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Biographies
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Sanam Naraghi Anderlini: Iranian by birth, Sanam Anderlini has studied, lived and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States most of her life and currently resides in Washington, D.C. As an activist working at the international level, she hopes to bridge the divide between the work and experiences of women in conflict areas and policy makers at the international level. Ms. Anderlini became involved in conflict resolution and transformation in 1996 when she joined International Alert as a researcher and speechwriter for the Secretary General. Between 1998 -2000, as senior policy advisor to International Alert (a UK-based Non-Governmental Organization), she advocated for and drafted the United Nations Security Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. As director of the Women Waging Peace Policy Commission between 2002–2005, Ms. Anderlini led groundbreaking field research on women’s contributions to conflict prevention, peace processes, governance, transitional justice, and post-conflict disarmament and reintegration issues in twelve countries. Since 2005, she has provided strategic guidance and training to key United Nations agencies, the British government and non-governmental organizations worldwide. In 2008, she was appointed the lead consultant for the UN Development Programme’s global initiative on “Gendered Dimensions of Violence in Crisis Contexts.” In 2009, she was appointed to the advisory board of the UN Democracy Fund. She has taught at Georgetown University and is a research affiliate at the MIT Center for International Studies. Her latest book is Women Building Peace: What They Do, Why It Matters (Lynne Rienner, 2007).
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Laleh Bakhtiar, PhD, born of an American mother and Iranian father, grew up in America as a Catholic. At the age of twenty-four, she moved to Iran with her husband and children, neither speaking Persian nor knowing anything about Islam. She began to study Islam with her mentor, Seyyed Hossein Nasr at Tehran University, where she also studied Quranic Arabic. She returned to America in 1988 and attended graduate school, earning an MA in philosophy, an MA in counseling psychology and a PhD in educational psychology from the University of New Mexico. She is a leading scholar on the psychology of spiritual chivalry (futuwwa, javanmardi). Laleh Bakhtiar has written more than twenty books on various aspects of Islam and Sufism and has translated many works. She just completed the first English translation of the Quran by an American woman, published in the spring of 2007. Laleh Bakhtiar lives in Chicago, where she is president of the Institute of Traditional Psychology and Scholar-in Residence at Kazi Publications. Click for The Sublime Qur’an
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Nabil Echchaibi was born and raised in Morocco. He received his BA in English literature from Mohamed V University in Rabat and his MA in journalism and PhD in media studies from Indiana University-Bloomington. Currently, he is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Colorado-Boulder, focusing on the intersections between Islam, Arab popular culture and the media. Arab Muslim identity in diaspora is increasingly shaped, though not exclusively, by a shared political and cultural consciousness heavily nurtured by transnational television and interactive media. His current research in the political economy and reception of Islamic satellite media is an attempt to document and analyze the new public articulation of identity and religion among young Arabs. He is also interested in new media and their impact on journalism. His book Voicing Diasporas: Ethnic Radio in Paris and Berlin Between Cultural Renewal and Retention (Lexington Books) is in press and his co-edited book International Blogging: Identity, Politics and Networked Publics (Peter Lang Publishing) was published in 2008. He is co-director of the “Islam and the Media” conference to be held at the University of Colorado-Boulder January 7–10, 2010. Click for Professor Echchaibai’s blog. Click for “Islam and the Media” conference. |
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Terry Greenblatt is the executive director and CEO of the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights, an international fund that supports and advocates for women's human rights defenders working to create cultures of justice, equality and peace. She recently returned to the US after living in Israel for more than thirty years, where she served as the Director of Bat Shalom of the Jerusalem Link, a bi-national Palestinian/Israeli women’s peace and justice organization. She consults and speaks nationally and internationally on women’s roles in ongoing peace efforts and as agents of social and political change. In 2002 she was honored with a Ms. Magazine ‘Woman of the Year’ award and a Colombe D’oro Per La Pace award by the Italian Archivio Disarmo. She is also a recipient of the 2003 Washington, DC ‘Dialogue on Diversity’ Liberty Award. Last year she was honored with Seeking Common Ground’s ‘Circles of Change’ award. She is currently serving on the board of trustees of the Sarvoyada Gandhi Foundation in India. |
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Nader Hashemi is an Assistant Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. His areas of research and expertise include the Middle East and Islamic affairs, religion and democracy, secularism, comparative politics and political theory, the politics of the Middle East, democracy and human rights, and Islam-West relations. He is the author of several articles and other publications, including most recently Islam, Secularism and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies (Oxford University Press, 2009). |
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Jennifer Heath is an independent scholar, curator, award-winning activist and cultural journalist, and the author of eight books of fiction and nonfiction, including The Scimitar and the Veil: Extraordinary Women of Islam (Paulist Press, 2004) and A House White with Sorrow: A Ballad for Afghanistan (Roden Press, 1996). Her edited anthology, The Veil: Women Writers on Its History, Lore, and Politics was published by the University of California in 2008. She has created and toured numerous exhibitions, including the acclaimed national touring exhibitions, The Veil: Visible and Invisible Spaces and Black Velvet: The Art We Love to Hate (catalogue, Pomegranate Art Books, 1994). She came of age in Afghanistan and is the founder of Seeds for Afghanistan and the Afghanistan Relief Organization Midwife Training and Infant Care Program, now International Midwife Assistance. She is currently co-editing—with Dr. Ashraf Zahedi—Women of Afghanistan in the Post-9/11 Era: Paths to Empowerment, forthcoming from the University of California Press. |
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Micheline Ishay is the director of the MA in International Human Rights Program at the Joseph Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. She serves as the director of the Summer in Jerusalem Program and on the Advisory Board of the Luce Foundation and the Social Science Research Council (Project on Religion and International Affairs). Dr. Ishay was the Lady Davis Visiting Fellow, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (2006); Senior Fellow, Center for Democracy Collaborative, University of Maryland (2004), and the founding director of the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East, ISIME, (DU 1997-1998). She is the author of numerous articles and books, including History of Human Rights: From Ancient Times to the Globalization Era (2004), Human Rights Reader (1997), The Nationalism Reader (1995) and Internationalism and Its Betrayal (1995).
