Roya Hakakian was born into a devoted Jewish family in 1966 in Tehran, Iran. Her father, Haghnazar Hakakian, was one of the first graduates of military school and also an experienced teacher in the Jewish community, spending many years at the Otsar Hatorah (i.e. Treasure of Knowledge) schools as a teacher and headmaster.
Roya completed her elementary and secondary education at Abrishami and Majd Danesh Schools, respectively. She was impassioned for Persian literature, which occupied her mind through her education. She had inherited this gift from her father and also trained in poetry and prose by him when she was a teenager.
Her ardor for literature was soon recognized by her school. They enlisted her as an exceptional pupil, which gave her access to cram courses that were exclusively for gifted youths and offered by the Institute for the Development of Children.
Roya Hakakian was forced to emigrate from Iran to Europe in 1985, where she stayed for a year before relocating to the United States with her mother due to the many troubles they faced. Her family was eventually reunited in New York and a new life began for them in a foreign country. Roya was admitted to college to study Psychology. She obtained her Masters’ degree in Social Work from Hunter College, New York, in 1993.
Roya was particularly interested in poetry. The sentiments of a person far from home lends a special shade to one’s poems. By reading the poems of prominent Iranian poets, she inspired herself to express her inner feelings in the form of poems. She simoltanously studied English literarture with American philologists.
Roya published her first literature piece in 1993, an anthology of her poems, entitled “For the Sake of Water”. Although it was her first attempt, the book became a success, and quickly received praise from experts. Her book was appraised as Best Book of the Year by several journals. The book quickly reached second print.
Soon, she published her second collection of poems, entitled “A Name to Worship”, which also became a success. She received many certificates and awards for her writings from experts and literary societies of New York.
In an interview, she said that she could be inspired by anything to express her inner feelings with poetry. When reciting her poems or that of others, she has her own unique pleasant style. As she has stated about herself, she writes the poems, but in reality, it is the poems that write her.
Roya Hakakian married Ramin, a university lecturer, in 2000. They had twin boys.
In 2004, she published an English novel entitled, “The Journey from the Land of No”, which similar to her previous works, won positive appraisals. It quickly became a bestselling book. The book is about her memories of her teenage years in Iran, before leaving the country at 18.
In early 2011, Roya Hakakian published “Assassins of the Turquoise Palace”, a narrative of the Mykonos restaurant assassinations in Berlin, where Iranian-Kurdish opposition leaders were assassinated in 1992.
Unlike her previous books, “Assassins of the Turquoise Palace” is a true-crime thriller of a complicated story that is the result of a comprehensive and documented research done by the author herself, in addition to an interview with one of the survivors and other individuals who were somehow entangled in this bitter event. This became the New York Times Notable Book of the Year, as chosen by its editor. It was also received well by other literary societies. It was considered as a remarkable writing in the sixteenth round of awards given to Asian-American writers. In 2013, she won the Asian American Literary Award for “Assassins of the Turquoise Palace”.
Roya Hakakian has also produced several films on different social topics regarding human rights. Her famous production is “Armed and Innocent” with collaboration with Hollywood star Rober Donver, and was commissioned by UNICEF.
Roya Hakakian is a social activist as well. She has prepared several reports for various radio and television channels, including NPR. She was a producer at CBS from 1997 to 2002. Roya was the head of the poetry service “Par” publications, where she published many articles on literature. She was also engaged in journalism in collaboration with some of the most prominent American papers. Her articles have appeared in New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Huffington Post for years. Roya Hakakian has also been a producer at American television networks.
Among the literary and cultural communities in the United States, Roya Hakakian is known as a prominent Iranian-American who is a successful lady, and a capable author, poet, journalist, and producer. She has been interviewed by prominent American networks as a stylist, for whom Iran is one of her main concerns.