Helia Attar is an international studies student at Boston College whose work centers on political violence, gender, and power in the Middle East. Born in Iran and raised in Portland, where she moved in 2012, she brings a transnational lens to her research and advocacy. She has conducted independent fieldwork sponsored by her university on women’s political representation in Kuwait and has years of experience in grassroots organizing and civil liberties advocacy. During the summer of 2025, she interns at Rose Haven, where she explores the intersection of economics, public policy, and care systems impacting Portland’s most vulnerable. Her writing bridges academic inquiry with lived experience, grounding policy analysis in the realities of those most affected. In her free time she loves to spend time outdoors and explore the Pacific North West.
