Interview | Gissou Nia, Human Rights Lawyer, on Justice, Diaspora Identity, and the Power of Speaking Up
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Chai & Conversation
4.9 • 548 Ratings
🗓️ 30 April 2025
⏱️ 75 minutes
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Summary
Growing Up Irooni - Gissou Nia, Human Rights Lawyer, on Justice, Diaspora Identity, and the Power of Speaking Up
In this episode, Leyla talks with Gissou Nia, a leading international human rights lawyer and Director of the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council. Gissou shares her journey from growing up Iranian-American in New Jersey to taking on some of the world’s most urgent human rights cases. They discuss the tension between diaspora and homeland, how her name connects her to Persian poetry and protest, and why it’s more important than ever for those in the diaspora to speak up.
Topics covered:
- Growing up Iranian in the U.S.
- What “Gissou” really means (and why it’s more than just “hair”)
- Legal work on Iran and other crisis zones
- Fear of speaking out—then and now
- Diaspora activism and responsibility
- Personal reflections on power, identity, and justice
Follow Gissou:
- Twitter/X: @GissouNia
- Instagram: @gissounia
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | the U.S. leaders do not care about Iranian people. Thank you so much for talking with me today. |
| 0:34.3 | Thank you for having me on. |
| 0:35.6 | I'm so glad we're doing this. |
| 0:36.9 | Yes, we've been |
| 0:37.7 | working on this for a long time. And actually, I found an email that I sent to you in 2023, |
| 0:42.3 | actually, and also in April. So this has been a long time coming, but I want to just read one |
| 0:47.1 | line out of that email. I think one particular angle we can talk about is how we as a diaspora |
| 0:52.4 | feel connected to Iran and Iranians in particular, |
| 0:55.2 | especially now that the diaspora and those in Iran are more united than ever. |
| 0:59.7 | I just want to sit with that. |
| 1:01.7 | Wow, two years ago, yeah. |
| 1:04.1 | For the second that that was true, maybe that was true for a second, but a lot has changed. |
| 1:09.1 | I'm glad that we're talking at this point in time |
| 1:11.0 | because there's a lot to talk about. And I also want to mention or just tell everyone that you're |
| 1:17.3 | someone that I've looked up to for a really long time. You've been doing this work for a really |
| 1:20.9 | long time. And sometimes they say don't meet your heroes, but meeting you made me love you even more. |
| 1:27.0 | So you're such a lovely person. |
| 1:29.2 | I'm so glad that you found me to be fun in person as well. I really did. Yes, you're super fun. And the work |
| 1:37.5 | you do is super fun. And I'm sure everything we're going to talk about is super fun. But as I said, |
| 1:43.0 | this interview series is called Growing Up Ir Irani, so I want to talk |
| 1:46.2 | about that first. So tell us, first of all, if you can introduce yourself what you do now, |
| 1:50.7 | and then we'll go back in time and talk about where you grew up. Yeah, absolutely. So my name is |
... |
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