Mariam Behnam (Persian: مریم بهنام‎, 25 February 1921 - 4 December 2014) was an Iranian-born Emirati writer, diplomat and women's rights activist. After graduating from high school and beginning her career as a teacher in Pakistan, she returned to Iran and began to work on social improvement projects first in Teheran and later in Bandar Abbas. In the 1960s, she returned to Pakistan and served for eight years as a cultural attaché establishing cultural centers, libraries and promoting Iranian culture. She was honored with the Iranian Order of the Crown and a Pakistani badge of courage for remaining in the country and continuing her work during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, when other diplomats fled the country. Returning to Iran in 1972, she worked with the Ministry of Arts and Culture in