Notes on Contributors
Maliheh Abedi
is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology at Payame Noor University (PNU). She received her Master’s degree in Sociology and Bachelor’s degree in Social Research from Alzahra University. In addition to conducting research on Iranian education, she teaches different courses in sociology. She has published articles in various journals and conference proceedings in the field of women’s studies. Her research interests are feminist theories and critics, gender studies, women in education, sociology of family, and women’s health. She has conducted many research projects in sociology and women’s health.
Hamideh Dabbaghi
is an Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies at Allameh Tabataba’i University. She writes on women’s issues, especially employment, work-life balance, the division of domestic work, and Female Entrepreneurship. Some of her publications include: “Tourism and the Empowerment of Women in Iran” (Routledge, 2018), “A Multiple Narrative of the Work-Life Relationships of Academic Women” (Iranian Journal of Anthropology, 221), and “Infertility and Women’s Suffer: A Review of the Psychological, Social & Economic Problems of Infertility” (Social Sciences, 2023).
Zahra Karimi
is an Associate Professor at the University of Mazandaran, Iran. Her fields of research are Development economics, Institutional Economics, and labor market. Some of her Publications are “The Effects of International Trade on Gender Inequality in Iran: Women Carpet Weavers of Iran” (SSRN, 2008), “The Role of Credit in Women’s Employment; The Case of Women’s Cooperatives in Iran” (Iranian Economic Review, 2013), and “Iran Labour Market Under the Sanction” (International Journal of New Political Economy, 2022).
Teo Lee Ken
was a postdoctoral fellow at Alzahra University, Tehran, where his research project focused on intellectual thought and movements in Iran, particularly religious intellectualism and the women’s movement. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Malay Studies, National University of Singapore (NUS). He also holds a Master of Laws (LLM) specializing in Asian Legal Studies from the same university. He has previously been a visiting researcher at the Department of Pacific and Asian History in the School of Culture, History and Language at the Australian National University (ANU), and has presented academic and social research papers in Singapore, Japan, Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, Germany and the United States. His research interests include the sociology of knowledge and culture, political history, comparative politics, and political history.
Zahra Mirhosseini
is an Assistant Professor of Women and Family Studies at Alzahra University, where she has served as the department head since 2019. She earned her Ph.D. and Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Tehran and has been teaching a variety of courses, including gender sociology, family sociology, women’s social issues, and family social policy for over seven years. She is particularly interested in qualitative research and believes that it provides a more comprehensive understanding of women’s issues. Her work has been published in several journals, including her most recent article, “Women, Sexual Harassment, and Coping Strategies: A Descriptive Analysis”, which was co-authored with her colleagues and published in 2023. Other articles she has authored include “Qualitative Evaluation of Women’s Problems and Life Challenges during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” and “Identifying the Context of Designing a Model for Successful Social Integration of Offender Women: A Grounded Theory Approach.”
Seyed Javad Miri
Ph.D. (2000), is a Professor of Sociology and History of Religions at the Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies in Tehran. He has published more than 50 books and 100 articles on various issues related to philosophy, religion, sociology and social theory. His publications appear in Oxford University Press and Brill.
Marzieh Mohases
is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Theology and Religions, Shahid Beheshti University. She received her Ph.D. in Quranic Science and Hadith. The main field of her research is women and gender studies from the perspective of the Qurʾan and authentic Islamic texts. For the last 13 years, she has been studying and researching the fundamental issues of women, and has authored several scientific articles and books. She is the translator of several English books in the field of gender studies in Persian.
Samaa Naissi
has received her MA degree in Women’s Studies from Alzahra University and another MA degree in Political Geography from Tarbiat Modares University. She enjoys a profound understanding of the economic and political outlook of Iran in the region and beyond. It also provided her with analytical skills in geo-strategic affairs and in applied fields like journalism. Women Studies allowed her to have depth understanding of the problems and injustice against women, and provide solutions for empowering women. She is very much interested in gender equality and the empowerment of women in her country. She is currently reflecting on a project to provide social assistance and working skills for young girls in need.
Zahra Nejadbahram
has a Ph.D. in Political and Communication Science. She is a political scientist. She teaches communication, news journalism, public opinion and administrative rights. She is also a researcher and journalist. She was the head of the political committee of the Women Journalists’ Association. From 2001 to 2004, she was the first woman deputy governor in Tehran. In 2004–5, she served as the first woman to occupy the position of the director of the social and electoral affairs of Tehran province. Dr. Nejadbahram has also been active in several NGOs as civil society organizations. She is the author of some books including The Obstacles to Women’s Political Participation in Iran and A Comparative Study of Women’s Economic Participation in Iran, Malaysia and Turkey.
Zeinab Shariatnia
is a Ph.D. Candidate in Islamic Mysticism at the Institute of Imam Khomeini, Iran. Her research interests are Islam and Zoroastrianism, and Sufism and Islamic mysticism. She also writes on the history of religions and Sufism, the psychology of religion and mysticism, and sociology of religion. She is currently writing a book about the “Philosophical and mystical thoughts of Shah Ismail.”
Afsaneh Tavassoli
is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Alzahra University. She received her Ph.D. and MA degrees in Sociology. Since then, feminist theoretical thought and the sociology of family have become the main focus of her research. She conducts her research and training in an interdisciplinary manner. She has been teaching at the Department of Women and Family Studies at Alzahra University for more than 16 years. Her research interests are Feminist theories and the critics, gender studies, women in education, sociology of family, women’s health and sociology of sport. She has published several research papers in well-known journals and has written many books in the field of women’s studies with the sociological approach in Persian and English. She has conducted many research projects on women and family.
Saideh Torab
is a Ph.D. candidate in the History of the Islamic Revolution of Iran at the Islamic Revolution Research Institute. She has been teaching at Jiroft University since 2013. Her research expertise is Persian Gulf studies, and the political and social life of Iranian women. She also writes on the history of the Persian Gulf, the Iran-Iraq war and Iran’s foreign relations with the Arab countries. Gender studies and the pioneers of women’s rights movements are among her research interests as well. She has written on Persian Gulf Maritime trade, and women in contemporary Iranian history. She gave a talk on the relations between Iranian parties and women’s organizations and associations (in the 1940s) at the University of St. Andrews. Currently, she is writing about the life of Zandakh Shirazi, one of the activists of women’s rights during the Pahlavi era.
Esmaeil Zeiny
Ph.D. (2013), is an Assistant Professor of Literature and Cultural Studies at Xiamen University Malaysia. He was previously a Research Fellow at the Department of English Language and Literature, Kharazmi University, and the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies, the National University of Malaysia (UKM). His areas of specialization include Postcolonial Literature, Middle Eastern Studies, Women’s Studies, and Cultural Studies. His essays have been published in Interventions (Taylor & Francis), and Asian Journal of Social Science (Brill). His most recent edited volume is entitled The Rest Write Back: Discourse and Decolonization (Brill, 2019).