Soft spoken professor and slide dependent lectures but if you want to learn about Iran its a great class to take that wasn't hard really. Two midterms that you have to study for but if you study they're super easy. Section attendance is mandatory but you go over a lot of topics that help with the midterms and final. Final is a paper and easy test

Professor Afary is extremely knowledgable about the topic, but her lectures were often hard to pay attention to. The midterm and final are both a mixture of multiple choice and free response questions. Attendance was supposed to be mandatory, but she was very inconsistent about taking attendance. TAKE THIS CLASS WITH JANNA HAIDER IF YOU CAN

Professor Afary is a very good pressor and I really like her. It is however a bit difficult to understand with no background context. It would be better if you have a family member who was born in Iran and was there during the time of the revolution and likes history. It is definitely not easy but doable.

Definitely dont be afraid of taking her. She is pretty cool but I feel like we got lucky because we had easy TAs. The class is really straightforward. If you go to lectures and take good notes, you're guaranteed an A. The names can be hard so if you're good at making flashcards for the test then you'll definitely pass. Tests were not cumulative

Professor Afary knows her stuff. If you go to lecture and pay attention for even half of it, you wouldn't need to read a page of the textbook (there's an online pdf btw). She made the paper optional. There are weekly quizzes in section based on the supplementary reading, which you WILL need to do. TAs were nice and made study guides for exams.

She is a very knowledgeable professor with firsthand experience of some of the things discussed which makes for very interesting lectures. Grading is straightforward and not an overwhelming amount of homework and reading

The class I took was cross-listed with history dept, so I was surprised on the first day of class, when I discovered that I was taking a religion class. Ultimately, this turned out to be a very positive surprise. Janet Afary is an amazing lecturer, who really knows her stuff. There will be a tsunami of reading material, but is truly worth it.

Professor Afary is very passionate about her field of work, but she does not really show much interest in her students. I had a hard time contacting her via email and she also didn't seem to care too much about keeping her students a priority. She would come into class not prepared and completely forget what we talked about since the last session.

Quite a challenging class if you have no background information in the subject. The names were a bit difficult to memorize, but the topics themselves were clear.

She is the best professor I've ever had at UCSB. Great feedback on papers. Positive attitude in class. Very helpful! I'd take other classes with her too.

Interesting class, pretty easy to do well. I'd say easy A if you get the basic concepts down and attend class (you are only permitted 2 absences but the attendance grade turns out to be a nice grade booster). Great class to take for filling Area E requirements or just out of general interest. The books were pretty good so reading is worthwhile.