Education and service to the community are essential parts of my life. I hold a Master’s degree in Multidisciplinary Studies (International Education) from the State University of New York at Buffalo. I have recently started working as a Digital Support Associate at Wilmette Institute and intend to dedicate all my knowledge and experience in education and technology to the service of this amazing institution and grow professionally. I was born and raised in Iran and just like other Bahá’í youth, was denied access to higher education. As a result, I enrolled at Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) where I received my first BA in English Linguistics and Literature. BIHE is a unique open university in Iran, which has been portrayed as an underground university, established by the Bahá’í community of Iran in 1987 to meet the educational needs of the Bahá’í youth who have been systematically denied access to higher education by the Iranian government. I have talked about my experience in defense of the right to education for the Bahá’ís in Iran on several occasions and in numerous campaigns, on TV, and in journals.

In 2002 I moved to Brazil where I lived for 17 years and earned my second BA degree in Education (Pedagogy).  I have also lived in Australia where I spent 2 years studying and working in the Social Work field. During the past 10 years, I worked as a teacher, coordinator, and facilitator at School of the Nations which is a Bahá’í-inspired, private, international school in Brasilia, Brazil. I worked at the Moral Education and Global Citizenship department and was in charge of teaching the students about values and virtues, and applying the School’s mission, to educate students to be world citizens based on standards of academic and ethical excellence and to develop students’ capacities to know, love, and serve humankind.