Iranian thinker
Sousan Shariati
Sousan ShariatiHistorical Studies and Religious IntellectualismIranian
Life and Thought
Susan Shariati, born 1962 in Paris, is an Iranian journalist, history researcher, and writer. She is a graduate of history from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris and wrote her doctoral dissertation on the role of messianic expectation in the contemporary history of Iran. Her writings mostly fall within the fields of contemporary history, religious intellectualism, social memory, and the re-reading of the legacy of Ali Shariati.
Susan Shariati was born in 1962 in Paris and spent part of her childhood and adolescence in Iran. She is the daughter of Ali Shariati, and her lived experience has been intertwined from the very beginning with one of the most important currents of contemporary religious intellectualism in Iran. After years of residence and study in France, she graduated in history from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.
Shariati's doctoral dissertation is about the role of messianic expectation in the contemporary history of Iran; a subject that shows her primary interest is directed at the link between history, religion, social imagination, and cultural action. After returning to Iran in 2001, she has been present in the press and the Persian-language intellectual sphere as a writer, analyst, and researcher.
Among the published works associated with her are the translation of "Should Utopia Be Rehabilitated?" by Christian Godin, the essay collection "Don Quixote in the City," participation in the book "The Phoenix of Rebellion," and writing the introduction for "The Last Image: An Album of Photographs of Ali Shariati." These works demonstrate her interest in utopia, intellectual history, cultural memory, and the relationship of the intellectual individual with society.
Susan Shariati's significance in Iran's intellectual sphere lies mostly in the historical and cultural re-reading of Shariati's legacy, as well as attention to the relationship between religion, history, hope, messianic expectation, and contemporary society. In her writings, she has strived to establish a link between Iran's historical experience, intellectual questions, and cultural possibilities for meaningful social life.
