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About
Farian Sabahi (1967) is Associate Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Insubria (Varese and Como). She teaches History and Human Rights in the undergraduate program and Contemporary History and Business of the Middle East in the graduate program. She graduated in Economics and Business Administration at Bocconi University (1991) and in Oriental History at Bologna University (1995). She earned her Ph.D. (1999) in History at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London with a thesis on the Army of Knowledge during the reign of Muhammad Reza Pahlavi (1963–79). She later did research in Iran on buy-back oil contracts (for a post-doc at Bologna University, Department of Economics) and on Free Trade Zones in the Persian Gulf (for a scholarship at Bocconi University, Department of Economic History). Her research is focused on the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia. She has been working with a multidisciplinary approach which takes into account history, economics, religious and cultural aspects, with a special focus on minorities and gender issues. She has lectured at the University of Chapel Hill, Geneva, Baku, Sapienza Rome, John Cabot University, Turin.
Her latest books are At the Court of the Shah (2025), We Women of Tehran (2022), History of Yemen (2021), and History of Iran 1890–2020 (2020). As a journalist she regularly writes for Il Corriere della Sera, Il Manifesto, and is often invited to broadcast at RAI Radio Televisione Italiana. In 2019, the Museum of Oriental Art in Turin hosted her photographic exhibition Safar: lives hanging by a thread, a journey through a Middle East that no longer exists (1997-2003), which was then exhibited in Parma, capital of culture 2021. As a director, she made the short films The Children of Teheran (2018) about Polish refugees in Iran during the Second World War, Out of place (2009) depicting and Iranian Jewish woman who moved to Israel, and What shall we do with Teheran? (2008). She is currently working on the short film Ivana about paedophilia (2026).
She was awarded several prizes. Amongst them, the honorary citizenship of Siracusa (2022) and Premio Valdo Fusi – Torino Libera Award for Free Thought (2011) Pannunzio Centre for Free Thought with the following motivation: “The prize serves to distinguish the most significant figures in the city of Turin. Those who receive the prize are non-conformist freethinkers endowed with a critical spirit […] Farian Sabahi contributed in a scientific and secular way to the understanding of the Islamic world. She is an example of culture, freedom, scientific rigor and intellectual honesty. Her international profile honours Turin and its university”.
While at the Department of International History as a Visiting Research Fellow, she will be an Affiliate of the Iranian History Initiative.
Key expertise: Pahlavi Iran, Gender issues, Religious minorities
Current research at LSE: The Teheran Children (Polish refugees in Iran during WW2)
Further topics related to previous publications: Pahlavi Iran; Education in Iran 1963-79; History of Yemen in the 20th century; Current political and economic issues in Iran, and Yemen; Shi'i Islam; Gender issues in the Muslim world; Leftist movements in Iran (1970s); Travels in Iran and Yemen in early 20th century; Tribes and nomads in Iran; Religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East.
Engagement and impact
Awards, Fellowships and Grants
22 April 2026: (forthcoming) Premio Civitas 2026.
13 October 2023: Premio Critica liberale sulla Libertà, Stati generali del liberalismo, Roma Meeting Center. This prize is entitled to the Iranian movement Life, Woman, Freedom.
6 October 2023: Premio Internazionale “Città del Galateo-Antonio De Ferrariis”, Premio Insignito Della Medaglia Del Presidente Della Repubblica, con i Patrocini Morali del Senato della Repubblica, della Camera dei Deputati, della Regione Lazio. The motivation of the Premio d’eccellenza cultura donna is: «per la infinita esperienza e le meritevoli attività per la Cultura e l’impegno sociale e in particolare per il libro Noi donne di Teheran».
25 February 2023: Premio Margherita d’Austria per l’impegno sociale e culturale, per il Giornalismo e la Saggistica, Ortona (CH) with the following motivation: Per aver analizzato, nella su produzione scientifica, le complesse vicende delle donne iraniane, nel pieno rispetto delle problematiche e delle metodologie della Storia contemporanea. E, in particolare, per avere reso comprensibili al largo pubblico queste vicende nel suo libro Noi donne di Teheran.
10 December 2022: Honorary Citizenship of Siracusa, Sicily. This prize was awarded Per il grande impegno profuso nel promuovere la difesa dei diritti umani e la conoscenza del Medio Oriente – in particolare dell’Iran e dello Yemen – attraverso le sue pubblicazioni accademiche in italiano e in inglese nel settore della Storia contemporanea, insistendo sui diritti delle minoranze religiose e sulle questioni di genere, nonché per essersi distinta come giornalista professionista nella divulgazione del mondo islamico nella sua complessità, coniugando cultura e libertà, rigore scientifico e onestà intellettuale, con un approccio originale e non stereotipato, evidenziando le contraddizioni e superando ogni schematismo.
