Negar Mortazavi

Negar Mortazavi (Persian: نگار مرتضوی; born 1981) is an Iranian-American journalist, political analyst, editor and host of the Iran Podcast. She is based in Washington DC.

Early life Mortazavi was born in Tehran, Iran. She immigrated to the United States in 2002 as a student. She received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Massachusetts and a Master of Arts from Brandeis University. Since 2009 she has been forced into exile from the Iranian regime because of her journalism work.

Career Negar Mortazavi is a journalist and commentator, editor and host of the Iran Podcast, and a senior non-resident fellow at the Center for International Policy (CIP), based in Washington DC. She has been covering Iranian and Middle Eastern affairs as well as US foreign policy towards the Middle East for over a decade. Mortazavi is a frequent media commentator and has appeared on CNN, NBC, NPR, BBC, France24, Al Jazeera, and other global outlets. She has written for Foreign Policy magazine, Politico, The Intercept, The Independent, and other publications, and is regularly invited to speak at panels and conferences around the world about Iranian affairs and US foreign policy. Her writing and commentary has appeared in Foreign Policy, the Guardian, the Independent, and Huffington Post among others.

Mortazavi worked as a TV reporter and presenter at Voice of America's Persian and English services from 2010 to 2014, where she hosted a daily talk show on current affairs named Straight Talk (Rooye Khat) and interviewed prominent figures including boxing champion Muhammad Ali, former American hostage in Iran Sarah Shourd, former U.S. Under Secretary of Treasury David S. Cohen, former United States Persian Spokesperson Alan Eyre, and many others.

In 2014, Mortazavi joined the staff of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) as a Media and Communications assistant. NIAC is an organization accused by some U.S. lawmakers of lobbying for Iranian government interests.

Mortazavi previously worked for the International Center for Journalists, the National Iranian American Council, and the United Nations headquarters in New York.

In 2014, she launched a unique kickstarter campaign and crowdfunded her travel to Brazil on assignment where she covered Iran's Team Melli presence in the FIFA World Cup live on Twitter.

Human rights and press freedom organizations including Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Center for Women in Journalism (CFWIJ) have reported that Mortazavi and multiple other prominent female journalists and analysts in the Iranian diaspora have been victims of targeted online harassment, smear campaigns, and physical threats and persecution to themselves and their families, both from the Iranian regime and from some Iranian opposition groups abroad. Mortazavi has been the target of many state-sponsored hacking attempts of her online and social media accounts.

Reception and controversies In October 2022, a planned University of Chicago Institute of Politics panel featuring Mortazavi was moved online after the institute received threats over her participation. Coverage of the controversy reported that some critics objected to her participation and accused her of ties to the Iranian government, which Mortazavi denied. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the bomb threat and said the accusations circulated to the institute were false.

Recognition In 2021 Mortazavi was featured in Forbes among 30 inspirational women.

In 2021 Mortazavi was named a national security & foreign affairs leader by the Center For Strategic and International Studies (CSIC) based in Washington DC.

Mortazavi was named among 40 leaders under 40, shaping the present and future of US-Middle East relations by the Middle East Policy Council in Washington DC.

In 2020 Mortazavi was named a MENA-American next-generation leader in foreign policy and national security by New America Foundation in New York.

In 2017 Mortazavi was named a Young European Leader by Friends of Europe, a prominent progressive think tank based in Brussels, Belgium.

In 2014, The Guardian newspaper named her one of the top ten people to follow on Twitter for Iran news and commentary.