She received her Ph.D at Columbia University in the departments of Socio-medical Sciences and Anthropology, focusing on gender and sexuality in the Middle East within a medical-anthropological context. Her research interests include sexuality, human rights, transnational feminism, and public health in the context of changing global and political structures. Professor Mahdavi is also a consultant to the International Women's Health Coalition and the United Nations Fund for Population Advancement. She has published in the Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Cultures; Culture, Health and Sexuality; Anthropology News; and the Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World Review. Her book Passionate Uprisings: Iran's Sexual Revolution was published this fall with Stanford University Press.