By Kayhan Life Staff
Nazanin Boniadi, the British-Iranian actress and human rights activist, has won the 2025 Samuel Untermyer Award. It was given out at the annual Mehregan sunset soiree at the Untermyer Gardens in Yonkers, New York on Sept. 14.
In a ceremony in the gardens, Mike Spano, the Mayor of Yonkers, presented Boniadi with a framed proclamation making Sept. 14th “Nazanin Boniadi Day” in Yonkers.
“What we do is, we declare a day for you, here in the city of Yonkers, in your name,” said the Mayor. “Today, Nazanin, is your day in the city of Yonkers, and that will go into our archives and stay there forever. So when anybody looks up about Yonkers and about today and who we honored today, it will tell the whole story of you and your career and your impact, and we want to say thank you.”
The Samuel Untermyer Award was established in 2018 and is presented annually during the celebration of Mehregan – the ancient Persian harvest festival – to an individual who has made a significant contribution (to public life, culture, community and civic leadership). Past recipients include Christiane Amanpour (2018), Empress Farah Pahlavi (2023) and the superstar singer Googoosh (2024).
In a video presenting the award to Boniadi, Googoosh said: “The first time I met Nazanin Boniadi was back in 2018 when I invited her to join me and speak at the Hollywood Bowl concert in honor of supporting Iranian women.”
“From that moment, I knew that her spirit is like mine, a worthy representative of our culture – with dignity and poise.”
Googoosh said that her mission has always been to keep the spirit of Iran alive on the world stage, and Nazanin’s was too — on screen and beyond, in parliaments and at the United Nations, where she has stood up in defense of the people of Iran.
Accepting the award, Boniadi said it was “very moving” to receive it “during Mehregan – the four-thousand-year-old festival of love, light and unity.”
“And to be honored by the legendary Googoosh, whose voice has carried our culture through decades of silence, whose courage has given Iranians songs of resistance and belonging – this is a gift beyond measure,” she added.
Boniadi noted that the evening was held on the eve of the third anniversary of the murder of Mahsa Jina Amini, whose name “became the spark of the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, and whose spirit endures in every Iranian who has since risen with unyielding courage – a courage that continues to ripple outward.”
