Agenda

Three Decades of Women’s Struggle for Legitimizing their Public Performance

Zahra Taheri, Australian National University

Zahra Taheri was born and raised in Shiraz, and studied classical and contemporary Persian literature in Iran at Pahlavi (Shiraz) University, and received her Master's degree in Persian studies from the Pajuheshkade-ye Farhang-e Iran, and her PH.D from the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University Of California, Berkeley.

During the last two decades she has taught Persian literature, language, Iranian history and  culture, and Gender and culture courses in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley (USA), the Department of Persian Studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (Japan), and Australasian National University (Australia).

Her first book, Hozur-e peyda va penhan-e zan dar mutun-e sufiyyeh was published by the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies /Japan in 2007. The second edition of this book was published in Iran in 2011. Her Second book The Silence of Old Mirrors: The Lost Voice of a Muslim Woman in the Constitutional Revolution Era, the life and works of  ‘Alamtaj Qaem-Maqami was translated into Japanese and published in Tokyo in 2012. The Persian version of this book Sokut-e Kohan-e 'Ayene-haa was published in 2016 by Nashr-e Sales in Iran. She is currently working on her upcoming book on "The Image of Women in Persian Ethical Texts.” This research project received a fellowship from the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford in 2016-2017.

Taheri is also a published poet with two collections of poetry: Milad and  Pegaah-e Nokhostin. Her third poetry book Daaman be Khaak Mikeshad Maah is in the process of publishing by “Nashr-e Sales” in Iran.