A Champion of Hope, Peace & Equality: Nooshin Meshkaty
Written By Arielle Harris | Photography By Circumpunct Studio
With today’s ever-changing global political and social climate, Beverly Hills resident Nooshin Meshkaty emerges as one of the community’s frontline warriors in advocating for human rights, social justice, and equality. A glass-ceiling breaker, Meshkaty demonstrates excellence in engineering, activism, motherhood, and civic engagement.
An immigrant from Iran in 1977, Meshkaty and her family set their sights on the United States, specifically Beverly Hills, for its elite education. Though the initial plan was to return to their motherland after completing their respective degrees, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 forced Meshkaty’s family to reconsider permanently residing in the United States. Despite deciding to stay, Nooshin felt the pain and disappointment brought on by the Islamic Republic across the seas. “I was an activist from the first day of the revolution as a teenager because the Islamic Republic had no value for at least half of the population - women,” says Nooshin. Committed to her education, Nooshin attended USC for both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering before working for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1988.
Despite being rigorously immersed in academics, Nooshin never stopped engaging in activism. She joined an Iranian-American Activism group of students, where she met her husband, Yar. Now, they have 3 children together - Azadeh, Shahyad & Camyar. “The irony,” shares Nooshin, “is that this has come full circle today while the brutality of the Islamic Republic regime has peaked, and my three children have each become pro-human rights activists.” Evident in 2023, history repeats itself, and once again, Nooshin’s once-experienced pain connected to her motherland was triggered. But she is optimistic and believes that the next generation, those of her children, will help change the world and establish a secular democratic regime with freedom, equality, and healthy international relations. To get there, Nooshin stresses that education is key and has placed great importance on it for her own children. “I chose to raise my own family in Beverly Hills for the same reason most people choose to move to Beverly Hills, the schools and the safety.”
Despite having multiple engineering awards and recently arranging a human rights march in Beverly Hills with thousands of attendants chanting in support of justice in Iran, Nooshin prides herself most on raising three well-educated, intelligent children. “All through my teenage years and into my adult age, I have been focused on human rights, civic activities, and during my children’s education, very involved in their schools,” expresses Nooshin. Having served as Presidents for school PTAs and the Beverly Hills School District Board of Education, Nooshin prides herself on ensuring that education has been a predominantly part of her children’s lives. “Each is very well accomplished in their field, and most satisfying of all is their love for humanity and their contribution to human justice and equality,” articulates Nooshin.
Being an engineer in a historically male-dominated field, Nooshin has always carved an extraordinary path for herself, one that exceeds societal expectations. “As a young female engineer, I had to work very hard to prove myself. I was very much inspired by my aunt, who used to work for the Iran National Oil company as a translator. This was an uncommon job for a woman during that time, working in male-dominated industries like oil,” she reminisces. Knowing how difficult it is to break into such an industry, let alone as a minority, Nooshin’s recent years of community work have been committed to helping underprivileged young girls and women obtain access to educational programs. Nooshin was on the board of GIRL Inc,. Los Angeles Chapter for six years and is still on a team of advisors for them. They aim to bring STEAM (Science, technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) programs to south-central Los Angeles schools. She is also a member of Visionary Women, Iranian American Women Foundation, and the Farhang Foundation. Recent humanitarian activities include social media campaigns condemning the execution of women and young protesters in Iran.
“I see it as my duty to bring awareness and create public pressure for proper policies and legislation. I am passionate about several issues that help humanity, social justice and equality, educational opportunities, innovative expansion, technology, and infrastructure improvement,” prides Nooshin. “One of my main goals is always to serve my community and help bring innovative solutions to make life easier for the community.”
Loyal to her activism, Nooshin has served on multiple commissions in Beverly Hills and hopes to serve again in the near future. Currently, she is part of the Technology committee working with the city’s IT department. “The best thing about living in Beverly Hills,” Nooshin summarizes, “is the sense of community everyone has…feels like my family.”
When Nooshin isn’t immersed in humanitarian activities and engineering work, she loves running marathons - so far, with seven under her belt. “I stopped because of Covid, and am hoping to train and run in the March LA Marathon again this year,” she says excitedly. As an ongoing breast cancer fighter and survivor, Nooshin dedicates her marathon runs to raising awareness and funds for the Concern Cancer Foundation. “I won’t let the disease take control of me; instead, I try to have control over the disease,” she says proudly. She finds the training process a constant challenge to push herself mentally and physically and feels that much of the training for the marathon keeps her fit to show up in the world as her best self and help others.