Ramita Navai

Ramita Navai

Ramita Navai at the University of Birmingham, 2012
Born (1973-07-21) July 21, 1973
Tehran, Iran
Education City University London
Occupation Journalist, Author
Television Unreported World
Website http://www.ramitanavai.com/

Ramita Navai (born July 21, 1973)[1] is a British-Iranian foreign affairs journalist and author.

Early life

Ramita Navai was born in Tehran, Iran. She permanently moved to London, United Kingdom with her family when the Iranian Revolution started.[2]

Career

After a postgraduate degree in journalism at City University London, where she won the Broadcast Journalism Training Council Young Journalist of the Year award,[3][4] Navai worked as the Tehran correspondent for The Times from 2003–06, where she covered events including the Bam earthquake,[5] and parliamentary and presidential elections.[6][7][8] She has reported from over thirty different countries, including reporting for the UN in Iran, Pakistan and Iraqi Kurdistan. She has made twenty documentaries for Channel 4’s award-winning current affairs series Unreported World.[9] For ITN / Channel 4 News she has made various features, including investigating child trafficking in India, police killings of gang members in Brazil, and the drug 'paco' in the slums of Argentina. She has written for many publications including The Times,[10][11] The Sunday Times,[12] The Guardian,[13][14] The Independent,[15][16] the New Statesman[17][18] and The Irish Times.[19] In September 2014 she appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.[20]

In 2012 she won an Emmy award[21][22] for her undercover report from Syria for PBS' Frontline.[23]

Her report Macedonia:Tracking Down the Refugee Kidnap Gangs[24] won the London Foreign Press Association for News Story of the Year: TV award,[25] the Royal Television Society for The Independent Award,[26] and was nominated for the Amnesty International Media Award for News Story of the Year.[27]

City of Lies: Love, Sex, Death and the Search for Truth in Tehran

City of Lies: Love, Sex, Death and the Search for Truth in Tehran was published in the UK by Weidenfeld and Nicolson in May 2014 and in the USA by PublicAffairs in September 2014. Based on extensive interviews and research City of Lies is an intimate portrait of modern Iran. It chronicles the lives of eight protagonists drawn from across the spectrum of Iranian society.

According to The Telegraph:

"City of Lies explodes the stereotypes of rebellious young Iranians doing drugs and attending raves, as it also challenges those about devotion-addled zealots who have benefited from the rise of religion after the revolution"
"Navai’s prose is startling. As they trudge up and down Vali Asr Street to work, eat, shop, pray, turn a trick, Navai’s characters observe the wrecked beauty of the world around them. Through these observations, the book is elevated far above typical reportage. She picks up snatches of songs, poems, billboard propaganda and is quick to find the knife and turn the blade on the hypocrisy of the city she knows so well."
"One regime billboard advises: “Let’s not spend too much time discussing society’s problems in our homes.” As Bjian , her young gangster, drives to his meth lab, he listens to the music group Anonymous Sinners sing a satire of a famous old war song: “There’s no prostitution, no drugs, press freedom, food and jobs, oil money for everyone, people are so happy they never complain…” But in the course of the book we discover that complaining in Iran is de rigueur; an art form, even""
The demands of secrecy pervade every aspect of city life. Many people are trying to find a way to endure the challenges of poverty and an oppressive regime. The government is cutting down the sycamores on Vali Asr in the dead of night. No one knows why they do it at night, other than to avoid the voice of protest rising from the streets of Tehran. In Navai’s energetic, eloquent book, these protests are sometimes a mumble, sometimes a scream."[28]

City of Lies won the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for non-fiction,[29] and Debut Political Book of the Year[30] at the Political Book Awards 2015.

Reviews

Eliza Griswold, The Telegraph:

One of the world’s most exciting cities, as revealed by one of journalism’s most exciting women. Navai slips effortlessly into the boots of earthy, urban writer to tour Tehran’s ripped backsides in this intimate, grand guignol debut.
She transports us through the Iranian capital’s multiple personas with deft and knowing navigation: never short of love for even the lowliest of her fellow Tehranis. An intimate and devoted portrait, lifting a beautiful truth from a city masked in lies.[31]

Jon Steward, The Daily Show:

Navai’s prose is startling ... Navai’s characters observe the wrecked beauty of the world around them. Through these observations, the book is elevated far above typical reportage. She picks up snatches of songs, poems, billboard propaganda and is quick to find the knife and turn the blade on the hypocrisy of the city she knows so well.[32]

Shappi Khorsandi, comedian:

This gripping book is a mosaic of such glimpses into a very different world ... the chapters read like utterly compelling short tales, catapulting us imaginatively into the hearts and minds of people we feel we know.[33]

