Participants' Contact Information (password-protected)

Afghanistan

Masouda Jalal born January 5, 1962 was the only woman candidate in the Afghan presidential election of 2004. She is from Kabul and has a background as a paediatrician, teacher at Kabul University, and a UN World Food Programme worker. Born in Gul Bahar in Kapisa Province, one of seven children, Jalal moved to Kabul to attend high school. She later attended Kabul University, where she was a member of the faculty until 1996, when the Taliban government had her removed. Jalal, a psychiatrist and pediatrician, also worked at several Kabul hospitals and, after her removal from the university faculty, as a United Nations employee within the World Food Programme. Her husband is a law instructor at Kabul University; they have three children. Although she was uninvolved in politics during the Taliban regine, Jalal emerged after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 as a leading voice for the role of women in Afghan society. A representative of her Kabul neighborhood to the 2002 loya jirga, her name was placed into consideration to lead Afghanistan as interim president, but she placed a distant second to Hamid Karzai, with support from only 171 of the 1575 delegates. Having turned down a position as vice-president within Karzai's administration, she has since vocally criticized the Karzai government for not significant advancing the social position of women. As an outsider in Afghanistan's power structure, Jalal stressed her independence from the warlords and past oppressive regimes. Although many of the candidates for the Afghan presidency and called for a boycott of the election following reports of voting irregularities at some polling places, Jalal was one of the few candidates who did not join the protest. An exit poll taken during the October 2004 election showed Jalal taking about seven percent of the vote among Afghan women. Jalal received 1.1 percent of the vote in the 2004 election, placing 6th among 17 male candidates. She is currently a member of Karzai Administration for 2004 to 2009, serving at the Women's Affairs minister in the cabinet. "Still Fighting," a feature documentary about her courageous campaign for President, is being produced by New View Films in Washington, DC.

Bahrain

Dr. Wajeeha Sadek Al Baharna is President of Bahrain Women's Association, focusing on Women Empowerment Programs, raising legal, social and economical awareness of women, and Vice-President of Altajdeed Cultural and Social Society, a non-profit cultural organization focuses on innovation of Islamic Thought. She has many papers presented in International and regional conferences. She is interested mainly on women's rights issues from Islamic prospective. She has a paper on "the Median" (Alwasatiya) in Islam presented in the Annual Symposium of Arab Thought Forum. She is leading a "Nationality Campaign" in Bahrain with coordination with 8 Arab countries to acquire the Bahraini woman married to non-Bahraini, the right to give her nationality to her children. She has many appearances in Bahrain TV, al-Jazeera(Qatar), Al Manar(Lebanon), New TV (Lebanon) as well as many press news on local and regional newspapers and magazines in variant women's issues. Born in Bahrain, have her PhD degree in Environment, working as Marine Biologist in the Public Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources and Environment and Wild Life in Bahrain. Working as a volunteer in Bahrain Women's association. Ms. Albaharna has an Ambassador of Peace certificate from International Inter-religious Federation for World Peace (IIFWP). Her association (BWS) has WANGO Human Rights Award in 2002 (WANGO: World Association of Non Governmental Organisation). Also BWS acquired two environmental awards from Ford Foundation in 2002 and 2005.

Belgium

Imane Karich is the General Secretary of the CEREI (Cercle d'Etudes et de Recherches en Economie Islamique), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and developing Islamic Finance in Belgium. She is also collaborating on two other projects: French-speaking magazine respecting Islamic values and Belgian Muslim Professionals Organization (ABPM: Association Belge des Professionnels Musulmans). She has also published two books on Islamic Finance : Le Système Financier Islamique, de la Religion è la Banque, Editions Larcier, 2002, Finances & Islam, Editions Le Savoir, 2004. Her new publications will be released in 2007 and are titled: Guide des Affaires en Islam; Guide de l'Investissement en Islam; Guide de l'Assurance en Islam. To be issued in 2007. She also published articles on Islamic Finance and Economy in the main French-speaking Belgian economic newspapers "l'Echo", in the main banking revue, the "Revue Bancaire et Financière" and in the French newspaper "Le Monde". She also appeared on Belgian and French radios (Vivacité, Radio 21, Europe 1). Born in Brussels, Belgium, she graduated in Business Administration from the HEC of Brussels. She acquired Certified Financial Analyst and Financial Risk Manager certification. She is currently working as Internal Auditor on Financial Markets and Risk Management departments in the ING Bank.

Canada

Aisha Lee Shaheed is a freelance writer-researcher with a background in history, emphasizing gender, (post)colonialism and the media. Currently based in Montréal, she is a networker for the transnational feminist solidarity network, Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), which endeavors to create links amongst women and women's groups within Muslim countries and communities; to strengthen local and global struggles for social justice; and to increase women's knowledge about both their common and diverse situations in various contexts. Her writing ventures from historical analysis to journalism, academic writing to spoken-word poetry, and beyond. As a person of many cultural and national backgrounds - and of many interests - she enjoys dividing her time between Canada, Pakistan and England, and is especially intrigued by representations of women that cut across various markers of identity. Her forthcoming publications include chapters on the politics of clothing in Muslim contexts and storytelling as feminist historiography. She is currently working on an analytical overview of the status of women and women's activism in Saudi Arabia.

Atiya Fatima Khan is a well-known and respected media personality in Pakistan. She has achieved a high level of acclaim and success, undertaking a leadership and pioneering role in the fields of modeling, acting, and presenting. Simultaneously, she produces, directs, researches & writes for the advertising and television industry in Pakistan. This background has merged with interest, knowledge, active participation/ patronage of Sufism to produce some success in promoting Sufism and moderate Islam through a wide variety of channels. Atiya Fatima Khan is now the Manager Programming of HUM TV Pakistan. Behind the camera, she started her freelance film direction and production career producing and directing TV commercials and commercial documentaries for all the top advertising agencies in Pakistan. She then moved into directing TV programs and sponsored music video. Atiya Fatima Khan played a role as a leader and pioneer, as well one of the youngest players in the early days of TV & advertising in Pakistan. As such, she managed to break a lot of new ground and establish a string of notable achievements. She won an award for the best TV commerciaer sponsored music video in 1993, hosted, produced, directed, scripted and researchel, for 'Rafhan Jelly' - a first ever for a freelance producer - in 1992, directed the first evd a highly successful and revolutionary, moderate religious oriented talk show, called 'Zikr', shown daily during the month of Ramadan, for new Pakistani TV Channel HUM TV (Sep.-Nov. 2005). In front of the camera, Atiya Fatima Khan hosted a very popular TV Talk show on religion "ZIKR" 2006. This 30-minute program took the form of free & frank discussion on Islam by well respected and knowledgeable religious, Sufi speakers invited to tackle a wide array of challenging topics.

Claire Hochachka is the Communications Coordinator of Hadara, a NGO based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, dedicated to implementing progressive life-skills programs in all sectors of society for the empowerment of the individual to the institution. Claire recently finished a book entitled Islam explaining the basics for a non-Muslim readership (Marshall Cavendish, September 2006). She has contributed several articles to the travel section of Canada's national newspaper, the Globe and Mail, and her essays have appeared in publications as diverse as Parabola magazine, Arabian Woman magazine, based in Dubai, and The Bangladesh Today newspaper. In November 2002, she wrote an essay entitled, "Traveling the Road Toward Islam" for Avalon's anthology, Bare Your Soul: The Thinking Girl's Guide to Enlightenment.

Claire was the Executive Editor of Blue magazine, an adventure travel magazine based in New York City, from 1998 to 2002. During her time at the helm, Blue won several awards including Life Magazine's Best Photos of the Year award (2000), FOLIO's Editorial Excellence in the Travel Category award (2001), and the Best Overall Design award in FOLIO's Ozzie Awards (2002). In summer 2001, New York Post called Blue "The freshest travel magazine out there."

Claire has traveled throughout the Muslim world over the last ten years and accepted the religion in November 2001, under the guidance of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of ASMA Society.

Farzana Hassan-Shahid is a writer and commentator on Islam and women's issues from a progressive/ liberal perspective. Her articles have been published in many Muslim journals as well as mainstream media including the Mississuaga news, Toronto Star and Toronto Sun. Her work is noted for its revolutionary zeal in the field of feminism in Islam. Her latest work, a book entitled "Islam, Women and the Challenges of Today" , due for publication on Oct 10th 2006, stresses the need for reform in Muslim law with respect to women's issues. It also adresses certain social ills plaguing Muslim communities such as domestic abuse. She has previously authored a novel on human trafficking entitled "Echoes form the Abyss". It is a strong comment against the exploitation of young girls in the booming sex trade in South Asia. She has two masters degrees (Political science from Punjab university) (MBA from the University of Massachusetts) She is currently enrolled in a doctoral program with the University of Phoenix and is pursuing course work on "educational leadership" there. She hopes to bring about Madrassha reform in Pakistan through her academic pursuits. The National Christian-Muslim Liason Committee of Canada gave her their annual service award in 2004 for her efforts towards bridge-building and harmony between Christians and Muslims. This is a National honour she shares with stalwarts like Wilfred Cantwell Smith and Alexa Mcdounough. Farzana has made several appearances on television such as the CTS, CBC, Vision TV, BBC and Voice of America. Additionaly, she is host of the weekly radio program "Islam: Faith and Culture"on FM 94.3.

Itrath Syed has recently completed 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 MA work explored the gendered and racialized construction of the Muslim community in the media discourse surrounding the Islamic Arbitration or "Shariah" 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 has been interviewed for several documentaries and is a frequent presenter on a wide array of political and social issues. 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.

Nevin Reda s a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto, specializing in the Qur'_n, with her major in Arabic and minors in Islamic Thought and Biblical Hebrew. She is also an active member of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, a national non-profit organization established to assist Muslim women in participating effectively in Canadian Society and to promote mutual understanding between Canadian Muslim women and women of other faiths. Nevin has set up a discussion forum on the CCMW website mainly to promote dialogue between various groups within the Muslim community, but also including interested non-Muslims, where she has presented two papers: "Shar_'a tribunals" and "Long-term Strategies" (www.ccmw.com/GTAForum). She also has a paper in support of women imams, which has been published on three websites: www.Muslimwakeup.com, www.pmuna.org and www.ccmw.com. Nevin has one article in a peer-review journal "Women in the Mosque: Historical Perspectives on Segregation," AJISS 21 (2004) 2, pp.77-97, and is currently working on another article on the role of repetitions in S_rat al-Baqarah. She occasionally represents CCMW in the media and panels, lately on the topic of the proposed Shar_'a tribunals. Born in Egypt, she immigrated with her husband and children to Canada in 1993, where she has been living and studying.

Seemi Bushra Ghazi is a lecturer in Classical Arabic at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She has a special interest in Islamic literature, culture and spirituality, as well as Islam and Gender. Ms. Ghazi is also a student in the Rifa`i Ma`rufi spiritual lineage and a performer of traditional Islamic arts including recitation of Qur'an and Hamd or divine praise songs. Ms. Ghazi has lectured widely and her interviews and performances have been featured on BBC, CBC, NPR and PBS. Her Qur'anic recitation is available on the CD accompanying Michael Sells, "Approaching Islam: the Early Revelations," as well as on the PBS documentary "Islam, Empire of Faith." Her article, "For Every Mary: The Birth of Aliya Mariam," is forthcoming in "A New Encyclopedia of Islam" edited by Vincent Cornell. Born in London, England, of South Asian origin, Ms. Ghazi was educated in the United States (Bryn Mawr College, University of Chicago, Duke University) and the Middle East (King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, and The American University in Cairo). Ms. Ghazi has engaged in interfaith work since her childhood at The Centre for the Study of World Religions at Harvard. She currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia where she hosts a monthly Unity Dhikr. Ms. Ghazi is a founding Board Member of the Rumi Society of Vancouver and the Vancouver Interspiritual Centre Society.

Wahida Valiente*

Denmark

Mona Kanwal Sheikh has a Master Degree in Political Science, and is specialized in radical Islamism. She is currently board member of the Documentation and Advisory Centre on Racial Discrimination (DRC) and vice chair of the INGO European Network Against Racism (ENAR). She has previously been board member of a number of organizations working for minority rights such as the Association of Ethnic Minorities (POEM) and the Integration Council of Copenhagen Municipality. In 2001 she was nominated to the Danish Parliament and elected board member of the central council of the Danish Social-Liberal Party (DRV). She is an experienced debater, freelance writer/commentator and frequently gives lectures on issues related to Danish integration politics, "European Islam", religion and secularism at different educational institutions and religious forums all over Denmark. Mona has edited and contributed to a number of anthologies and produced several articles - especially on questions relating to Islam in European context - published in a diversity of pamphlets, journals and Danish newspapers. During her many years' work in different NGO's, Mona has initiated and organized a number of dialogue conferences and welfare activities On the basis of her activities she is frequently quoted in Danish media. Mona Sheikh is born in Denmark and is of Pakistani origin.

Sherin Khankan is an MA in Sociology of Religion and Philosophy from University of Copenhagen. She was born in Denmark, is a Lecturer, teacher, activist, columnist, and public speaker. She has specialized in contemporary Islamic activism in Europe and the Middle East. Founder and Chairwoman of Critical Muslims, founded in 2001, - the first and only organization in Denmark that has promoted female Muslim leadership - , she is also the Founder and leader of Face to Face, a counseling service for Muslim women in Denmark. Her book "Islam and reconciliation- a public matter", has been published in October 2006 and will be translated later into English. Sherin Khankan has contributed to several anthologies, e.g., Syrernes Damaskus (The Syrians' Damascus), De Røde Sko- Feminisme Nu (The Red Shoes- Feminism Now), and Ord på Samvittigheden (Conscience and Words). She is member of a think tank called Co-existence of Civilizations, created in the aftermath of the cartoon crisis, and the co-founder of Mesopotamia, a consultancy firm that aids businesses in strengthening their communication with Muslims. She has appeared in media for the last five years on topics on Islam, and is former candidate for the Parliament, for the Party Radical Left.

Egypt

Aisha Rafea is the daughter of Master Rafea Muhammad Rafea (1903-1970) a prominent Egyptian spiritual Teacher whose key teaching to his children and disciples was to search for God within their souls so as to listen to His Messenger as speaking from their own hearts guiding their steps to a meaningful and purposeful life. This is a lesson that Aisha is still living up to. The more she experiences of her real identity the stronger she believes in the oneness of the divine spark within all humans It is from that perspective that she presents her vision of Islam as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to be one that invites all humans to gain consciousness of their oneness, respect their differences and live together in peace and love. Aisha worked as a journalist in national and international media for several years but devoted herself in the last fifteen years for sharing her spiritual approach to Islam with a wider circle of the human family. She started writing books, research papers and articles in Islamic spirituality both individually and also as a team work with her present Teacher Master Ali Rafea who is also her brother and Dr. Aliaa Rafea, an Anthropologist, and her sister. Aisha shares in supervising the activities of the Egyptian Society for Spiritual and Cultural Research http://www.esscr.org including the women and youth groups. The Rafeas are grateful to God to see more than one hundred Egyptian women gaining more self esteem and wholeness, and positively affecting their society. Aisha is also supervising a human values program addressed to children and youth in which she basically passes to them over the lesson she received: unfold the beauty within and let it inspire you with a life of love, justice and beauty.

Ghada Lotfy*

France

Fatiha Kaoues is a French Journalist of North African origin with expertise in Muslim women's issues and Islamic geopolitics. She has worked as a journalist for several media sources including: Voice of America in Washington DC; TF1, the first French public TV channel; and has published a series of articles on the Oumma website, the online Palestinian Journal Eloueb (the latter no longer exists), press releases for the Islam-Laicity Review (managed by the Redactor in-Chief of Le Monde Diplomatique ) and the SaphirNews Newsletter which highlights Arab and Muslim World news. Ms. Kaoues is also the Executive Director of OUMMA.COM, a nonprofit website - Launched in 2000, this site takes the world lead in Francophone Islam sites - In addition to its 8 million monthly visitors, Oumma.Com has 120,000 newsletter subscribers and has published 2,190 articles of interest. Fatiha is considered an activist among the main French antiracism organization, called MRAP (Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Among Peoples). She is the president of the local committee of the 19th Arrondissement - In this role, she organizes conferences around racial discrimination issues. The latest conferences Fatiha facilitated include one in Blois, France in collaboration with the Jewish Historian Esther Benbassa which dealt with communitarism and challenges religious minorities face in the Western World ( in the context of the Rendez vous de l'Histoire ("meetings with History") - an annual series of conferences in Blois attended by researchers, journalists, sociologists and state officials, a series of conferences intended to foster harmonious dialogue between religions at the Institute of the Arab World and a debate after the movie screening of Yamina Benguigui " Le plafond de verre / les defricheurs" which focused on racial discrimination in the workplace. Fatiha led this debate with the participation of Labor Inspectors and Union Leaders who addressed the racial discrimination that Arabs and Muslims have been facing since 9/11. Born in Vierzon, France and educated in France, Ms.Kaoues acquired a graduate degree in foreign languages and business as well as in Journalism from La Sorbonne University in Paris. She is currently finishing a graduate degree in political sociology with a specialization in religion. She is also planning to work on a PhD in Islamic geopolitics.

Germany

Riem Spielhaus is member of the board of the Muslim Academy in Germany, which is aiming at supporting Muslims to participate in the public and political discourse on German and European society. Among numerous other projects she has initiated regularly meetings between women's representatives of the Islamic umbrella organizations and Muslim women's initiatives in Germany with the Federal Ministry of Women. In her work as an academic she has published articles on the institutionalization of Islam in Germany and on the shift in the public discourse from a focus on immigrants to one on Muslims. She has just fished a survey on the 80 mosques and prayer rooms in the German capital Berlin. The German government recently invited her to join a group of advisors on the question how to improve the situation of female immigrants in Germany. Born in East-Berlin, she graduated in Islamic studies in 2001 and after working for the federal commissioner for Integration, Migration and Refugees she is teaching at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. In 2005 Riem Spielhaus carried out a research on Dialogue with Islam in South Asia.

