Effat Shariati


Effat Shariati is a former Member of the Parliament of Iran, and head of the Iran Women Faction. She was born in Kerman, and from the earlier years of Iran's Islamic Revolution she started cultural and political works. During the Iran–Iraq War she was the writer of war-related programs on Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, the official TV and radio station. In 1991, she was selected as the head of the women's committee of Grand Khorasan state, and the advisor of the governor of Grand Khorasan. After 6 years she joined IRIB in the role of Cultural Advisor of the direct manager of Grand Khorasan IRIB. Then in 2002 she was selected in the 7th Parliament election as the Member of Parliament for Mashhad, a religious city of Shia Muslims. She is the only female MP of the eastern side of Iran.
She is also a poet, and her two poetry collections have been published under the title Again, I Speak About You!. She is the author of more than 30 scientific articles published in Iran and 2 other books under the title "Media in Europe and media in Islamic Republic of Iran", "A survey about Imam Mahdi in other religions", and " A window to the morning". She was also the representative of Iran at the Asia ministers and MPs women's conference in Sillan for 2 years.
Her son Mahmood Ahmadi Afzadi is the president of The News University in Iran, and a professor of the University of British Columbia, Canada. Masood Ahmadi Afzadi,Her second son is the head of IRIB TV5.

Controversy

On June 2020, Mohammad Jorjandi a cyber crime researcher accused Shariati of buying a fake PhD degree from a non-existence university called 'New York University of Science and Technology'. In response to the news, Shariati renounced that, saying that 'the news is connected to MEK and Alarabia' and that she has never had a PhD degree. In spite of this claim, Shariati has been repeatedly introduced herself as a 'doctor' in the promotional programs including the ones aired on IRIB.