currently a Visiting Distinguished Research Fellow of the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University. He is a frequent media guest on outlets such as BBC, al-Jazeera, and al-Hurra, and has appeared on CBS, Fox, and NPR.  He has written for numerous publications, including the Washington Post, US News and World Report, the American Interest, and The National in Dubai. He has often spoken in public on Middle East issues on panels and major conferences.

Dr Rebwar Fatah

Email: rebwar@mideastconsultancy.com  or info@mideastconsultancy.com

Dr Rebwar Fatah is the Director of the Middle East Consultancy Services. Dr Fatah has produced thousands of COI reports since he began working as an expert witness in 2000. In the past five years alone, Dr Fatah has produced 1,341 Expert Reports on the Middle East. These include:

• 830 Country Expert Reports
• 416 Document Authentication Reports
• 95 Nationality Reports

Dr Fatah’s reports have been commissioned for and cited in several immigration appeals, as well as family and criminal cases. Moreover, he has assessed many people from the Middle East whose nationality, native language, ethnicity, place of residence has been disputed, and has examined thousands of documents from the MENA region. In addition to a deep knowledge of the region’s administrative and bureaucratic cultures, Dr Fatah’s multilingual proficiencies enable him to understand, interpret and evaluate official documents in the Middle East. As a part of this work, Dr Fatah has produced his own methodology for document authentications and nationality examinations.

Dr Fatah has also provided written and oral evidence in court; among them are five Country Guidance Cases, two Turkish extradition orders and many other cases. Moreover, Dr Fatah has also reviewed and provided guidance on Home Office CPIN reports.

Dr Fatah regularly visits the Middle East, conducting fact-finding missions to ensure that his knowledge is up to date and based on reliable information. Dr Fatah speaks most of the Middle Eastern languages as well as their various dialects. Dr Fatah’s Country Expert Reports cover a wide range of issues, including the general security situation, sufficiency of protection, crimes of honour, healthcare, corruption, and at-risk groups of different sexual, religious, political and cultural profiles.

Dr Farangis Ghaderi

Website: www.middleast-consulting.com
Email: info@middleast-consulting.com or f.ghaderi@exeter.ac.uk

Dr Farangis Ghaderi is the founder and director of Middle East Consulting Ltd, a research and consultancy company based in the UK. She has worked as an independent Middle East expert since 2012 and has extensive experience in providing country expert reports, nationality assessment, and document authentication for court purposes. Dr Ghaderi holds a PhD in Kurdish Studies from the University of Exeter. As an academic she has published scholarly articles in peer-reviewed journals and has presented her research in international conferences. She speaks fluent Kurdish and Farsi and has working knowledge of Arabic and Dari. She is familiar with different Kurdish dialects and has prepared language expert reports for Kurdish asylum seekers from Iran and Iraq whose nationality have been disputed. Dr Ghaderi is prepared to provide country expert reports on Iran, Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

Email: aosanloo@uw.edu

Arzoo Osanloo is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington’s Law, Societies, and Justice Program with adjunct appointments in the School of Law and Departments of Anthropology, Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, Women’s Studies, and Comparative Religion. She received her Ph.D. in 2002 in Cultural Anthropology at Stanford University. Prior to that, she was a practicing attorney. At the University of Washington, Dr Osanloo conducts research and teaches courses focusing on the intersection of law and culture, including human rights, refugee rights and identity, and women’s rights in Muslim societies. Her main geographical focus is the Middle East, especially Iran. She has published in various journals, including American Ethnologist, Cultural Anthropology and Iranian Studies. Her book, The Politics of Women’s Rights in Iran (2009), is published by Princeton University Press. She is currently working on a new project that considers the Islamic mandate of forgiveness, compassion, and mercy in Iran’s criminal sanctioning system, jurisprudential scholarship, and everyday acts among pious Muslims.

Kameel Ahmady is a social anthropologist and originally hails from Iranian Kurdistan. Kameel holds a post-graduate degree in anthropology and visual ethnography from the University of Kent and currently works on community development programmes with focuses on FGM, early child marriage and MGM/C (Male Circumcision). He has a background in social empowerment, family and children right initiatives, and has worked extensively on issues concerning local cultures, migration, minority rights and Middle East affairs. His more recent research projects include a comprehensive study (in English and Farsi/Persian) titled A Comprehensive Research Study On Female Genital Mutilation / Cutting in Iran-2015, a research conducted over the period of ten years along with a short anthropological film In the Name of Tradition on the issue of FGM ( in West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah and Hormozgan). This research study has gained global recognition since it is the first film on FGM in Iran. He wrote three books and published on themes of gender, Diaspora, multiculturalism and modernity in the Middle East. Currently he advises governments and international NGO’s on FGM and related issues in Middle East. Moreover, he is effectively present at numerous international events and conferences.

Osman Mahmoudi (FGM/C)