Foundation for Iranian Studies

The Foundation for Iranian Studies is an American non-profit institution founded in 1981 in Washington DC, and later moved to Maryland, dedicated to educating the public about Iran/Persia. Since 1982 they host an oral history program.

The mission is to preserve, study, and transmit Persian/Iranian cultural heritage; to study contemporary issues in Iranian government and society; and to point to the probable social, economic, political, and military directions Iran might take in the 21st century. The foundation was founded with the support of Princess Ashraf Pahlavi. It has organized various Persian cultural events with cooperation of American universities, museums and academic institutions in the United States, including Georgetown University, National Museum of Asian Art, Society of Iranian Studies, Pacific Museum, Middle East Studies Association, and others.

Oral History project
In early 1980s the foundation launched its oral history project to save the memories and information of pre-revolutionary Persian artsis, politicians, diplomats, etc. This project was managed by Gholam Reza Afkhami.

The director of the foundation is Mahnaz Afkhami, who was the former Minister of Women's Affairs in Iran before the Iranian Revolution.

Iran Nameh
Since 1982 until 2016 the foundation published the Persian-language journal Iran Nameh, edited by Jalal Matini.

Foundation for Iranian Studies has published over 20 books in English and Persian. It has also offered a prize to the best PhD dissertations on Persian/Iranian culture and art.