Rana Rahimpour ( fa, رعنا رحیم‌پور, born 9 January 1983) is an Iranian-British journalist who worked as the BBC Persian’s Lead Presenter and bilingual correspondent since 2008 until 2023.Rana Rahimpour married an Englishman in 2009 and has two children named Tara and Damon.

Life

Rahimpour was born on 9 January 1983 in

Tehran, Iran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the Capital city, capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is th ...

. She was raised in Tehran. Rahimpour attended university in Iran and lived there for the first 25 years of her life. She studied English-Persian Translation at the Islamic Azad University and accounting at

Al-Zahra University Alzahra University ( fa, دانشگاه الزهرا, ''Dāneshgāh-e Alzahrā'') is a Women's college, female-only public university in the Vanak neighborhood of Tehran, Iran. Alzahra University is the only comprehensive women's university in I ...

. She moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 2008 to work for

BBC Persian TV BBC Persian Television ( fa, تلویزیون فارسی بی‌بی‌سی Televizion-e Fârsi-ye BBC) is the BBC's Persian language news channel that was launched on 14 January 2009. The service is broadcast by satellite and is also available ...

. Rahimpour left the BBC in order to ''have access to more platforms as a freelance journalist so to be a voice for the Iranians fighting for democracy.'' As one of the main anchors of BBC Persian TV, she was under constant attacks and threats by the Iranian regime. Rana Rahimpour has faced death threats and had family members detained due to her work for the BBC. She has covered major stories including Iran's nuclear programme, Iran's Presidential elections 2009 and its aftermath both for BBC Persian television and BBC World Service and the Iranian Presidential election of 2013. As a bilingual reporter, Rahimpour covers Iranian politics on multiple BBC platforms, including the flagship news programme '' Newsnight''. Since the beginning of 2018, Rahimpour has appeared on News At Ten. Rahimpour's Toothpaste piece for BBC Radio 4's

From Our Own Correspondent ''From Our Own Correspondent'' is a weekly BBC radio programme in which BBC foreign correspondents deliver a sequence of short talks reflecting on current events and topical themes in the countries outside the UK in which they are based. The pro ...

s was on the program's 2018 highlights. She interviewed BBC's John Simpson for the 40th anniversary of

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...

of 1979. She is one of the outspoken advocates of free press and has been campaigning against the harassment of BBC Persian journalists and their family members in Iran. In 2018, she addressed the United Nation's Human Rights Council in Geneva, calling for an end to the intimidation of journalists by the Iranian authorities. In 2022 Rahimpour presented the Association for International Broadcasting's awards dinner giving "AIB"s to leading people and companies involved in International Broadcasting.

Controversies

In January 2016, despite being British, Rahimpour was banned from travelling to the United States because of her Iranian nationality.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rahimpour, Rana Living people British journalists British people of Iranian descent BBC World Service presenters 1983 births