FAMILY ANCESTRY

Ms. Rosie Malek-Yonan is a descendant of one of the oldest and most prominent Assyrian Christian families, tracing her Assyrian roots back nearly eleven centuries as evidenced by the Malek Family Tree. The Malek Family or Tribe came from the Assyrian village of Geogtapah, Urmi, a region in northwestern, Iran.

During the Assyrian Genocide of 1914-1918, Ms. Malek-Yonan's grandparents left their ancestral homeland during the Great Exodus from Urmi. The Malek-Yonan family fled to Mesopotamia where her father, George, was born, while her maternal grandmother fled to Russia where her mother, Lida, was born. Years later, both families returned to Tehran where her parents met and were married. Ms. Malek-Yonan has a younger sister, Monica who works very closely with her on most of her projects.

Living as a minority Assyrian Christian in Iran, the Malek-Yonan Family always used its influence and the Malek title to further the interests and welfare of its Assyrian nation. The family has produced many great sons and daughters.

George Malek-Yonan, a leading Assyrian international attorney, was personally responsible for procuring a seat for the Assyrian nation as a recognized minority in the Iranian Parliament, thus giving them a political voice. This was a remarkable achievement, to say the least, considering that Assyrians have been a people without a formal country to their name since the fall of the Assyrian Empire.

Lida Malek-Yonan was equally influential in demanding recognition for Assyrian women in Iran by launching and presiding over the Assyrian Women Organization, which was the only officially recognized charter member of the Iranian Women Association up until the end of the Pahlavi Dynasty.

Other family notables include Dr. Jesse Malek-Yonan, who left Urmi for America to study medicine. After earning his medical degree, he returned to his homeland where he knew he was needed most among his Assyrian nation. After the Assyrian Genocide of 1914-1918, he represented the Assyrians of Iran at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.

A Renaissance man, entrepreneur, art collector and inventor, Milton Malek-Yonan, received his doctorate in divinity in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Urmi-born, grew up in America but never abandoned his Assyrian roots. Instead, he actively sought out non-Assyrians to educate and enlighten them about his Assyrian heritage, culture and history. He invented the widely used process called "rice conversion" or Malekized Rice. It was a revolution in the treatment of rice. During the war, General Douglas MacArthur ordered that all the rice shipped to the Pacific should be "Malekized." When the patent ran out, the invention became known as products like "Uncle Ben's Rice", though in countries such as Brazil and India the name Malekized Rice lives on.

Rev. Isaac Malek-Yonan was the author of several books and essays including The Beloved Physician of Teheran (1933) and Persian Women (1898). Rev. Isaac's wartime diaries and journals are considered an indispensable source of information, giving an insight to the daily struggles of the Assyrian refugees during the Assyrian Genocide of 1914-1918 and in particular the final exodus from Urmi.

David Aghabeg Malek-Yonan was a graduate of the Class of 1900 at Davidson College in South Carolina. On July 12, 1900, he attended a Presbyterian Church picnic before returning to his native Urmi. While swimming in the Catawba River near Davidson, he and a friend who were both medical student graduates died heroically trying to rescue a drowning student. A five-foot high white marble obelisk marks the site where Aghabeg David Malek-Yonan is buried at Davidson. A scholarship was created for members of the Malek-Yonan family to attend Davidson in honor of Aghabeg David Malek-Yonan. His tragic death was written about in a book entitled Campus Heroes.

Shushan Malek-Yonan author of a children's book published (1927) in Tabriz, Iran; Norman Malek-Yonan author of The Christmas Story (1958) and Terrence Malick, Oscar winning writer, director and producer of such films as Badlands, Days of Heaven, Red Thin Line, The New World and The Tree of Life.

In the 17th century, Geogtapah became the setting for the famous tragic love story of Aslee from the House of Malek and Karam, a commoner. The tale has been recounted in numerous Assyrian and Russian books. The Aslee and Karam Opera was composed in 1912 by the Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov. This tragic love story has been compared to that of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. A beautiful stone well was erected in the village of Geogtapah in Aslee's memory after her heartrending and untimely death.

BIOGRAPHY

The versatile Ms. Malek-Yonan is a natural-born artist, with artistic concentration in classical music, piano, acting, directing, producing, writing, documentary filmmaking, and figure skating. She knows the unhurried craft all too well. She began composing classical music as early as her teens and continued her musical studies at Tehran Conservatory of Music. Upon receiving her LC degree in English from University of Cambridge, she moved to the United States where she continued her musical studies with Saul Joseph at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and at San Francisco State University (SFSU) earning a BA and a BM in Music. Concurrently, she studied Acting with Ray Reinhardt at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and at SFSU.

