Mahnaz Afkhami (Persian: مهناز افخمی; born January 14, 1941) is an Iranian women's rights activist who served in the Cabinet of Iran from 1976 to 1978.

[3] She has founded and headed several international non-governmental organizations focused on advancing the status of women in Iran and later around the world.

[5][6] At 17, Afkhami joined a trade union and successfully challenged a breach of her rights as a worker when an employer laid her off temporarily then rehired her to avoid paying for the vacation she had earned.

[citation needed] In 1976, Afkhami was asked to join the cabinet of the Iranian government and became Minister of Women's Affairs.

At the time Afkhami became Minister of Women's Affairs, her sister was a leader in the students' movement demanding the overthrow of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

[13] She has written that "[w]omen's empowerment is a process, a holistic approach that involves raising consciousness, building skills and reforming unjust laws that limit women's education, their employment, their participation in decision making and, above all, their opportunities for economic independence.

"[14] When Iran's Islamic Revolution began in 1979, Afkhami was at the United Nations in New York negotiating the establishment of the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW).

She currently serves on the Advisory Committee of the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch,[24] the Board of the Foundation for Iranian Studies,[1] and the Board of Trustees for the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Afkhami believes that religion and feminism are not incompatible ("Women ought not to be forced to choose between freedom and God" Archived 2013-09-26 at the Wayback Machine).

[27] Afkhami's life and work in the women's movement in Iran, breaking with tradition, and living in exile are the topics of the 2012 Voice of America Persian biopic Archived 2015-04-15 at the Wayback Machine.

Her early childhood was spent in Kerman, Iran in a complex that housed a large extended family of Sheikhi Shi'ite Muslims.