Dr Haleh Afshar teaches politics and women's studies at the University of York and Islamic law at the Faculte Internationale de Droit Compare at Strasbourg.
Speaking recently on the panel of BBC Radio 4's Any Questions? programme, Ms Afshar responded to the question of whether the USA should wage war without a clear military objective. She suggested the Afghan people would suffer most from military action.
Dr Afshar was born and raised in Iran where she worked as a journalist and a civil servant before the revolution. She is the joint convenor of the Development Studies' Association's Women and Development Study Group. She has edited several books produced by this group the most recent being Women and Empowerment, Illustrations from the Third World and Women and Globalization and Fragmentation in the Developing World. She has written a book entitled Islam and Feminism.
Dr Afshar remains active in feminist Iranian politics.
She is currently undertaking research with students on issues relating to women and work in Iran, women war violence and survival in Palestine, Lebanon and Vietnam, Islam and politics in Turkey, and the impact of tertiary education in Mexico.
Her interests cover Islam, economics and development and gender relations in the third world.