Yasemin Karakasoglu* was born in Wilhelmshaven-Germany. Mrs. Karakasoglu completed her academic education at the University of Hamburg and the Hacettepe University of Ankara/Turkey AWARDS. Prof. Dr. Yasemin Karakasoglu Holds the chair for Intercultural Education at the Department for Education at the University of Bremen/Germany. She has published numerous articles and books on the living situation, religious orientations and integration problems of female Muslims with a migration background in Germany, especially those from Turkish origin. For instance: "Approaches to Religion and Education of female turco-muslim students in teacher training at German universities", IKO-Verlag, Frankfurt am M. 2000, and - together with Ursula Boos-Nünning - "Living multiple worlds. A study on the living conditions of girls and young women with a migrant family background", Waxmann, Münster 2005. Prof. Karakasoglu serves as a Supervisor to the federal government in questions of Islam in Germany, Muslim Women and Youth with a migrant family background and is very often quoted in newspapers and journals as an expert on these issues. Born in the city of Wilhelmshaven as the daughter of the Turkish Sunni Izzet Karakasoglu and the German Protestant Karin Karakasoglu she completed her academic education first at the University of Hamburg in Turcology and later as a PHD in Educational Sciences at the University of Essen. Since October 2004 she is a Professor for Intercultural Education. She won in the year 2000 The Augsburg Science Award for Intercultural Studies with her PHD-Thesis on Female Muslim Students and their Understanding of Religion and Education.

India

D. Sharifa Khanam has been active in the women's movement in India for nearly two decades. Currently, she heads STEPS Women's Development Organisation that has its head office in the eastern town of Pudukottai. STEPS - started by Sharifa in 1987 - works on a range of issues: it functions as a short stay space for battered women; it takes up issues of violence against women on an almost daily basis and works with both the local community and police to address individual petitions as well as those involving families and kin groups; it works on women's livelihood issues, land and employment rights. For the past decade Sharifa has been working to organize Muslim women in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India. The decade of the 1990s which witnessed widespread violence against Muslims, undertaken by Hindu right-wing groups, often with the support of the state, made Sharifa re-think her relationship to Islam. Brought up as a believer, she had never seriously seen herself as exclusively 'Islamic' and would rather call herself a feminist. However the events of the 1990s made her re-think her relationship to faith and community. She saw that Muslim women had to both bear the brunt of organised anti-Muslim violence as well suffer discrimination within their homes and communities. She started organizing Muslim women on a systematic basis from 199 - often undertaking long and tedious journeys to remote towns and villages in Tamil Nadu to address meetings. Her efforts have today resulted in the emergence of the first ever network of Muslim women in the state. This network calls itself the Tamil Nadu Muslim Women's Jamaat Committee and functions as a community tribunal before which Muslim women can bring their problems - including those to do with personal law, livelihood issues, education of girl children and so on. It comprises mostly poor and working class women who have shown great courage in both challenging the patriarchs in their communities as well as in addressing state institutions. The Women's Jamaat is in the process of defining for itself a philosophy of liberation and rights, drawing equally from the Holy Quran and India's constitutional provisions. Sharifa is in the forefront of these efforts: she has set herself the task of building the first ever mosque for Muslim women in India. She hopes that the mosque would become the nerve center of a vibrant, Islamic feminist and democratic culture.

Indonesia

SURAIYA IT is presently working with the Permanent Observer Mission of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to the United Nations (S.Shahid Husain) in the preparation of a non-paper regarding the establishment of an International Federation of Islamic Women's Organizations which could serve as a non-governmental organization dedicated to the promotion of interests of women in Islamic countries; also to the enhancement of their roles in the family, and the socio-economic development of the society. She holds a PhD in Philosophy from Temple University in Philadelphia where her dissertation was ' The Womens Movement in Indonesia: With special reference to the Aisyiyah Organization'. Ms. It's specialty covers peace building, human rights, women rights, Philosophy of Religion, Psychology of Religion, Islamic Studies, Feminist in Islam and Inter-Religious Dialogue. She currently sits on the Chair of International Forum for Aceh (Human Rights Organization). In 1984, Ms. It was the First Winner of National Academic Writing Held by Indonesian Department of Religious Affair for the book 'The Role of Young Generation in the Development of the Country'.

Italy

Ilhamallah Ferrero is secretary-general of the CO.RE.IS. Italiana (Italian islamic religious community) the organization established by the most of the italian muslim intellectuals, the only Islamic association in Italy to have a woman on its governing board. She became a Muslim in 1996 as the result of a spiritual quest that led her, without breaking with the past, to investigate the Islamic religion and its contemplative aspects. Over the last ten years she has tended to focus her activities, through conferences, meetings and seminars, to provide Westerners with a better knowledge of muslim women in order to dispel prejudices and unjustified fears. She has visited various Islamic countries, including Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, where she was able to see for herself how muslim women have a very qualified and responsible role in society, which they undertake with equanimity and for which they are well prepared. In May 2004 she published an essay entitled "Knowing muslim women", in a book by Yahya Pallavicini, Islam in Europe. The reflections of an Italian imam (Il Saggiatore, Milan). In her essay IlhamAllah Chiara Ferrero addresses all the most difficult questions regarding the relationship between muslim women and western culture. In October 2005, at the World Competition for Islamic Studies, Yahya Pallavicini was awarded a prize for this book by the President of the Republic of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali: it was described as an 'example of open-mindedness, moderation and renewal of Islamic thought'. She was born in 1974 in Turin (Italy), where she studied, in particular, scientific subjects. She wrote many essays in different national and international reviews. She usually participates in public debates on television and newspapers stressing the universal values of Islamic civilization, thus representing the religious interests of Muslims present in Italy and Europe.

Erika Halima Rubbo is a member of the CoReIs (Comunità Religiosa Islamica), Italian Islamic religious community, an association that has the aim of bearing witness and providing information about the Islamic tradition in Italy and in the West, thus representing the religious interests of the Muslims in Italy and Europe. Born in Italy she acquired a degree in foreign Languages an Literatures at the University of Padova (Italy). She took part to several exchange Programs and studied at many European Universities such as in Germany, Austria and Ukraine.

She recently participated to an intercultural program in the south of France where she dedicated to develop and defend migrants rights and promote interreligious dialogue and peaceful integration.

During her studies she also had the opportunity to get closer the Islamic tradition. She actually works in a Italian society where she takes care of the foreign relations. She recently embraced Islamic faith.

Jordan

Fehmieh Azzam

Maysoon Al Dabobi

Kenya

Nurbibi Hassanali* has repeatedly expressed her concern about HIV positive Muslim women not seeking treatment early on and the lack of empowerment in pregnant Muslim women in accessing services. She is working on tackling these issues and would like to gain more information about designing programs for hard-to-reach groups that bridge the HIV/AIDS knowledge gap through life skills and religious education. Ms. Sher Mohamed is also interested in establishing a women's hospital for victims of sexual violence. HIV/AIDS Counsellor, Muslim Community, Coast Province, 2005-present Deputy Vice Chairperson, National Muslim Council of Kenya, Coast Province, 2004-present Volunteer Community Health Worker, Red Cross, Mombasa Branch, 2004-present Deputy Vice Chairperson, National Muslim Council of Kenya, Coast Province, 2004-present Volunteer Community Health Worker, Red Cross, Mombasa Branch, 2004-present HIV/AIDS Counsellor, Muslim Community, Coast Province.

Malaysia

Marina Mahathir was for 12 years the President of the Malaysian AIDS Council and Chair of the Malaysian AIDS Foundation. She has worked on many issues relating to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support in Malaysia and in the Asia Pacific region. Currently she is helping to organise the 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific in Colombo in 2007. Born in Kedah, Malaysia, she is also a columnist in the Star English daily in Malaysia where she writes about current issues especially women's rights, censorship, young people and HIV/AIDS. She is also co-Executive producer of an award-winning TV programme for young women called 3R-Respect,Relax, Respond as well as Malaysia's Most Popular Movie in 2005, Gol & Gincu. She is currently setting up the 3R Foundation to do mentoring programmes for young Malaysian women. Marina's current interest is in the area of Islam, Gender and HIV/AIDS and in March 2006 she gave a public lecture on this topic at Princeton University as well as at Asia Society panels in Washington DC and New York. She has been the subject of a CNN International Talk Asia episode, a coming BBC Radio interview as well as numerous media appearances locally.

Zainah Anwer is the Executive Director of Sisters in Islam, a Malaysian non-governmental organisation working on women's rights within the Islamic framework. The group works in the areas of research, advocacy and campaigns, public education and legal services to push for a progressive rights-based understanding of Islam. Its areas of focus include Islamic Family Law, Islamic Criminal Law, domestic violence, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, Islam, democracy and the state, and Islam and women's rights. Her other work experience include: Chief Programme Officer, Political Affairs Division, Commonwealth Secretariat, London; Senior Analyst, the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Kuala Lumpur; and Political and Diplomatic Writer, the New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur. Her book, Islamic Revivalism in Malaysia: Dakwah Among the Students, has become a standard reference for the study of Islam in Malaysia. She was educated at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, USA, Boston University, and the MARA Institute of Technology, Shah Alam, Malaysia

Morocco

Najia Elboudali is President of the Association Synergie Civique - Civic Synergy -. Synergie Civique is a group of activists, NGOs, artists, and researchers, whose mission is to consolidate and sustain human rights, and to reinforce the capacity of communication - "The Civic Synergy is a way for the democratization of knowledge." Each year, the Synergie Civique organizes different workshops on formation, writing, and 'Civic Caravan', in order to reinforce the dialogue between the rural and the urban, and between Morocco and Arab and European countries. The last 'Civic Caravans' organized by the Synergie Civique and coordinated by Professor Najia Elboudali were: the tenth Civic Caravan, about 'The women weavers of dreams and the new magicians who build the modern Morocco', Casablanca, April 29-30, 2006; the Civic Caravan of Turin, about 'Morocco in change', Turin, June 28-30, 2006; the Civic Caravan of Bahrain, about 'The Cow Boy and the Sindibad, duality between dialogue and power, Pencil and Sword', in collaboration with the Center Alkhalifa of Culture and Research, Al Manama, March 13-20, 2005; the Civic Caravan of Bologna, about 'The Moroccan Sindbads', Bologna, October 11-13, 2004. Najia Elboudali intervenes widely in Moroccan and European Media, above all concerning women's status in Morocco. In 1998, she was cited by the magazine, Women of Morocco, as one of the 100 individuals who impacted change on Moroccan family laws. She has been invited by the Rai (third Italian TV channel) to lead a séance about women's legal status in Morocco. Najia was born on January 15, 1959, in the past Medina of Casablanca. She has a PhD in Geology and is a Professor at the University Hassan II, Faculty of Sciences Ain Chock. Her research in geology led her to the mountainous regions which awakened her to the full plight of women in rural environments. Her research experiences inspired her to become a vocal and committed advocate for women's issues. In 1998, along with other activists defending women's rights, she founded the Center Fama - an information resource center for women rights issues. Najia headed Center Fama voluntarily from 1998 to 2001. In 2003, she was honored by the King of Morocco Mohamed VI, and received the Foundation Mohamed V for Solidarity award.

Netherlands

Famile Arslan is a lawyer in Hague for a firm called Arslan Lawyers. Besides her daily job she is a member of the board of the Foundation Islam and Citizenship which has been engaged in the relationship between norms, values and citizenship and the role Islamic organizations can play in this issue. The objective of I&B is to stimulate the social debate within the Muslim community and broaden it, where relevant, to Dutch society as a whole and to stimulate the debate on the interpretation of the concept of citizenship within the Muslim community. I&B has tried to be a help for the emancipation and participation of the Muslim community in The Netherlands. She is involved in a project about domestic violence in Muslim community. She is the Chair (women) of the Commission for complains at Islamic schools (Klachtencommissie voor Islamitisch onderwijs). She is coaching a project of Fatush productions about emancipation of Muslim women. As researcher for a healthcare organization she has organized a course for intercultural communication. With Ineke Wienese has she written a lessons book. Also in the media is she very involved in issues like emancipation, integration and migration. Famile Arslan is born in Turkey, raised in the Netherlands. She has a master's degree in International Law. Before becoming a lawyer she worked 5 years for the Ministry of Justice.

Laila al-Zwaini is an independent academic researcher and advisor. She prepares a doctoral thesis on the interface between shari'a, state law and tribal customs in Yemen for Leiden University, The Netherlands. She also advises organisations such as the UN, DFID, USIP, and the Netherlands government on issues regarding the judiciary, national elections, women's rights, and tribal arbitration in Yemen; the constitutional process in Iraq; and 'access to justice' in Afghanistan. She was member of several advisory boards regarding Muslim women's rights, and now sets out to be actively engaged in formulating a new approach to shari'a from a human rights perspective, and in empowering Muslim women in The Netherlands. From 2000 to 2005 Ms. Al-Zwaini was affiliated to ISIM (International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden), where she co-initiated the action-research program Rights at Home. An Approach to the Internalization of Human Rights in Family Relations in Muslim Communities. She has co-published two books: A Bibliography of Islamic Law, 1980-1993 (1994) and Legal Pluralism in the Arab World (1999). She assisted in media broadcasts and public debates on shari'a, women and Islam, "9/11", integration of muslim minorities, and Iraq. Born in The Netherlands from a Dutch mother and Iraqi father, she obtained master degrees in Arabic-Islamic Studies and in Law (Leiden), a postgraduate diploma in Islamic law (SOAS, London), and a specialization in legal anthropology (CEDEJ, Cairo). She won a Chevening Scholarship following her MA thesis Apostasy in Islamic Jurisprudence, and two awards for her LL.M thesis Shari'a and Judicial Development in Yemen.

Leyla Cakir started her professional career working in a youth jail for 2 years. Now she is a Social Worker in a non-profit institution named PUNT welzijn in the city of Weert, the Netherlands. Her professional goal is to stimulate the intercultural communication between Dutch citizens and immigrants. Next to her profession she is the only female chairman of the mosque Ihlas, a volunteer job. She's frequently been asked in forums, for discussions and interviews. Previously she wrote articles (in Dutch) like: "(A) Way from Europe", "A Muslim with a vision without mission", "Hèhè the Netherlands are radicalising" and "Also a place for God in this society". Since so many things have happened with the Muslim society in the Netherlands after 9/11, Leyla Çakir is often interviewed by several media. Also her opinion regarding issues as; integration, terrorism, radicalism, Islam, Muslim women's position, etcetera is often been asked. She's been born in the Netherlands in 1978, having immigrant parents from Turkey. Recently she's been asked to become the chairman of a Muslim women organisation, who operates more nationally.

Rajae El Mouhandiz is Dutch- Moroccan/Algerian Rajae El Mouhandiz (25.03.1979) is a young multi-talented artist. She is a poet, singer, composer/producer and the founder of Truthseeker Records, an independent record label based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Struggling for her life as an artist she decided at the age of 15 to break all ties with her family to pursue her dream: a career in the music industry. At the age of 16 she was the first Moroccan woman to study French horn at a Dutch conservatory. At the age of 20 Rajae decided to stop this study in order to discover her own artistic truth. Over the last 6 years Rajae has recorded with several international producers in Amsterdam, Paris, London, Ibiza, New Yok, California,Texas and Ibiza. She decided to start her own record label to stay in charge of her style, artistic message and image, resulting in the release of her debut 'Incarnation' last spring. The album is a mixture of different music styles en rhythms, produced on several locations. Besides her musical career, Rajae is also active in a social-politic area. She is a member of the board of the Ethica Foundation, a foundation which focuses on the empowerment of Islamic women in general. On October 18th 2006 Rajae presented as six- month benchmark study she did for a consultancy firm about the participation of high potential migrants in the workforce. Three multinationals funded the project in order to receive information on how to increase successful participation of the high potentials in their companies. Recently Rajae has been asked to produce music for London based Islamic Nasheed record label Meem Music, a unique opening because she obviously proves that it's cool and not a problem to be modern, female, talented and Muslim. Rajae believes that her music and her other work are a reflection of her own life philosophy: to think and act as universal and free as possible. Making music and art can contribute to a better perception of Islam and at the same time function as a musical DUA

Senay Özdemir, In March 2004 the former tv-presenter and producer Senay Ozdemir launched SEN Magazine. Seven months later it was elected as the 'best new magazine of 2004' by de Volkskrant, the biggest newspaper of Holland. Two months later, Het Parool (another large newspaper) mentioned Senay Ozdemir as one of the most inspiring and of the 10 top women in the Netherlands.

SEN, the monthly magazine, Senay Ozdemir financed with her own money. It is stylish, positive-minded, a mainstream woman's magazine with a typical touch. It is a magazine for the Mediterranean women in Holland. A better word than 'foreigners' or 'immigrants' when Senay defines her targetgroup: Mediterranean women with an Islamic background from the age of 20-35. Her main goal is: positiveness in this strange period of fear for each other. "I am tired of this collective sadness in the world. There is so many nice things we all share. I want to write about happiness, mixed-up love, show beautiful children of mixed marriges, show how beautiful Mediterranean women are, bring them a platform where they can be themselves, like any other women on earth: sensual, interesting but above all a woman with all her needs: love, care and tenderness."

Yasmine Allas has written three novels (Idil, a girl, 1998, The general with the six fingers, 2001 and The blue room, 2004). Yasmine has also written for the Volkskrant, one of the leading newspapers in the Netherlands. An edited version of her articles was published in 2006 as Ontheemd en toch thuis. (No home and yet a home) In this book, a tribute speech to the murdered Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was added. Born in Somalia in 1967 she left the country on her own at a quite young age and arrived in 1987 in Amsterdam where she started her career as an actress with the theater group the Trust. Besides writing, Yasmine Allas is an active member of the Marhaba Organisation, a cultural and social foundation with Islamic roots, which aims building bridges between the different groups which are living in the Netherlands. Yasmine Allas appears regularly on radio and television in the Netherlands since 1998. Most recently in Paul Rosenmöller meets Yasmine Allas, 27th May 2006. This program was recorded in Hargeisha (North Somalia)

Nigeria

Bilkisu Yusuf is a political scientist by training and a journalist by profession. She studied Political Science at the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. She studied for Advanced Diploma in Journalism and International Relations at the Moscow Institute of Journalism.

