[5] After fleeing antisemitism and the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and spending 10 months in Israel (where her parents attended university), Farhadian arrived in the United States with her family at four years old on Christmas Eve in 1979.
[2][6][7][8] The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society helped the family apply for asylum[4] and they became eligible for US citizenship through President Ronald Reagan's 1986 amnesty policies.
[7][9][12] She then earned a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 2003, where Farhadian received the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans.
[13] From 2003 to 2004, Farhadian Weinstein was a law clerk for Judge Merrick Garland of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C.
[14] Through June 2010, she served with the Department as Counsel to the Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder,[17][12] helping create guidelines on prosecutorial discretion on indictments and sentencing recommendations.
[19] During this period, she created a post-conviction justice bureau to reevaluate possible wrongful convictions in collaboration with the Innocence Project.
[28][29] Farhadian Weinstein was the only candidate who had worked in a New York City district attorney's office and been a federal prosecutor.
[31][32] She was also endorsed by former attorney general Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton, and Gloria Steinem, as well as Representatives Adriano Espaillat, Nydia Velázquez, and Ritchie Torres.
[33] She was also endorsed by New York City branch of the National Organization for Women and Robbie Kaplan who co-founded the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund.
[34] Farhadian Weinstein had the most votes in several neighborhoods including Upper East Side, Inwood and Washington Heights.
[3][17][44] She supports abolishing cash bail entirely and giving judges discretion to jail defendants who they believe pose a danger.
[44] Farhadian Weinstein supports letting citizens of foreign countries living in the United States vote in local city elections.
[47] In November 2010, Farhadian married wealthy hedge fund manager Boaz Weinstein, whom she had met while attending a book party at the UJA-Federation of New York, at the Central Synagogue in Manhattan.
[50] In 2021, ProPublica reported that Farhadian Weinstein and her husband had paid virtually no federal income taxes in four of six recent years.