Ziba Mir-Hosseini is an independent consultant, researcher, and writer on Middle Eastern issues, based at the London Middle East Institute and the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Law, both at SOAS, University of London. She specializes in gender, family relations, Islamic law, and development. Dr. Mir-Hosseini has held numerous research fellowships and visiting professorships, including Girton College, Cambridge; Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin; and Hauser Global Law Visiting Professor at New York University. She is a founding member of Musawah Global Movement for Equality and Justice in the Muslim Family (www.musawah.org ), and a council member of Women Living Under Muslim Laws. Her publications include Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic Family Law in Iran and Morocco (I. B. Tauris, 1993, 2002), Islam and Gender: The Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran (Princeton University Press, 1999), and (with Richard Tapper) Islam and Democracy in Iran: Eshkevari and the Quest for Reform (I. B. Tauris, 2006). She has also directed (with Kim Longinotto) two award-winning feature-length documentary films on contemporary issues in Iran: Divorce Iranian Style (1998) and Runaway (2001). She has a B.A. in sociology from Tehran University and a Ph.D. in social anthropology from University of Cambridge.