She was Editor of the Sunday Triumph Kano, Editor of New Nigerian Newspaper Kaduna and Editor of Citizen Magazine Kaduna. She belongs to several non-governmental organisations. She was a founding member and first Kano state Coordinator of Women in Nigeria, WIN. A founding member and immediate past President of Federation of Muslim Women's Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN). She is also a founding member and Chairperson, Board of Trustees of ABANTU for Development, an African gender focused organisation. She has eleven chapters in published books on women, Islam, media and health.

Nogi Imoukhuede is Project Coordinator, Women's Rights Watch Nigeria-www.rufarm.kabissa.org. Promoting and defending women's rights in Nigeria through access to justice and advocacy.

Pakistan

Mukhtaran Mai age 33 is now a leading example for women is her native country and around the world. With her compensation money she took from the government of Pakistan opened two schools in her village, one for girls and another for boys. In August 2005, she was awarded the Fatima Jinnah Gold Medal for bravery and courage by the Pakistani Government and was named Women of The Year by Glamour Magazine, USA. In 2006, Time Magazine listed her in their issue on the 100 Most Influential People of the World, and she was also awarded the North-South Prize by the Council of Europe.

Naela Quadri is a conscience promoter and member of the Democratic woman association, Balochistan. She is an enthusiastic campaigner against gender discrimination in Balochistan. She strives to educate the public about women rights and social inequalities.

Saudi Arabia

Dr. Asma Siddiki is Vice Dean for Academic Affairs at Effat College, the first non-profit, private college for women in (Jeddah) Saudi Arabia. She has worked these past few years in developing the Co-curricular Program for Student Development to enhance the student undergraduate learning experience for young Saudi women who aspire to be leaders in their Society through active participation in the work force. Dr. Siddiki is a member of the International Relations Committee (under the auspices of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry) and is committed to bridging cultural divides. She recently gave a presentation on Women in Private Higher Education in Saudi Arabia, using Effat College as a case study, at the Library of Congress in Washington DC. Dr. Siddiki gained her Bachelor's degree in Saudi Arabia, after which she travelled to England to receive her Master's and Doctoral degrees at Oxford University as a recipient of the Saudi Ministry of Higher Education Scholarship for Doctoral Research. She has since also been the recipient of a Fulbright award that enabled her to complete a Civic Initiative Summer School for Senior Scholars at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in American Politics and Political Thought. She is currently pursuing further studies in Law through the University of London's External Program.

Fatin Yousef Bundagji is Founder of women's section of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Director of Women's Empowerment and Research at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce. First Saudi woman to run in the recent Saudi Municipal elections.

Manal Radwan is currently the Assistant Director for Political and Congressional Affairs at the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia (2003-present). She is also a member of the Saudi Interministerial Committee dealing with child custody cases (2002-present). Previously, she was the Research Director and Senior Congressional Liaison in the Information and Congressional Affairs office at the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia (1998-2002). Ms. Radwan is a stern advocate of human rights and has an extensive experience in foreign policy and cross-cultural research and analysis, designing cross-cultural conflict-preventing as well as conflict-resolving process and systems, and training in cross-cultural issues relevant to policy makers, public and private officials and citizen leaders. She is a member of the Global Core Team of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (Human DHS) at Columbia University and has been addressing a wide number of topics including Islamic civilization and modernization, social change, reform and resistance, religious and cultural diversity, public diplomacy, gender, and international child custody. In these capacities, she has worked with international and national organizations both in the public and private sectors like The Department of State, The Library of Congress, The Smithsonian Institution, Exxon-Mobil, Disney, Transcultural Educational Center, Great Decisions, and others. Ms. Radwan represented the Government of Saudi Arabia in her testimony to Congress in regard to international child custody on 9 July 2003. She has also led a number of congressional briefings with members of Congress and their professional staff. Ms. Radwan was invited as a speaker in a number of international and national conferences including the first World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies, National Council on US-Arab Relations, Women's Federation for World Peace, Business Women's Network, and the Annual Meeting of the State Bar of California. She has also presented working papers in a number of American universities including Georgetown University, George Mason University, La Salle University, American University, and the Corcoran School of Arts. She has been interviewed in a number of national and local television networks (including Worth Hearing with Edward Turzanski and C-SPAN). Born in Ankara, Turkey, and raised in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She is a Saudi national. She has received her B.A. (1993) and Master's in International Political Science (1996) from George Washington University. In addition, she finished a Master's in World Politics (2000) from the Catholic University of America. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at the George Mason University. The title of her thesis is "Jihadist Narratives: Human Rights, Humiliation and the Politics of the Other."

Nimah Ismail Nawwab* is an English writer, photographer, activist, lecturer and internationally recognized poet. Her widely read academic articles and essays on culture, faith, youth, arts, calligraphy and women have been translated into Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese and Arabic including others. Her interests in diversity, change, tolerance, women's issues and empowering youth have led to involvement in various activities and presentations. Mentoring young writers, participating in youth leadership forums and educators projects relate to a mission of working with the future generation. Involvement in women's issues led to gender- related projects. Her initiation of a unique international women's anthology is currently one of four current book projects. The first Saudi Arab woman poet to be published in the U.S., her pioneering work includes a historic, first-of-its-kind public book signing in Arabia and another in Washington D.C. Her work and her best selling book have been featured in Newsweek International , MSNBC, AP, The Washington Post reproduced in the Japanese English Yomiuri Shimbum, LA Times, Asian Age, the Malay Berita Harian, Hi magazine, Elaph, Arabian Lady, Arab News and Saudi Gazette. She has been interviewed by Channel News Asia, NPR and others. Born in Malaysia and growing up in Saudi Arabia, she was educated in Arabia and is an English Literature major. Nimah was awarded the title of a Young Global Leader of the Young Global Leaders Forum, an affiliate of the World Economic Forum, joining 175 new leading executives, public figures and intellectuals from 50 countries. She is also active with GulfSOL, part of MIT's Peter Senge's Organizational Learning Organization. She was awarded an honorary membership in the South East Asian Studies Institute. Nimah was recently dubbed a 'cultural ambassadress' and a 'voice for Arab women' based on her work.

Senegal

Aminata Lo was born on 11 March, 1969 in Coci, Senegal to a religious family greatly influenced by the Islamic teachings of Sheikh Abdou Khadre Lo et Sokhna Fatimatou Lo. She underwent Quranic Studies in the years 1974-1976 with her paternal uncle Sheikh Mouhamed Lo in Touba. She then pursued her primary and secondary education in both Arabic and French at the Islamic Institute Manar al-Houda in Louga, Senegal between 1976-1982. From 1982-1987, she was a student in The School of Normal Arabic, which instructs students in the Arabic language. Ms. Lo taught Arabic in Touba from 1988-1990. In 1990, she rejoined her husband, Sheikh Moustapha Abdourahmane Lo, who was the representative to the World Islamic League at Gabon. The World Islamic League organized conferences on a variety of themes both within Senegal and in other nations of Africa, Europe and United States. She has also attended many international conferences. Since 1996, she has returned to Senegal and continued her activities towards the advancement of Islam.

Spain

Ndeye Andújar is Co-founder and vice-president of Junta Islámica Catalana since 2005. Staff Member of Webislam.com leading spanish-based portal on Islam and Muslim lifestyle, recently launched on English. Ms. Andújar also webmasters www.profesislam.com, first Spanish-based website on Islamic Education for teachers and professionals. Ms. Andújar has worked as "in situ" CEO in several development projects focused on health and quality of life in Central Africa colera's prevention, cultural diversity and co-living, etc. Since 1998 she's been working with mulism communities, focusing on the Gender Equality both in forming teachers to offer Islamic Education on Public Educational System in Spain. In 2005 she showed part of her success speaking in the Ist Catalonian Parliament of Religions launched by UNESCO, Catalonia branch, reading a paper about Islam in the schools. Graduate on General Linguistics at Barcelona Universtiy, Ms. Andújar has taught spanish language in the Humanities School of Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, Senegal. Today she's a official full-time teacher on Secondary School in Paris, France, sharing her job with the developing of the first spanish Course on Expert in Islamic Religion, Culture and Civilization, offered by the UNED National Distance-Education University of Spain, for which she's become Head of Studies. Ms. Andújar has translated to spanish the work of esteemed muslim feminists as Riffat Hassan, Azizah al-Hibri, Asma Barlas and others. She has become a common voice on Islamic Female Questions in Congresses, Seminars and schools, besides her articles and essays in press and media outside the islamic community, such as national broadcasts Cadena SER and EL PAIS national leading newspaper. She is a staff member of the commission at the International Congress on Islamic Feminism organized in Barcelona by Junta Islamica Catalana, since its two first editions. Her last paper read in the last Congress (november 03-05, 2006) was focused on Divorce under Islamic Law.

Sudan

Hwaida Hussein Shabo* is a Member of the National Assembly(Sudan). She received her MBA from the University of Khartoum in 2005 and her BSc. Honors in Civil Engineering University of Westminster, London UK in 1995. She is currently appointed as parliament member in the National Assembly. From Sep 2004-April 2006, she was Director of the women center for peace and development Khartoum, Sudan. From Jun 2003- Aug 2004, she was Africorp International Company's (Ltd.) Deputy manager Khartoum, Sudan. In 1996, she worked for the Civil Aviation corporation as a Civil engineer in Khartoum, Sudan.

Turkey

Aslihan Eker is an Associate Producer/ Production Coordinator and Scriptwriter for 16 episodes of the documentary 'Behind Walls - Women in Muslim Countries. The documentary is comprised of interviews with over 200 women from various countries and was televised in October. The documentary has also been accepted to a few film festival screenings in different parts of the world. Ms. Eker is currently working on the book of the film, which will include all texts of the interviews and travel journals of herself and producer Ayse Bohurler. Ms. Eker actively participated in a group called 'Cultural Debates' which was founded by a group of women to establish understanding and dialog between Europe and Turkey during the process of Turkey's accession to the European Union. The group organized several conferences in European cities to talk about topics such as honor killings, violence against women and women's participation in politics (www.culturaldebates.com). Ms. Eker has previously worked as a director for various live political talk shoes in Channel 7 in Turkey. She holds her Bachelors of Arts in Radio, TV and Cinema from the Istanbul University and her Masters from the London College of Music and Media in Film.

Hulya Alper is an Assistant Professor of Islamic Theology at the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Marmara. She is the first and only female Assistant Professor of Islamic Theology in Turkey. She was born in Bursa, Turkey. She began her religious education at Religious High School (Imam-Khatip). After graduating from Uskudar Imam-Khatip high school in 1987, she attended the Faculty od Divinty at Marmara University in Istanbul. She got her MA degree in Institute of Social Sciences at the Department of Theology at Marmara University. She obtained her PhD degree with thesis titled "A Problem of Kalam : the Psychological Structure of Faith" (published in 2002) at the same departmant. She had been at Dar al-ulum Faculty in Cairo University as a visiting scholar for a year in 2002. She has some published articles and she gave conferences about Islam and the Role of Women in Islam. She is also one of the founders of Kadikoy Irfan Foundation which was established and managed by women to support the disadvantaged and poor women and children.

Havva G. Guney-Ruebenacker is an S.J.D candidate at Harvard Law School. Her doctoral dissertation is a comparative research of theories of legal change in Islamic and Western jurisprudence, reviewing the nineteenth-century codification and legal reform movements in the Islamic world, especially in the area of family law and women rights, and focusing on the intellectual background and impact of the first modern Islamic family code, the 1917 Ottoman Family Code. Born in her home country Turkey, Mrs. Guney-Ruebenacker studied Islamic law and Islamic sciences at a special Qur'anic studies high school in Saudi Arabia at Madrasat Tahfiz al-Qur'an al-Karim in Mecca. She graduated as the top student and received high honors and awards in several regional Qur'anic recitation and memorization competitions in Saudi Arabia and Iran. She received her B.A in law from University of Tehran, Faculty of Law and Political Science in Iran, where she gained a comparative knowledge of Islamic law through her study of the Shi'a school, and she received her LL.M in European Law from University of Cambridge, where she studied European Union law and European legal history. She worked as a graduate fellow at Oxford Center for Islamic Studies at University of Oxford, conducting research on the Ottoman Mecelle, the first Islamic Civil Code. She worked as a researcher at such human rights institutions as the European Court of Human Rights and the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, where she wrote two chapters on the situation of the judiciary in Turkey and Iran for the annual publication: Attacks on Justice (Eleventh Edition). Mrs. Guney-Ruebenacker is fluent in Turkish, Arabic, Persian and English.

United Arab Emirates

Rima Khoreibi is a children's book author. "The Adventures of Iman" book series, are based on a young teenage muslim girl super hero. The books are meant to teach children about Islam in a fun, positive way. In addition, it brings light to girl\women empowerment supported by Allah and the Koran. "The Adventures of Iman" book 1 was released in last year and the second book will be out by December. Each book in the series will have the same heroine, Iman. Each story deals with a social issue and how Iman uses the Koran to solve it. At university, Rima and a friend founded the Unicef office at York University. In Amman, Jordan, Rima did intensive volunteer work with S.O.S. an orphange. In 1998, Rima founded I.R.I.S.(Issues of Real-life for the Interest of Students), a non profit organization based on awareness social and health issues ,an outreach program for students and mothers. A large quantity of her book, "The Adventures of Iman", (book 1) was donated to the Red Cresent and sent out to many Islamic countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Palestinian Territories, Morroco, Syria, ect. The same book has also been translated into the Braille system. Media: "The New York Times" article by Nicholas Kristoph. Cover story of "Arabian Women" magazine. Articles in" Viva" magazine Dubai and "Viva" magazine Jordan. Dubai T.V. interview. "The Buzz" magazine Dubai. Tabloid cover by "Gulf News" newspaper, Dubai. Coming up in December: Interviews with BBC "The World Update" radio show and "The World" (BBC radio) and a childrens radio show on BBC . Born in Sidon, Lebanon, Rima lived the first ten years of her life in Saudi Arabia. At the age of 11, Rima and her family moved to Toronto, Canada. She attended York University in Toronto and majored in cultural anthropology. At the age of 24, Rima met and married her Jordanian husband, Ziad,and moved to Jordan for 5 years. In 2001, Rima, Ziad and their 2 sons moved from Amman to Dubai. In Dubai, Rima is busy being a mother, a writer, and a dedicated advocate for women's rights in Islam.

United Kingdom

Baroness Uddin A strident advocate for social justice, human rights and equality over the last two decades, Baroness Uddin of Bethnal Green was elevated to the peerage by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998, becoming the first Muslim woman to enter the House of Lords. Born in Bangladesh, she grew up in the London Borough of Newham, becoming active in a number of community-based initiatives in East London including the Jagonari Centre, the UK's first purpose built Asian Women's education and training centre. She started her professional career as a youth and community officer in Tower Hamlets, and has been involved in heading up a number of women-centered projects in the Social Services field. An active campaigner on civic and political engagement, she became a member of the Labour Party in her teens, and was subsequently elected Deputy leader of Tower Hamlets Council in 1992. Since entering the House of Lords, Baroness Uddin continues to champion a range of initiatives and organizations which promote women's participation in civil society, violence against women and human rights, in the UK and internationally with a number of governments in the Muslim world. She is a passionate promoter of diplomacy and conflict resolution, having traveled extensively to a number of Middle East and European countries on bridge-building missions. Baroness Uddin is a patron of several organisations including Orbis International, Student Partnership Worldwide, Bethnal Green and Victoria Park Housing Association, Women's Housing Forum, Women's Aid Social Action for Health, The Attlee Foundation, Brit-Bangla, The Dame Vera Lynn Trust and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Exeter University in 2004. Baroness Uddin is married with four sons and one daughter.

Farah Zeb is currently employed by Refuge, a national organization that has been working on issues of domestic violence for over thirty years. Based in a refuge that provides culturally sensitive support to women from South Asia, she has found that many of the women who contact them or decide to come to them are Muslim. She remains troubled by the complacent and active silencing of their voices by cultural and religious societies. Many women arriving at the refugee arrive having endured years of violence, with minimum information about their rights, compounded by immigration regulations and subsequent financial constraints. Farah Zeb works as part of a specialized team to address such issues and advocate for women whose lives are layered with complexities and multiple traumas, in the hope that they can begin to rebuild their life. In previous positions she has actively participated in setting up a women's centre, a women's counseling service and a women's help line. She is a fully trained counselor, holds an MSc in Gender and Social Policy and is currently studying for an MA in Islamic Studies. My interest rests on looking at how scriptures and religious doctrine govern issues of gender and her focus remains delving into the spirit of faith and ethics. She continues to dedicate her time and work to issues confronting (our?) various communities and hope that her experience can in some small way contribute towards advancing the rights of Muslim women.

Fareena Alam is Editor of Q-News, Britain's leading Muslim current affairs magazine. Born in London and brought up in Singapore, Fareena is of Bangladeshi Chittagonian heritage. As a community activist in Singapore, she headed up the United Nations Students' Association at the National University of Singapore, for which she organized a six month awareness campaign called 'The Children of Bangladesh.' The campaign highlighted the plight of the street children and she then took the campaign a stage further by leading a student delegation of twenty to carry out relief work in Bangladesh in 1998. Since moving back to the UK, Fareena has become an established journalist and commentator on Muslim and minority affairs. After becoming News Editor at Q-News in 2001, she went on to become the publication's Managing Editor leading it through a major revamp and relaunch. Fareena completed her MA course work at City University's prestigious international journalism programme and followed up with a five-month stint with The Observer before taking up her duties at Q-News. She is also freelance contributor to British and international newspapers. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Observer, The Times Education Supplement, The New Statesman, openDemocracy.net and Qantara. She has also done reporting for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and is a regular on-air contributor and consultant to a variety of media organizations including the BBC, Sky News, RTE, BBC World Service, CNN and others. In 2005, she was named Media Professional of the Year by Islamic Relief. In 2006, she was named Media Professional of the Year at the Asian Women of Achievement Awards. Fareena's work was recently profiled in the UK Press Gazette and The New Stateman. Her past work can be found online at http://www.q-news.com

Mina Al Oraibi* is the Current Affairs Journalist of Asharq Alawsat Newspaper, an international, pan - Arab daily based in London. Mina has covered a wide-range of events, including international conferences such as the Euro-Med Summit in Barcelona and Forum for the Future in Bahrain, and recently wrote a series of reports on the position of Muslims in New York. Before joining Asharq Alawsat, Mina was London Correspondent for Al-Hayat newspaper. She has also made several media appearances on Arab satellite channels, CNN and BBC to speak on various topics including the Iraqi and Palestinian elections. She was awarded a Distinction for her MA History Dissertation on the 1958 coup d'etat in Iraq from University College London, where she also completed her BA Honours in History, specializing in Anglo-American relations. An Iraqi-Briton, Mina was born in Sweden and raised in Iraq, Australia and Saudi Arabia before moving to the United Kingdom.

