It’s our great pleasure today to welcome Azin Tadjdini as an IntLawGrrls contributor.  Azin is a PhD research fellow at the Department of Public and International Law, University of Oslo.  She holds a Masters degree in law from the same university and an LLM in International Legal Studies from Georgetown University.  Azin will spend the academic year 2013-2014 as a visiting doctoral researcher at NYU.  Her dissertation-in-progess is entitled “Constitutional de-secularization in Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq and its impact on selected rights.”  This topic combines two of Azin’s research interests: comparative constitutional law and human rights.

Azin was an intern at the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs and worked at the Permanent Mission of Norway to the United Nations in 2008.  From 2009-2010, she worked for the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration.  Azin teaches constitutional law, and is particularly interested in how international and domestic politics interact with law.

Azin’s introductory post today takes a critical look at discourse around human rights in the Middle East and North Africa.  Heartfelt welcome!