The Pacific Council invites our members to join an intimate gathering in partnership with Human Rights Watch on Tuesday, June 16, at 5 pm PT, featuring Minky Worden, Director of Global Initiatives at Human Rights Watch, and Maryam Shojaei, Iranian-Canadian activist and author of Azadi Means Freedom: Fighting for Gender Equity Through the World's Most Popular Game. The conversation will examine the intersection of sport, human rights, and gender equity as the 2026 FIFA World Cup arrives in Los Angeles, drawing on Shojaei's firsthand experience challenging Iran's decades-long stadium ban on women.

Shojaei's account offers a perspective shaped by her family ties to professional football, her activism at the highest levels of FIFA and the United Nations, and her on-the-ground experience navigating the realities women in Iran face today. Worden will discuss Human Rights Watch's ongoing advocacy surrounding the World Cup, with particular attention to the organization's calls for protections for journalists, immigrant communities, and fans across the tournament's three host countries.

Why it's important:

• The 2026 World Cup is unfolding against a backdrop of aggressive immigration enforcement across U.S. host cities. HRW has documented that all but one of the World Cup host city committees have failed to present the human rights action plans FIFA required ahead of the tournament, with gaps in protections for immigrants, LGBTQ+ individuals, and journalists.
• A March 2026 Amnesty International report warns that millions of fans attending the World Cup in Canada, Mexico, and the United States risk encountering serious human rights violations, including discriminatory immigration enforcement, mass detentions, and restrictions on freedom of expression and peaceful protest. Amnesty found that fans from Iran, Haiti, and several other countries face travel bans preventing them from entering the U.S. to support their national teams.
• In April 2026, a coalition of over 120 civil society organizations issued a travel advisory for the World Cup, warning fans, players, and journalists of risks including racial profiling, invasive device searches, suppression of protest, and potential death in ICE detention. The coalition called on FIFA to use its leverage to press the Trump administration for binding human rights guarantees, noting that the organization has yet to offer meaningful assurances despite repeated requests. 

Copies of Shojaei's book, Azadi Means Freedom: Fighting for Gender Equity Through the World's Most Popular Game, will be available for attendees, along with Human Rights Watch's Reporter's Guide, 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Copies are come first served. 

Seating is limited. Event location will be shared following registration.

Guest Speaker

Maryam Shojaei is an Iranian-Canadian civil rights activist who founded #NoBan4Women, which promotes women's rights to attend sporting events in her country, for which she received an ESPN Sports Humanitarian Award, among other honors. She is the author of Azadi Means Freedom: Fighting for Women's Rights in Iran. Maryam received her master's degree in Peace Operations from George Mason University. Shojaei now resides in Tehran, where she advocates for children's educational rights.

Presider 

Minky Worden develops and implements international outreach and advocacy campaigns as Human Rights Watch's Director of Global Initiatives. She previously served as Human Rights Watch's Media Director, working with journalists worldwide to help them cover crises, wars, human rights abuses, and political developments in some 90 countries. Worden has taught as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) since 2013. Before joining Human Rights Watch in 1998, Worden lived and worked in Hong Kong as an adviser to Democratic Party chairman Martin Lee and worked at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., as a speechwriter for the U.S. Attorney General and in the Executive Office for US Attorneys. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Worden speaks Cantonese and German, and is an elected member of the Overseas Press Club's Board of Governors. She is the editor of The Unfinished Revolution (Seven Stories Press, 2012) and China's Great Leap (Seven Stories Press, 2008), and the co-editor of Torture (New Press, 2005).

 

Seating is limited. Event location will be shared following registration.