To music and acting she also added another challenging dimension from the time she moved to the States: the sport of figure skating. Her sister, Monica, soon followed suit. When Queen Farah Pahlavi took notice of their passion and commitment to figure skating, she invited the sisters to represent Iran as the first female athletes in the sport. Their dedication, talent and hard work earned them both spots on the 1980 Olympic Team representing Iran, the first ever in the history of that country, and of the Assyrian history.

However, by 1979 the political climate in Iran drastically shifted when the Royal Family left the country. With their departure, the aspirations and dreams of ever skating in the Olympics at once became illusive for the Malek-Yonan sisters unless they were to comply with the restrictions that the new government was demanding to impose upon them. In order to continue to represent Iran, the Malek-Yonan sisters had to abide by the newly mandated dress code of skating in long gowns (the country's uniform for women), wear headscarves, become Moslem, and refrain from using music at the competition. Having composed the orchestral score for her short program for the Olympics, Ms. Malek-Yonan was devastated at a decision that seemed inevitable. Faced with a government's attempt to implement a series of ridiculous demands, the sisters walked away from the games prior to the 1980 Winter Olympics.

Ms. Malek-Yonan went on to compose many classical orchestral pieces including the Assyrian Requiem and continued to study acting. By the early 1980's, she won an invitation to study Drama at the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA).

She made her television debut on the series Dynasty while still a student at AADA, immediately followed by a national commercial for AT&T where she spoke in Assyrian (from the Aramaic), a language that years later director Mel Gibson would use in The Passion of the Christ.

After leaving AADA, her television career began to blossom. As an Assyrian, Ms. Malek-Yonan is a pioneer in the filed of acting having over the course of a 30-year career, compiled an impressive list of credits, which include performances on the stage and roles in television and film opposite Hollywood's Oscar, Emmy and Tony winning actors and directors.

She played the role of ''Nuru Il-Ebrahimi,'' opposite Reese Witherspoon in New Line Cinema's Rendition, helmed by Oscar winning director, Gavin Hood. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Returning to daytime drama, she joined the cast of ABC's longest-running series, General Hospital as ''Farah Mir'' in a recurring role that debuted on 9 June 2008.

Her plays have been produced and performed on stage in Los Angeles.

AUTHOR

Ms. Malek-Yonan has amassed an extraordinary list of accomplishments. She is the author of The Crimson Field (ISBN 0-9771873-4-9 Pearlida Publishing, USA), an historical and literary work, based on real events and true family chronicles set to the backdrop of the Assyrian Genocide of 1914-1918 that coincided with World War I when two-thirds of the nation totaling 750,000 Assyrians were massacred by the Ottoman Turks, Kurds and Persians.

The Crimson Field was chosen as required readings by Professor Ellene Phufas for her World Literature class for the SUNY system (State University of New York) to represent a work about the Christian Genocides in Asia Minor.

Seyfo: Genocide, Denial and the Right of Recognition (ISBN 91-972351-2-1 Seyfo Center, Netherlands Publisher) is a compilation of articles and speeches presented at conferences held in the European Parliament. Contributors include Rosie Malek-Yonan (author of The Crimson Field and Director of Seyfo Center USA), MP Stephen Pound (House of Commons of the United Kingdom), Prof. Ove Bring (Swedish Parliament), Sabri Atman (Director of Seyfo Center, Europe), Mechtild Rothe (Vice President of the European Parliament), Prof. David Guant (Södertöms University Colledge, Sweden), Markus Ferber (EVP-ED, Member of the European Parliament) and Willy Foeutre (Human Rights Without Frontiers).

UNITED STATES CONGRESS

The Assyrian native remains unaffected by her Hollywood success as she continues to speak on issues regarding her nation's struggle. When Ms. Malek-Yonan's The Crimson Field was brought to the attention of the U.S. Congress, on 30 June 2006, she was invited to testify on Capitol Hill before a Congressional Committee of the 109th Congress on religious freedom regarding the genocide, massacres and persecution of Assyrians in Iraq from 2003. Reading a passage from The Crimson Field, she compared the Assyrian Genocide of 1914-1918, as depicted in her book, to the current plight of the indigenous Assyrian Christians in Iraq. Her passionate Congressional Testimony and plea to the United States government, ultimately prompted Congressman Christopher Smith to travel to war-torn Iraq to witness matters for himself. While in Iraq, after meeting with local Assyrians, he turned in Ms. Malek-Yonan's report to U.S. Officials in Iraq. One year later, a Congressional appropriations subcommittee unanimously voted to send $10 million to aid the Assyrian Christians in Iraq. The complete archived transcript and webcast of the actual Congressional Testimony is now part of the official Congressional records and is available at the website of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Monica Malek-Yonan's documentary film, My Assyrian Nation on the Edge, is based on this Congressional Testimony. It was released September 2006. On 7 August 2008, the documentary film was screened at the Australian Parliament of New South Wales in Sydney. Among the attendees were Rev. Hon. Fred Nile MLC, Hon. David Clarke MLC, Senator Helen Coonan and Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells. The documentary has been screen in many universities throughout the world.

HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST

Ms. Malek-Yonan embodies the fighting spirit of her ancient Assyrian ancestors. She is an outspoken human rights activist and advocate of issues concerning her nation, in particular bringing attention to the Assyrian Genocide as well as the plight of today's Assyrians in the Middle-East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States and its Coalition Forces.

She is frequently interviewed on television and radio programs worldwide including Australia's ABC National Radio and publications such as the New York Times, giving her assessment of the current situation of the Assyrians in the Middle-East as well as discussing the topic of the Assyrian Genocide.

Her articles are published globally and translated into many languages. She has been on a lecture circuit since the release of her book in 2005 and is often invited to address the topic of the Assyrian Genocide. She has lectured at University of Berkeley, University of California at Merced and Woodbury University.

Various media sources including The Annual Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the U.K. Iraqi Study have quoted and used Ms. Malek-Yonan's Congressional Testimony and her various published articles, speeches and interviews regarding the current state of affairs in Iraq concerning its Assyrian Christian indigenous people.

In 2008 she was invited to address the topics of genocide, world peace and in particular the Assyrian Genocide in statements presented at the British House of Lords and at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.

Her published articles and speeches can be found here.

(To schedule an interview or to book Ms. Malek-Yonan for a speaking engagement please e-mail your request to Trip Miller .

CHARITABLE WORK

Ms. Malek-Yonan is involved in numerous charity events and programs and has endorsed various humanitarian organizations including the Special Olympics and Neurofibromatosis.

In 2007 she joined the Board of Advisors at Seyfo Center in Europe and represents this Assyrian Genocide Research Center in the U.S. The center deals with issues concerning the Assyrian Genocide (1914-1918).

In 2009, she became an ambassador for the Swedish-based Assyrians Without Borders.

She is a founding member of The Assyrian Cultural and Arts Society that has provided scholarships since 2005 to students at Woodbury University's Design School through an annual Assyrian Design Competition. This event has introduced the university to Assyrian culture, food, history, music, textiles and arts.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Ms. Malek-Yonan has been recognized and awards for her outstanding work in the arts and as an activist and humanitarian.

In 2005, Rosie Malek-Yonan's The Crimson Field was named The Assyrian Event of the Year 2005 by Zinda Magazine, Washington, D.C.

In 2006, she was awarded Woman of the Year at the 73rd Annual Assyrian Convention in Chicago, Illinois, by the Board of Advisors of the Assyrian American National Federation, Inc.

The Crimson Field was a featured selection in the winter 2007's fourth issue of MAKE, a Chicago Literary Magazine.

For her numerous contributions as an actress, artist, director, author and activist, in March 2008, Rosie Malek-Yonan was awarded for Excellence in Arts and Entertainment by the Iranian American Political Action Committee (IAPAC).

At the Assyrian Universal Alliance 26th World Conference in Sydney, Australia, she was the recipient of the 2009 Assyrian Woman of the Year award in recognition of her substantial contribution to advance the Assyrian national cause by promoting international recognition of the Assyrian Genocide, her extensive efforts in conveying the needs of the Assyrians to the United States government, and achievements in providing individual service to the Assyrian community worldwide.

FAMOUS QUOTES BY ROSIE MALEK-YONAN

"I may not have a country with boundaries, but my country is in me. My country is in my soul and in my heart. I am ASSYRIA." (The Crimson Field)

" Iraq's liberation has become the oppression of Assyrians." (The United States Congress)

"I am an Assyrian. That is not negotiable." (The Crimson Field)

"Anytime the Western countries go to war in the Middle East, it becomes a religious war." (The New York Times)

"The recognition and acceptance of a genocide, and mass murder of nations is not to merely point a finger at a tyrant guilty of those crimes. It is acceptance of facts and truths with the ultimate goal to mend bridges between the races. It is not to merely condemn but to create the first step towards world peace." (House of Lords, London)

"When we perpetually allow the practice of genocide and holocaust and consent to the denial of such actions to linger for decades as in the case of the Assyrian, Armenian and Pontic Greek Genocides, we are in essence consenting to denial as a compromise. Denial is not compromise." (House of Commons, London)