Banafsheh Akhlaghi: The Realization of Peace

Banafsheh Akhlaghi is a pioneering civil and human rights attorney, educator and social entrepreneur. She has learned through her work how decisions we make globally affect us locally. For ten years, she has been listening to varying perspectives, without judgment, and finding collective solutions, so we can move forward together. Banafsheh immigrated to the United States from her native Iran with her parents at the age of five and started her career as a professor of Constitutional Law at the John F. Kennedy School of Law. She has won several awards for her work, including the Fred Korematsu Civil Rights Award and Sisters of Fire Human Rights Champion Award. Banafsheh was named "Top 100 Leading Lawyers in California" and "Top 100 Most Influential Lawyers in California" by the Daily Journal. She was also nominated for the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in 2008 and received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from the US House of Representatives the same year.

For more information, go to TED.com.