Mona Tajali is a scholar of gender and politics, specializing in women’s political participation and representation in Muslim countries, with a comparative focus on Iran, Afghanistan, and Turkey. She has researched and trained women across the region on strategies for political empowerment and transformative leadership, as well as effective institutionalization of women’s rights in semi-democratic and non-democratic contexts. Her open-access books include, Women’s Political Representation in Iran and Turkey: Demanding a Seat at the Table (2022) and Electoral Politics: Making Quotas Work for Women (2011), co-authored with board member Homa Hoodfar. She also co-edited (with board member Vrinda Narain) the book Women and Constitutions in Muslim Contexts (2024), the first compilation analyzing several national constitutions of the Muslim world through a gender lens.
A firm believer in engaging across the academic-practitioner divide, Tajali has been a long-term collaborator with transnational solidarity network and Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), and, since 2019, has served as a member of its executive board. Since 2024, she directs WLUML’s Transformative Feminist Leadership Institute (TFLI). She is published in both academic and popular outlets, among them the Middle East Journal, Politics & Gender, The Conversation, and The Washington Post.