Fuziah Salleh is a Member of the Malaysian Parliament, winning the position as a candidate for the People’s Justice Party (KeADILan) in the last Malaysian General Elections held in March 2008. Ms. Salleh is currently Head of the Training Bureau of the People’s Justice Party, Member of the Supreme Council for the Party, and Division Chief of KeADILan Kuantan. She held the post of National Women Chief of KeADILan for two terms, ending in May 2007.
Ms. Salleh is also a corporate trainer and training consultant for multinationals, corporate institutions, and NGOs in the area of human resource development and women’s empowerment. She is experienced in counseling various interest groups in the UK and Malaysia, ranging from youth, students, married couples, and women involved in domestic violence. In the mid 90s, she was attached to a state government institution as a counselor and was also responsible for setting up a voluntary counselling unit, where she became an advisor and trainer for the volunteers. Among her contributions is to initiate work on a shelter home for young girls, Raudhatus Sakinah, which is now operating in its eleventh year.
Born in the state of Johor, Ms. Salleh grew up in Pahang, where she received her early and secondary education in Kuantan, before furthering her studies in the United Kingdom. She graduated in Counselling Psychology from the University of Reading (UK) and later completed her Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales. In the UK, she headed the Young Muslims UK, whose members are British-born Muslim youth from different nationalities. On returning to Malaysia, Ms. Salleh channeled her contributions into an NGO, Jamaah Islah Malaysia (JIM), as head of the women’s wing (1993-1999). She is married to Dr. Russly bin Abd Rahman with six children and three grandchildren.
L. Heidi Primo runs the King Abdullah (Saudi Arabia) Scholars Program and teaches diverse international students at the Institute for Language Advancement (IfLA) at the International Islamic University of Malaysia. An American expatriate from Hawai’i who has been living and teaching in Asia and the Pacific Islands for many years, including four months in Thailand, three months in Cambodia, and over five years on a small island called Pohnpei in Micronesia, Ms. Primo has been involved in English Immersion instruction and higher education administration in Malaysia for the past two years. She converted to Islam in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2004 while she was the Director of Malik Academy and Al Bustan Islamic Preschool.
As an educator for over three decades, Ms. Primo’s personal research combines how Muslim women living in predominantly Islamic countries use ICT and distance-learning technologies to participate in environmental activism, e-commerce, and cross-border higher education and to advance the cause of sustainable human development. She has an M.A. degree in “Education and Human Development” from George Washington University with a concentration in “Educational Technology Leadership.” In 2009, Ms. Primo commenced her PhD research in Malaysia.
Nik Noriani Nik Badli Shah recently completed her PhD in Islamic and Other Civilizations at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), International Islamic University, Malaysia (IIUM). Ms. Shah’s thesis was on Comparative Concepts of Justice in Islamic and Western Legal Political Thought: A Dual Heritage Affecting Gender Justice in Malaysia.
From 1986 to 1996, she held the posts of Assistant Parliamentary Draftsman and Deputy Commissioner for Law Revision in the Attorney General’s Chambers. She has written several books and various articles, mostly in the area of Islamic and comparative family law. Marriage and Divorce: Law Reform within Islamic Framework was based on her Master’s dissertation.
Ms. Shah received a Masters in Comparative Law from IIUM in 1998. She received a Bachelor of Law (Hons) from the University of Malaya in 1986.
Siba Hussein Maraachli is the National Project Officer for the International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC). Ms. Maraachli was appointed to her current position by the International Labor Organization (ILO) after being employed as their Coordinator of Projects. She is also a Teacher/Instructor at the Medical School of Social Work at the Lebanese (State) University in Tripoli. Ms. Maarachli has also worked as a Program Officer and Trainer at the Lebanese Council to Resist Violence against women (LECORVAW).
Ms. Maraachli obtained a BA in Social Work from the University of Saint-Joseph (USJ), Beirut, in 2002. She is currently a masters candidate in Social Work with a concentration in Development Studies at USJ, where she is now working on her thesis.
