Dr Zahra Taheri, Convenor of CAIS Persian program, has participated in a number of literary events where she had the opportunity to present her expertise in Persian Literature. Over the summer she held a three month Bahari Visiting Fellowship at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. The fellowship provided Dr Taheri with an opportunity to work on her research project entitled 'The Image of Women in Persian Ethical Texts'. Dr Taheri had access to the unique and valuable texts in the Bahari Collection of Persian Manuscripts at the Bodleian libraries as well as other colleges in The University of Oxford. During her stay in Oxford, Dr Taheri was able to discuss her work with many Persian Studies scholars.

While at Oxford, Dr Taheri presented a public lecture on Rumi’s poetry, life, and doctrine.
Listen to her lecture here.

Dr Taheri also attended the Bradford Literature Festival in July. During the Festival she gave three presentations. In the first of these presentations, 'Women in Rumi's Spiritual Circle', Dr Taheri explored the extensive use of feminine metaphors and symbols within the writings of the best-known of Sufism's poets and philosophers, Jallalludin Rumi.

In the second presentation, Dr Taheri discussed the life and work of the 14th century Iranian poet, Hafez, as well as reciting his poetry in Farsi and English.

The final presentation was a poetic contribtution to an event entitled, 'Modern Day Mystics' where Dr Taheri recited some of her own poetry. Dr Taheri's poetry and an interview she gave to Setayesh Nooraninejad,  'Poetic Bridges: Spanning Literary Traditions, Politics and Cultures: An interview with Iranian poet Zahra Taheri (published in the latest issue of Southerly) can be read here.