Archiving the History of Modern Iranian Women

From Houri Moghadam to Homa Sarshar: Iranian Women Archives at Stanford

Join us for a half-day conference celebrating important archival collections at Stanford University created by or about Iranian women. Scholars will explore the intricacies of archival creation, the vital role these collections play in preserving the modern history of Iranian women, and the pressing need for continued archival research and scholarship in this area.

Sponsored by Stanford's Green Library and the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies

Conference is in English.

AGENDA

Welcome Remarks: 2:00 PM

Panel One: 2:15-3:45 PM

Coffee/Tea Break: 3:45-4:00 PM

Panel Two: 4:00-5:45 PM

Light Reception: 5:45-6:30 PM

PANELISTS

Kioumars Ghereghlou

Kioumars Ghereghlou is the Curator for Middle East Collections at the Stanford University Libraries. His most recent book is a critical edition of Hayati Tabrizi’s (d. after 1554) newly-found chronicle of the early Safavids and the opening years of the reign of Shah Isma’il I (New Haven, Conn.: American Oriental Society, 2018).

Sepideh Mohammadian

Sepideh Mohammadian was born in 1986 in Tehran, Iran. She is an author, screenwriter and researcher. She earned her BA in Law and MA in sociology and is fluent in Farsi, English, French and Turkish. Mohammadian has been writing for 20 years now, working with Roshangaran Publication since the beginning of her career as a writer. She has worked with several literary magazines in Iran having published short stories and also is a member of Pen America. Mohammadian’s research works focus on semiotics in films and the difficulties social, racial and sexual minorities face in society. She has written eight books some of which are banned in Iran. Her latest book, The Assembly of the Forgotten, which was banned in Iran, was recently published by Mehri Publication in London. Since she has been advocating for the freedom to write, particularly for marginalized voices, she actively promotes and highlights banned books by fellow writers on her social media platforms, aiming to raise awareness of their work and the unjust censorship they face.

Negar Mottahedeh

Negar Mottahedeh is a Professor of Literature at Duke University. Her research on film, social media, and social movements in the Middle East has been published with Stanford University Press, Syracuse University Press, Duke University Press. This includes her monographs Whisper Tapes: Kate Millet in Iran which was published with Stanford UP in 2019, Displaced Allegories: Iranian Cinema 1980-2000 published with DUP in 2008 and #iranelection: hashtag solidarity and the transformation of online life. She has written for WIRED magazine, The Hill, Salon.com, The Observer and The Wall Street Journal. She holds a PhD in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society from the University of Minnesota and a BA in International Relations from Mount Holyoke College.

Abbas Milani

Abbas Milani is the Director of the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies at Stanford University, an Adjunct Professor, and co-director of the Iran Democracy Project and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. His expertise is U.S.-Iran relations as well as Iranian cultural, political, and security issues. Milani is the author of numerous books in Persian and English. Most recently, he published 30 Portraits (Persian Circle). Milani has also translated numerous books and articles into Persian and English. He has published more than 250 essays and book reviews in journals and papers.

Farzaneh Milani

Farzaneh Milani is Raymond J. Nelson Professor Emerita of Iranian literature and Gender Studies at the University of Virginia. She has published several articles and books, most recently, The Literary Biography of Forugh Farrokhzad and Unpublished Letters. Milani is currently working on a book project tentatively titled, “Iranian Women Writers at the Threshold of the Local and the Global.”

Nahid Pirnazar

Nahid Pirnazar is a lecturer of Iranian Studies at UCLA where she received her Ph.D. in 2004 in Iranian Studies with an emphasis on Judeo-Persian literature and Iranian Jewish History. She has been teaching the Habib Levy Visiting Professorship of Judeo-Persian Literature at UCLA since 2000, and the History of Iranian Jews at UCLA since 2007. Pirnazar is the founder and president of The House of Judeo-Persian Manuscripts, an academic organization, which collects, preserves, transliterates and publishes Judeo-Persian manuscripts. She presents her research internationally, which focuses on varied aspects of Judeo-Persian writings and Iranian literature as well as the history, culture and national identity of Iranian Jews. Among her many publications in both English and Persian, the most recent ones are: Judeo-Persian Writings, A Manifestation of Intellectual and Literary Life (Routhledge, 2020); Ketab-e Anusi, Poetic Narratives of the Life of Iranian Jews in the Safavid Era, which is the latest volume in the series  of “Ketab-e Iran Namag”, published jointly by University of Toronto, Elahe Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies & Houses of Judeo-Persian Manuscripts, 2021.

