Archives: Muslim Women

Muslim Women Description

Manal Radwan

Manal Radwan worked as the Assistant Director for Political and Congressional Affairs at the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. She served as a member of the Saudi Interministerial Committee dealing with child custody cases. 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.”

Asma Siddiki

Dr. Asma Siddiki is the Vice Dean of Student Affairs at Prince Mohammad Bin Salman College. She was the Associate Dean for Development at the Dubai School of Government. Before that, she was the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs at Effat College, the first non-profit, private college for women in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She had developed the Co-curricular Program for Student Development for young Saudi women 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.

Shabana Azmi

One of the most recognizable names in Bollywood, Shabana Azmi is a five-time National Film Award for Best Actress winner and still holds clout despite 30-odd years in the business. Hailing from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, Azmi is the daughter of famed Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi and actress Shaukat.

Azmi has a tendency to take challenging parts with women who strive to change within their social circumstances. Her 1996 film Fire (part of Deepa Mehta’s Elements Trilogy which also includes Earth and Water) tells the story of a neglected wife (Azmi) who falls in love with her sister-in-law (Nandita Das). The film caused widespread controversy due to its address of lesbianism in mainstream middle class Indian life but nonetheless won acclaim for its sensitive portrayal of female struggles.

Her interest in addressing women’s and humanitarian issues in her films extends to her real life as well. A former MP of the Indian Parliament, Azmi became known as a staunch defender of the disadvantaged, fighting for the rights of minorities, slum dwellers, AIDS patients, and women. In her role as an MP she consistently defended liberal values and freedom of expression.

In 1993, Azmi was horrified by the riots and violence between Hindus and Muslims and became a critic of religious extremism in its many forms. In a post-9/11 world, Azmi publicly condemned militant Islam—which inspired other moderate Muslims to speak up and advise peace.

Zainah Anwar

Zainah Anwar is widely recognized in Malaysia as the founder of Sisters in Islam (also known as SIS), which, for the past 20 years, insists on justice for women as accorded to them by the Qur’an.

The objectives of SIS are “to promote and develop a framework of women’s rights in Islam, which takes into consideration women’s experiences and realities, eliminate injustice and discrimination against women by changing practices and values that regard women as inferior to men, and create public awareness, and reform laws and policies, on issues of equality, justice, freedom, dignity and democracy in Islam.” To that end, in 2006, Anwar and SIS pushed down a family law amendment which would have made polygamy and divorce easier for Malaysian men. Through SIS, Anwar has achieved international acclaim in her quest for women’s rights in the structure available in the Qur’an.

Holding a law degree from Tufts University, Anwar is also a former member of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia.
As the public face of SIS, Anwar gives public speeches on Islam and women’s rights, politics, and fundamental liberties on both the Malaysian and international stage.

Her book, Islamic Revivalism in Malaysia: Dakwah Among the Students, is a standard reference for those studying Malaysia, especially Malaysian Islam.

Salima Tlemcani

Salima Tlemcani is the pen name of an Algerian journalist who began writing for El Watan an independent French daily in Algeria. Tlemcani was forced to adopt the pseudonym after receiving death threats in 1994 from militant Islamic groups. She is a winner of the IWMF Courage in Journalism Award.

Tlemcani particularly covers armed groups in Algeria as wells as the killings of intellectuals and journalists. Due to her outspokenness, she is considered an enemy by many of these groups. Her name was included on a “death list” released by La Armée Islamiste de Salut and GIA—ten of the other 22 journalists have been assassinated.

Additionally, Tlemcani has written about the ways terrorism effects its victims in all its forms. Not simply discussing bombings and gun violence, Tlemcani, through eyewitness accounts, has shed light on women being raped by Islamic terrorists and populations being massacred.

Tlemcani has also written on economics, corruption, and the misuse of public funds in Algeria but still reports on women and minority rights.

Tlemcani has been sued by the government in response to her articles, including the Algerian Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Interior, and Ministry of National Security.

She has also appealed a one-year prison sentence imposed as the result of a lawsuit by the Ministry of Health for an investigation she did of a public cardiac surgical clinic where the death rate was too high.

Shaykha Fariha al Jerrahi

Shaykha Fariha al Jerrahi is the guide for the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order. She conducts spiritual and educational meetings for her dervishes in 16 circles around the world.

Shaykha Fariha was born in Houston, Texas and currently resides in New York City. At age 29, she met Sufi Master Shaykh Muzaffer Ozak of Istanbul. At the Master’s passing, she became the disciple of Muzaffer’s disciple, Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi, who 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.

Fariha holds open prayer circles at the Masjid al-Farah in New York City, as well as at various circles throughout the U.S. and Mexico.

Tuanku Nur Zahirah

Tuanku Nur Zahirah , crowned Her Majesty / Raja Permaisuri Agong in 1973, has placed an emphasis on education and social welfare in Malaysia.

During the aftermath of the tsunami that devastated the region (December 2004), Nur Zahariyah collected donations for victims. The following year, she was awarded an Honorary Doctoral Degree from Kolej Universiti Sains dan Teknologi Malaysia (KUSTEM) Terengganu, which recognized her contribution in organizing various charity works for the people in the state of Terengganu.

In 2006, Nur Zahariyah gave the opening remarks for the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Third Women Advisory Panel Meeting. At the meeting, participants decided to finance small-size projects for women in efforts to combat poverty.

Nur Zahariyah is known for her devotion to children, and not just to the four of her own. A local foundation of the Royal Family distributes milk bottles and breast pumps to mothers. She is the Patron of a Tadika An Nur, a well established public pre-school in Terengganu.

Rashida Manjoo

Rashida Manjoo is one of the world’s top experts and combatants of violence against women. She was the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, appointed by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from 2009-2015. This is the key position for analyzing—and condemning—violence against women on an international level.

Manjoo is a South African feminist lawyer; she has devoted her career to the area of violence against women, specifically in Algeria, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and the Middle East. In South Africa, she served as an Advocate of the High Court and the country’s Commission on Gender Equality.

Manjoo was a visiting fellow at Harvard Law School in 2006, and now is a professor in the Department of Public Law at the University of Cape Town. Manjoo founded the Domestic Violence Assistance Programme at the Durban Magistrates Court, as well as the Gender Unit at the Law Clinic at the University of Natal. She is a member of the Women Living Under Muslim Laws Network.