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Institute
An independent Berlin think tank examining how authoritarian ideas, antisemitism and extremism move through culture and digital life—connecting research, policy and public communication.
Iranian-German · Entrepreneur · Institution-builder · Anti-totalitarian advocate
Maral
Salmassi.
My path began in underground culture. Today, I examine what happens when culture turns against freedom.
IndividualDissidentFreedom
The defining drive
Against the authoritarian mind.
My deepest political instinct is contempt for totalitarianism—for enforced conformity and every form of collectivism that subordinates individual judgement to the group.
In public
Research. Conversation. Cultural intervention.
About
Freedom
is personal.
I was born in Tehran. My childhood took me from Iran to Jordan, back to Iran and finally to Germany, where my family fled in 1986. Politics was never abstract to me.
I studied Media Art before building a career as an artist, music producer and entrepreneur in underground electronic culture. That world taught me how ideas travel through aesthetics, language and belonging—often long before they are recognised as political.
The Woman, Life, Freedom uprising marked a decisive turn in my public work. Today, my opposition to authoritarianism connects my work on Iran, Islamism, antisemitism and liberal democracy. I am the founder and Executive Chairwoman of the ZERA Institute and host of its interview series, Arguably.
Selected work
Research, conversation and cultural intervention with consequence.
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Podcast
Long-form conversations with voices from politics, culture and academia—built on the idea that clarity emerges through friction, not consensus.
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Writing & speaking
Ideas in public
Essays, commentary and public talks on Iran, political Islam, the authoritarian mind, Jewish resilience, identity and the responsibilities of a free society.
Recent conversations
Arguably guests
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Tuvia Tenenbom
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Izabella Tabarovsky
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Florence Bergeaud-Blackler
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Seyran Ateş
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Dalia Ziada
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Sascha Adamek
Operating principle
Clarity—so conformity does not leave freedom defenceless.
Contact
For conversations
that matter.
Interviews, speaking engagements, partnerships and selected collaborations.
contact@zera-institute.com