Homa Sarshar

Homa Sarshar is a published author, award-winning journalist, writer, and media personality. She is the author of five books and the editor of nine volumes. From 1964 to 1978, she worked as a correspondent, reporter, and columnist for Zan-e Ruz weekly magazine and Kayhan daily newspaper in Iran. From 1972 to 1978 she worked as a television producer, director, and talk-show host for National Iranian Radio & Television. In 1978, Sarshar moved to Los Angeles where she resumed her career as a freelance journalist, radio and television producer, and on-air host. In 1982 as the co-producer, writer, and talk-show host of Omid Radio she co-founded a daily AM radio broadcast. In 1996, Sarshar founded the Center for Iranian Jewish Oral History (CIJOH) in Los Angeles. In 2006, she founded Honar Foundation in Los Angeles. From 2006 until March 2021 Sarshar has been producing, writing, and hosting a two hour weekly radio show at 670AM KIRN. She earned a BA in French literature from Tehran University; a MA in journalism from the Annenberg School of Communications, USC; and a Ph.D. (HC) in Journalism from College of Letters and Science at the American World University – LA, CA. She has received numerous awards for her work, including the Medal for Special Achievement in Women's Rights, given by The Iranian Women's Organization of Tehran, Iran; Journalism Award: Distinguished Iranian Women by the Encyclopaedia Iranica; Commendation for Community Affairs Services by the County of Los Angeles; 2013 Ellis Island Medal of Honor; 2016 American Heritage Award by American Immigration Council; and in 2023 the 13th Bita Prize for Persian Arts - Stanford University, Iranian Studies.

Mona Tajali

Mona Tajali is a scholar of gender and politics, specializing in women's political participation and representation in Muslim countries, with a comparative focus on Iran, Afghanistan, and Turkey. Her research includes analysis of feminist mobilization against patriarchal structures as well as the experiences of institutionalization of women's rights in semi-democratic and non-democratic contexts. She is the author of Women’s Political Representation in Iran and Turkey: Demanding a Seat at the Table (2022) and co-author of Electoral Politics: Making Quotas Work for Women (2011), both published as open access. She is also the co-editor of Women and Constitutions in Muslim Contexts (2024), the first compilation analyzing several national constitutions of the Muslim world through a gender lens. A firm believer in engaging across the academic-practitioner divide, Tajali has been a long-term collaborator with transnational solidarity network and Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), and, since 2019, has served as a member of its executive board. She is published in both academic and popular outlets, among them the Middle East Journal, Politics & Gender, The Conversation, and The Washington Post. Tajali is a former associate professor of international relations and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta.

Mandana Zandian

Mandana Zandian graduated from Shahid Beheshti Medical School in 1997. She worked as a researcher at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles for 20 years, specializing in research on aggressive forms of advanced cancers.  Dr. Zandian is also a published poet, author, and journalist, actively collaborating with "Rahavard" quarterly journal. Her books include: Omid o Azadi (Hope and Liberty, Los Angeles, 2012) on the life and works of Iraj Gorgin; Baz-khani-e Dah Shab (The Ten-Nights Revisited, Los Angeles, 2014); Ehsan Yarshater in Conversation with Mandana Zandian (Los Angeles, 2016); She also edited Yaddashtha (Diaries, Washington DC, 2021), a collection of notes written between 1986-2012 for the journals "Irannameh" and "Iranshenasi" by Dr. Ehsan Yarshater. Zandian's most recent collection of poems is titled Seda-ye Saye-haye Ham Boodim (Our Voice Echoed the Shadows of All, Los Angeles, 2019).  Dr. Zandian is also the host and producer of a podcast on Persian Literature titled "A Window of Freedom." She collaborated on a section of Homa Sarshar's weekly radio program, introducing Persian contemporary poets, for 10 years. Zandian's latest book is titled Persian Cypress and the Booms of Modernity, in Conversation with Abbas Milani (Los Angeles, 2023).

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