CANADA

Itrath Syed is currently working on a Masters degree in Women's Studies at the Centre for Research in Women's Studies and Gender Relations at the University of British Columbia. Her current area of study is the media construction and racialization of the Muslim community and Muslim women in particular during the Islamic Arbitration debate in Ontario. In 1995, she completed her B.A. from Simon Fraser University with a major in Middle East History and minors in Political Science and Women's Studies. During the years between her undergraduate and graduate degrees, Itrath worked in the field of anti-violence work. She initially started out at a Rape Crisis Centre and then worked at Transition Houses for battered women and their children. Itrath is a social justice activist involved with the local antiwar movement, in anti-occupation solidarity work and in resisting the erosion of civil rights and the racial profiling of the Muslim, Arab and South Asian communities in Canada. In the 2004 federal election, Itrath ran as a candidate for the New Democratic Party in her home riding of Delta-Richmond East, British Columbia. Itrath is a Muslim and her social justice activism comes from her belief that working towards a more just and equitable society is an integral part of living a life in engagement with the Divine.

City: Vancouver, British Columbia

Irshad Manji is President of Project Ijtihad, an initiative to help young Muslims revive Islam's tradition of independent thinking. She is the best-selling author of The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith. It has been published in 25 countries, including Lebanon, Pakistan, Turkey and India. In Muslim countries that have banned her book, Irshad is reaching readers by posting free translations on her website: www.muslim-refusenik.com. As a journalist, Irshad writes columns that are distributed worldwide by the New York Times Syndicate. She is also producing a documentary about Islamic reform, to be aired on PBS in America. Born in Uganda and currently based at Yale University, Irshad was recently selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She has been honored by Oprah Winfrey, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Immigration Equality and the Jakarta Post, which identified Irshad as one of three women creating positive change in Islam.

City: Toronto

Maliha Chishti is a Lecturer at George Brown College and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto researching the politics of critical multivocality in post-war reconstruction. She is the former Director of the Hague Appeal for Peace, United Nations office where she coordinated the Global Campaign for Peace Education, and developed the first peace and disarmament education pilot project for the United Nations Department for Disarmament Affairs in four war-affected countries. While in New York Maliha helped to initiate the historic Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. She has worked as an anti-AIDS education prevention officer in Malawi (Central Africa) and most recently conceptualized and supervised a post-conflict capacity-building training program for over 90 Afghan women organizations across Afghanistan. Ms. Chishti has given numerous public lectures and panel presentations, and has been featured in the documentary Beyond the Frame alongside Noam Chomsky, Vandana Shiva and other scholar-activists. She is the co-founder of the International Association of Muslim Social Scientists in Canada and her most recent publication is on transnationalism and the feminist movement in Afghanistan in Globalizing Afghanistan: Terrorism, War, and the Rhetoric of Nation-Building (forthcoming). Maliha has been given the distinct honor as a "Great Minds Alumni" by the University of Toronto.

City: Toronto