Sarah Joseph

Ziba Mir-Hosseini is an Iranian Anthropologist who lives in London. She works as a freelance researcher and consultant on gender and development issues and has done extensive fieldwork in rural and urban Iran as well as urban Morocco. Since the 1979 Revolution in Iran , she has done research in Teheran family courts and has followed developments in family law debates about gender issues in the Islamic Republic. Her first book, Marriage on Trail;A Study of Family Law in Iran and Morrocco (l.B.Tauris,1993) inspired Kim Longinotto to collaborate with her on this film. She is also the author of Feminism and the Islamic Republic: Dialogues with the Ulema (Princeton,1999) and Islam and Gender, the Religious Debate in Contemporary Islam. Dr Hosseini is currently teaching in the Hauser Global School Law Program at New York University.

United States of America

Afeefa Syeed is a Founding Director of Al Fatih Academy, a community school whose philosophy is integrated learning with an emphasis on civic education and participation. Through the school, she has developed the Peace Leaders Program to teach conflict resolution skills to elementary school students. She has also worked to initiate Kids Giving Salaam (Peace) to foster and inculcate the love of community service in children. As a diversity consultant and multicultural trainer based in Northern Virginia, Afeefa has consulted with a range of national and international organizations including public school systems, the Children's Defense Fund, Simon & Schuster Children's Book Division, the US State Department, the Search Institute and MTV/Nickelodeon Productions. Afeefa is a member of various interfaith, social service and political action organizations. Her involvement and community activism led her to run for local office in 2003 as the Democratic candidate for the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors from the Potomac District. Currently, Afeefa also serves on the Working Group on Faith and Feminism for the Institute for Women's Policy Research, the Advisory Group of the Pathmaps Project of the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education, and as an elected member of the Board of Trustees of the ADAMS Center, one of the largest Islamic centers in the US. Afeefa holds a Masters Degree in Applied Anthropology with a focus on Community and Grassroots Development. She is married with three sons.

Aisha H.L. al-Adawiya* is the Founder and Executive Director of Women In Islam Inc, an organization of women focused on human rights and social justice. She organizes and participates in conferences, symposia and other forums on Islam, gender equity, conflict resolution, cross-cultural understanding, and represents Muslim women in United Nations forums as an NGO. She also coordinates Islamic input for the Preservation of the Black Religious Heritage Documentation Project of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Ms. al-Adawiya serves on numerous boards related to the interests of the global Islamic community, including the Council on American Islamic Relations, New York; Auburn Theological Seminary's Women's Multi-Faith Committee and Face To Face/Faith To Faith; 9/11 Coalition for Constitutional and Human Rights. Moreover, she is a consultant to numerous interfaith organizations and documentary projects including the Interfaith Center of New York and Columbia University's Muslims in New York Project. Ms. al-Adawiya specializes in developing educational forums on human rights and social justice and interfaith initiatives.

Aishah Elinor Holland obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from Temple University and studied Arabic at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed a summer program at the Center for Arabic Studies at the University of Cairo. She has been a student of both Arabic and English calligraphy for over 20 years. Since 1988 she has been a student of Khatt with the master calligrapher Mohamed Zakariya, and has been teaching Islamic calligraphy to students of all ages at schools, museums and other learning institutions since 1994. Her freelance work includes private commissions and commercial pieces.

Aishah Schwartz* is a Muslim-American revert who embraced Islam in April of 2002. Since her reversion to Islam, Aishah has spent time documenting her "Journey's" as a freelance writer through a personal website (http://www.sisteraishah.com), as she has endeavored to continue growing in her new religion. At the end of her first year as a new Muslim, in reflecting on the personal and emotional struggles of acceptance she encountered, Aishah deduced that there must be other new Muslimah's experiencing some of the same anxieties, whereupon she decided to organize an e-group in support of those sisters. The became known as Sisters4Dawah or "S4D". S4D is internationally comprised of over 229 members. Subsequent to leaving the legal field, Aishah followed her desire to work in the Muslim community through MAS Freedom Foundation in Washington, D.C. She became interested in pursuing this area of work after having spent much of her first year as a Muslim volunteering in various capacities within her local community. At MAS Freedom she had the opportunity to lead a national campaign in association with America's Second Harvest, organized to rally the Muslim community in support of National Hunger Awareness Day, June 7, 2005, a campaign she continued in her capacity as Founder & Director of Muslimah Writers Alliance in June of 2006. As a part of promoting the National Hunger Awareness campaign Aishah put together a Information Resource Packet designed to help educate the Muslim community as to how they could participate. Aishah lives between Washington, DC and Alexandria, Egypt.

Al-Hajjah Khalilah Karim-Rushdan is a Chaplain to Smith College and Muslim student advisor. She divides her full-time position between the Chapel and Health Services, where she is a clinical social worker. Hajjah Khalilah is one, of a few woman, who serve as a Chaplain at a college or university. She was instrumental to Smith College as they created a full-time Halal/Kosher dining room with Zabiha meat. Hajjah Khalilah is blessed with an unique ability to explore the complexities of diversity in all its many forms. And to build bridges within the diaspora of Islam in America and society at large. She is often heard saying "we must speak to the human in all people, one humanity." Born in the United States, Sister Khalilah holds a Masters of Social Work from Smith College School for Social Work in Northampton, Massachusetts. She sits on numerous boards and panels, lectures on Islam, diversity, and most recently co-lead a team from Smith College, to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, her former home to provide relief services to victims of hurricane Katrina. She has published articles in the Muslim Journal, Smith College School for Social Work, InDepth, Karamah's online newsletter and presents at conferences nationally and internationally.

Amina Beverly McCloud* is the author of "African American Islam," as well as other articles and encyclopedia entries. She has been a reviewer for the Journal of Islamic Studies in Oxford, a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Islamic Law in Washington, a consultant to the Ford Foundation's "Civil Rights and Muslims in America" project as well as a reviewer for their postdoctoral fellowship program, and a consultant and affiliate to Harvard University's Pluralism Project, from which she received a grant for 1998-1999.

Amna Buttar MD. Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine Geriatrics - Primary Care East Clinic, and coordinator for Mukhtaran Mai in the United States. Complete Bio to follow.

Anisa Abd el Fattah began her career in Muslim community work in 1989 as the business director for the Jamaat Ibad el Rahman private school in Jersey City New Jersey. Prior to joining the Jammat Ibad el Rahman she had worked as an independent local community activist, working with immigrant Muslim women and families in the New York metro area. It was while employed at the Jamaat Ibad el Rahman that Anisa founded the National Association of Muslim Women. Later, Anisa, along with Concerned Women for America's Dr. Beverly LaHaye, and Independent Women Forums' Anita Blair, the National Right to Life Organization and several other conservative organizations, successfully lobbied against the more radically feminist aspects of the UN initiative. She was invited by the International Right to Life Organization to join its delegation to the Beijing Conference as an observer, but the Chinese government repeatedly refused her application for a visa. Unable to attend the conference, she continued efforts to lobby the conservative opposition's positions in the US, and was quoted by nearly every leading newspaper in the US on the topic. She also appeared on NPR, the USA Radio Charlie Butts Show, and CNN international. Following the Beijing conference she established the International Association for Muslim Women and Children, an accredited NGO with the UN Habitat Conference, and also the UN Division on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinians. Most recently through the International Association for Muslim Women and Children Anisa, along with several human, and women's rights activists from Ethiopia, established "Al-Falah " project, which is an HIV/AIDS prevention and cure project in Ethiopia. Anisa has been credited with developing the blueprint for what later became the American Muslim Council, and served for nearly 10 years as an unofficial advisor. She was a founding member of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). In 1994 the National Association of Muslim Women became the National Association of Muslim American Women. In 1996, she founded Muslim Women for America, and initiated a national Muslim voters registration campaign. In 1998 she served as director of Community outreach for a pro-life senatorial candidate in northern Virginia. She now serves as the Editor in Chief of Al-Jathiyah, the newsletter for the National Association of Muslim American Women. Anisa is presently working on a book to published this fall entitled, Islamic Womanhood. In 1996 she authored, "Islam and the Veiling of Women" and also "The Agent: Truth Behind the Anti-Muslim Campaign in America." The Washington Times, and also the New York Times have publihsed numerous op-eds by Anisa, and she has been quoted by nearly every major US newspaper in the US, and also in Europe, most notably the Guardian Newspaper. Many of her articles and essays are archived at www.mediamonitors.net. In 1998 she attended the 11th International Unity Conference in Tehran Iran, and was one of only two Muslim women to ever address the international body of Muslim dignitaries and academicians gathered for the annual conference.

Anisa Mehdi is president of Whetstone Productions, a boutique production and consulting firm dedicated to broadening Americans' understanding of Islam and the Middle East through documentary films, lectures, inter-religious dialogue and program development. She produced and directed the National Geographic Special "Inside Mecca," and was executive producer of "Muslims," a PBS Frontline special. She is a commentator for National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." Anisa has reported and produced for ABC News "Nightline," CBS "60 Minutes," and New Jersey Network (PBS). As a Trustee of the Esalen Institute and as a speaker/specialist for the US Department of State, Anisa is actively engaged in various Track II diplomacy efforts. She has an M.S. in Journalism from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University and a B.A. in Spanish from Wellesley College. Anisa lives in New Jersey with her husband and children and with her free time plays flute and piccolo in the Livingston Symphony Orchestra and serves as a Trustee of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.

Arfa Khan Dr Arfa Khan after graduating as a valedictorian in medical school in Kashmir, migrated to USA with her husband Dr Faroque Khan and currently is professor of Radiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and chief of Thoracic Radiology at Long Island Jewish Medical Center New York. Dr Khan is an active member of The Islamic Medical Association of North America where she chairs the membership committee. She is a member of Islamic Society of North America and is a founding member of the Islamic Center of Long Island in Westbury, New York where she has served on the executive comm. as treasurer(1984-85), vice president(1993-1995),chair of fund raising comm.(1988-2006). Currently she serves on the board of the ICLI. Dr Khan was also a founding member of the award winning program AMJID--merican Muslims and Jews in Dialogue.

Asifa Qureishi is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she teaches courses in Islamic law and U.S. Constitutional Law. She holds a doctorate from Harvard Law School (SJD 2006) and other degrees from Columbia Law School (LLM 1998), University of California - Davis (J.D. 1992) and University of California - Berkeley (BA 1988). She has served as law clerk in United States federal courts (for Judge Edward Dean Price, U.S. District Court for Eastern District of California in 1993, and as the death penalty law clerk for the Court of Appeals from 1994-1997). Asifa Quraishi's recent publications include: Interpreting the Qur'an and the Constitution: Similarities in the Use of Text, Tradition and Reason in Islamic and American Jurisprudence (28 Cardozo L. Rev. 67 (2006)), No Altars: a Survey of Islamic Family Law in the United States (with co-author Najeeba Syeed-Miller) in Women's Rights and islamic Family Law (edited by Lynn Welchman, Zed Books 2004), and Her Honor: An Islamic Critique of the Rape Laws of Pakistan from a Woman-Sensitive Perspective (18 Mich. J. Int'l L. 287 (1997)). Currently, she is working on a socio-legal critique of the methodology dominant in western feminist advocacy for Muslim women. Among her professional legal consultations, she has drafted a clemency appeal brief in the case of Bariya Ibrahim Magazu, who was sentenced to flogging for fornication in Zamfara, Nigeria. Asifa Quraishi is a founding member of the National Association of Muslim Lawyers (NAML), its sister organization Muslim Advocates, and American Muslims Intent on Learning and Activism (AMILA). She is also an associate of the Muslim Women's League, and has served as president and board member of Karamah: Muslim Women for Lawyers for Human Rights. A mother of two small children (2-year-old girl and 6-year-old boy), Asifa Quraishi also tries to follow theater and the arts, inspired by the work of her husband, actor Kamal Marayati.

Asmi Sadiq is a member of the ASMA Society and has been involved in promoting both intra-faith and inter-faith dialogue. She has actively supported many of the Asma Society events including "Muslim Artists response to 9/11" and the "Cordoba Bread feast". She has done teaching circles for visiting students at the Masjid-al Farah and lectured on Islam and women and Sufism and Qawwali as part of a lecture series at the Madison Ave Presbyterian Church. Asma has been active in supporting "Virsa Pakistan" in promoting Qawwali performances in the Tri-state area. She has done introduction lectures on Qawwali and Sufism at the Interfaith Center, Washington Square Church and the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium at the United Nations. Asma was one of the initial Board members and is now on the Advisory Board of "Turning Point", which is a community based, non-for profit organization addressing the needs of Muslim women and children through crisis intervention especially in the area of domestic violence by providing individual and group counseling, advocacy, outreach education and youth training programs. Asma helped organize a collaborative work-shop on "The Huddood Ordinance" with the ASMA Society and the Women's caucus group of the APPNA ( Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America) at the Annual convention in Washington D.C.

Asma Jamil was born in Karachi, Pakistan. She came to the United States almost 21 years ago for post-Graduate training in Pediatrics. She currently lives in New Jersey with her family. Asma works at the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York as Director of Child Development and is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in the Bronx, N.Y. She was awarded a Special Grant by the United Hospital Fund for Project DOCS, in which parents act as teachers for residents to better understand the needs of children with disabilities.

Asra Q. Nomani* a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal for 15 years, is the author of the critically-acclaimed Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam (HarperSanFrancisco Publishers), a book dedicated to reclaiming women's rights in Islam. Ms. Nomani asserts: "Islam needs to go back to its progressive 7th-century roots if it is to move forward into the 21st century." In Standing Alone, she wrote an Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in Mosques, including the right of women to be imams, or prayer leaders, and stand in the front rows of mosques shoulder-to-shoulder with men, and an Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Bedroom, including the right of women to choose their own partners, irrespective of religion, for example, and to be free from criminalization or punishment for consensual adult sexual decisions. Ms. Nomani has written for the Washington Post, the New York Times, Slate magazine and Time magazine on Islam. She covered the war in Afghanistan for Salon, and her work has appeared in such magazines as Cosmo, Sports Illustrated for Women, Runner's World and People.

Ms. Nomani, 41, was born in Bombay, India into a modern but conservative Muslim family. She came to the United State at the age of four and was raised in the foothills of West Virginia. She is also the author of Tantrika: Traveling the Road of Divine Love (HarperSanFrancisco) about finding reconciliation with her identity as an American Muslim woman. She currently lives in Morgantown, West Virginia, with her son Shibli. There, she has become a writer-activist dedicated to reclaiming women's rights and principles of tolerance in the Muslim world. Ms. Nomani challenged rules at her mosque in Morgantown that required women enter through a back door and pray in a secluded balcony. She is on trial at her mosque to be banished. Ms. Nomani is the founder and creator of the Muslim Women's Freedom Tour. On March 1, 2005, she posted on the doors of her mosque in Morgantown "99 Precepts for Opening Hearts, Minds and Doors in the Muslim World." She was the lead organizer of the woman-led Muslim prayer in New York City on March 18, 2005. She was a 2005 visiting scholar at the Center for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University, a 2006 Poynter fellow at Yale University and the recipient of a 2006 Reporting Fellowship with the South Asian Journalists Association. She is a volunteer at the Rape and Domestic Violence Shelter in Morgantown, WV, and she is committed to seeing hearts, minds and doors open in the Muslim world as part of a wider vision for world peace. She has said: "The gender jihad is part of a peace jihad, a struggle for peace in the world." In late 2006, with three other Muslim mothers, she became a founder of Muslims for Peace, a new organization dedicated to holding a Muslim march for peace in 2007 and standing up for peace and tolerance.

Ayisha Amatu Rahim Jeffries is vice president of external affairs, the African American Islamic Institute (AAII) a global non governmental organization headquartered in Medina Kaolack Senegal, West Africa. Under the leadership of the honorable Shaykh Hassan Ali Cisse (Founder and President), the 500,000 member NGO (AAII is located in 23 countries) is focused on the provision of sustainable human services improving the quality of life for women and children as well as the community at large, while building bridges between the Muslim world and the West. As vice-president of external affairs for AAII, Ayisha works diligently to advance the goals of the organization. As AAII's representative to the United Nations economic and social council (ECOSOC) and in co-operation with other international organizations, governments, and volunteer expertise, she works diligently to place AAII and its leadership in strategic partnerships with decision makers/organizations throughout the globe to influence and formulate policy and implement programs affecting women and children in the areas of health, education, world peace/security/ and other relevant development Foci. As a result, AAII currently has accomplished the establishment of the Shifa Al Asqam medical center; The Fatou Zahra Food and Nutrition Project, the Women's Literacy Project; the Quran and the Islamic Sciences Program, the Arabic Academic Program (1st- 12th grade); the English Language Pre/Primary School; the Shaykh Ibrahim University and the Ibra Diop Medical School; the Americares/ AAII International Project for the Distribution of Medicine and Equipment; the Kossi-Atlanta Resettlement project; Kossi clean water project and numerous united nations consultative relationships with various departments. All of these programs have an emphasis on women and girls participation. As an advocate for change on the continent of Africa, Ayisha has facilitated/co-ordinated successful state visits and personal diplomacy activities in Africa and America. She has lectured on Muslim women's issues in a variety of International settings and participated in numerous conference and workshop panels, as well as international radio and television broadcasts on Islamic subjects including issues related to family law, women and children rights, a variety of social concerns, fiqh and sharia. As an activist in the United States, Ayisha is a well respected community leader. She works successfully to facilitate greater understanding between the Muslim and the non-Muslim community as a board member for AAII's Atlanta affiliate. She has co-ordinated a research team for a study on Islamic family law: a global project that examined the principals of Islamic law and its relationship to human rights, working with Emory University and the Ford Foundation. As a consultant on strategic plans and initiatives to enhance international relations, post the 9/11 tragedy, she provides insight to major decision-makers and the community on long term implications of government policies and actions affecting the Muslim world. A recipient of numerous awards including: The visions of Ibrahim award for outstanding contributions to the Muslim Ummat: Al Maun for faithful dedication to interfaith relations as well as honorary citizenship, the Gambias.

