I am an interdisciplinary-oriented researcher from Iran, currently working as a Post -Doc researcher and Lecturer at the department of History, Culture, and Arts, at Turku Institute for Advanced Studies( TIAS). My background is in sociology, political sciences, and religious studies. I hold a Ph.D. in Women’s Studies from the University of Pune in India. 

My research focuses on migration and political activism in Middle Eastern countries, especially in and from countries with religious governments. Building on a comparative approach, I wish to understand how political and social change is coming. My main research questions relate to women from diverse ethnicities and religious backgrounds, particularly their agency and constructive resilience as social activists or political prisoners. Using qualitative research designs, I analyze personal narratives or cultural memory e.g., by means of interviews, diaries, documentaries, and political reports. 

• Offering, preparing, and teaching a course on Bahai studies for the Department of Religious Studies at Turku University every spring semester since 2022

• Teaching collaboration with Susanna Paasonen, Professor of Media Studies at the University of Turku, to conduct a seminar on the current uprising of Iranian women, Rethinking the Role of Academia to Create Solidarity Spaces: An open discussion, Nov 2022

• Teaching collaboration with Minna Opas, professor of religious studies at the University of Turku, to conduct a seminar on Persecution of Iranian Bahai, minorities, and religious communities, Sep 2022

• Teaching collaboration with Professor Oscar Prieto of the University of Girona in Spain at the opening of the Master of Migration Movements, 2022

• Exchange scholar with Trento University (Departments of Sociology and Law), teaching collaboration on the issue of Academic freedom, 2022

• Collaborating with Radio Payam Dost, Khabarnegar section: content production on Spirituality and Community building 2021-22

• Research collaboration and Lecturer at the Research Committee of the Center for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran on issues of Women and Gender equality, Minority rights, and religious freedom since 2021-

• Collaboration with the Women's Organization of Iran on organizing some social discourses on Women's Day and issues regarding the situation of women in Iran 2020

• Teaching collaboration with professor Ester Gallo for the course of Ethnicity and Diversity at the University of Trento - Department of Sociology and Social Research (Fall semester 2021, 2022)

• Collaborating with SAR Italy for fall SAR speaker series on academic freedom, authoritarianism, and discrimination, Nov 2021

• Teaching collaboration with Professor Nina Hoel for the course of Religion and Gender at the Faculty of Theology, Oslo University, Norway (Spring semester 2021)

• Supervising MA student's thesis at the Faculty of Theology, Oslo University, Norway (Fall semester 2020- 2022)

• Researcher in the faculty of theology at Oslo University ( 2020-2022) Raha Sabet Sarvestany - The Faculty of Theology (uio.no)