About Host
ZOHREH “ZOE” RASTEGAR

BIOGRAPHY

Zohreh “Zoe” Rastegar was born in born in Shiraz, Iran and was raised in an upper middle class, educated family. Her mother was owner and head mistress of a private school in Tehran before retiring. Her father was an executive at the National Oil Company. He was also a poet and published a book of poetry just prior to his death in December 2001.
Zoe served as spokesperson and radio announcer at Pahlavi University, where she received numerous awards for writing and public speaking. She was awarded a master’s degree in English Literature from Washington College and another master’s degree in Health Services Administration from George Washington University.
Zoe has been a foremost leader of the Iranian-American community for more than 25 years. She served as a chairwoman for the Iranian Women’s Society of Washington, D.C. for six consecutive years and is a founding member of the Iranian Cultural Society. She has served as Master of Ceremonies as well as guest speaker on the subject of media for the Iranian Cultural Society as well as other organizations. Zoe is co-founder of the Washington Nights of Poetry and founder of the McLean Youth Citizenship Award. In addition, she chaired the legislative committee of the Virginia Medical Auxiliary. Zoe is a certified public speaker of the Capital Speakers Club in D.C. and is a volunteer escort interpreter of the U.S. Department of State.
Like her father, Zoe writes poetry and prose in both Farsi and English. Some of her writings have appeared in Iranian publications as well as websites. Her articles and poems have appeared in Persian Heritage magazine, Iran Times, persianmirror.com, Fravahr.org, to name a few. A link to her writings can be found on her website www.accentproductions.org.
Zoe first produced a talk show for Persian television station Rang-a-Rang TV, where she hosted three weekly shows in five years. In May 2000, she started her own show on Fairfax Public Access cable television entitled Outlook. Outlook was a weekly talk show in the Persian language focusing on Iranian immigrants to the United States and their adaptation into the American culture. The show aired for two years in Virginia, Maryland, and the District. It grew to spotlight the concerns and issues of both first and second generation Iranians and it was well received within the Iranian community.Two years later, Zoe launched the Accent program to promote cultural awareness of the Middle East in a post-September 11th world.
Zoe’s extraordinary and groundbreaking talk show, Accent, continues to gain momentum and has garnered a great deal of media attention. Zoe has been interviewed about the program by the local CBS network, “Morning Show”, the Voice of America, as well as several radio stations from the mid- West region. She has also been interviewed and featured on numerous Iranian web sites. Most recently, she was featured on WUSA channel 9 and Sky News based in London as a commentator on the current issues regarding US/ Iran conflicts.

Watch Zoe's interviews on www.youtube.com

Click here to read the interview with Milad Molavi of the PersianMirror.

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