About Rosie Malek-Yonan

Born in Tehran, Malek-Yonan is a descendant of one of the oldest and most prominent Assyrian families, tracing her Assyrian roots back nearly 11 centuries. The Malek family or tribe came from the Assyrian village of Geogtapa, in the Urmia region of northwestern Iran. Geogtapa was the largest Assyrian Christian village in the region and much of it belonged to the Malek-Yonan family with the oldest plot in the family graveyard dating back to 1100.
Malek-Yonan's father, George Malek-Yonan (1924-2014), an international attorney in Iran, was personally responsible for negotiating and procuring a seat for the Assyrians as a recognized Christian minority in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, a huge accomplishment for a people who had been without a formal country since the fall of the Assyria.
Malek-Yonan's mother, Lida Malek-Yonan[6] (1928–2002) regarded as an activist and humanitarian, was equally influential in demanding recognition for Assyrian women in Iran by launching and presiding over the Assyrian Women's Organization which was the only officially recognized charter member of the Iranian Women's Association until the end of the Pahlavi dynasty.
During the Assyrian genocide of 1914–1918, Malek-Yonan's grandparents left their ancestral homeland in Urmia, as part of the "Great Exodus" from Urmia in March 1918. The Malek-Yonan family fled to Mesopotamia where her father was born in Baghdad, while Malek-Yonan's maternal grandmother fled to Russia where her mother was born in Rostov. Years later, both families returned to Tehran where her parents met and were married.