Sona Farid-Arbab

Dr. Sona Farid-Arbab is a Bahá’í who has served as the Director of the Office of Social and Economic Development.

Background

Farid began her academic studies in England completing an undergraduate degree in architecture at the University of East London.

In the early 1990's Farid began teaching at the Bahá’í inspired school School of Nations in Macau. The school found it challenging to balance pursuing teaching Bahá’í ideals with providing a standard curriculum and she began studying the model of education pursued by another Bahá’í educational institution FUNDAEC hoping to apply it to the School of Nations. Working with FUNDAEC made her interested in the philosophy of education and she studied the philosophy of Chinese education at Beijing Normal University, ultimately completing a PhD.

In 2002 Farid married Farzam Arbab, then a member of the Universal House of Justice, and she moved to the Holy Land where she began working in the Office of Social and Economic Development ultimately being appointed as its director. In 2013 Arbab retired from the Universal House of Justice and he and Farid moved to San Diego, California, from the Holy Land. Although their home was in San Diego they traveled extensively especially to Colombia. As of 2016 Farid was serving as an adviser to the Moral Education Research Center at the Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences.

Farid's husband Farzam passed away in 2020.

Talks

• 2016 - Advancing in Bahá’í-Inspired Education

Publications

• 2018 - Moral Empowerment: In Quest of a Pedagogy