Zahra Sohrabi Abad is a doctoral student in the Faculty of Law, Civil Law section, at the University of Ottawa. Her research interests circle around Islamic finance, Canadian banking law, and social studies of finance.
Zahra's work is supervised by Professor Pascale Cornut St-Pierre and reflects her broader interest in law as a connective tissue between political judgment and economic order.
Zahra earned her law degree from Allameh Tabataba'i University in Tehran, Iran, where she graduated among the top students of her class. She later pursued a Master’s degree in Economic Law at the same university through the exceptional talents quota.
During her master's program, Zahra developed a keen interest in Islamic banking law, which became the focus of her thesis. Her research in this area led to the co-authoring of some articles on Islamic finance and banking law, including "Défis juridiques de l'utilisation du contrat de Ju’alah comme un instrument de crédit dans le système bancaire islamique; cas des banques iraniennes", published in The Canadian Journal of Islamic Economics & Islamic Finance in July 2023.
Before starting her PhD, Zahra worked as a paralegal in Tehran, specializing in insurance law, where she gained practical experience in legal advising. She has been actively engaged in research, particularly in banking law, financial regulation, and Islamic finance, and is passionate about exploring their broader social, political, and economic dimensions.