Saltanat Baetova is a Member of the Supervisory Board of the PA Human Rights Center for Citizens against Corruption (CAC), one of the most prominent human rights NGOs in Kyrgyzstan. Ms. Baetova joined CAC in 2006 as a legal expert and was involved in analyzing legislation on extractive industries and budget systems.
From 2007-2008 Ms. Baetova worked with CAC as a liaison to the Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP), in order to advance women’s human rights, leadership and political participation. She also coordinated the New Tactics in Human Rights Project implemented by CAC in association with the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT), Minneapolis, Minnesota. The project aimed towards adapting new human rights defenses in Kyrgyzstan. The project also used a number of tactical notebooks, translated into the Russian and Kyrgyz languages, to address situations pertaining to women’s rights, as well as making the government pay attention to other human rights issues. She also works on The International Foundation for the Protection of Human rights Defenders’ website where she updates content and translates it into Russian.
After graduating from Osh State University Law Department and before joining CAC, Ms. Baetova was a Constitutional law lecturer at the International University in Kyrgyzstan and Osh Technological University.
Fatma Hyder is the Executive Director of JOMWA, a locally registered NGO in Nairobi, Kenya that addresses the development agenda in a participatory approach with Muslim women at the grass root level and encourages social justice and equity. Over the years, Ms Hyder has actively participated in the promotion and development of women on a national and international level, through programs on Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, Citizen, and IQRA FM (local television and FM stations).
Ms. Hyder has served as a Board member for many organizations including the Kenya Broadcasting Cooperation, Kenya Anti Corruption Authority, and UFADHILI, a philanthropic organization. Through her work with these organizations she has gained valuable knowledge, insight, information and training which have equipped her in empowering the role of Muslim women in society.
A banker by profession, Ms. Hyder is now retired and spends a lot of her time studying Islam which helps her in advancing her Islamic knowledge in order that she may help herself, her family, and other Muslims to understand and appreciate the true position of the Muslim woman. She has travelled extensively out of Kenya for leisure, training, workshops, seminars, conferences, and to pursue further studies.
Fatuma Kinsi Abass is the Executive Director of Pastoralist Girls Initiative (PGI), a non-governmental organization based in Garissa, Northeastern Province, Kenya that is dedicated to improving the overall welfare of the rural community by developing and implementing participatory sustainable programs that are demand driven and responsive. In this capacity, Ms. Abass supports girls and women to build confidence and raise self-esteem, empowers communities to participate fully in the decision-making processes, and facilitates community-based projects. These projects are carried out in partnership with various stakeholders in the community through Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRA) and other tools. At PGI, she leads a profession team in the realization of indigenous Somali women’s development and participation in decision-making process and economic empowerment.
Ms. Abass also chairs and participates in various national and local committees to advocate for and contribute to the welfare and empowerment of women and children. She has participated in international and national conferences sponsored by the international community that have recognized, appreciated, and acknowledged her work in community advocacy and empowerment for the underprivileged.
Born and raised in Garissa, Ms. Abass has largely worked with her local community since an early age. From a girls youth representative, she committed her life to working for the wellness and economic and social empowerment of the women of her community. Her dream is to see rural women and children empowered to their full potential and participate in modern governance at all levels of development. Believing that indigenous women should have a voice in decision-making from the lowest to the upper structures of the community, Ms. Abass builds, encourages, and advocates for the women and children in her community.
Safa Shehada has been the Ma’an Forum Director since 2001. Ms. Shehada has worked with multiple women’s organizations in the Negev, where she facilitated groups of women and gave advice to women’s groups. She also works as a social worker with youth at risk in Be’er Sheva.
Ms. Shehada was born in 1963 to an Arab family in Lod, a mixed city in Israel. She studied management at The College of Management in Tel Aviv. She attended Ben Gurion University of the Negev where she pursued a bachelors and masters degree in Social Work while working as a teacher at a Bedouin School for tenth to twelfth graders.
