Janet Afary

Janet Afary is an Iranian-American scholar, author, and professor globally recognized for her work on Iran’s social history, gender studies, and the Constitutional Revolution. She studied at the University of Tehran and earned her PhD in History and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan. Afary has taught at Indiana University, Purdue University, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she holds a distinguished chair in religious studies. Her major works include The Iranian Constitutional Revolution (1906–1911), Sexual Politics in Modern Iran, and Women and Gender in the Constitutional Era. She has contributed to the Encyclopaedia Iranica and Britannica, and published essays in outlets such as The Guardian and The Nation. With a critical and analytical lens, Afary explores the roles of women, religion, and society in Iran’s modern transformations, and is considered a leading figure in Iranian studies and global feminism