Alexandra Nieweg obtained her MA degree  in Middle Eastern Studies at Leiden University, the Netherlands, in 2022. Her specialization was Persian Studies. Previously she studied Modern Middle Eastern Studies and Persian Language and Culture at Leiden University. For a semester abroad, she attended Samarkand State University in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to study Persian and Uzbek languages and local history. Throughout her studies, Alexandra has had a keen interest in the way Islamic traditions feed into contemporary ideologies and their cultural expression in the Turco-Persian world in general. Her work focused on Shiism in Iran and Afghanistan, including the Karbala narrative, martyr iconography, and propaganda. She is especially interested in Sufi antinomianism, poetry, pilgrimages and holy sites.