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Banafsheh Keynoush specializes in Middle East foreign relations, security issues and international human rights law. She is a university lecturer and has taught at the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, Saint Mary’s College, and Tufts University. Her forthcoming book, Iran and Saudi Arabia: Friends or Rivals? (Lynne Rienner), examines the foreign relations of the regions two most powerful states from the Gulf War to the present. Dr. Keynoush has more than twenty years of professional experience as a Farsi-English simultaneous interpreter and will serve as Dr. Ebadi’s translator for the keynote address and the symposium. |
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Anita Khaldy is the president of International Trading, Inc., and a former trustee at Iliff School of Theology. A graduate of the University of Denver, she serves on the boards of several organizations, including Denver Sister Cities, Children's Summer International Village, Coalition against Genocide, Humanists of Colorado, Forum at the First Universalist Church of Denver and Desi Democrats. Ms. Khaldy also serves on the Steering Committee of the Abrahamic Initiative and the Diversity Task Force at Iliff School of Theology and is a member of the Women's Lobby of Colorado, League of Women Voters, Tattered Cover Race Dialogue Group, Friends of Sabeel and Veterans of Hope Project. |
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Ausma Khan is the editor in chief of Muslim Girl magazine, a bi-monthly, North American publication. The first magazine to address a target audience of young Muslim women, Ms. Khan describes Muslim Girl as an opportunity to re-shape the conversation about Muslim women in North America. Internationally, Khan has been featured in Asharq al Awsat, the Organization of Islamic Conference Journal, Arabian Woman, Al Ahram Shabab, the India Times, Kristeligt Dagblad, Agence France-Presse, the International Herald Tribune and many other publications. Ausma Khan holds a PhD in international human rights law from Osgoode Hall Law School, where her research specialization was humanitarian intervention and war crimes in the Balkans. Ms. Khan completed her LL.B. at the University of Ottawa and has practiced immigration law in Toronto. She has taught international human rights law at Northwestern University, as well as human rights and business law at York University. She is a longtime community activist and writer and has both published and produced her own fiction. She is a contributor to the women’s anthology Her Mother’s Ashes 2, edited by Nurjehan Aziz and continues to write for Muslim Girl. |
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Daisy Khan is executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), a New York-based nonprofit dedicated to strengthening an expression of Islam based on cultural and religious harmony and building bridges between Muslims and the general public. At ASMA, she has led numerous interfaith events like the theater production Same Difference and the Cordoba Bread Fest banquet. She has launched two groundbreaking flagship programs: the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow (MLT) and Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE), global movements to empower Muslim youth and women.
Khan regularly lectures around the globe and has participated in panels with Christians, Jews and Buddhists. She has appeared on numerous media outlets, including CNN, Al Jazeera and BBC World’s Doha Debates, and she often contributes to documentaries on Islam and Muslims. She is a weekly columnist for the Washington Post’s “On Faith” and is frequently quoted in print publications such as Time Magazine, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune and the New York Times.