2019: Premio Giuditta, Alessandria. This prize was awarded for the non-academic book Non legare il cuore. La mia storia persiana tra due Paesi e tre religioni.
2016: Premio Con gli occhi di una donna, Lions Club Parma Maria Luigia.
2011: Premio Valdo Fusi – Torino Libera Award for Free Thought, Pannunzio Centre for Free Thought with the following motivation: The prize serves to distinguish the most significant figures in the city of Turin. Those who receive the prize are non-conformist freethinkers endowed with a critical spirit. According to the city’s best tradition, such prominent people have looked beyond the Alps, following the example of Alfieri, Gobetti, Baretti and Cavour, who were the expression of a cosmopolitan, international and European culture. Farian Sabahi finds her rightful place among the recipients of this award. Indeed, she contributed in a scientific and secular war, to the understanding of the Islamic world. Farian Sabahi is an example of culture, freedom, scientific rigor and intellectual honesty. Her international profile honours Turin and its university.
2010: Amalfi Coast Media Award (Mediterranean) for “her success in overcoming cultural diversity and her ability to make a difference”. The prize was awarded by Giorgio Napolitano, President of the Italian Republic, on 21 January 2011 at Palazzo del Quirinale.
(http://www.premiobiagioagnes.it/edizioni-precedenti/2010/giuria-e-premiati).
12 April 2010: Prize by Associazione Giardino dei Giusti di Milano. The prize was entitled to Neda Agha Soltan, killed in 2009 in Tehran and symbol of the moral resistance of the Iranian youth and their fight for freedom. The prize was awarded by the mayor of Milan Letizia Moratti and the President of the Committee Manfredi Palmieri.
2004: Premio Mustafà Souhir for the original approach in treating multicultural topics in the media (“per la multiculturalità nei media per la capacità di trattare un tema legato alla multiculturalità con un approccio originale e non stereotipato”.
August 2020: Intensive course online on Yemen, Yemen Exchange (2 weeks, 8 hours a day).
April 2014: Intensive Persian Language Training Program (one week), Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Exeter (Program sponsored by BIPS, the British Institute of Persian Studies).
2014: Grant (Sapienza University, Rome) for the publication of the monograph: History of Yemen (forthcoming 2024).
2012: Grant (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italy) for the research “Gender Issues after the Yemeni Spring”, published in the volume After the Yemeni Spring. A Survey on the Transition, ed. by Anna Maria Medici, Urbino Research Team on International Relations and Human Development (Milan: Mimesis, 2012).
2002: Funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) to organize the conference on Shi’ism (with Prof. Silvia Naef, Unité d'Arabe, Faculté des Lettres, Geneva University).
2001: Funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) to organize the conference on the Caucasus and Central Asia at the Graduate Institute of International Studies (IUHEI).
1 September 2001 - 31 August 2002: Fellow (“assegno di ricerca SECS- P/12 STORIA ECONOMICA”) on Free Trade Zones in the Persian Gulf, Institute of Economic History at Bocconi University. Within this fellowship, I lectured Understanding Islam – after 9/11 (also with a few invited speakers). Further funds were granted for: 1) Visiting fellowship (30 March – 3 April 2002), University of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, teaching (3 days) Democracy and Education in the Middle East; 2) Research trip to Yemen (7-18 May 2002) at the Centre français d’archeologie et de sciences sociales de Sanaa, invited by the Director Prof. François Burgat.
October 1999 - October 2002: Visiting Fellow in History (invited by the historian Prof. M.-R. Djalili), Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva.
1999 - 2001: Post-Doctoral Grant (on buy-back oil contracts in the Islamic Republic of Iran), funded by Bologna University, Dept. of Economics (Prof. Alberto Clò).
1999: CNR (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome) - NATO Fellowship for Syracuse University, The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public, Department of Political Sciences (two months).
1999: Central Research Fund, additional field-work award to travel to Iran (one month).
1998: Central Research Fund, additional field-work award to travel to Washington D.C. and search the National Archives (one month).
1997: CNR (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome), fellowship for research to be conducted at SOAS (3 months).
1997: Central Research Fund, additional field-work award to travel to Iran (one month). 1996/97 Scholarship from Bologna University for SOAS (one academic year).
1996: Scholarship from Columbus University, Ohio, to attend a summer intensive course of Persian language (3 months).
1995/96: Scholarship from Bari University for research at SOAS (one academic year).
April 1995: Scholarship, XLIII Settimana internazionale di studio su “Il Caucaso: cerniera fra culture dal mediterraneo alla Persia (secoli IV-XI), Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, Spoleto.