Shahla Sherkat

Shahla Sherkat (born March 30, 1956) is a journalist, prominent Persian feminist author, and one of the pioneers of Women's rights movement in Iran.

Shahla Sherkat is founder and publisher of Zanan magazine (zanan means "women"), which focuses on the concerns of Iranian women and continually tests the political waters with its edgy coverage of everything from reform politics to domestic abuse to sex. Zanan has been the most important Iranian women's journal after the Iranian revolution.

Sherkat has had to appear in court on several occasions when Zanan's content was considered by the Iranian government to be pushing boundaries too far. In 2001 she was sentenced to four months in prison for attending a conference in Berlin at which the future of politics in Iran was discussed following the success of reformist candidates in a parliamentary election.

Sherkat was born in Isfahan, Iran. She holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from Tehran University and a certificate in journalism from Keyhan Institute, also in Tehran. Since 2002, she has been working towards her master's degree in women's studies from Allameh Tabatabai University.