Camille Adams Helminski is Co-Director (and co-founder) of The Threshold Society (www.sufism.org), a non-profit organization rooted within the traditions of Sufism and dedicated to facilitating the direct personal experience of the Divine. She has been working within the Mevlevi tradition of Sufism for over thirty years and has helped to increase awareness of the integral contribution of women to the spiritual path of Islam with her book, Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure, Stories and Writings of Mystic Poets, Scholars, and Saints. She was also the co-founder and co-director of Threshold Books which helped to bring into English many classic texts of the Sufi tradition. She has co-translated a number of volumes of Sufi literature, including the Sufi classic Awakened Dreams, and Jewels of Remembrance (excerpts of the Mathnawi of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi) and is the first Western woman to translate a substantial portion of the Qur'an into English: The Light of Dawn. She has also recently authored two anthologies for the Book Foundation (www.thebook.org), The Book of Character, Writings on Virtue and Character from Islamic and Other Sources and The Book of Nature, A Sourcebook of Spiritual Perspectives on Nature and the Environment, as part of a new curriculum for Islamic education. (Vision TV documentary Rumi:Turning Ecstatic; Outside, Gnosis, and Tempo (Time Magazine of Indonesia) ???) Ms. Helminski was born in Jacksonville, Florida and received her B.A. from Smith College in Massachusetts. She is also currently involved in the creation of a graduate program in Interspirituality rooted in contemplative practice as part of the Spiritual Paths Foundation (www.spiritualpaths.net) which promotes peace, respect, and mutual understanding between peoples of diverse religious and spiritual traditions.

Dahlia Eissa* is the Executive Director of Arab American Justice Project. Dahlia is an attorney who came to the United States from Australia in 1998 to complete a Master of Laws at Harvard University, where she concentrated her studies on women's rights in Islamic law. Upon her graduation, she worked as a fellow at Human Rights Watch focusing on the status of women in the Arab region. She then joined the Women's Environment and Development Organization, where she was responsible for women in government projects in the global south, and advocated for measures to increase the participation of women in decision-making processes at the United Nations. Since 9/11, Dahlia has been handling immigration, hate crimes and discrimination cases.

Daisy Khan is the Executive Director of ASMA Society (American Society for Muslim Advancement), a non-profit religious and educational organization dedicated to building bridges between the American public and American Muslims. She has previously created unprecedented interfaith programs such as The Córdoba Bread Fest and a groundbreaking theatrical production on 9/11 titled Same Difference. Currently, she is the founder of two cutting edge intra-faith programs: Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow and WISE: Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality & Equity an annual international forum where Muslim women from around the globe will convene to develop new strategies for the advancement of their rights. Ms. Khan frequently lectures and serves on panels, and has been featured in PBS's documentary Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet, National Geographic's documentary Inside Mecca, and a Hallmark Channel program titled Listening to Islam. Ms. Khan has been quoted by print publications including Time Magazine, Newsweek, and Newsday. Born in Kashmir, India and educated in the US, Ms. Khan acquired a BFA degree in Interior Architecture and was until recently the Director of Project Management at a Fortune 500 company when she decided to dedicate herself full time to ASMA Society. Ms. Khan was recently a recipient of an award from the Interfaith Center of New York for promoting peace, interfaith understanding and action through social and cultural programs.

Debbie Almontaser is currently Coordinator of External Programs for Brooklyn public schools. As a multicultural specialist and diversity consultant, Ms. Almontaser facilitates teacher and public workshops on Arab culture, Islam, conflict resolution, cultural diversity, and Augusto Boal's Theater of the Oppressed around the city, and at local and national conferences. Ms. Almontaser also serves as a consultant to Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. Muslim American Series Project, Independent Production Fund's Islam Project, Educators for Social Responsibility, the Interfaith Center of NYC, and the Church Avenue Merchants Block Association's (CAMBA, Inc.) Diversity Project. She sits on the board of The Dialogue Project, Women In Islam Inc., among other organizations. She is also a co-founder of Brooklyn Bridges, The September 11th Curriculum Project, Justice for Detainees, and the We Are All Brooklyn Coalition. Ms. Almontaser co-designed and developed a curriculum for the Muslim Communities Project at Columbia University and for Educators for Social Responsibility/Metro. She has a B.A. from St. Francis College and an M.S. in multicultural education and reading from Adelphi University. She also holds an M.S. from Baruch College's School of Public Affairs through their Aspiring Leaders Program. During her Revson year, Ms. Almontaser took courses from the International Center for Cooperation & Conflict Resolution (ICCCR) at Teachers College and received a Certificate in Conflict Resolution. The Conflict Resolution Certificate program is a rigorous and thorough program of study in the field of conflict resolution exploring local and global conflicts as well as the various mediation models. Ms. Almontaser plans on incorporating these courses into a doctoral program.

Dilshad D. Ali's is the Islam editor for Beliefnet.com, the largest multi-faith website in the world with more than four million daily viewers and 9 million newsletter subscribers. Dilshad covered Islam, Asian and Middle-Eastern arts and culture for Islam-online.net for four years, including exclusive coverage of marches, demonstrations, protests, and the reaction of the New York Muslim arts community in the early chaotic days after 9/11. She covers Muslim women's issues for Azizah magazine and has been Beliefnet.com's Islam Editor since 2005. She single-handedly developed a special, comprehensive "Understanding Islam" section for Beliefnet prior to the 5th anniversary of 9/11, produced an exclusive online travel diary with Islam scholar Akbar Ahmed on his travels through the Muslim World, and moderated a special Beliefnet blog on the crisis between Lebanon and Israel in the summer of 2006. Born in Redwood City, California, Dilshad is a 1st-generation American who graduated with honors (majoring in Journalism) from the University of Maryland, where she was a Phi Beta Kappa. Although Beliefnet's offices are in New York, Dilshad works from her home in Virginia where she and her husband are raising their two young children.

Fatima Shama* was born and raised in New York City. Her mother, a Brazilian-Catholic and father, a Palestinian-Muslim immigrated to the US in the early 60's. Fatima became actively involved with American-Muslim organizations promptly after September 11th. Fatima's passion for Islam is steadfast and her commitment to creating a society where differences are celebrated remains strong. Fatima joined the Bloomberg Administration in early 2006 and works in the area of education and community development for the Mayor's Office. Her specific focus is on health literacy. Prior to joining the Mayor's Office, Fatima was the executive director of a health coalition in Brooklyn. Fatima has worked in the areas of economic and workforce development, international health and human rights, and immigrant rights. She graduated with a Bachelor's degree from SUNY Binghamton, attended Temple Law School in Philadelphia, and completed the Executive Management Program at Columbia Business School's Institute for Nonprofit Management. In 2005, Fatima was a United Way of New York City Senior Fellow. She is currently completing her Masters in Public Administration at Baruch College's School of Public Affairs.

Fawzia Afzal-Khan wears several hats. She is a Professor in the Department of English at Montclair State University in New Jersey. She has published one book of criticism entitled Cultural Imperialism and the Indo-English Novel (1993), she has another co-edited volume of scholarly essays on the Postcolonial condition entitled The PreOccupation of Postcolonial Studies, co-editied with Kalpana Seshadri-Crooks. She is also the author of many articles and essays on Feminist Theory, Postcolonial Criticism, Theatre in South Asia and so on. Fawzia Afzal-Khan trained in North Indo-Pakistani Classical music in her home town of Lahore for seven years before coming to the USA, and was the winner of the Amateur All-Pakistan Classical Vocalist award three years in a row. She has performed on radio and television in Pakistan, and her music and poetry have been featured on the radio talk-show "Tahrir" on WBAI (NY Public Radio) in Manhattan; she has performed for many years at music clubs in Manhattan and Upstate New York.

Fawzia Gilani-Williams is Project Coordinator of Eid Stories Project, dedicated to giving visibility to the Muslim community through knowledge of celebrations and deter the otherization of the Muslim people. They want the strange to become familiar; this can be done through the American public being aware of Eid as they are aware of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Fawzia Gilani-Williams' relevant published material and special programs created include: The Adventures of Musab (2002) and The Emir and the Verse of the Throne (2003),The Lost Ring (2006), Husna and the Eid Party (2006). Fawzia awarded scholarship from Highlights Foundation to attend Highlights Writer's Workshop Jul 15-22, 2006 in Chautauqua, New York. She also awarded first place by Foundation for Economic Education for co-designing an educational board game in U.S. national competition selected for its "design, educational value, playability, and clarity of instructions. (1994).

Ghazal Omid is founder of Iraq&ItsFuture.org, a non-profit organization dedicated to the liberation of Iran and education of women. Author of Living in Hell, a personal and political memoir of her life in and escape from the Islamic theocracy, she is one the boldest expatriate Iranian political authors through her website, www.ghazalomid.com with petitions for humane treatment of political prisoners. Recognized as an Islamic and Iranian expert, she has made more than 200 radio/tv appearances, many national, and is a frequent guest on Fox, VOA and Fardi TV/Radio, writes weekly blogs for UPI and Global Politician, maintains six websites and is active with dissident Iranian groups in Iran and abroad. Born in 1970 in Abadan, Iran, Ghazal is the youngest of eleven siblings born to her polygamist father's two wives, both of whom he abandoned during the revolution and the Iran/Iraq war, which she survived living in a heavily bombed area in Isfahan and refugee camps in Bandar Abbas. Her faith, lost at age thirteen due to her abusive life, was restored by her pilgrimage to Mecca. Denied entrance to medical schools because of her record of non-conformity to non-Islamic dictates and her demand for equal rights for women and men, she studied French, preparatory to a law degree, at universities in Isfahan and Tehran. Abducted by the secret police, she escaped by jumping from a speeding car and made her way underground to Canada where she is now a citizen and continues work on a PhD in Psychology and eventual law degree.

Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons is an Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Florida. She received her MA & Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Temple University. Her primary academic focus in Islam is on Islamic Law and its impact on Muslim women. She conducted research in Jordan, Egypt, Palestine and Syria on the Shari'ah's impact on women, contemporarily and the women's movements in those countries to change these laws. She currently teaches Courses on Islam, women and Islam, Islam in the Americas, Modern Islamic Thought, African American Religious traditions and Race Religion and Rebellion. Simmons has a thorough grounding in Sufism having studied seventeen years with the contemporary Sufi Mystic, Shaykh M.R. Bawa Muhaiyadeen. In addition to her academic and spiritual studies she has a long history in the area of civil rights, human rights and peace work. She has published several articles including: "Striving for Muslim Women's Rights—Before and Beyond Beijing: An African American Perspective" in: Windows of Faith. G. Webb (ed.) (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press 2000). "Are We Up To The Challenge? The Need For a Radical Re-Ordering Of The Islamic Discourse On Women" in: Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender and Pluralism. O. Safi (ed.) London: One World Press 2003), Muslim Women's Experience as a Basis for Theological Interpretation in Islam in Muslims in the United States: Identity, Influence, Innovation: P. Strum (ed) Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. African American Islam as an Expression of Converts' Religious Faith and Nationalist Dreams and Ambitions in Women Embracing Islam Gender and Conversion In The West. K. Van Nieuwkerk, (ed), University of Texas Press. .

Hind Jarrah is Founding member and President of Texas Muslim Women's Foundation, a non-profit educational, philanthropic, outreach and social service organization dedicated to empowering Muslim Women and Their Families. Since 1982, Dr Jarrah has been engaged in the promotion of understanding and respect for multicultural diversity, when she Co Founded the Arabic Heritage Society, a non profit educational organization. She has been a frequent guest speaker on the topics of Women, Islam, Arabs and Interfaith dialogue in schools, colleges, churches and panel discussions and has been featured in "What's Missing" Inspiration for Women Seeking Faith and Joy in Their Lives by Rena Pederson -. Dr Jarrah was born in Beirut, Lebanon of Palestinian parents; she graduated from the Amer. Univ. Of Beirut with a B.Sc. in Pharmacy (1974) and earned her PhD in Pharmacology from Univ. TX Health Science Center in Dallas (1980). She received her Masters in Neuroscience and Cognition from UTD in 2000. After September 11, 2001, Dr Jarrah was continuously called on to lecture about Islam and Muslims and their issues to a wide audience including schools, colleges, teachers and churches. Until the widespread prevailing misconceptions about Islam and Muslim Women in particular lead to her calling for and co founding Texas Muslim Women's Foundation. Dr Jarrah has been very involved in Interfaith Dialogue and Peace movements and has earned a reputation for dedication and success in promoting understanding and friendship among members of various faiths and cultures.

Homaira Mamoor is a graduate of St. Joseph's College in Long Island, N.Y. She is a member of Islamic center of Long Island, served on the board of Trustees of ICLI for two years, currently she is an active member of Domestic Harmony Committee at the Islamic Center of Long Island, which deals with domestic violence within the Muslim community. She's a member of a multi-faith forum, building bridges with other faiths in Long Island. Mrs. Mamoor's personal experiences as a woman and working with her native Afghan women community here in the U.S and back home in Afghanistan, inspires her to work for uprooted women's human rights. She is a board member of Women for Afghan Women (WAW), a collective of Afghan and non-Afghan women from the New York area who are committed to the human rights of Afghan women. Her essay, Building Community Across Difference, got published in a book titled, Nothing Sacred: Women Respond to Religious Fundamentalism and Terror by Thunder's Mouth Press/Nations and Women for Afghan Women: Shattering Myths and Claiming The Future by Global Publishing at St. Martin's. Mrs. Mamoor was the recipient of the St. Joseph's College prestigious "Esse Non Videri Award" in recognition of her commitment to non-violence and the human rights of Afghan women. Mrs. Mamoor is married and the mother of three beautiful daughters; age 16, 13, and 11 years and lives in West Islip Long Island New York.

Inas Younis is a free lance writer and mother of three. Mrs. Younis has contributed to an anthology about the lives of Muslim woman, titled Living Islam Out Loud, and is also a veteran writer for the largest Muslim E-zine, naseeb.com. She is currently working on a feature profiling the lives of American Muslim teens for the premiere issue of Muslim Girl Magazine, due to launch this January 07.

Ingrid Mattson Born in Canada, where she studied Philosophy at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, earning her B.A. there in 1987. In 1987 Dr. Mattson obtained a grant from the Canadian International Development Agency to develop a training and support program for traditional midwives. Consequently, she traveled to Pakistan where she worked with Afghan refugee women for one year. Dr. Mattson earned her Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago in 1999. Her research is focused on Islamic law and society, with emphasis on the early Islamic period. Her scholarly articles include studies on slavery, poverty, and Islamic legal theory. During Dr. Mattson's graduate studies in Chicago, she was involved with the local Muslim community, serving on the Board of Directors of Universal School, a parochial suburban Muslim academy, and as a member of the Interfaith Committee of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. Presently, Dr. Mattson is Director of Islamic Chaplaincy and Professor at the Macdonald Center for Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut. Additionally, in 2001, Dr. Mattson was elected Vice-President of the Islamic Society of North America, the largest grass roots membership based Muslim organization in North America. Dr. Mattson is a member of the Board of Directors of The Nawawi Foundation, and resides with her family in Hartford, Connecticut.

Intisar A. Rabb, born in Baltimore, MD, is a lawyer who focuses on comparative Islamic and American law, criminal justice, and Qur'anic studies. She received a JD from Yale Law School, an MA from Princeton University in Islamic studies, and a BA from Georgetown University in Government and Arabic. Intisar has also completed a one-year Islamic law program at the Abu Nour Institute in Damascus, Syria and has studied at Mofid University in Qom, Iran as well as in Egypt, Morocco, and Senegal. Intisar speaks Arabic fluently and has reading proficiency in French, German, Persian, and Spanish. Currently, Intisar is a PhD candidate at Princeton University, writing her dissertation on legal maxims as interpretive tools in American and Islamic law. She also serves as a law clerk to the Honorable Thomas L. Ambro on the United States Court of Appeals.

Irfana Anwer is the Executive Director of KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, based in Washington DC. She has developed KARAMAH's legal out-reach and domestic violence referral program, focusing on battered immigrant women. Ms. Anwer has experience in working with South Asian grassroots organizations and has a diverse background having lived in various countries. She has worked closely with the South Asian community in the Arab world and actively supports the women's movement in the Muslim world. Ms. Anwer has a law degree from University of Essex (England) and has passed the Bar exam of England from the Inns of Court School of Law and is a member of Lincolns Inn. She is also a member of the New York Bar. She has an LL.M. from Boston University.

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.

Jennifer Heath is an award-winning arts journalist and editor. Jennifer Heath is also the author of eight books of fiction and non-fiction, including The Scimitar and the Veil: Extraordinary Women of Islam (Paulist Press) - now a classic among young Muslim women seeking "herstory" -- Black Velvet: The Art We Love to Hate (Pomegranate Artbooks), A House White With Sorrow: A Ballad for Afghanistan (Roden Press), On the Edge of Dream: The Women of Celtic Myth and Legend (Penguin/Putnam), and The Echoing Green: The Garden in Myth and Memoir (Penguin/Putnam). Her latest book, The Veil: Women Writers on Its History, Lore and Politics, is forthcoming from the University of California Press in early 2007. Heath's writing has appeared in many anthologies, including Why I'm Still Married: Women Write Their Hearts Out on Love, Loss, Sex, and Who Does the Dishes (Hudson Street Press,) and Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (Continuum). Heath is an anti-war activist and has traveled extensively throughout the Muslim world. Most recently, in July 2006, she was invited to speak at London's IslamExpo and she was an invited speaker at the Cairo International Experimental Theatre Festival, as well as numerous other conferences and arts expositions worldwide. She has co-produced a variety of events, including radio programs about Islamic culture, a theatrical production (which she also wrote) titled "There Was and There Was Not: Wonder Tales of the Islamic World," film festivals, art exhibitions and mini-conferences, most recently one that explored cultural destruction in war, specifically Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Afghanistan. She was born in Australia, spent her childhood in Japan, Bolivia and Colombia and came of age in Afghanistan and is the founder of Seeds for Afghanistan and the Afghanistan Relief Organization Midwife Training and Infant Care Program.

