AFME awards Iranian Congress Fellowship
American Friends of the Middle East (AFME) today announced award of the Congressional Fellowship to Mr. Hedayatollah Matin-Daftari. Mr. Matin-Daftari, Director of the Office of Information and Press Relations of the Ministry of Justice, will leave Iran next month for Washington, D.C. where he will spend nine months working as an assistant to one or several of the members of the United States Congress and Senate. He is the first Iranian to be so honored by this grant which is worth $5000.
The American Friends of the Middle East, which is sponsoring this fellowship, is a private, non-profit American organization dedicated to improving understanding between the people of America and the countries of the Middle East.
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Mr. Matin-Daftari
The purpose of the Congressional Fellowship which Mr. Matin-Daftari has received, is to enable outstanding young men to gain experience in democratic government by working with a Senator or Representative throughout one complete session of Congress. In past years, persons from Malaya, Formosa, and Japan, as well as selected Americans, have been chosen to participate in this program.
American Friends of the Middle East in Tehran operates a Student Counselling and Orientation program to assist students going to American; another program called the Individual Resources Development Program to assist these students to obtain employment and re-adjust when they return to Iran; and John Bruner Memorial Periodical Library of technical and scientific literature to help Iranian graduates of American Universities keep abreast of the latest developments in the field in which they studied while in the United States. AFME also sponsors People-to-People programs, of which this award is a typical one.
Mr. Matin-Daftari is son of Senator Dr. Ahmad Matin-Daftari, former Prime Minister. He was educated at Fircoz Bahram Secondary School in Iran and Ellesmere College and Cambride University in England. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Law from Cambridge in 1956. Since his return to Iran, he has worked in the Minstry of Education and as a faculty assistant at the University of Tehrna. He assumed his present position of Director of Information and Public Relations at he Ministry of Justice in 1953. Mr. Matin-Daftari also serves as Secretary to the Society for the Protection of Prisoners and their families, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Iranian Association for the United Nations.
Mr. Mati-Daftari is married to the former Miss Mariam Vaseh-Noori. She is planning to accompany him to the united States along with their small son. Together they will be received upon arrival in the United States by Harold Minor, former United States Ambassador in Lebanon and now President of American Friends of the Middle East in Washington, D.C. At this ceremony Mr. Matin-Daftari will meet the Congressman with whom he will be working.
