TheWIFTS Foundation to Honor Emmy Award-Winning Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo With Humanitarian Award for Contribution to Women's Rights Movement

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On December 3rd The Women's International Film & Television Showcase - TheWIFTS Foundation is proud to screen The Stoning of Soraya M. in honor of TheWIFTS foundation Humanitarian Award Recipient Shohreh Aghdashloo for her Outstanding Contribution to the Women's Rights Movement.

The Stoning of Soraya M. is based on an incredible true story - a powerful tale of a village's persecution of an innocent woman that becomes both a daring act of witness and a compelling parable about mob rule. The film directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh, written by Betsy Nowrasteh, and starring Shohreh Aghdashloo, will be followed by a Q and A with Shohreh, Cyrus Nowrasteh, Betsy Nowrasteh and Irshad Manji, Director of the Moral Courage Project and followed by a cocktail reception. Proceeds from the screening will benefit The Moral Courage Project www.irshadmanji.com and TheWIFTS Foundation www.thewifts.com. Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.thewifts.com/SpecialScreening.php.

Shohreh Aghdashloo has been an activist for women's rights in Iran for more than three decades. She moved to London in the late 70s and began her acting career.

Her performance in The House of Sand and Fog garnered an Oscar nomination, and she was recently awarded a 2009 Emmy Award, for her supporting role on the HBO original miniseries, House of Saddam.

Her continued dedication to issues of social conscience, brought her to the attention of director Cyrus Nowrasteh, who offered her the crucial role of "Zahra," the voice of justice, in his film The Stoning of Soraya M, released this past summer.

Her commitment to the film and its cause brought her to the attention of such organizations as Vital Voices and Moral Courage, when she spoke out in Washington about the plight of women in Iran.

It is for her courage and determination to use her brilliant art to affect change that TheWIFTS Foundation Humanitarian Award 2009 will be presented to Shohreh Aghdashloo at The Women's International Film & Television Showcase on Friday, December 4, 2009.

Founding Sponsors of TheWIFTS Foundation 2009 http://www.thewifts.com/Named_Sponsors.php

SOURCE TheWIFTS Foundation

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