Sarah Hashwani was a bright student from an early age, and graduated from Islamabad International School with honors in 1998. She moved out of her native city Karachi to study in Houston, Texas at the University of St. Thomas. It was there where she received her bachelor’s degree in December 2003 with a major in finance and a minor in philosophy.
Three years later Sarah became a strong advocate for social work and participated in numerous outreach events. She is currently the chairman of the Hashoo Foundation, which was established in 1988 based upon a mission of empowering others to improve their standard and quality of life. Among these issues are the socio-economic and educational development for children in poverty, and social welfare and emergency relief. The foundation also focuses its attention on creating more opportunities for women, through educational programs and job resources.
Sarah established her own project “Plan Bee,” under the coordination of the Hashoo Foundation. Pakistani women in the north are given the opportunity to sell their top-rated honey to hotels throughout the country. North Pakistan is a key area for development because it is primarily a conservative, male-dominated city, in which beekeeping is one of the few socially accepted sources of employment for women. Plan Bee has been exceptionally successful in assisting women, and is a key example of the foundation’s successes in empowering women.
Sarah is included in the “Global Philanthropic Circle” comprising more than 70 families from around the world engaged in Philanthropy, which is managed by the daughter of David Rockerfeller, Peggy Dulany.
Amrah bint Abdur-Rahman was a pupil of Aisha bint Abu Bakr, the Prophet’s wife and an influential hadith transmitter. Armah was also the granddaughter of one of the Prophet’s companions, Asad ibn Zararah Ansari. Amrah is known for having had the best knowledge of the hadith passed down to her from Aisha. Amrah had a special relationship with Aisha; it was believed she acted as Aisha’s secretary and was responsible for all correspondence. With her extensive knowledge, Amrah was considered an authoritative voice of hadith and overrode many other male scholars during this period.
For example, the Judge of Madinah ruled in a case involving a Christian thief from Syria who had stolen something. The judge had ordered that his hand to be severed. When Amrah bint Abdur Rahman heard of this decision, she immediately told one of her students to go tell the judge that he cannot severe the man’s hand because he had stolen something whose value was less than a single gold coin (dinar). As soon as he heard what Amrah had said, he ordered that the man be released, unharmed.
He did not question her authority, nor did he seek a second opinion from other scholars, who were quite numerous in Madinah at the time. This incident is recorded in the Muwatta’ of Imam Malik, and this ruling is also his opinion in such cases.
Later in her life, Amrah was often relied upon by Islamic scholars to provide reliable hadith, and she was classified as a jurist and scholar. She died at the age of 77.
To read Hadith narrated By Amra bint Abdur Rahman, click here https://ahadith.co.uk/hadithbynarrator.php?n=Amra+bint+Abdur+Rahman&bid=1&let=A
Homayra Ziad teaches courses on Islam at the Department of Religion. Her scholarly interests include intellectual and cultural trends in Muslim India, theoretical Sufism, Sufism and language, women’s religious production, and Qur’anic hermeneutics. Her dissertation analyzed the writings of a key Sufi thinker and his interpretive project of moral reform in late Mughal India.
Homayra compares the classroom to a spiritual voyage – a vehicle of transformation for both student and teacher. A teacher is a guide, and her job is to find a structure and style that allows a student’s mind to open. At the same time, she values a fresh perspective and urges students to help her find new ways of approaching her subject matter. Her first hope is that students should not leave the classroom thinking that they know all there is to know about Islam. Her second hope is to kindle a spark of intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and a sense of humility that will help them on their voyage through every religious tradition.
In graduate school, Homayra was both an independent instructor and teaching assistant for courses on Islam, and worked as an Associate at the Chaplain’s Office. She earned her Ph.D. in Islamic Studies and an M.A. in International Relations from Yale University, and her B.A. in economics from Bryn Mawr College.
She is recently co-founder and co-chair of the American Academy of Religion’s Interreligious and Interfaith Studies Group, and co-founder/co-editor for the Palgrave series Interreligious Studies in Theory and Practice.
Saima Hasan graduated from Stanford University with a political science degree in 2008. While a junior in 2007 at age 21, Saima was tutoring students in the impoverished area of East Palo Alto, California and was struck by the disparity between that community and the extreme wealth, knowledge, and success of nearby Silicon Valley. This inspired her idea for the Roshni Academy, a non-profit program funded by Silicon Valley business leaders and philanthropists to transform the lives of underprivileged girls in seven districts of Delhi, India. It identifies, trains, and mentors highly intelligent girls from low-socioeconomic communities. By cultivating confidence, social, critical thinking and general life skills, the program empowers students to create opportunities for themselves, overcome obstacles, and reach their highest potential.
After development, in June 2008 Saima traveled to India numerous times to execute the first pilot program of 30 students. Early in 2009 she moved to India to develop Roshni, and in 2010 the program is expected to reach 4,000 girls in four states. The students all live in poverty while achieving top academic standing, and undertake intensive six-month training. The curriculum ranges from public speaking and conflict management to hygiene and includes computer and internet basic skills. At the end of training the Nurul Hasan Foundation awards scholarships to the top 60 students. In 2011 Saimaplans to launch an American form of the program in the US, starting with East Palo Alto.
