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Karmel Melamed

Karmel Melamed is an award-winning journalist and commentator in Southern California covering Iran, Iranian Americans and Middle East affairs.

“We have built rich and full lives here as part of the Los Angeles community, and we are forever grateful to the city and to the United States for opening its arms and welcoming us so warmly,” Sharon Nazarian told JNS.
“Our own Muslim brothers in America and in Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia are not speaking out against the Chinese genocide of the Uyghurs,” an activist told JNS.
They do so over the regime’s objections and under the threat of imprisonment or death.
“Members of the Jewish community were the first to help us ... they realized the evil nature of the Iranian regime’s dictatorship,” said Gazelle Sharmahd, whose father faces a death sentence in Iran.
“The female-led uprising is the most consequential fight for human rights of our generation,” says activist Sam Yebri.
UCLA’s Aomar Boum has spent 22 years championing interfaith familiarity and amity
Maurice Motamed, a Jewish former member of Iran’s parliament who currently lives in Los Angeles, sparked controversy by meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in New York.
“If the media of the world would support the opponents of the regime and show the true face of this criminal cult, they [Iranian repressive leaders] will be forced to retreat,” said Mitra Jashni, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Farashgard Foundation.
“The more we in the Iranian community get involved in government, the more integrated we become into the fabric of this country,” said attorney Makan Delrahim.