Women Like Me Stories & Business
🎧 Introducing "Women Like Me Stories & Business" - The Inspiring Business and Story Podcast by Julie Fairhurst! 🎙️
Julie Fairhurst is a speaker, movement leader, and the force behind Women Like Me. She doesn’t just host conversations, she pulls truth out of the places most people hide it.
As the founder of Women Like Me, she has helped hundreds of women tell the stories they thought they’d take to their grave, and turn them into something powerful. This isn’t about writing. It’s about being seen.
Women Like Me Stories & Business
Women’s Rights in Iran: Why Iranian Women Won’t Be Silenced | Zolal Habibi
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What is life like for women fighting for freedom, equality, and the right to use their own voices in Iran?
In this powerful episode of Women Like Me Stories & Business, Julie Fairhurst speaks with Zolal Habibi, an Iranian-American human rights and women’s rights advocate and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
Zolal’s commitment to human rights is deeply personal. Her father—a writer and human rights activist—was killed in connection with Iran’s 1988 massacre of political prisoners when Zolal was only seven years old.
Rather than allowing this devastating loss to silence her, Zolal transformed her grief into a lifelong mission. For more than two decades, she has worked to amplify the voices of Iranian women, political prisoners, and others who cannot speak freely without risking their safety.
In this important conversation, Julie and Zolal explore:
✦ The realities facing women and girls in Iran
✦ How controlling women’s clothing, choices, and voices becomes a means of controlling society
✦ The courage of Iranian women who continue to resist oppression
✦ How Zolal’s father’s death shaped her life and purpose
✦ Why women’s empowerment is essential to lasting social change
✦ The history behind Iran’s continuing struggle for freedom
✦ Why education has become a form of resistance for Iranian women
✦ What it costs to stand by your beliefs when speaking carries real danger
✦ How men can become meaningful allies for women’s equality
✦ What women in Canada and around the world can do to raise awareness
✦ Why helping another woman discover her power also strengthens your own
This is not simply a conversation about Iran. It is about what happens whenever women are denied the right to choose, speak, lead, and determine their own futures.
Zolal leaves us with a message for every woman who feels powerless, forgotten, or afraid:
Believe in your strength. Respect your decisions. Take one step at a time—and reach back to empower another woman as you rise.
Institutional discrimination and serious human-rights violations affecting women and girls in Iran have also been documented by the United Nations Human Rights Office.
Connect with Zolal Habibi
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zolalhabibi/
Instagram: @ashrafi4ever
X: @Ashrafi4ever
Learn more: Iran Freedom
If this conversation helps you understand the courage of Iranian women more deeply, please share it. Silence protects oppression. Awareness gives truth somewhere to stand.
Content note: This episode discusses executions, political imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, and the loss of family members. Please listen with care.
The views and historical interpretations expressed by the guest are her own. This interview is presented to encourage awareness and conversation about women’s rights and human rights.
If this conversation stirred something in you… good. That’s where change begins.
Make sure you’re subscribed, share this with someone who needs it, and if you’re ready to tell your story, step into your voice, or build a life that actually feels like yours… You’re in the right place.
I’m Julie Fairhurst, and this is where stories turn into power.
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