Before Roshni, Saima served as director of grassroots fundraising for Steve Westly’s campaign for governor of California and as an analyst at a hedge fund called Sterling Stamos in Menlo Park for that state.
Intisar Rabb is a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a director of its Islamic Legal Studies Program. As an Assistant Professor at Boston College Law School, Instisar A. Rabb taught in the areas of advanced constitutional law, criminal law, and comparative and Islamic law. She is also a Research Associate at the Harvard Law School Islamic Studies Program and a 2010 Carnegie Scholar, and was awarded a grant for her research entitled “Islamic Law and Legal Change: The Internal Critique,” a study of criminal law reform in the Muslim world. Her focus in research deals with the intersections of criminal justice, legislative policy, and the judicial system in American law and in that of the Middle East and larger Muslim world.
Rabb holds a B.A. with honors from Georgetown University, a JD from Yale Law School, and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton. Her dissertation analyzed the history and function is legal tenets in Islamic law, and won the Princeton Bayard and Cleveland Dodge Memorial Thesis Prize for Best Ph.D. Dissertation. She previously served as a law clerk in the Hon. Thomas L. Ambro of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, and was a Temple Bar Scholar in the U.K. through the American Inns of Court.
Intisar is a member of the Executive Committee of the Yale Law School Association and the Princeton Graduate School Leadership Council, while actively involved with the Yale Law School Middle East Legal Studies Seminar. Having traveled far and wide, she is fluent in Arabic and Persian with reading proficiency in French, German, and Spanish.
Born in Pakistan, Asma Barlas was one of the first women to be inducted into the foreign service. In 1983 she left Pakistan after General Zia ul Haq dismissed her for her critical remarks about him and the Pakistani judiciary, and settled in the U.S. After pursuing an impressive academic career, she is now Professor of Politics and Director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity at Ithaca College in New York. She served as Spinoza Chair in Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam in the spring of 2008. Her credentials include a Ph.D. in International Studies from the University of Denver, an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Punjab in Pakistan, and a B.A. in English Literature and Philosophy from Pakistan’s Kinnaird College for Women.
Barlas’ varied span of research interests began in graduate school with a study of the politics of military rule and representative democracy (Democracy, Nationalism and Communalism, 1995). In 2002 her focus shifted to the hermeneutics of the Quran, Muslim sexual politics, and relations between Islam and the West (Re-understanding Islam, 2008; Islam, Muslims, and the U.S., 2004; “Believing Women” in Islam, 2002). Currently, she is delving into religious embodiment and violence and has presented two papers on the topic.
Her work on the Quran has been translated into Bengali, Indonesian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Urdu, and has been invited to present on it in a number of venues in the U.S. and internationally.
Zuleikha is an international dancer, performer and teacher and aspires women, girls and children across the world to bring awareness of their body and health through performance and rhythms. She is the founder and director of The Storydancer Project (TSP).
Growing up with a musical background, Zuleikha attended Ali Akbar College of Music and Dance in San Francisco and went on to study classical dance. Besides performing, Zuleikha took an interest in the deeper connection of music and video and began creating a “sacred technology of art”. Zuleikha has performed throughout various worldwide cities and events including for theater audiences, international conferences, and a PBS Special “Dances From The Wild.”
Zuleikha recently received the 2010 prestigious media award from Images & Voices of Hope for “infusing the art of dance with the gifts of healing, understanding and love of life” through her outstanding work in the world promoting positive personal and social change.
Gbemisola Ruqayyah Saraki is the current senator representing Kwara Central Senatorial District of Kwara State in North West Nigeria. She earned a B.A. in Economics from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom and did her required national service at the Nigeria Bank for Commerce and Industry, Lagos. First working for the Societe Generale Bank (Nigeria) as Head of Money Markets and then as Head of Domiciliary Accounts, from 1994 to 1999 she served as Executive Director of Ashmount Insurance Brokers, Lagos.
Her father, Abubakar Olusola Saraki, was the Senate leader during the Nigerian Second Republic from 1979 to 1983, and her brother, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, currently governor of Kwara State.
Gbemisola R. Saraki was initially elected as a member of the House of Representatives in 1999, as Senator for the Central Senatorial District of Kwara State in 2003, and re-elected in 2007. In this time she has sponsored and co-sponsored about eight bills, with her involvement in the Senate praised as brilliant and deeply engaging.
A philanthropist, Gbemisola actively supports many non-governmental organizations both within and outside Kwara State, including the Jackson-Fife Foundation (woks for children with disabilities in Nigeria) and Hope & Vision for Ilorin Emirate (H.A.V.E.) Foundation, which focuses on the Ilorin Emirate with prominence on women’s issues. She is a key member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), receives vast grassroots support throughout Kwara State and beyond. Currently running for Governor of Dwara State in the 2011 gubernatorial elections, she may be the first female governor in Nigeria.
