Fariba Parsa, Visiting Scholar
Fariba Parsa is starting a project at the Center for the Study of Gender and Conflict beginning October 1 entitled “Empowering Women in Conflict Resolution with New Media.” It aims to combine research with activism in the area of women’s empowerment through starting a Facebook page and a blog titled: “Voices of Iranian Women” to foster open dialogue and communication between Iranian women who are living inside Iran and those who are living in the diaspora. This should enable Iranian women to exchange useful knowledge in the areas of conflict resolution, women’s rights, democracy, and peace. Fariba Parsa came to the United States in 2010, when she was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, where she conducted research on the concept “secularism.” In 2012-2013, she was a visiting scholar at the University of Maryland’s Roshan Center for Persian studies and the Department of Women’s Studies, conducting research on Iranian women’s movements for gender equality. She has her Master's Degree in political science and her PhD's in social sciences from University of Copenhagen and Roskilde University in Denmark. She was elected as a board member in a number of national and grassroots organizations in Denmark, such as the Danish National Women Council and the UN- Association of Denmark, where she served on the human rights committee. Fariba Parsa was born and raised in Iran.