About this item
"Here are tender, lyrical, colorful stories of an Iran that Americans do not know and have no way of discovering directly. Tara Kangarou has created a work of people-to-people diplomacy, using her words to paint pictures of a very different country than the harsh, angry land depicted in the news. If only Iranians could read a similar account of the Heartbeat of the United States!" -- , CEO, New America "With all of the talk about Iran, we hear far too little about the stories of the Iranian people themselves. The Heartbeat of Iran gives us the individual stories of Iranians - an illuminating and powerful portrait of a people who have been so often mischaracterized, and whose voices deserve to be heard." -- , author of The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House "In no other time in history has there been such need for building bridges and closing the divides.
About the Author
Tara Kangarlou is an award-winning American journalist who has reported, written, and produced breaking news, investigative pieces, and broadcast stories for NBC, CNN, CNN International and Al Jazeera America. Her writing and reporting has also appeared in news outlets such as TIME, Vanity Fair, The Huffington Post, and Al Monitor. She is currently a fellow at the East West Institute, a contributor to Al Jazeera, and a frequent commentator on various international news outlets covering the MENA region, foreign affairs, and humanitarian issues. ?While at CNN, Tara was involved in covering major news stories such as the 2013 US Presidential Inauguration, the Boston marathon bombing, and the 2014 Russia-Ukraine crisis. In 2015, she led Al Jazeera America's team with unprecedented access to report and produce from inside Iran during the historic nuclear negotiations. Tara has also reported from Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, the world's largest refugee camp, covering the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims fleeing from Myanmar. She has also interviewed many global leaders, heads of states, and senior government officials in the US and around the world. In recent years she has spent much time in the Syrian border regions of Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan reporting and covering issues that impact Syrian refugees, host countries, and the Middle East at large. ?In 2016, she founded Art Of Hope, the first American nonprofit with the sole mission to support the psychosocial and mental health needs of war-torn refugees in Lebanon. In 2017 she was a keynote speaker at the first International Summit For Syrian Education in Istanbul where she addressed global leaders on the harrowing challenges faced by Syrians and other refugee children worldwide. In 2018 she was the recipient of the Ted Sorensen Award from Network 20/20 for her impact journalism and humanitarian work in conflict zones. ?Tara was born and raised in Tehran, Iran until her mid teens; is fully bilingual in English and Farsi, and lives between London and New York. She received her Bachelor's Degree in English from UCLA in Literature and a Master's Degree in Journalism from USC. She the author of the forthcoming book The Heartbeat Of Iran that captures the reality of everyday life in Iran through in-depth reporting and textured storytelling.
