I was born and raised in Tehran, Iran and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. I have now lived most of my life in the United States where as a graduate student I majored in Near Eastern Studies with an emphasis on the Perso-Islamic world.I am a "traditionalist" in my scholarly work in the sense that I consider myself part of a continuum of scribes, poets, and scholars who have valued the medieval Persian texts that I read, meditate on, and love, as did my predecessors and will do so my successors. Teaching is one of my foremost passions -whether it be teaching the intricacies of Persian grammar, the life and lessons of the indomitable Malcolm X, or the contemplative reveries of Islamic mysticism. I teach students to read closely and analytically, and to love and meditate on the questions that present themselves in life and literature rather than rush to find and hang onto answers and solutions.My scholarly work involves classical Persian texts, especially from the 11th century AD. I am writing two monographs involving topics such as metaphor and irony and women in classical Persian texts.I write poetry in both Persian and English.