Roya Hakakian (Persian: رویا حکاکیان) (born 1966 in Iran) is an Iranian-American poet, journalist and writer living in the United States. A lauded Persian poet turned television producer with programs like 60 Minutes, Roya became well known for her memoir, Journey from the Land of No in 2004 and essays on Iranian issues in the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and on NPR. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008, Roya published Assassins of the Turquoise Palace in 2011, a non-fiction account of the Mykonos restaurant assassinations of Iranian opposition leaders in Berlin and the resulting trial that shook German-Iranian relations. Roya was a founding member of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, and serves on the board of Refugees International. Harry Kreisler's Political Awakenings: Conversations with History, highlighted Roya among '20 of the most important activists, academics, and journalists of our generation.' Born and raised in a Jewish family in Tehran, Roya lived through the Iranian revolution in 1979 and actively supported it along with other liberals. As the Iran / Iraq war raged and restrictive laws became more common, she immigrated unwillingly with her family to the United States in May 1985 on political asylum. Settling in the New York area, she studied psychology at Brooklyn College and went on to earn a Master of Social Work at Hunter College.