Born in Kashmir, Khan spent twenty-five years as an interior architect for various Fortune 500 companies before committing to full-time community service. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Interfaith Center’s Award for Promoting Peace and Interfaith Understanding, Auburn Seminary's Lives of Commitment Award, the Annual Faith Leaders Award, and 21 Leaders for the 21st Century. |
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Tahira Khan was born and raised in Pakistan. She holds a PhD in international studies from the University of Denver and an MA in political science from Villanova University, Pennsylvania. Currently, Dr. Khan is an assistant professor of political science at Metropolitan State College and an adjunct professor at the Korbel School of International Studies University in Denver. Dr. Khan has taught courses on the topics of gender and Islam, women and politics, and gender and development for many years. She has published extensively and presented papers on the topic of violence against women at international conferences and seminars. Her path-breaking book, Beyond Honour: A Historical Materialist Explanation of Violence Against Women, was published in 2006 by the Oxford University Press. Dr. Khan’s forthcoming book, Politics of Widows and Daughters in South Asia, will be published by Oxford University Press in 2010. |
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Haqiqa Kathleen Ochs, PhD, is an Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department of Liberal Arts and International Studies at the Colorado School of Mines, where, after completing her studies at the University of Toronto, she taught and researched the history of technology, science and society for a quarter century. She is currently writing a history of technology from its African origins to the contemporary technological system. In her early 30s, she found in Sufism access to contemplative practices that had not been offered during her Catholic education, and has practiced in two lineages. Her current home, the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order, combines a strong commitment both to keeping traditional approaches and to finding forms appropriate for Americans. She is a “Khalifa” within this Order, entrusted with instruction and practices. She has studied Sufism in India, Turkey, Syria, and in other traditionally Muslim countries. The Ashki Jerrahi Sufi lineage has a historical link to Naropa through its initiator, Nur Lex Hixon who long served on the Naropa University Board of Trustees, and through courses Haqiqa offered on Sufism, Islam, and Women and Islam. The Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order is currently guided by Sheikha Fariha and supports women as well as men in leadership positions. |
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Fran Sterling joined the international education nonprofit Facing History and Ourselves in July 2001 and is currently the Director of the Denver and Rocky Mountain States Office. Prior to her work with Facing History, Fran pursued her doctoral degree in History and Cultural Studies with a focus on Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Claremont Graduate School. Fran taught middle and high school Social Studies for six years at Jefferson County Open School near Denver, Colorado, Modern Jewish History, and ESL to international students. She received her BA in politics from Mount Holyoke College, her MA in education from the University of Colorado, Boulder, (where she also received her teacher's credential), and a diploma in Hebrew and Jewish Studies from Oxford University. Fran lives in Denver with her husband and three children. |
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Liyakat Takim: A native of Zanzibar, Tanzania, Professor Takim teaches in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Denver. He has authored seventy scholarly works on diverse topics including Islam in America, the indigenization of the Muslim community in America, dialogue in post–9/11 America, war and peace in the Islamic tradition, the treatment of women in Islamic juridical literature, Islamic law, Islamic biographical literature, reformation in the Islamic world, jihad in Shi’a law, the charisma of the holy man and shrine culture, Islamic mystical traditions, and various aspects of Shi‘i history and figures. His wide range of Religious Studies courses include one on comparative religions. He has published two books: The Heirs of the Prophet: Charisma and Religious Authority in Shi‘ite Islam (SUNY, 2006) and Shi'ism in America, (New York University Press, September 2009). His current projects include a book on ijtihad and reformation in Islam and a translation of volume four of ‘Allama Tabatabai’s exegesis of the Qur’an. Professor Takim has taught and lectured at American and Canadian universities, and many other countries, and is actively engaged in dialogue with different faith communities. |
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William L. Ury co-founded Harvard’s Program on Negotiation where he currently directs the Global Negotiation Initiative. He is the author of The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No & Still Get to Yes (2007) and co-author (with Roger Fisher) of Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, a five-million-copy bestseller translated into over twenty languages. Ury is also author of the award-winning Getting Past No: Negotiating with Difficult People and Getting to Peace (released in paperback under the title The Third Side). Over the past thirty years, Ury has served as a negotiation advisor in conflicts ranging from corporate mergers to wildcat strikes in a Kentucky coal mine to ethnic wars in the Middle East, the Balkans, and the former Soviet Union. With former president Jimmy Carter, he co-founded the International Negotiation Network, a non-governmental body seeking to end civil wars around the world. His most recent project is the Abraham Path Initiative, which seeks to address the growing chasm between the world of Islam and the West by creating a permanent path of tourism and pilgrimage in the Middle East that retraces the footsteps of Abraham, the unifying figure of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. |
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The Zevk Ensemble performs Illahis, traditional Turkish devotional poetry set to music. The Turkish word, Zevk, implies the taste and joy coming from an uplifted heart that these popular songs inspire. From as early as the twelfth century, Muslims have been employing illahis as a spiritual practice to remember the Divine Presence and such important themes as spiritual tolerance and endurance, forgiveness, peace and the unity of the family of humanity.
The ensemble is the combined effort of husband and wife team Benyamin and Rabia van Hattum. They chose the path of Islam in Jerusalem thirty-three years ago, and shortly afterwards took initiation with Maulana Sheikh Nazim al-Haqqani of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order. Following their Sheikh's dictum that "singing is very good making people to wake up," their music expresses the message that tolerance and appreciation of cultural and religious differences is the basis of a peaceful world, and that everyone becomes richer by sharing. |
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