The annual scholarship, established in the memory of two exceptional figures, Zhinus and Houshang Mahmoudi, celebrates students in Asia and Africa who demonstrate academic excellence coupled with an outstanding approach to education that advances access to social justice at the grassroots level. 

The scholarship, established in 2019 by the Cambridge-based Ward & Brown Foundation and supported by Full Circle Learning and Zambian Gems Foundation is now administered by an independent panel of the Mahmoudi Foundation formally launched in 2024. Inspired by Zhinus and Houshang Mahmoudi, the scholarship supports 15 to 18 year olds involved in research or community service activities that apply social justice to help promote racial, economic or geneder-based equality as a means to greater access to the socioeconomic rights to education, work, health, shelter or food. 

This year, the scholarship panel received a number of applications from Asia and Africa. From among them, nine students are receiving much-deserved scholarships in order to help increase their impact in their immediate spaces through greater access to social justice. 

The recipients of this year’s Mahmoudi Scholarship are:

From The Gambia

• Binou Sawaneh (School expansion to community garden)
• Fatou Jagne (Girls’ empowerment through menstrual education) 
• Fatou Darboe (Cultural heritage programmes promoting social justice)
• Mohammed Sissohore (Community environmental justice project)
• Sait Ceesay (School project on personal development and social justice)

From Uganda

• Dieudonne Rutakaza (Refugee empowerment programme)
• Dorcas Kabwe Ngoyi (Refugee youth advocacy project on gender rights)
• Feza Rutakaza (Refugee camp hygiene education)
• Henry Kungwa (Refugee education equality project)

The recipients were selected from among applicants by an indepdenet review panel. “We are delighted to support such high-minded and service-oriented youth,” said Gol Khadem, a member of the panel, “during 2025 we hope to expand our reach and enable more students to use education as a means to advance social justice in their communities.”

The Mahmoudi Foundation will host an online ceremony later in February. To learn more, get involved or donate to the Mahmoudi Scholarship, please click here

About the Mahmoudis
Born in 1929, Zhinus Mahmoudi was the first female Iranian meteorologist who headed the country’s National Meteorological Organisation, a part of Iran’s Ministry of Defence. Raised in an educated family, her mother was a teacher and her father a publisher. Jinous studied physics, was a proponent of equality of rights for women and men. She advocated a healthy lifestyle through her translation of books on veganism and yoga. She produced the Geographical Atlas of Iran and led some of the most advanced and ground-breaking research in her industry.

A mother of three, she offered in-depth workshops for youth on significant trends of the time, including the cause of justice. Houshang Mahmoudi was a documentary filmmaker and an educator born in Iran back in 1927. In his earlier years, he co-founded an exemplary secondary school, and became known as a beloved educator among youth. He established Iran’s first children’s edutainment television program and coined phrases that shaped new approaches to parenting and family life. A passionate lawyer, Houshang produced a number of important books, documentaries, articles and poems that demonstrated his dedication to justice as a fundamental element of the new world.

The Mahmoudis served on national governing bodies of the Iranian Baha’i community. Following the
establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, Houshang, whose whereabouts remain unknown to this day, faced enforced disappearance on 21 August 1980, and following a two-week imprisonment, Zhinus was executed on 27 December 1981.