Parvaz entered Syria at Damascus on Friday, April 29, 2011, to cover the Syrian protests[1] and was not heard from for the next nineteen days.
Homa Dorothy Parvaz was born in October 1971 in Tehran, Iran to an Iranian father and an American mother.
[9] After obtaining her degree from the University of British Columbia, Parvaz worked for the English language edition of the Asahi Shimbun in Japan.
[7] After the latter ceased to exist as a print newspaper, and following her journalism fellowships, she accepted employment with Al Jazeera,[6] for whom she reported on the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
She is based in Washington, D.C.[10] Parvaz arrived in Syria on Friday, April 29, 2011, via Qatar Airways[9] to cover recent protests there for Al Jazeera.
[6] Syria's efforts to limit foreign media coverage of recent events had previously led to the detention of numerous journalists.
"Voices calling for her release included her immediate family, her fiancé (Luxembourg-based attorney Todd Barker), Cambridge University, Al Jazeera, and the Iranian government.
[13] Other voices calling for her release included Amnesty International, the Doha Centre for Media Freedom, Al Karama for Human Rights, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and the U.S. State Department.
Ambassador Robert Ford met with a senior Syrian official in an attempt to obtain more information about Parvaz.
We will continue to work tirelessly for her return, as will her friends and colleagues across the globe — as will concerned public officials, citizens and journalists who hear Dorothy's story.
As of May 11, 2011, unsubstantiated reports had emerged indicating that the Syrian government handed Parvaz over to Iranian authorities and that she might be held in Tehran.
[20] Parvaz was named the 2013 recipient of the McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.