Unreported World Documentaries

Year Title Notes
2012 Egypt: Sex Mobs and Revolution Nominated: Foreign Press Association Award (2014), One World Media Award (2013)
2012 Honduras and Mexico: The Lost Girls
2011 Undercover Syria Awards: News & Documentary Emmy Award (2012) Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a News Magazine, Nomination: One World Media Award in the Television category (2012)
2011 Breaking into Israel Nomination: FrenchAmerican Foundation Immigration Journalism Award (2012)
2011 Burundi: Boys Behind Bars Shortlisted: One World Media Award (2012)
2010 Zimbabwe's Blood Diamonds
2010 Afghanistan's Child Drug Addicts
2010 El Salvador: The Child Assassins
2010 USA: Down and Out
2009 Sudan: How to Fuel a Famine
2009 Peru: Blood and Oil
2009 Papua New Guinea: Bush Knives and Black Magic
2009 Turkey: Killing for Honour
2008 Nigeria: Child Brides, Stolen Lives
2008 South Africa: Body Parts for Sale
2008 Bangladesh: The Drowning Country
2007 India: The Broken People Nomination: Amnesty International Gaby Rado Award for Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year (2009)
2007 China: Chongqing: Invisible city
2006 Guatemala: City of the Dead
2006 Malaysia: Asia's Slaves

Awards and Nominations

Year Nominated Work Category Result
2003 Broadcast Journalism Training Council: Young Journalist of the Year Won
2009 India: The Broken People (2007) Amnesty International Gaby Rado Award for Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year (2009) Nominated
2012 Burundi: Boys Behind Bars (2011) One World Media Award Shortlisted
2012 Breaking into Israel (2011) French-American Foundation Immigration Journalism Award Nominated
2012 Undercover Syria (2011) News& Documentary Emmy Award, Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a News Magazine Won
One World Media Award in the Television Category Nominated
2014 Egypt: Sex Mobs and Revolution (2012) One World Media Nominated
2013 Foreign Press Association Award Nominated
2015 Macedonia: tracking down the refugee kidnap gangs Foreign Press Association in London: News Story of the Year: TV Won
Amnesty Media Awards: TV News Shortlisted
Royal Television Society: The Independent Award Won

Books

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ http://geographical.co.uk/people/i-m-a-geographer/item/172-ramita-navai
  2. ↑ http://geographical.co.uk/people/i-m-a-geographer/item/172-ramita-navai
  3. ↑ "City University sweeps TV and radio awards | Press Gazette". www.pressgazette.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  4. ↑ "City University sweeps TV and radio awards | Press Gazette". www.pressgazette.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  5. ↑ "Quake survivors seek shelter in a barren landscape | The Times". The Times. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  6. ↑ "MPs to boycott ‘farcical’ Iranian elections | The Times". The Times. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  7. ↑ "Calls for Iran poll boycott grow | The Times". The Times. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  8. ↑ "Iran election divides rich and poor | The Times". The Times. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  9. ↑ "Ramita Navai". Channel 4. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  10. ↑ "Rape gangs of Tahrir Square | The Times". The Times. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  11. ↑ "Migrants risk kidnap and death for desert trek into ‘rich’ Israel | The Times". The Times. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  12. ↑ "40,000 feared dead in quake | The Sunday Times". www.thesundaytimes.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  13. ↑ Navai, Ramita. "Breaking bad in Tehran: how Iran got a taste for crystal meth". the Guardian. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  14. ↑ "A women's rebellion | Ramita Navai". the Guardian. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  15. ↑ "Witch hunts, murder and evil in Papua New Guinea". The Independent. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  16. ↑ "Women told: 'You have dishonoured your family, please kill yourself'". The Independent. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  17. ↑ "Women on the frontline". www.newstatesman.com. http://www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 2015-11-15. External link in |publisher= (help)
  18. ↑ "High heels and hijabs: Iran’s sexual revolution". www.newstatesman.com. http://www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 2015-11-15. External link in |publisher= (help)
  19. ↑ Navai, Ramita (June 27, 2005). "Nuclear plan to stay, says Iran's new president". The Irish Times. p. 11. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  20. ↑ "Ramita Navai". Comedy Central. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  21. ↑ "The Emmy Awards - Winners of The 33rd Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards - The Winners". www.emmyonline.org. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  22. ↑ "Ramita Navai and Nicole Young receive the US television industry's highest accolade for their outstanding work in documentary film making". City University London. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  23. ↑ "Syria Undercover – FRONTLINE". FRONTLINE. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  24. ↑ Channel 4 News (2015-06-05), Macedonia: tracking down the refugee kidnap gangs, retrieved 2016-02-18
  25. ↑ "Foreign Press Association London". Foreign Press Association London. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
  26. ↑ "Television Journalism Awards | Royal Television Society". rts.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
  27. ↑ "http://amnesty.keystone-group.co.uk/". amnesty.keystone-group.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-02-18. External link in |title= (help)
  28. ↑ "City of Lies by Ramita Navai, review". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  29. ↑ "Royal Society of Literature » RSL Jerwood Awards for Non-Fiction". rsliterature.org. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  30. ↑ "The Paddy Power Political Book Awards". www.politicalbookawards.com. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  31. ↑ "City of Lies by Ramita Navai, review". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  32. ↑ Navai, Ramita (2014-05-08). City of Lies: Love, Sex, Death and the Search for Truth in Tehran. Orion. ISBN 9780297869504.
  33. ↑ Navai, Ramita (2014-05-08). City of Lies: Love, Sex, Death and the Search for Truth in Tehran. Orion. ISBN 9780297869504.
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