Nominees for the BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom (2025-2028)

Amal Sarhan

I am a recent MSc Comparative Literature graduate from the University of Edinburgh specializing in modern Persian literature and film. My research interests encompass literary and intellectual expression in the context of censorship, surveillance and oppression in Pahlavi and post-revolutionary Iran. In my masters dissertation, I focused on the censoring apparatus of the publishing industry in Iran, which has resulted in writers and academics reverting to covert literary techniques and self-censorship.

Furthermore, I am currently volunteering with Zan Foundation as an online academic mentor, coaching young Iranian women from disadvantaged and lower socio-economic backgrounds through academic applications to higher education institutions abroad. This has illuminated some of the struggles young students face at universities in Iran in terms of academic freedom. All of these experiences make the opportunity to bring about positive change in the Middle East and Iran extremely important to me. I would highly appreciate the chance to work with the BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom to promote more inclusive and free academic spaces in the region. Lastly, I am fluent in Arabic and am currently learning Persian through online classes with universities in Iran (Ferdowsi, Mashhad and Dehkhoda, Tehran) and Sorani Kurdish with George Washington University.