Marjan gained her BA in Urdu language and literature in 1996 from the University of Tehran. She has recently finished her MA in the History of Art and Archaeology at SOAS. She worked for many years on the Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif Buzurg-i Islāmī at the Centre for the Great Islamic Encyclopaedia in Tehran (1996–2004) and is currently working for the Encyclopaedia Islamica project at the Institute of Ismaili Studies (2004–present).