Khadija Mustafa is based in New York City and is a Global Business Manager at Microsoft Corporation focusing on the Pharmaceuticals industry. Her experience of over 10 years includes television (having worked for CNN and CBS), non-profit, new business development and the technology world. Her academic background is in Government and International Affairs, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She has lived and worked in 11 cities across 5 countries in 3 continents. She is a member of Women at Microsoft and actively supports cause and initiatives to support women in realizing their full potential and is an active mentor. Her hobbies include real estate, international travel and researching ways to achieve health through natural alternatives. She is also dedicated to supporting causes associated with South Asia and is passionate about helping to further and bridge the gap of perceptions around Muslims and Islam.

Laila Al-Marayati is the spokesperson and past president of the Muslim Women's League (MWL), a Los Angeles based organization dedicated to disseminating accurate information about Islam and women and to strengthening the role of Muslim women in society. Dr. Al-Marayati has written articles and participated in numerous conferences addressing issues of concern to Muslim women; topics include basic women's rights in Islam, reproductive health and sexuality, stereotyping, and violence against women. In addition, Dr. Al-Marayati spearheaded the MWL's efforts on behalf of rape survivors from the war in Bosnia in 1993 and was a member of the official US Delegation to the UN Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Dr. Al-Marayati has also participated in numerous activities related to international religious freedom. She served as a Presidential appointee to the Commission on International Religious Freedom from 1999 to May, 2001. Prior to that, she was a member of the State Department Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad. She has testified before Congress and as part of the US delegation to the OSCE Human Dimensions meeting in Poland regarding religious intolerance against Muslims in Europe. As an American of Palestinian descent, Dr. Al-Marayati frequently speaks about the rights of Palestinians. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of KinderUSA, a newly formed charity whose primary focus at this time is on addressing the health and educational needs of Palestinian children living in the West Bank and Gaza.

Dr Laleh Bakhtiar, Ph. D., born of an American mother and Iranian father, grew up in America as a Catholic. At the age of 24 she moved to Iran with her husband and children, not speaking Persian nor knowing anything about Islam. She began to study Islam with her mentor, Seyyed Hossein Nasr at Tehran University where she also studied Quranic Arabic. She returned to America in 1988 and attended graduate school where she earned her M.A. in Philosophy, M.A. in Counseling Psychology and Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. She is leading scholar on the psychology of spiritual chivalry (futuwwa, javanmardi). She directs her work towards Muslim women and youth who, once they learn of this model of spiritual chivalry, develop a more positive relationship with their faith and family. Laleh Bakhtiar has written over 20 books on various aspects of Islam, including Islamic Law, and translated many works. She has just completed an English translation of the Sublime Quran. The existing English translations of verse 4:34 according to conventional translations reads: "Husbands who fear adversity on the part of wives, admonish them, leave their bed, and beat them." She conducted an informal survey of many Muslim scholars. She asked each one of them if they knew of any command in the Quran that Prophet Muhammad (S) did not carry out. After thinking for a several minutes, each one of the Muslims surveyed answered: "No, the Prophet carried out every command that he was given in the Quran." Then she asked: "Did he beat women?" They responded: "No, of course not." She then reasoned to herself: If this seems to be an exception in the Quran, it must have another meaning. She found that the Arabic root word, D R B, has twenty-five different meanings. One of the meanings, when used in the imperative form as it was in verse 4:34, can mean "go away." She was amazed when she realized that this is exactly what the blessed Prophet did. While clearly he never beat any woman, he did "go away" from his wives when there was domestic unrest. He did so in submission to God, as if to say: "God, you know I have tried everything and nothing has worked. I leave it up to Thee." The translator, then, reflects a female perspective of the English Quran complementing the heretofore translations by men. This English translation is due out in the Spring of 2007. Laleh Bakhtiar lives in Chicago where she works closely with Kazi Publications and is President of the Institute of Traditional Psychology.

Leila Ahmed*, BA, MA, PhD, University of Cambridge, came to the Divinity School at Harvard University in 1999 as the first professor of women's studies in religion and was appointed to the Victor S. Thomas chair in 2003. Prior to her appointment at HDS, she was professor of women's studies and Near Eastern studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. While at the University of Massachusetts, she was director of the women's studies program from 1992 to 1995 and director of the Near Eastern studies program from 1991 to 1992. Her latest book, A Border Passage, has been widely acclaimed. Her other publications include the books Women and Gender in Islam: The Historical Roots of a Modern Debate and Edward William Lane: A Study of His Life and Work and of British Ideas of the Middle East in the Nineteenth Century, as well as many articles, among them "Arab Culture and Writing Women's Bodies" and "Between Two Worlds: The Formation of a Turn of the Century Egyptian Feminist." Her current research and writing centers on Islam in America and issues of women and gender.

Lena Alhusseini is Executive Director of Arab American Family Support Center. Ms. Alhusseini joined the AAFSC in April, 2006 after a number of years at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) where she served as international outreach project manager on issues of child protection, abduction and child trafficking. Prior to joining NCMEC, Alhusseini worked for the Gateway Battered Women's Shelter in Denver, Colorado where she developed the Shelter's children's program and worked with Arab-American women and children on the Peaceful Families Project, the first program of its kind in the U.S. to address domestic violence issues within a culturally sensitive framework. Before coming to the U.S., Alhusseini served with a number of international organizations around the world on issues pertaining to child protection, including USAID and UNICEF. Most notably, she established the Jordan River Foundation's child protection unit under the direction of HM Queen Rania Al Abdullah. That organization was the first in Jordan to address the issue of child abuse.

Maha Alkhateeb is the Co-Director of the Peaceful Families Project (PFP), a national not-for-profit training and educational resource organization committed to helping Muslim religious and lay leaders raise their awareness of domestic violence issues to become advocates within their communities. PFP is part of FaithTrust Institute, an international, multifaith organization working to end sexual and domestic violence. Over the past two years she organized workshops for Muslim leaders around the U.S., cultural sensitivity trainings for non-Muslim social service advocates, a meeting of imams in Washington, DC to sign a proclamation against domestic violence, and participated in domestic violence interfaith advocate trainings. Ms. Alkhateeb is currently co-editing a book on domestic violence in Muslim communities due to be published this winter. She is also conducting research for a pilot study involving Muslims in America and their attitudes towards and experiences with domestic violence. Prior to her work with PFP, she served as the researcher of Muslim congregations for a multi-faith Pew Charitable Trusts study conducted by Catholic University on the interconnection of religious institutions and civic incorporation among new immigrants. Ms. Alkhateeb was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, spent her childhood in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and has since been living in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. She completed her Masters degree in Sociology and her undergraduate degree in English Literature. She lives with her husband and son in Potomac Falls, Virginia.

Maha Elgenaidi is Founder & President of Islamic Networks Group (ING), and Chairwoman of ING's Board of Trustees. She is a commissioner on Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante's "Commission for One California"; Commissioner on Santa Clara County Human Relations Commission (appointed by Supervisor Jim Beall) in which she's also Chair of its Peace Building Committee; Advisor to California's Commission on Police Officers Standards & Training (POST) for hate crimes and cultural diversity training; and former Co-chair and Vice-chair of the Bay Area Hate Crimes Investigators Association (BAHCIA). Maha is recipient of numerous civil rights awards, which include the 1999 Civil Rights Leadership Award from the California Association of Human Relations Organizations, the 2000 Human Relations Award from the Santa Clara County Human Relations office, and the 2002 "Citizen of the Year" Award from the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Maha has spoken to hundreds of schools, churches, police departments, corporations and other public institutions, has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, and is author of seven training handbooks on outreach for American Muslims, which includes the best selling "Coordinator's Startup Kit: Presenting Islam in Schools in the Context of Social Studies and World History," as well as eight training modules for school districts, corporations, law enforcement agencies, and healthcare on "developing cultural competency with the American Muslim community". Maha received her B.A. in Political Science & Economics from the American University in Cairo (AUC). She is married and lives in Santa Clara, California.

Margot Badran is a scholar specializing in the study of women and gender in Muslim societies. She is a Senior Fellow at the Prince Alwaleed ibn Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. She was recently Edith Kreeger Wolf Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Religion Department and Preceptor at the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa at Northwestern University. She has lectured widely in academic and popular forums in the United States, as well as in Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. Among her books are Feminism beyond East and West: New Gender Talk and Practice in Global Islam and Feminists, Islam, and Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt (pub. in Arabic as Raidat al-Harakat al-Niswiyya al-Misriyya wa al-Islam wa al-Watan).

Maria Ebrahimji is the Associate Director & Sr. Editorial Producer for Network Booking at the CNN Newsgroup (including CNN USA and CNN International). Based at CNN's global headquarters in Atlanta, she is responsible for guest coverage and story planning for all of the network's special events and feature programming. Maria is a former Editorial Producer for CNN International, where she produced guest segments for high-profile programs such as "Your World Today", "Q&A," "Diplomatic License," and "Inside Africa." Maria is a member of the production team that created the popular "CNN Connects" town-hall program which airs on CNN International and is now in its 2nd year. The program has been hosted from India, South Africa, Lebanon, Davos, China, and New York, and has included a variety ofhigh profile political leaders, activists and rising stars. Maria joined CNN in 1998 after graduating from Brenau Women's College with a BA in Mass Communications. She recently completed her MA in International Affairs from Georgia State University, with an emphasis in democratization in the Arab World. Maria is a member of the South Asian Journalists Association, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and an Advisory Board member of the newly created Emory Development Institute in Atlanta, GA.

Since its inception, The White House Project has been a leading advocate and voice on women's leadership. Under her stewardship, innovative research and initiatives have been hallmarks of the organization. Highlights of the last eight years include groundbreaking research on young women's political participation, an analysis of women's appearances as guests on the influential Sunday political talk shows, the convening of women CEOs and executives for two national leadership summits, a bi-coastal conference of international women leaders, a partnership with Girl Scouts to launch the Ms. President patch and initiatives to influence popular culture. In conjunction with Wilson's national book tour for Closing the Leadership Gap in 2004, she announced the launch of The White House Project's Vote, Run, Lead™, providing a roadmap for addressing the issues she raises in her book. Through this innovative initiative, The White House Project equips women across the nation with the tools they need to vote, run and lead. In 2005, she launched The White House Project's Invite a Woman to Run campaign which encourages the public to tap women they think are presidential material to run for the nation's top political job or other important offices from school board to U.S. Congress. Over the last thirty years, Wilson's accomplishments span becoming the first woman elected to the Des Moines City Council as a member-at-large in 1983, co-authoring the critically acclaimed Mother Daughter Revolution (1993, Bantam Books), and serving as an official government delegate to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China in 1995. And in 2000, in conjunction with Mattel, Wilson brought the world President Barbie. Wilson has been profiled in The New York Times "Public Lives" column, has appeared on The Today Show, CNN, National Public Radio and other national programs and is quoted widely for her expertise. Born and raised in Georgia, Wilson has five children and four grandchildren. She resides in New York City.

Mehnaz M. Afridi has a B.A. and MA in Religious Studies from Syracuse University and has studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Her PhD was on "Mahfouz and Modern Egypt" from the University of South Africa in Religious Studies. As a Muslim, she has had a deep interest in Judaism and Modern Jewish Diaspora that has led her to numerous exciting interfaith conferences, invitations by non-Muslims to expound on the intellectual and theological similarities between Jews and Muslims. Her extensive background in both Jewish and Islamic thought and culture has led to numerous prestigious research grants and fostered the development of courses in Jewish and Islamic Studies programs. Her recent research projects are focused in Italy, Muslims and Jews in Italian culture; she taught in Rome and recently received a grant from the National Endowment of Humanities to attend a seminar in Venice, Italy. She is involved in interfaith initiatives in Los Angeles with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of ethics in conjunction with the Islamic Center of Southern California. She is the lead Muslim Participant and Presenter at the annual face-to face dialogues. In addition, she is presently on the board of directors for the International Education and Welfare Society, Arava Institute, and Progressive Muslim Union to direct and plan educational bridges between Americans, and Muslims. She is currently teaching Islam and Judaism, Cultural Diversity, and Humanities at Antioch University, National University, and the Mary & Joseph Center in Palos Verdes.

She has taught at Syracuse University, Hamilton College, American Intercontinental University and Loyola Marymount University. She has had several publications and papers presented; The Middle East in Religious Perspective -A Study Guide for Instructional Development. - 1991, Religious Diversity, Walking and the City of Ruins, Academic Exchange Extra, May 2005, Islam and its Forgotten Neighbors, Journal of Textual Reasoning, UCLA Press, November 2005, Annual Humanitarian Conference: International Education and Welfare Society, Pakistan Link, February 2006. In addition, she has appeared in two documentaries on the History Channel The Ten Commandments and PBS, One God: Three Faiths 2006. Born in Pakistan, raised in Europe, and the Middle East educated in the United States, Professor Afridi brings a global perspective to exploring the images of Islam in the modern world. Her goal is to develop an American Islamic Learning Foundation, (ALIF) where all of her many goals can be met in an educational, and nurturing environment.

Mino Akhtar is an American Muslim of Pakistani descent, and has lived in United States for 35 years; she grew up in Middle East, Europe and Asia, and came here when her father came to the UN; she attended college in New York City. She lives in New Jersey with her husband. She has four children, 2 adults and 2 in college. She has co-founded and worked with various groups to organize the American Muslim community of New Jersey and increase interaction with media, elected officials and other community and peace groups. Mino has also been a public speaker on the subject Islam and Women, civil rights and inclusive globalization at various Northern New Jersey and New York City events since 9-11. Mino is a board member of the Women's Fund of New Jersey. She is educated in computer science and worked on Wall Street for 18 plus years in the area of advanced technology implementation for large financial services firms. She had her own management consulting firm for several years, before joining a large pharmaceutical company recently as Director of Organizational Effectiveness. Her personal interests include the promotion of human values in organizations, social responsibility in businesses, bridging different cultures and religions and building true democracy through participative dialogue and negotiation. She recently obtained a Master's in Human and Organizational Transformation from California Institute of Integral Studies (2005).

Mohja Kahf is associate professor of comparative literature in the Middle East & Islamic Studies Program at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and author of Western Representations of the Muslim Woman and a book of poetry, Emails from Scheherazad. Her novel, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, is the coming-of-age story of a Muslim American woman. Her article, "Braiding the Stories: Women's Eloquence in the Early Islamic Era" appears in Gisela Webb, Windows of Faith: Muslim Women's Scholarship and Activism, and essays in Living Islam Out Loud, Arab American Feminisms, and Shattering the Stereotypes: Muslim Women Speak Out.

Mona Eltahawy is a New York-based journalist and commentator and international lecturer on Arab and Muslim issues. Her essays make her one of only a few writers whose work appears regularly in both the Arab and U.S. media. Her opinion pieces have appeared frequently in the International Herald Tribune, The Washington Post and the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper and she has also published opeds in The New York Time, the Christian Science Monitor, Egypt's al-Dostour and Lebanon's Daily Star. She recently became a columnist for the major Danish daily Politiken and a columnist for the commentary site Saudidebate.com. Over the past year, she has lectured and taken part in conferences across the United States as well as in Denmark, Dubai, Egypt, Greece, Ireland, Greece and Qatar, Greece. In November, she was named Distinguished Visiting Professor at the American University in Cairo, her alma mater. Ms Eltahawy was a news reporter in the Middle East for many years, including in Cairo and Jerusalem as a correspondent for Reuters. Since she moved to the U.S. in 2000, Ms Eltahawy's views on Arab and Muslim issues have become sought after by producers and college campuses alike. She has been a guest analyst on ABC Nightline, PBS Frontline, BBC TV and Radio, The Doha Debates, CNN, Al-Arabiya, Al-Hurra, MSNBC, VOA, Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor and various NPR shows. She was born in Egypt and has lived in the U.K, Saudi Arabia and Israel and is currently based in New York. She is a board member of the Progressive Muslim Union of North America. The Next Century Foundation recently awarded Ms Eltahawy its Cutting Edge Prize for distinguished contribution to the coverage of the Middle East and in recognition of her "continuing efforts to sustain standards of journalism that would help reduce levels of misunderstanding".

Moushumi Khan is an attorney and business consultant in private practice in New York City. She has had extensive experience in the non-profit, economic development and legal sectors. Since February 2001 Ms. Khan has been in solo legal practice concentrating on corporate and civil rights law. Her clients include the Muslim immigrant populations, and companies with Muslim employee and community relations matters. Ms. Khan is a leading emerging voice on civil liberties, religious accommodation, interfaith relations, and Muslim identity issues. Ms. Khan has advocated for the Muslim American communities on post 9/11 civil rights issues, including with the Special Registration Process and racial profiling. She is a frequent speaker at various venues, including legal, public and private institutions on the impacts of 9/11 and on being a Muslim lawyer. The national media has consulted her opinion on topics related to Islamic or immigrant matters. She has served on Advisory Committees at the Council on Foreign Relations on immigration, national security and public diplomacy topics, including for the Council Special Report "A New Beginning: Strategies for a More Fruitful Dialogue with the Muslim World." Ms. Khan has published articles on subjects important to the Muslim American community. She is a co-founder and President of the Muslim Bar Association of New York, and a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She has won numerous awards for her community service. Ms. Khan is an active participant in interfaith activities and in public diplomacy efforts between the United States and the Muslim world. She has extensive international travel experience, especially in the Muslim world. She is fluent in Bengali and has a working knowledge of French. Ms. Khan earned her J.D. degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1996 and received an A.B. degree in Critical Social Thought, cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College in 1993. She was awarded a Certificate in General Course in the Government Department of the London School of Economics in 1991. Ms. Khan is admitted to practice in New York.

