Camille Adams Helminski is Co-Director and co-founder of The Threshold Society (www.sufism.org), centered in California.
Ms. Adams has been working within the Mevlevi tradition of Sufism for over thirty years. She 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. In addition to her own book 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). Ms. Adams was the first woman to translate a substantial portion of the Qur’an into English; The Light of Dawn, Daily Readings from the Holy Qur’an. She has also 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. Her most recent publication is Rumi’s Sun, The Teachings of Shams of Tabriz.
As part of the Spiritual Paths Foundation (www.spiritualpaths.net) Ms. Adams is currently involved in the creation of a graduate program in Interspirituality rooted in contemplative practice.
Rabia Terri Harris is an essayist, editor, peace activist, public intellectual, practicing chaplain, freelance theologian, sometime translator, and aspiring servant of Allah. In 1994 Ms. Harris founded the Muslim Peace Fellowship (www.MPFweb.org), the first organization specifically devoted to the theory and practice of authentically Islamic active nonviolence. Today she serves as Director of MPF and Resident Elder at Dar Anwar as-Salam, the Muslim component of the Community of Living Traditions, a tripartite Abrahamic residential peace community located in Stony Point, New York. She is also among the organizers of a new venture in Islamic pastoral care; the Muslim Chaplains Association.
Ms. Harris holds a Bachelor’s degree from Princeton University in the field of Religion, a Master’s from Columbia University in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, and a Graduate Certificate in Islamic Chaplaincy from Hartford Seminary. She has spent fifteen years as a columnist and contributing editor at Fellowship, the magazine of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (www.forusa.org).
Kashmala Tariq is a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from the Women Reserve Constituency NA-277 for the province of Punjab. She belongs to the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam) Group. She is the founding member and Executive Director of Parliamentarians Commission for Human Rights (PCHR), a cross party caucus of more than 60 members of the Pakistani parliament working together for Human Rights issues.
Ms. Tariq graduated from Kinnaird College Lahore, after which she got her LLB from Punjab University in 1996. She was awarded the degree of LLM from the London School of Economics in 1999, during which period she was also the chief organizer of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf in the UK.
Hajiya Bilkisu died in 2015. She was an Adviser to the Nigerian President on International Affairs, a columnist for Daily Trust and Leadership newspapers and Executive Director of AdvocacyNigeria, a movement working for the reduction of Maternal and Child Mortality.
Ms. Bilkisu was also a founding member of several NGOs including two of the country’s most vibrant and pace setting national women’s organizations, Women in Nigeria (WIN) and the Federation of Muslim Women’s Association (FOMWAN). She served as First Kano State Coordinator at WIN and as a National President at FOMWAN. She also was a Chairperson at ABANTU for Development, an NGO where she was the Master Gender Trainer for Northern Nigeria.
Ms. Bilikisu has also worked as an information officer in the Ministry of Information in Kano and worked briefly as a Programme Officer at Radio Kano. She also worked as the Editor of three National Newspapers The Triumph in Kano, The New Nigerian, and Citizen Magazine both in Kaduna.
She served on several national and international boards and has written 20 chapters in published books on subjects ranging from Women’s rights, media, gender, Islam, politics and maternal and child health.
Ms. Bilikisu received her B.S. at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, and also earned a Masters in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin Madison, USA. She received an Advanced Diploma in Journalism from the Moscow Institute of Journalism and International Relations, Moscow. She was married with children.
Jamileh Abu Za’nouneh is a Board Member of the Arab Women Organization of Jordan (AWO), an organization devoted to improve the social and legal conditions of Jordanian women. Ms. Abu Za’nouneh has been involved in the Jordanian women’s movement seeking reform in laws related to the family for many years. She has been an employer for 25 years in Grater Amman Municipality, Amman-Jordan. She is married with two daughters.
Hartini Zainudin is the Managing Director and one of the Founders of Rumah Jagaan Kanak Kanak NurSalam, Chow Kit, the only 24 hour crisis center for children under 18 in Malaysia. The center focuses on providing marginalized children with basic needs as well as counseling and protection services, amongst others. Many children are abused, neglected, trafficked, and abandoned. Many others are stateless, having no documents because they were trafficked. The center is a collaboration effort between Yayasan Salam Malaysia and the Department of Children’s Welfare, KL.
Ms. Zainudin is a member of the Ministry of Women and the Family and Community Development’s National Advisory Council on the Welfare and Protection of Children. She is also a member of a number of national task forces including Child Protection Policy Training, on multiple issues that include trafficking and stateless children. She has worked on children’s issues in the United States and Malaysia for 26 years. Ms. Zainudin received her BA and M.Sc in English and English Education, and received her Doctorate from Columbia University, New York.
Fawzia Khondker is the National Gender Specialist for the Scope Project, funded by Canadia International Development Agency (CIDA). Ms. Khondker has two decades of experience in conducting participatory and sustainable development processes. She has worked with OXFAM, WFP, the European Commission, UNDP’s Police Reform Program, the Government of Bangladesh, and PROSHIKA, a national NGO. Ms. Khondker received her M.A from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. She also received a Diploma in “Women Mean Business” from Durham University, UK.
Her special interests are managing gender focused development programs, gender and development training, and issues relating all forms of violence against women and female children.
Malina Fahiz is the Managing Director of the Afghan Women Enterprise Network (AWEN). AWEN is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering women and reducing poverty in Afghanistan. AWEN has a number of projects and program in areas such as education, awareness rights, handicraft production, small business development, and capacity building. The organization has helped build a bridge between the Afghan government and different Afghani communities. Ms. Fahiz has led 12 permanent and 32 project base staff members for AWEN, while they worked in the Kabul and Kunduz Provinces.
Ms .Fahiz has worked for women empowerment in 12 provinces of Afghanistan as well as for Afghan refugees in Pakistan. In Baghlan province she and her team have implemented more than 25 projects to empower Afghan young girls and women, including a handicraft market for women’s handicrafts. Previously she served as head of women activities for the Aga Khan National Council, and as the Women’s Empowerment Adviser in the Afghanistan ministry of Rural and Rehabilitation and Development.
