Farahnaz Ispahani

A Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a Senior Fellow at the Religious Freedom Institute, Farahnaz Ispahani is also a Member of the Anti-Defamation League’s Task Force on Middle East Minorities. She is the author of Purifying the Land of the Pure: A History of Pakistan’s Religious Minorities (Oxford, 2017). An advocate of Pakistan’s return to democracy during the military regime of Pervez Musharraf, she served as a spokesperson and international media coordinator for the PPP, working alongside the late Benazir Bhutto. During her tenure as member of the Pakistan National Assembly (2008–2012), she was a member of the Foreign Affairs and Human Rights committees and the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus. She has published over 50 newspaper opinion editorials as well as scholarly research papers. Choice, the flagship review outlet for the research library community included her book in the Outstanding Academic Titles category for 2017. In 2012 she was listed among Foreign Policy magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers, as well as Newsweek Pakistan’s Top 100 Women Who Matter.