Afrasiabi is a political scientist and author of several books — on Iran, Islam, ecology, Middle East, UN reform, as well as poetry and fiction — and numerous articles in international newspapers and journals. Afrasiabi gained a PhD in Political Science from Boston University with a thesis titled “State and Populism in Iran” under the supervision of famed historian Howard Zinn. Afrasiabi has also studied theology at Andover-Newton Theological School and his theological writings have been praised by Bishop John Chane as a “must read” in his introduction to Afrasiabi’s book, titled Mahdism, Shiism, and Communicative Eco-Theology (2015). Afrasiabi is the founder and director of a non-government organization, Global Interfaith Peace (GIP). The purpose of GIP is to enhance understanding, dialogue, tolerance and communication among the world’s religions and to complement the activities of UN in peacemaking by eventually providing an auxiliary faith-based support.
Afrasiabi has taught political science at the University of Tehran, Boston University, and Bentley University. Afrasiabi has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University (1989-1990), University of California, Berkeley (2000-2001), Binghamton University (2001-2002) and theCenter for Strategic Research, Tehran. During 2004-2005, Afrasiabi was involved as an advisor to Iran’s nuclear negotiation team.
Afrasiabi is a former consultant to the United Nations “Dialogue Among Civilizations”, for which he interviewed the former Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami.. Afrasiabi was the chairman of the World Youth Festival on Dialogue Among Civilizations in Vilnius, Lithuania, in 2001Afrasiabi has authored numerous articles in scholarly journals and newspapers, including Harvard Theological Review, Harvard International Review, UN Chronicle, London’s Guardian, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Harvard’s Belfer Center’s Iran Matters, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Global Dialogue, Middle East Journal, Mediterranean Affairs, Brown’s Journal of World Affairs, International Herald Tribune, Der Tageszeit, Der Tagesspiegel, Journal of International Affairs, Telos, Nation Magazine, Asia times, Global Times, Review of Politics, Eurasia Review, San Francisco Chronicle, Monthly Review, as well as dozens of articles and letters in The New York Times, per the newspaper’s archive. Afrasiabi has made dozens of television appearances as a Middle East expert on CNN, Aljazeera, Voice of America, PBS, BBC, PressTV, Russia Today, Canadian TV, and other networks. Afrasiabi is fluent in several languages and has published in Farsi, English, German, French, and Spanish.