Farahnaz Ispahani

Farahnaz Ispahani is a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center and a Steering Group Member of the International Parliamentarians Panel for Freedom of Religion or Belief (IPPFORB). She also serves on the Anti-Defamation League Task Force on Middle East Minorities.

She has been a leading voice for women and religious minorities in Pakistan for the past twenty-five years, first as a journalist, then as a member of Pakistan's National Assembly and, most recently, as a scholar based in the United States. 

Ispahani served as a spokesperson and international media coordinator for the Pakistan People's Party, working alongside the late Benazir Bhutto. During her tenure in parliament (2008–2012), she was a member of the Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Committees and of the Women's Parliamentary Caucus. She concurrently served as Media Advisor to the President of Pakistan.

She has authored Purifying the Land of the Pure: A History of Pakistan's Religious Minorities.

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