Meeran Karim is a political activist and organizer from Lahore, Pakistan, campaigning for a number of democratic causes, including the restoration of the deposed Pakistani judges in 2007, when she rallied with the masses in the streets and worked with a local newspaper covering the historic Lawyers’ Movement that swept Pakistan. In order to encourage youth activism, she established a youth parliament at her school which provides a platform for young people to voice their opinions. In order to promote women’s empowerment, she interned at AGHS legal aid cell in Pakistan, which provides legal aid to female victims of violence. She worked under her mentor, the prominent human rights’ lawyer, Asma Jehangir.
Ms. Karim represented Pakistan and young people from all over the world at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland earlier this year, and she has taken part in other conferences, including the International Youth Leadership Conference (Prague, Czech Republic), the Young Leaders Conference (Lahore), and an Initiative for Peace (India).
When Ms. Karim was nine, a military dictator overthrew the democratically elected government in Pakistan, and as a result, she attended her first protest at a relatively young age. Since then, she has always been concerned with the challenges facing Pakistan. Later this year, she will be starting her undergraduate studies at Mount Holyoke College (US), where she hopes to study international relations and political science. After completing her education, Ms. Karim intends to return home to work for Pakistan.
Ratnawati Osman is the SIS Program Manager for Advocacy, Legal Services and Reform. Ms. Osman was formerly an insurance broker handling Professional Indemnity Insurance with Jardine Lloyd Thompson Malaysia before joining Sisters in Islam in May 2009. She graduated in 1991 from the International Islamic University, Islamabad with a law degree.
Zeinabou Hadari is the Permanent Secretary of the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) of Niger, under the Ministry of Public Health, which works in partnership with the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM). The GFATM is an international financing institution based in Geneva, Switzerland that donates money to countries to support large-scale prevention, treatment and care programs against the three diseases. The CCM of Niger is a public private partnership composed of key stakeholders operating at the country level to intensify the fight against the three diseases.
Ms. Hadai is an activist for women’s human rights and a co-founder of two NGOs in Niger working to advocate for women’s human rights and female leadership promotion in Niger and the African region: MAPADEV (African Link for Peace and Development) and REFEPA-Niger (Niger Women’s Network for Peace). She has extensively collaborated with local human rights associations, including the Niger Human Rights Association (ANDDH), by coordinating and presiding over its library scientific committee. She is also affiliated with ASNID (Niger Information Specialists Association) and the AURA Toastmasters Club of Niamey for leadership in oral communications development.
Famile Arslan is a lawyer in The Hague with her own law firm, Arslan Lawyers, specializing in family, immigration, housing and labour, and social insurance cases as penalty cases. In addition, she is a board member of Islam and Citizenship, an organization dedicated to encouraging the Muslim community’s participation in the Netherlands. By addressing the relationships between norms, values, and citizenship, and the role Islamic organizations can play in these issues, it seeks to stimulate social debate within the Muslim community on citizenship, and when relevant, to broaden it to larger Dutch society as a whole. Ms. Arslan is also Chairwoman of the Commission for Complaints at Islamic Schools, and she was part of an expert group who advised the Minister of Education on the Islamic schools. She has organized courses on intercultural communication for health care organizations and has set up an emergency helpline for migrant women.
Ms. Arslan is currently working to establish a national Muslim women’s network, which she envisions becoming a platform for Muslim women to debate social, economic and political issues. This think tank would advise and partner with the Dutch government in creating laws and on other practical issues. Ms. Arslan is often asked to take part in panel discussions, provide lectures, or speak to the media on issues like integration and migration. She writes articles for the weblog www.wijblijvenhier.nl and has published a book of Turkish poems. Born in Turkey and raised in the Netherlands, Ms. Arslan holds a Master’s degree in International Law. Previously, she worked 5 years for the Dutch Ministry of Justice, Immigration department. She is the first lawyer in the Netherlands to wear a hijab.
Fatima Outaleb is a founding member and executive board member of Union de l’Action Féminine (Union of Women’s Action, UAF). Ms. Outaleb is also a permanent UAF representative at the ECOSOC, as well as director of a UAF shelter for women victims of violence.
Ms. Outaleb is a member of the human rights follow-up group MOROCDH for the implementation of the treaty body recommendations. She was a member of the working committee on Gender and Development in Morocco in partnership with the British Council, and she is currently the sipu (SIDA) local partner in Morocco for the implementation of a training program on gender equality. She has contributed to or led many campaigns in Morocco, including a recent national campaign on early marriages.
Ms. Outaleb’s academic and professional training lies in the areas of education and human rights, and she holds a diploma in women’s rights from Raoul Wallenberg Institute and a certificate from the Human Rights Treaty body recommendations at the national level. A mother of two children, she was originally an English teacher and trainer (holding a BA in English Literature and high study degree on ELT), before she was appointed to the UAF by the Moroccan Ministry of Education.
Nabila Freidji is CEO of Cash One, a Central Bank-regulated Moroccan financial organization that distributes financial products and services to the non-banked (money transfer, consumer credit, ATMs). Ms. Freidji is also General Manager of TURJUMAN, a translation agency that specializes in general, technical and legal translation. Previously, for over eleven years, she served as Executive Manager in a bank subsidiary and leader in card business and money transfers in Morocco. From 1995-1996, she was a TV show moderator in a national TV program.
Ms. Freidji is a member of several associations, including a founding member of Sister Cities International Morocco, the Board of Directors of the Casablanca-Chicago Sister Cities Association, and the San Diego World Trade Center.
Zarizana Abdul Aziz is a practicing lawyer in Malaysia and a director of Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML). Ms. Abdul Aziz is actively involved in numerous human rights and women’s rights activities nationally and internationally. Her primary areas of interest and expertise include issues of legal reform, particularly in relation to gender equality, religion and gender, violence against women, family laws, and the adoption of international human rights standards into domestic laws. Ms. Abdul Aziz is a former President of the Women’s Centre for Change, Malaysia, member of the Bar Council of Malaysia, and co-chairperson of the Human Rights Committee of the Bar Council.
Dina Zaman is an award-winning writer of non-fiction, fiction, and poetry with extensive experience in public relations and the media industry as a consultant and media personality. Ms. Zaman has worked on numerous campaigns and events, including as a volunteer for NGOs. Her network extends to non-profits in Malaysia, and she has conducted workshops for young people in her tenure as a freelance writer.
Ms. Zaman has had a media presence both locally and globally as a columnist since 1994 and as a commentator on current affairs since 2005. She has been quoted in the BBC and interviewed on “Everywoman,” a women’s programme on Al Jazeera. She has written three columns: “Off Our Backs” (The Sun, Malaysia, 1995), “Dina’s Dalca” (New Straits Times, 1996-1998) and “I Am Muslim” (www.malaysiakini.com, 2005-2006), which is now a bestseller book (published by Silverfish Books) at Borders and Kinokuniya bookstores. Ms. Zaman recently ended her three-year old column for The Star Newspaper entitled “A Writer’s Life.”
Holding an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University (1999), Ms. Zaman was the recipient of the British High Commissioner Chevening Award in 1998. She will be joining a news agency soon and will begin work on a new column dealing with race, faith and what it means to be Malaysian. Throughout her career, she has faced brickbats and accolades along the way.
