Mardhiah Hashemi

Marzieh Hashemi (Persian: مرضیه هاشمی‎‎; born Melanie Franklin) is an American-born Iranian journalist and television presenter. She is a correspondent in Press TV the editor-in-chief of Mahjubah magazine.

Hashemi was born in New Orleans, America. She was born in a Protestant Afro-American family. She was a student in the field of broadcasting in 1979, when the Iranian revolution happened, after which she worked for Islamic newspapers and magazines in U.S after converting to Islam.

Since 2008, she has lived Iran, where she is now a TV presenter, journalist, voice-over artist, and documentarian and the host of Press TV, Iran's English-language broadcasting network.

According to Hashemi, the main cause to convert to Islam was the Iranian revolution and characteristic of Ruhollah Khomeini.

When I was a student in America I witnessed that the Iranian students are so active and I was so interested in political activities then, I used to ask them about their activities and purposes, why you protest? And they used to talk about the cruelty of the overset king and Imam Khomeini to me, and this was the first step of me becoming Muslim. I was looking for the truth and I wasn't satisfied with my own religion, and I had no solution for the problem that the God has three parts of the Father, and the Son, and the holy Spirit, But still where one? I wasn't convinced with answers when I asked from different people, when this issue happened to be in university, I started to study not only about Islam but about different religions, and simultaneously comparing them in theory and ideology, from Marx Weber up to now, and thanks God, after I became Muslim.

She changed her name to Mardhiah Hashemi when she became a Muslim; Hashemi is her Muslim husband’s last name and she choose Mardhiah because it is a title of Fatimah bint Muhammad, the daughter of Islamic Prophet.

• Ali- "his words are so intertwined with truth and beauty that when I read his Nahj al-Balagha, I feel a man beyond history is talking to me".
• Women Rights- "Basically in materialist countries, the main injustice is happening to women. They believe that in all areas you should look at a woman as a commodity and a woman is only a means to entertain men."
• 9/11- "As a simple example, 9/11, and it's obvious for everyone that Zionists are behind it, and the American people are helpless in front of them."

• "Interesting memories of new Muslims about Imam Ali (A.S.)". Retrieved 2 June 2015. 
• "The other side of "woman" in America". 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015. 
• "SR. MARZIEH HASHEMI". Retrieved 29 June 2016.