Zhinia Noorian is a Postdoc candidate for the ERC-Advanced Grant Beyond Sharia: The Role of Sufism in Shaping Islam, working on the project Feminising Masculinity: Negotiating Gender Norms. In this project, she investigates the homoerotic aspect of the Sufi saints better known as the qalandars. In her research, she focuses on examining how and why the qalandars assumed a feminine voice and transgressed the strict gender norms regulated by the sharia law in Islamic societies. Her research aims at explaining the sexual embodiment of the concept of 'blame', which was used by these saints as a means to attain union to the Divine. For her PhD dissertation, Zhinia studied the poetry and reception of Parvin E'tesami (1907-1941), an Iranian female poet. She investigated the enduring mark that E'tesami left on the literary and religious culture of Iran in the early 20th century through transgressing the socio-cultural norms of her patriarchal society. Her research demonstrated E'tesami's prowess in using the classical genre of Persian debate poetry and Persian mystical tradition as safe spaces to express her thoughts on the socio-politically sensitive issues of her times.