Insaf Abu-Shareb was raised in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Sder‘; she lives in Meitar. She is a certified mediator and has a private law practice specializing in family law. Insaf has been working to advance Bedouin women’s status in the Negev and supporting them accessing their rights. Previously, she directed rights centers for Bedouin women of the Itach Ma’aki (Women Lawyers for Social Justice) and WAC-Maan organizations, working in family law and welfare rights, including representing women in various courts. Insaf worked to bring social, communal, and policy change on family violence issues, such as, the murder of women [honor killing], polygamy, and Bedouin women’s participation in politics. She initiated and led the first public protest and demonstration against the murder of a Bedouin woman. She also won a legal victory on the rights of deserted Bedouin wives to receive welfare, out of recognition of their particular and complex circumstances in the shadow of polygamy.
Insaf works to promote change and to address the phenomenon of polygamy in the Bedouin community. These efforts have led to the establishment of an inter-ministerial commission chaired by the Ministry of Justice director to produce a report on the issue and establish a team for follow up and implementation – of which she is a member. Insaf holds a master’s in gender studies from Bar-Ilan University and a Bachelor of Law (LLB) from Netanya Academic College.
Sri Wahyuni is the Director of PATIMADORA, an Aceh-base NGO focused on assisting and encouraging women’s capacity-building and participation in development and conflict resolution. Ms. Wahyuni has been an activist in the field of human rights, peace building and conflict resolution in Aceh since 2000. She has led a program dedicated to reintegrating ex-combatants into the community using art and culture. Ms. Wahyuni has worked for several years at the Indonesia Planned Parenthood Association in Jarkarta. Additionally, she has worked with the Asia Foundation-Jakarta focusing on media, human rights and democracy issues.
Ms. Wahyuni has recently begun researching Acehnese spiritual arts. She hopes to use this knowledge to support building peace and eliminating violence within Aceh.
Rosnani Sahardin is a Senior Lecturer, research and teaching assistant to Prof. Dr. Bahrein Sugihen, a sociologist at Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh (Province of Aceh, Indonesia). Ms. Sahardin’s main interest deals with education and women and their relative place in the local community and public domain. Her researches include women in the middle of armed conflict in Aceh, the roles of women ullema (religiously learned women) in Acehness society, and women’s current conditions in Aceh. Recently, she joined a research team from Harvard University to study psycho-social problems related to the thirty years armed conflict in the province of Aceh.
For a number of years, Ms. Sahardin had been program consultant to the Provincial Family Planning Board of Aceh. She has also participated in national and local seminars on women’s rights. In March 2009, she returned from Bangkok, Thailand to take part in a seminar on peace-building and conflict resolution sponsored by Mahidol University, Bangkok, in cooperation with the Berghoft Peace Support Foundation, Germany.
Livia Iskandar is the Co-Founder, First Overall Coordinator and currently International Director of the PULIH Center for Trauma Recovery and Psychosocial Intervention, Indonesia. The PULIH Center’s head office is in South Jakarta and its field office is in Banda Aceh. PULIH works with communities, families, and individuals affected by violence and disaster by providing self-help information, expert witness testimony, and the development of supportive mechanisms including working with journalists, community and religious leaders in covering traumatic events. PULIH also extends psychosocial support and professional assistance for the population’s well being.
Ms. Iskander has presented at numerous international and national conferences on gender based violence, community based psychosocial recovery, and other related topics. She is an active member of international networks on psychosocial issues, child protection and trauma recovery. She is a psychologist and activist working for social change to reduce disparities. Ms. Iskander will be pursuing her doctorate in Public Health in Community Based and Translational Research as an East West Fellow recipient in the fall of 2009.
D. Sharifa Khanam founded STEPS Women’s Development Organization in 1987. Ms. Khanam’s work for the past two decades has been devoted to the protection of women. The organization provides short-term residence for battered women and works with both the local community and police to protect abused women.
Ms. Khanam’s dedication to women, particularly Muslim women, began in 1999 when she created the first network of Muslim women in southern India, the Tamil Nadu Muslim Women’s Jamaat Committee. The group, comprised of poor and working class women, functions as a community tribunal to aid local women. Ms. Khanam is currently working to build the first mosque exclusively for Muslim women in India. She hopes the mosque will become the center of a vibrant Islamic feminist and democratic culture.
Betul Yilmaz is the cofounder of the website muslimische-stimmen.de, Muslim Voices. Ms. Yilmaz works at offering a pluralistic and open exchange of thoughts with and between Muslims in Germany through this independent website. The website provides various forms of expression for the reader: writing, singing, and drawing in addition to commentary on various videos, cartoons, articles, and interviews of political, social, or religious origin.
Ms. Yilmaz currently works with for Neukoellner Talente, Talents of Neukoellen, a community foundation in Berlin. The program allows local children to discover and develop interests under the tutelage of volunteer mentors. Ms. Yilmaz is currently a student of Islamic studies at the Free University of Berlin.
Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh is a founding member of several initiatives to promote women’s rights in Iran. Ms. Abbsagholizadeh founded Meydaan Zanan (Women’s Field), a network connecting a number of female organizations. She was also instrumental in the Stop Stoning Forever Campaign. She has been involved in a number of groundbreaking projects aimed at empowering the women of Iran. Additionally Ms. Abbasgholizadeh, has published a number of important articles on the status of women Iran. She was editor in chief of Farzaneh Journal, a journal dedicated to women’s studies and research.
Since 1995, Ms. Abbasgholizadeh has worked on the Beijing Platform for Action as a director of the NGO coordination center. Additionally she is the editor and chief researcher of the Alternative National Report on Women’s Status in Iran, which was presented at Beijing+10, New York, 2005. She has been arrested twice for her activities related to defending women’s rights. Recently, she has started making documentaries on key issues facing Iranian women and has co-founded the creation of a collection of progressive films.
Farkhondeh Keyhani is a senior television producer in Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and president of Eghlime Noor (Land of light) institute, focusing on women issues. Ms. Keyhani is interested in women’s rights issues from an Islamic prospective.
Ms. Keyhani has published multiple essays in Iranian newspapers and women’s magazines. She has earned her MA in Islamic Mysticism and BA in Western Philosophy. Additionally Ms. Keyhani has her MA in TV production from IRIB University.
She has produced multiple TV series and documentaries for different IRIB TV channels for example. Her productions have focused on women in Iranian history, feminism, women in Iranian cinema and female clothing. She has done extensive research on these topics IRIB, her research has taken her to the UAE, Turkey and India.
In 1999, she attended “Television in An Aging Society “, a workshop organized by Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development. In 2006, Ms. Keyhani traveled to Lebanon after July war to make a documentary about the affects of the war on Lebanese women.
