Three Iranian-Americans, K. Cyrus Habib, Shelli Farhadian, and Keyan Salari are among thirty-one finalists in the tenth annual competition for the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. These Fellows are among thirty-one finalists in the tenth annual competition for the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans.

K. Cyrus Habib

K. CYRUS HABIB is a first-year student at Yale Law School.  He earned a BA in English, Comparative Literature, and Middle Eastern Studies from Columbia University, summa cum laude with election to Phi Beta Kappa, in 2003. While at Columbia, he studied under such literary theorists as Edward Said, Jacques Derrida and Gayatri Spivak.  As a Rhodes Scholar, he completed his MLitt in English at Oxford University in 2006.

MR. HABIB was born in Maryland in 1981 to Iranian parents who immigrated in the 1970s and later became naturalized citizens.  His family lives in Kirkland, WA. 

Blind by age nine, MR. HABIB has devoted his free time to photography, competitive downhill skiing, martial arts, and other hobbies generally deemed "off limits" to the blind.  A Truman Scholar, MR. HABIB has both interned and worked for US Senators Clinton and Cantwell and served as a Communications Consultant for John Kerry for President.  While in Oxford, MR. HABIB worked at The Civility Programme, where he researched and designed foreign investment and domestic privatization strategies for emerging markets in the Middle East.  A student editor of the Yale Law and Policy Review, MR. HABIB is also working on an amicus brief and pending legislation that seek to make U.S. currency accessible to the blind.  His commentaries have been published in such publications as the Washington Post and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 

As a lawyer and constitutional scholar, MR. HABIB plans to explore the implications of the rule of law in the US and in Iran.  He hopes to devote his career to working towards an American-Iranian dialogue.  By focusing on the non-profit sector, the media, private industry, and the rule of law, Americans can engage with cooperative parties in Iran.  Through his law degree, MR. HABIB intends to gain a deeper understanding of cross-cultural diplomacy and cooperation, in order to pursue a position in the US policy-making community.