Dr. Nina Ansary is an award-winning Iranian American author, historian, and women’s rights advocate whose interdisciplinary scholarship focuses on the history of women’s rights in Iran and the broader implications of institutionalized gender discrimination.

Dr. Ansary received her M.A. in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies and Ph.D. in History from Columbia University, where her academic work laid the foundation for her first book, Jewels of Allah: The Untold Story of Women in Iran. Based on her doctoral thesis, the book reveals the unexpected ways in which Iranian women have advanced their rights, particularly in the post-revolutionary period. The book received numerous literary awards, including the International Book Award in Women’s Issues.

Her second book Anonymous Is a Woman: A Global Chronicle of Gender Inequality, examines the systemic exclusion of women from recorded history and the persistent fight for equal rights. The book garnered multiple awards, including the Benjamin Franklin Book Award in History.

Dr. Ansary is active in international efforts to advance women’s rights and has served as a UN Women Global Champion for Innovation and a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics Centre for Women, Peace and Security. She is currently the Director of the Women’s Leadership Initiative and a member of the Advisory Board at the Cambridge Middle East and North Africa Forum; a think-tank based at the University of Cambridge. A frequent guest on media outlets, she has appeared on CNN, BBC, Fox News and Larry King, and her work and commentary have been featured in The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Time, Teen Vogue, and the Yale Journal of International Affairs.

Dr. Ansary is the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Alumni Award, and Barnard College Columbia University Trailblazer Award.

To contact Nina Ansary, please send an email to nina@ninaansary.com or connect with her on:

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