Nahid Angha is Co- founder and Co-director of the International Association of Sufism (IAS), the Executive Editor of the quarterly journal, Sufism: An Inquiry, and founder of the International Sufi Women Organization. She is the main representative of the IAS to the United Nations (NGO/DPI), and her work for global peace earned the IAS the "Messenger of Manifesto 2000" recognition by the UNESCO. She is the first Muslim woman inducted to the Marin Women's Hall of Fame in 2005. An internationally published author, she is one of the major Muslim writers and scholars of the present time with over fourteen published books, she has compiled a series of biographies of contemporary Sufi Women, and published articles too numerous to list. Her dedication to peace has led her to serve in various leadership roles in large-scale international interfaith organizations. Dr. Angha has given lectures and taught classes nationally as well as internationally. This includes speaking engagements at the United Nations, the University of California, Berkeley, Stanford, the Smithsonian Institute, State of the World Forum Conference: San Francisco, Parliament of the World Religions Conferences: Cape Town and Barcelona.

Dr. Nafis Sadik is the Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General, and the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. She is also a member of the Secretary-General's High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. Dr. Sadik previously held the post of Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) from 1987-2000, with the rank of Under-Secretary-General, and was the first woman to head one of the UN's major voluntarily-funded programmes. Dr. Sadik is a dynamic leader in the field of international maternal and child health issues, as well as reproductive and sexual health. She serves as a Commissioner of the Global Commission on International Migration, and as a Board member of the Foundation for Human Development, the UN Foundation, the Asia Society, the South Asian Commission on the Asian Challenge and several other international and national foundations and universities. In 1997 Dr. Sadik was awarded both the Martha May Eliot Award from the American Public Health Association, and the Paul Harris Fellow, by the Rotary Foundation. A national of Pakistan, Dr. Sadik was born in Jaunpur, India. Her professional career began as a physician and was Pakistan's Director General of the Central Family Planning Council. She was educated at Loreto College (India) and received her medical degree from Dow College (Karachi, Pakistan). She is the author of numerous publications in the areas of reproductive health and family, population and development, women, and gender and development.

Najah Bazzy is a second generation American, and a critical care nurse in Dearborn, Michigan. She also conducts workshops to help bridge the gap in understanding between hospital staff and their Muslim patients, many of whom are immigrants.

Najmi Sarwar has been at Citigroup since 2005 as part of the Global Consumer Banks' North America O&T team, providing project management expertise. She also serves as Direction of DIL (1998):Developments in Literacy; a 501-C3 registered not for profit which helps support primary and secondary education for girls in the rural areas of Pakistan. Previously she worked for AT&T Communications as Manager, telemarketing system support. Najmi received her Master's in Computer Science from New York University, and her Bachelor's from Quaid -I-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Naz Ahmed Georgas is a lecturer of Islam and Sufism for the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) a non-profit agency in New York dedicated to bridging the gap between Muslims and the other religious groups living in America. In addition she works for the Masjid Al Farah in Tribeca Manhattan scheduling and providing training to young khateebs on the basic requirements of delivering prayers and Friday Sermons. She has earned a Masters Degree in International Affairs specializing in Economic and Political Development Studies from the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University and has compl eted her undergraduate work from Jesus and Mary College, Delhi University with a BA in Sociology. Upon graduating from Columbia University, Naz has worked for various agencies at the United Nations in New York including United Nations Office Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS). In addition she also worked with the World Council of Churches an international non profit organization affiliated with the UN and the National Council of Women. She has also been studying Islam and Sufism informally for 7 years under the guidance her spiritual master and teacher Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf who is the Imam of the mosque of masjid al farah and the founder of ASMA. Originally from Bangladesh, Naz has lived in France, Egypt, Australia, India, Japan and now resides in New York city with her husband and two sons Jibrial and Isa.

Nurah W. Ammat'ullah (Rosalie P. Jeter) is the founder and Executive Director of Muslim Women's Institute for Research and Development in the Caribbean and the Diaspora. She is also executive committee member of the Consultation for Interfaith Education, member of the working committee for the USA group in the Trans- Atlantic Dialogue between the Chicago based Council for the Parliament of World Religions and the Protestant Academies of Germany. As a Muslim woman who self identify as western culture, Ms. Ammat'ullah is always seeking ways to enhance her knowledge base as well as ways to contextualize the Islamic traditions within the western frame of reference. She earned a Graduate Certificate in Islamic Chaplaincy at Hartford Seminary.

Pamela Taylor is Co-Chair of the Progressive Muslim Union, a grassroots organization that aims to provide a forum, voice, and organizing mechanism to North American Muslims who wish to pursue a progressive intellectual, social and political agenda. In her capacity as Co-Chair, she serves as a member of the Board of Advisors to Michael Lerner's Network of Spiritual Progressives. She delivered the sermon and led congregational prayers at the United Muslim Association mosque in Toronto, Ont, in July 2005 and the former Mufti of Marseille, Suheib Ben Cheikh, expressed his support of female imams by praying in a mixed congregation behind her in February of 2006. Ms. Taylor is also Director of the Islamic Writers Alliance, an international, non-profit, professional organization which promotes and supports Muslim women writers. The IWA has publishes a bi-annual journal called Islamic Ink. They have published an anthology of Muslim women's writing, Many Voices, One Faith, and is working on an e-book of poetry about the Prophet Muhammad compiled from entries to the second annual IWA poetry contest. They have also sponsored panels at the Islamic Society of North America and the Radius of Arab American Writers conferences. Ms. Taylor writes in many genres. She is an award winning poet and fiction writer. She publishes opinion pieces with the Religion News Service, and has placed articles in newspapers such as the Dallas Morning News and the Altanta Journal-Constitution. She is a regular contributor to Muslimwakeup.com and writes occasional articles on Muslims in the arts for Islamic Horizons. She has also contributed a chapter on spiritual education to Nurturing Child and Adolescent Spirituality: Perspectives from the World's Religious Traditions (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.; January 2006.) Ms. Taylor was born in Arlington, VA and raised outside of Boston, MA. She embraced Islam 20 years ago, at the age of 22. She currently resides in Cincinnati, OH with her husband, four daughters, and two cats.

Patricia Dunn has an MFA in writing from Sarah Lawrence College where she also teaches creative writing. Since 2003, Dunn has been contributing editor of muslimwakeup.com, America's most popular Muslim online magazine with over 200,000 monthly readers. Her fiction has also appeared in Global City Review, where she acted as editor for the international issue. Her non-fiction and creative non-fiction has appeared in Womensenews, Muslimwakeup.com,The Christian Science Monitor, the Village Voice, the Nation and LA Weekly, among other publications. Her work is soon to be anthologized in Stories of Illness and Healing: Women Write Their Bodies, forthcoming from Kent State University Press 2006 .

Rabia Terri Harris is founder and coordinator of the Muslim Peace Fellowship (MPF), an influential forum for progressive Islamic thought and the only affinity group in the Muslim community with a central focus on the theory and practice of faith-based active nonviolence. Harris has lectured and written widely on politics and spirituality, and has served as a developer and co-trainer of Muslim/Christian nonviolence trainings. She has a regular column in Fellowship magazine, the quarterly publication of the US branch of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (the oldest interreligious peace and justice organization in the world), with which MPF is formally affiliated. Harris also serves as a contributing editor at Fellowship.

In addition to her peace work, Harris has pursued intensive studies in Islamic spiritual traditions and is the translator from Arabic of several key treatises of medieval Sufi thought, including the Risalah of Abdul-Karim Qushayri and Ibn `Arabi's Risalat al-anwar, published as Journey to the Lord of Power. A graduate of Princeton and Columbia, Harris is completing her certification as a Muslim chaplain through the Hartford Seminary Islamic Chaplaincy program, and is currently employed as a chaplain resident serving Muslims and non-Muslims alike at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia. She is a senior member of the Jerrahi Order, a 300-year-old traditional Sufi order headquartered in Istanbul.

Ranya Idliby is co author of The Faith Club, published by Free Press- release. She was raised in Dubai and McLean, Virginia, graduated from Georgetown University with a Bachelors in Science in Foreign Service, and earned her Masters in Science in International Relations from The London School of Economics where she continued her post graduate education as a PhD candidate. She now lives in New York City with her husband and children. After September 11th, Ranya Idliby, an American Muslim of Palestinian descent, faced constant questions about Islam, God, and death from her children, the only Muslims in their classrooms. Inspired by a story about Muhammad, Ranya reached out to two mothers to try to understand and answer those questions for her children. Destined to spawn interfaith discussion groups in living rooms, churches, temples, mosques, and other settings, The Faith Club is a memoir of spiritual reflections in three voices that will make readers feel as if they are eavesdropping on the authors' private conversations, provocative discussions, and often controversial opinions and conclusions. The authors wrestle with the issues of anti-Semitism, prejudice against Muslims, and preconceptions of Christians at a time when fundamentalists dominate the public face of Christianity. They write beautifully and affectingly of their families, their losses and grief, their fears and hopes for themselves and their loved ones. And as the authors reveal their deepest beliefs, readers watch the blossoming of a profound interfaith friendship and the birth of a new way of relating to others. Pioneering, timely, and deeply thoughtful, The Faith Club's caring message will resonate with people of all faiths. The Faith club was picked by The New York Times as one of the books featured in their annual event Authors in the Park. The authors will be traveling in the US for Lectures at the National Cathedral, Georgetown University, and various book fairs in Florida, San Francisco, St. Louis Missouri etc. Additional venues and a schedule of Ranya Idliby's upcoming media appearances which include The Today Show and Day Side News on Fox can be found on the website www.thefaithclub.com.

Reshmi Siddique is a psychiatric research scientist who has published extensively in the medical and public health fields. Educated at Oxford University and The London School of Economics, she resides in New Jersey with her husband and two children. She is the author of How to Turn Anger Into Love.

Robina Niaz is the Founder and Executive Director of Turning Point for Women and Families (Turning Point), an organization dedicated to helping Muslim women and girls empower themselves so that they can advocate and find collective strength to change attitudes toward Muslim women in their community and in the larger society. It offers culturally competent services especially dealing with issues of domestic violence and educates about its effect on families and children as well as the larger community. In partnership with public, private and religious institutions, it also aims to mentor a new generation of social workers trained to address the needs of the Muslim community in New York City. Based in Queens, Turning Point provides crisis intervention, individual and group counseling services that guide women to recognize signs of abuse, identify their needs, protect their children, regain self-esteem and find the power of their individual and collective voices. Robina's past experience includes managing programs that served women and families at NYANA's Center for Women and Families, Consortium for Worker Education, CAMBA and Victims Services (now Safe Horizon). Robina has also volunteered extensively and has served on the boards of SAKHI, Queens Women's Center, Coalition of Battered Women's Advocates, Not In Our Name and the Advisory Board of the Interfaith Council of New York. She has also served as a Domestic Violence consultant to ICLI's Domestic Harmony Committee and a Social Work consultant to ICNA-Relief. She currently serves on the board of the Muslim Consultative Network. Robina has an M.S. in Applied Psychology from Pakistan and an MSW from Hunter College New York.

Saleemah Abdul Ghafur is committed to a life of service and to advancing gender equity and safe and nurturing spaces in American Muslim communities. In 2004 she participated in a civil action to give women space and voice in American mosques where they have traditionally been banned. In 2005, Saleemah took on establishing women as prayer leaders, a concept that is unprecedented in the American Muslim community, and co-organized the historic woman-led prayer in New York City. Saleemah edited the first anthology collecting the voices of kick-ass, American Muslim women. The book, entitled LIVING ISLAM OUT LOUD: American Muslim Women Speak (Beacon Press 2005), presents American Muslim women dealing with the complexities of forging their own identities while contributing powerfully to public life. For more details logon to: www.livingislamoutloud.com. Saleemah has been a guest on CNN and NPR and her work has been featured in the Boston Globe, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution and the New York Times. Formerly, Saleemah was a member of the triad that produces Azizah magazine. After consulting for Azizah a year, she joined the team in December 2002. During her tenure at Azizah, Saleemah developed Azizah's organizational capacity by initiating Azizah's first formal strategic planning process and securing investors, developing a public relations campaign that branded Azizah in its market and contributed to the editorial direction of this pioneering publication. Prior to Saleemah's work with Azizah, she was a program officer for Victoria Foundation (www.victoriafoundation.org). Saleemah is a member of Atlanta Habitat for Humanity's (www.atlanta-habitat.org) advisory board and is participating in the local and national emerging conversation on faith, feminism and philanthropy. This conversation is a partnership between the Atlanta Women's Foundation and the Women's Funding Network. Saleemah is also a member of Friends of Open House (www.friendsofopenhouse.org) regional council. Saleemah frequently presents at workshops, seminars and conferences about popular culture, Islam and women. Saleemah is a graduate of Columbia University.

Salma Arastu was born in Rajasthan, India. She graduated with an MFA in painting from Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda, India. And for the last thirty years has been exhibiting her paintings in India, Iran, Kuwait and the United States. Hindu by birth and Muslim by marriage, her work expounds on the unity of all-encompassing God, common in all religions. Her personal triumphs have been defined and shaped by the simple principle of faith in The Divine as the compelling force that has guided her life and work. She seeks Universal in her art. Ms. Arastu has received recognition both regionally and nationally, winning numerous awards. Her lyrical and spiritual paintings, based on memories of her childhood, her love of people, and her deep faith, is inspiring, warm and beautiful. In addition to her prolific painting, she is also creating lyrical metal sculptures and exploring digital media to narrate experiences. Ms. Arastu has also written several published works of free-verse poetry and short stories in her native Hindi. She continues to write and provides eloquent prose to accompany her paintings for gallery showings. Shortly after arriving in the US, she became an entrepreneur with the creation of Your True Greetings, a successful greeting card company that uses her paintings and calligraphy to serve the needs of Muslim communities in the US, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom. Website: www.salmaarastu.com

Samina Ali* was born in Hyderabad, India and raised both there and in the United States. Her debut novel, MADRAS ON RAINY DAYS (Farrar Straus Giroux), chronicles a young Muslim American woman's journey to freedom and was awarded the Prix Premier Roman Etranger 2005 Award (Best First Novel in Translation of the Year) by France and was also chosen as the finalist for both the PEN/Hemingway Award in Fiction as well as the California Book Reviewers Award. Poets&Writers named MADRAS as one of the Top 5 Best Debut Novels of the Year. The novel has been translated into many different languages and released around the world. Ms Ali has been invited to lecture on the book extensively, from University of California, Berkeley on the West Coast to Harvard and Yale Universities on the East. She is the recipient of the Rona Jaffe Foundation and Barbara Deming Memorial awards for fiction. Most recently, essays of hers have been included in The May Queen and Living Islam Out Loud anthologies. She has also written for publications as diverse as Self and Child Magazines, The New York Times and The San Francisco Chronicle. She resides in California with her son.

Sameera Fazili graduated from Yale Law School in 2006 and is currently a Fellow at Shorebank, a community development bank focused on issues of economic equity in the US and abroad. At Yale, she was the student chair of the Middle East Legal Studies Seminar and also served on the board of the Critical Islamic Reflections conference. Before law school, Sameera worked at Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, where she gave Congressional testimony on the religious freedom of Muslims in Western Europe. Her experience in international human rights and development includes work at the World Health Organization and United Nations High Commission for Refugees, and her work has taken her to such places as Palestine, Kashmir, and Pakistan. Sameera graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 2000 with a BA in Social Studies, and was the recipient of Harvard's Women's Leadership Award.

Sanaa Nadim* is the Muslim Chaplain at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Her main work is to organize discussion groups and make presentations on Islamic issues to the campus and various interfaith communities. She has an extensive knowledge on the status of women, children, and elderly in Islam and made presentations at various national and international conferences including International Unity Conference in Washington, D.C., 1998, International Women's Conference, New York, 1998, Universal Spirituality—ISC Canada, 1996, and Faith and Spiritual Worship, London, 1993. She also spoke at many university campuses. Mrs. Nadim has her BBA from CUNY Bernard Baruch College.

Sarah Hussain is a poet and author. Bio not available.

Sarah Syeed is an Adjunct Communication Professor at Baruch College and works for NY Disaster Interfaith Services. Her research focuses on the design and evaluation of public education campaigns dealing with a range of health and social issues. She serves as a board member on two Muslim non-profit organizations, Women In Islam, Inc., and Muslim Consultative Network, and as an advisory board member to the Auburn Theological Seminary Multifaith Center and the Mt. Sinai Witness Project of Harlem. She holds an A.B. in Sociology and Near East Studies from Princeton University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Communication from Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania

Sarwat Malik: is an Internist in Full time Private Practice in Rochester, NY. A strong advocate of women's rights, she has developed educational programs for empowerment of women with special emphasis on Preventive Health. She has also organized a number of programs including 'Introduction to Islam'; 'Islam and Total Quality Management', a series of empowerment and educational programs for the Muslim community. She was the principle organizer and chair of the 9th International Health Conference with emphasis on Preventive Health Issues for the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America in 1989. She was the founding President of the Medical Women's Association of Rochester, NY. She is a member of the American College of Physicians. She has served on various Medical and community boards. She is a life member of the Islamic Medical Association of North America, the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America and the American Medical Women's Association. She was one of the founding members of 'APPNA Sehat Project' of the Association of Pakistani Physicians a premier self empowerment program for improving immunization and sanitation in the villages of Pakistan.

Shahnaz Taplin Chinoy is a public interest strategic communications specialist. She works on children's, women's and environmental issues and has conducted media advocacy trainings with non- profits and foundations in the San Francisco Bay Area and India. She is currently Executive Director of the Community Task Force on Homes for Children, a non-profit dedicated to recruiting homes for foster and adoptive children in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the past 30 years, Ms. Chinoy has worked at Planned Parenthood Alameda/San Francisco, for the ACLU of Northern California as well as for the Goldman, Gerbode and Zellerbach Foundations. In an effort to build bridges between the Muslim world and the West, Ms. Chinoy is currently interviewing women in the Muslim world for her book on Women's Islam. She has published research studies on foster care and adoption and Diaspora Philanthropy among Indians in Silicon Valley. Ms Chinoy has written articles for Salon.com, A Veil of Uncertainty, and Islamonline, Arab Women and Politics and Muslim Women Entrepreneurs, as well as for India West, India Currents, India Life and Style on hijab. Shahnaz Taplin Chinoy was a recipient of the 2003 Gerbode Fellow Award.

