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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.