Shama Haider, resident of Tenafly, NJ, is Development Director of Arts Horizons, where she designs and implements a successful fundraising program. Arts Horizons is a non-profit arts education organization that serves over 300,000 children in the tri-state area. Ms. Haider is also a community leader, having been elected to the governing body of her town as a Councilwoman, run for Mayor and now serving as Chair of the Democratic Party in Tenafly. She serves on the Bergen County (NJ) Commission on the Status of Women, Bergen County (NJ) Human Services Advisory Council and is Chairman of the Tenafly Business Development Committee. She is a Trustee of LRBT America, a non profit that raises funds to fight blindness and provide free medical services to the poor. Ms. Haider has published an Urdu newspaper Musawaat to serve the immigrant Pakistani community and continues to actively support community activities. She has spoken on Islam, particularly in relation to current events, at the invitation of organizations such as the League of Women Voters and the National Council on Jewish Women (Bergen County). Prior to emigrating to the US, she was the Secretary to the First Lady of Pakistan, where she responsible for implementation and execution of policy for the office of the First Lady at national and international level. Born and educated in Lahore, Pakistan, Ms. Haider has a Bachelors of Science degree with a major in Biology.

Shamira E. Abdulla is pursuing her Ph.D. in Anthropology at American University, concentrating in Race, Gender and Social Justice, and focusing on gender, community activism, globalization, South Asia and Islam. Ms. Abdulla works with various Muslim and Asian women's groups to advocate the collaboration of resources at local and national levels. In December 2004, Ms. Abdulla helped to organize a national summit of Muslim women leaders co-sponsored by Karamah and the Asian and Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence. From 2000 to 2003, Ms. Abdulla served as the Community Outreach Director of the Asian/Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project (DVRP) in DC. She has also served on the board of ASHA (a DC based organization that addresses violence against South Asian women), and has held a position as a commissioner on the Mayor's Commission on Violence Against Women. In 2001, Ms. Abdulla assisted DVRP in conducting the research, interviews and writing for Project AWARE, an extensive needs assessment on domestic violence experienced by Asian women in Washington, DC. In 1999, she earned her M.A. degree in International Development from American University and focused on gender and South Asia. Ms. Abdulla received her B.A. degree in 1996 from West Virginia University in Biology, with a minor in International Studies. In 1996, she assisted in research for a medical study to determine the incidence of domestic violence among pregnant women at a rural health clinic in West Virginia. Ms. Abdulla was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, and raised in the U.S.

Sheikha Fariha Al Jerrahi was born into a socially committed, eclectic Catholic family in Houston, Texas in 1947 and has lived at various times in Los Angeles, Mexico and New York, where she currently resides. At the age of 19 she began a conscious search for God. Ten years later she met her teacher, Shaykh Muzaffer Ozak of Istanbul. Through Shaykh Muzaffer she also met Lex Hixon, who became his disciple in the same year. At the passing of the Master, she became the disciple of Lex Hixon, by this time called Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi. Shaykh Muzaffer came to the West to meet Nur and to plant the seeds of Sufism in the hearts of the American lovers. From this transmission Nur envisioned a radical and illumined path of the heart which he called Universal Islam. When Shaykh Nur passed in 1995, Fariha took on the role of guiding the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order. Through this lineage, she and her representatives offer the nectar of teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, which guide the seeker to self-knowledge and immersion in God. The sacred practices of zikr, prayer, charitable living, fasting and retreat are all embraced. Every Thursday, Fariha with her husband Ali and the dervishes invite all seekers into the circle of zikr at the Masjid al-Farah in New York City.

Sheila Musaji is on the Missouri U.S. Attorneys' Hate Crimes Task Force. She is a member of Women in Black, and Women of Faith in Saint Louis and has been actively involved in Interfaith Dialogue for 20 years. She is the Director of the Islamic Speakers Bureau of St. Louis, and Editor of The American Muslim. She is on the Board of Interfaith Partnership of Saint Louis, and a Counselor for the Center for Economic and Social Justice. Past achievements. She was the founder and editor of The American Muslim quarterly journal which was in print from 1989 to 1994 and is now a monthly email publication. Former Vice President of the Pattonville Education Foundation (Pattonville School District), a member of the Lambert Airport Rotary Club and the Northwest Communities Chamber of Commerce. She was one of two American delegates to the 2d International Muslim Women's Conference in Khartoum, Sudan in 1992. She was a participant in the 2006 Diversity Dialogue Conference Sharing Ideas, Building Bridges: A Dutch-U.S. Muslim Dialogue in the Netherlands. Former member of the Board of Advisors of the Islamic Resource Institute, member of the Lombard-Villa Park Clergyman's Association, Board of the Islamic Information Center, and Coordinator of Da'wah Committee of the Islamic Center of Villa Park, Illinois 1986 to 1989. She was the first Muslim Baccalaureate speaker at Amherst College, Massachusetts in 1992, the Coordinator for the 1993 First North American Muslim Pow Wow in Abiquiu, New Mexico, and a participant in the Parliament for the World's Religions in Chicago in 1993. She is the author of numerous articles about Islam in America and speaks often at churches, schools, service organizations and synagogues about Islam.

Sultana Mangalji is Director of Operations, Hotel Group. She has previously worked with Holiday Inn, Inc, Hyatt Hotels and Cendant Corporations for Franchise Relations. Her current responsibilities include implementing risk management strategies for all the hotels in the US portfolio, setting up budgets and capex for all US hotels, and is involved with re-positioning of hotels with franchise, cap-ex and budgets. Previously, Sultana operated a day care facility named Kaleidoscope Kids, and worked closely with the families and children. She collaborated with Corporate Hands, and the Family Child Care Collaborative. Sultana received her BComm. with a minor in Education from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada and completed a Program for Managers at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Sultana holds various board memberships, including UNICEF, The Aga Khan Foundation, National Committee, Teach for America, Houston READ Commission, Houston Greeter's Texas Childrens' Cancer Center.

Tayyibah Taylor s the founding editor-in-chief and publisher of Azizah Magazine. Through Azizah, Tayyibah Taylor has realized her vision of providing a vehicle for the voice of Muslim American women - a vehicle that portrays them accurately and shatters commonly held stereotypes. This work blends her passion for spirituality, dialogue and journalism. For six years of her life, Tayyibah Taylor had simultaneous legal claim to residency in five different countries. This unique experience provided her with the lens through which she views the universe. Tayyibah has visited 20 countries and has presented lectures on Islam and Muslim women at national and international conferences, including the Society of Professional Journalists Conference; the Harvard Divinity School's Islam in America Conference; the International Islamic University of Malaysia's Islam and Muslims in the 21st Century Conference and the Belgian -US Muslim Dialogue. She has worked on several interfaith initiatives and traveled to Turkey, Spain, Morocco and Jerusalem with groups of Jews, Christians and Muslims. Born on the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean, Tayyibah Taylor grew up in Toronto, Canada and studied biology and philosophy at the University of Toronto. She lived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for several years and attended classes at King Abdul-Aziz University for Arabic and Islamic Studies. She sits on the board of the Faith Alliance of Metro Atlanta, and on the advisory board of the World Pilgrims, two organizations that promotes interfaith relations. She has also served on the board of trustees for the Georgia Council for International Visitors and on the advisory board of the Southern Regional Council. Tayyibah Taylor received the 2005 Media Award from the Concerned Black Clergy of Atlanta, the 2003 Honoring Women in the Media Award from the Muslim Women's League and the 2002 Hagar Achievement through Sacrifice Award from Sisters United in Human Service. She is a graduate of Leadership Atlanta, Class 2005 and the Diversity Leadership Academy, Atlanta Class 2003. Tayyibah Taylor is the mother of five children. Her papers and presentations include: Muslim Women in America (2006), Achievements of Muslim American Women - Stakeholders in American Society (2006), Women Entrepreneurship (2006), American Jihad- Challenges of Muslim American Women (2006), Gender and Power: The Person in Sexual Politics (2006), Reflections on Black History Month (2006), Living Islam in the USA (2005), Who Speaks for Muslims? (2005).

Zena Kanaan Mikdadi completed her college education and earned a Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering at University of Memphis in Tennessee. After marriage, Zena moved to San Francisco to join her husband. It was there that she pursued a career as a Civil Engineer at Alameda County Public Works Dept. in California. In the early nineties, she made the difficult decision of giving up her job to raise her 3 young children. After moving to various cities both domestically and internationally, Zena co-founded American Muslim Women Association (AMWA) and currently serves as its president. Zena actively reaches out to the diverse Westchester communities in order to make people more aware of the true essence of the religion of Islam. Zena also participates in various interfaith councils such as the Center for Jewish-Christian-Muslim Understanding. Zena has served as a board member at Westchester Martin Luther King Jr. Institute for Non-violence.

Zuleikha* is an international performance artist and teacher, known for her weavings of story, rhythm and dance. Her innovative work draws from themes of nature, world lore, and life itself. A native of Marin, California, Zuleikha trained with master teachers in different world lineages, including studying music in Afghanistan with master musician Ustad Hashim Chisti. She developed her own contemporary movement technology based in traditional music and movement languages of east and west. Presently, Zuleikha teaches movement in schools, conferences and corporate settings, and performs her funny, soul-stirring solo performances and collaborations with fantastic world musicians and poets. She is especially known for The Rumi Concert, a collaboration with Coleman Barks, poet and translator of Rumi poetry; and her PBS Special: Dances From Wild Gardens. "Zuleikha is a singular figure on the horizon of sacred theater and dance..." (Edinburgh Guide, Fringe Festival 2003). As Founder/Director of The Storydancer Project, a non-profit international artistic health resource program, Zuleikha travels worldwide bringing movement programs to thousands of women and girls, including programs for women and girls in India, Sri Lanka, and Palestinian women and girls. www.storydancer.com

Zuriani Ani Zonneveld is a songwriter, a producer, a singer, a speaker and an educator. She is the Executive Director for the Progressive Muslim Union (www.pmuna.org) and an ICUJP (www.icujp.org) sponsor. Born in Malaysia, Ani spent a good portion of her formative years being raised in Germany, Egypt and India. This had an obvious influence on her outlook of life, politics, religion and culture. As a songwriter and producer she has worked with many different artists with releases in Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Germany, the U.K., Japan, and the U.S. Her work in Malaysia resulted in an Album of the Year award at the AIMM which is the Malaysian equivalent of the Grammy. She also contributed a song to Keb' Mo's album "Keep It Simple" which helped him win a Grammy (2005) in the Contemporary Blues category, a song for the Grammy nominated album "Big Wide Grin" (2003) performed by Grammy winners Keb'Mo' and Brenda Russell, and to Melissa Manchester's latest release called "Thank You For Your Faith In Me". Recently Zuriani contributed three songs for Japanese artist Yuki. Her album 'Joy' was at #1 for several weeks. Ani has uniquely blended her two worlds of music and social activism into one. She speaks and sings her message of social justice, her angst against violations of human rights, and peace, from a Muslim's perspective. "Ummah Wake Up" is an Islamic pop album focusing on the need for Muslims to seek out the real Qur'anic teachings, the Middle Path. The path against discrimination, against violence and against war. "One" is an interfaith album, born as a result of her love for the many faiths and the realization that we are truly one humanity. Through her activism, Ani hopes these projects will show the world that there is an alternative face to Islam other than the stereotyped cast it currently has.

Due to scheduling conflicts, the following individual regret that they will not be able to be with us at WISE:

Mariam Nawabi, Olga Aliya Gora, Cemalnur Sargut, Hina Azzam, Sarah Eltantawi, Salma Maouloudi, Val Moghadam, Shqipe Malushi, Omaima Abu Bakr, Malalai Joya, Amina Wadud, Khalida Khan, Zuhur Sherifa, Kecia Ali, Hina Jilani, Haifa Jamal al-Lail, Aziza al-Hibri, Asma Asfaruddin, Asma Hassan, Asma Barlas, Shaheen Ahmed, Asma Jahangir, Seyran Ates, Fatima Mernissi, Zeinab Salbi, Aisha Grey Henry, and Yvonne Haddad.

Guest Speakers

Chung Hyun Kyung graduated from Ewha Women's University in Seoul with the B.A. (1979) and the M.A. (1981). She holds the M.Div. from the School of Theology at Claremont (1984), a diploma from the Women's Theological Center in Boston (1984), and the Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary (1989). She is a lay theologian of the Presbyterian Church of Korea. Her teaching and research interests include feminist and eco-feminist theologies and spiritualities from Asia, Africa and Latin America; Christian-Buddhist dialogue; disease and healing in varied religious backgrounds; mysticism and revolutionary social change; as well as the history and critical issues of various Asian Christian theologies.

Devorah Zlochower: is the Rosh Beit Midrash at Drisha. She teaches Talmud and Halakha in the Scholars Circle and mentors students of all ages. This year, Devorah Zlochower was the first woman scholar-in-residence to accompany a delegation of rabbinical students on the AJWS mission to El Salvador. She speaks in communities across the United States and overseas on topics such as the social and historical factors that influence the development of halakha. She serves on the board of JOFA (the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance). A 1996 graduate of the Drisha Scholars Circle, she has an MA in Political Science from Columbia University.

Dr. Helen LaKelly Hunt: She is founder and president of The Sister Fund, a private women's fund dedicated to the social, political, economic, and spiritual empowerment of women and girls. Helen has helped to found a number of other women's funding institutions, including the Dallas Women's Foundation, the New York Women's Foundation and the National Network of Women's Funds (now Women's Funding Network). She has worked in behalf of other women's organizations, and is honored to be an inductee in the National Women's Hall of Fame, in Seneca Falls, New York. Helen has served on the Boards of Directors of the Ms. Foundation for Women, Women and Foundations, and the New York City Women's Agenda. Among Helen's major civic activities have been active memberships on the Childcare Commission for the Mayor of the City of New York. In 2004, Helen completed a Doctoral degree at Union Theological Seminary in New York City where she further explored how theology or a spiritual perspective has strengthened the work of women's activism. Her dissertation focused on "The Religious Roots of American Feminism," as she feels that the work of our foremothers: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Sojourner Truth (to name a few), exemplifies the balance of compassion and fire that is so necessary to redefine and enhance the women's movement. (This work became the basis of her book, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance.Helen is honored to be an inductee in the National Women's Hall of Fame, in Seneca Falls, New York. Along with her studies and activities on behalf of women and girls, Helen has co-authored seven books with her husband, Harville Hendrix, and has been instrumental in the development of Imago Relationship Therapy, which he founded. Along with her activities on behalf of women and girls, Helen has written Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance, which was published by Atria books in the summer of 2004. Feeling strongly that our ability to function with integrity and wholeness within our communities and larger lives begins with our family connections, Helen uses much of her time to strengthen ties with her husband, their six children and three wonderful grandchildren.

Reverend Joan Campbell: The Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell is an ordained minister and a leader in the ecumenical interfaith movement. She is currently director of the Department of Religion at the historic Chautauqua Institution in New York, served for a decade as the general secretary to the National Council of Churches, USA, and was the first woman to be named executive director of the U.S. office of the World Council of Churches. She worked with Martin Luther King, served as a key election monitor in the election of Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa, and negotiated with President Clinton and Fidel Castro to arrange the return of Elian Gonzales to his father. She has led peace missions to the Middle East and worked with the Rev. Jesse Jackson to free American servicemen held captive in Serbia. She was previously a member of the U.S. State Department's advisory committee on Religious Freedom Abroad, and continues her commitment to peace as chair of the Global Women's Peace Initiative.

Sister Joan D. Chittister: is an American Benedictine nun and writer. She was awarded the Pax Christi USA Pope Paul VI Teacher of Peace Award in 1990, and the Thomas Merton Award in 2001. She writes frequently for the National Catholic Reporter. Chittister is an international lecturer and advocate for the rights of women, children, the poor and the disenfranchised. She is a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania. She founded and is director of Benetvision, a resource and research center for Contemporary Spirituality that is also located in Erie. Her books include The Rule of Benedict: Insight for the Ages, The Seasons of Life: A Time for Reflection, The Psalms: Meditations for Every Day of the Year, and Between Two Souls: Conversations with Ryokan. Chittister has called for a churchwide discussion on the topic of the ordination of women. This is a controversial issue in the Catholic Church, since the instruction given by Pope John Paul II in Ordinatio sacerdotalis states that it is definitive doctrine that the Church has no authority to ordain women.

Marie C. Wilson is the President of The White House Project and an advocate of women's issues for more than 30 years, Marie C. Wilson is founder and President of The White House Project, co-creator of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work ® Day and author of Closing the Leadership Gap: Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World (Viking 2004). In 1998 while President of the Ms. Foundation for Women, Wilson founded The White House Project in recognition of the need to build a truly representative democracy - one where women lead alongside men in all spheres. She left the Ms. Foundation in 2004 after two decades, to devote her full energy to The White House Project. In honor of her work, the Ms. Foundation created The Marie C. Wilson Leadership Fund, which will be under her sole advisement. She is also an honorary founding mother of the Ms. Foundation for Women.

Wendy J. Chamberlin: is the Deputy UN High Commissioner for Refugees Geneva. She is a former associate USAID Director for Iraq and Afghanistan and a former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan. Prior her assignment in Pakistan, Ambassador Chamberlin served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) beginning in August 1999. She was previously the U.S. Ambassador to the Lao People's Democratic Republic from 1996-1999. Ambassador Chamberlin is a career Foreign Service Officers who joined the State Department in 1975. Her Middle Eastern and South Asian experience includes a tour as political/military officer in the Office of Israel and Arab-Israeli Affairs, Acting Director of Regional Affairs, Director of Press and Public Affairs in the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau, as well as Special Assistant for South Asian affairs to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs. In addition, she followed Southeast Asian affairs on the personal staff of the Deputy Secretary of State and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs. Her assignments abroad include tours in Laos, Morocco, Zaire and Malaysia. While serving as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur from 1993-1996. Ambassador Chamberlin's White House experience includes an appointment as Director for Counter-terrorism Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC) under President George H.W. Bush. Ambassador Chamberlin received a B.S. from Northwestern University in 1970 and a Masters degree from Boston University in 1971. She is a member of the Northwestern University Council of 100, an organization that honors outstanding women alumni. After completing her university studies, she taught history and education at the Lao National Teachers College in Vientiane, Laos. She is fluent in Lao and French.