MUSLIM WOMEN IN THE MIDST OF CHANGE
KUALA LUMPUR CONVENTION CENTRE
1-2 SEPTEMBER 2007
Muslim Women in the Midst of Change Dinner Talk Invitation
Muslim Women in the Midst of Change Official Poster
Muslim Women in the Midst of Change Official Brochure
BIOGRAPHIES OF INTERNATIONAL SPEAKERS
1. WALEED ALY : “MUSLIM WOMEN AS A BATTLE FIELD”
Waleed Aly is a lecturer in politics at Monash University, and a board member of the Islamic Council of Victoria, the peak representative body for Victorian Muslims. He manages the Council’s media operations, and this year, Waleed was listed in The Bulletin Magazine’s Smart 100.
Waleed appears regularly in mainstream media, particularly as a political and social columnist in Australia’s highest-profile mainstream newspapers. He has written numerous articles dealing specifically with practices and attitudes towards Muslim women, such as “A smarter way to fight for Muslim women” in The Age which can be found here, and “Religion is no defence” in The Australian, a version of which can be found here. He has been commended at both the Walkley Awards and the Quill Awards for his commentary. His book, People Like Us, will be published by Pan Macmillan later this year, and features an extensive chapter on oppressive discourses surrounding Muslim women.
Waleed is also a White Ribbon Day Ambassador for the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and co-ordinated Melbourne mosques to address the topic of domestic violence in their Friday khutbas to commemorate White Ribbon Day.
A co-host of The Conversation Hour with Jon Faine on Radio 774 ABC Melbourne, one of Melbourne’s highest ratings morning shows, and a panellist on Salam Cafe, an award-winning community television show screened nationally, Waleed holds honours degrees in Chemical Engineering and Law. Previously he was a commercial lawyer with experience also in family law and human rights law.
In 2006, Waleed was one of 90 young Australians chosen to attend the Australian Future Directions Forum to generate ideas for the next 20 years of Australia’s future.
2. Dr. M. HAYTHAM AL-KHAYAT : ISLAM AND GENDER
Dr. Al-Khayat is an eminent Muslim scholar who is a distinguished member of the Board of Trustees of the International Union for Muslim Scholars. He is Senior Policy Adviser to the Regional Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office and the Director of the WHO Arabic Programme.
He taught at the Faculty of Medicine at Damascus University and Brussels University for 22 years.
Dr. Al-Khayat is a member of the Academy of Arabic language in Damascus, Cairo, Baghdad, Aligarh and the new Academy of Science and is a member of the
Board of Governors of the Islamic Organisation for Medical Sciences.
In addition, he is a member of more than 20 scientific societies in various Arab, European, and American countries, including the Royal Society for Health (UK), the Academy of Political Sciences (USA), the National Geographic Society (USA), the Planetary Society (USA), American Institute of Biological Sciences, and American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Al-Khayat is Editor-in-Chief of the Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, author of 20 books in Arabic, French and English, including some dictionaries, and published more than 70 articles in various fields, in Arabic, English, French, German and Italian.
Dr. Al-Khayat holds an M. D. from Damascus University and a Ph. D. from Brussels University in Belgium. He has studied Islamic Sciences in Damascus for almost 20 years.
2. DR. HEBA RAOUF : “MUSLIM WOMEN AT THE CROSS-ROADS – CULTURAL & TRADITIONAL VALUES vs RELIGIOUS IMPERATIVES”
Dr. Heba Raouf, a multilinguist adept at Arabic, English, German and French is a wealth of knowledge and experience. With a Bachelors and Masters in Political Science and a Ph.D in Political Theory, Dr. Heba is formidable indeed. A lecturer of political theory at the Department of Political Science, Cairo University since 1987, she has an exhaustive list of publications to her name, both in English and Arabic. These include :
” Women and Politics: An Islamic Perspective”
“The Political Imagination of Islamist: A Conceptual Analysis”
“Islam and Secularism in The Middle East”
” Beyond Methodological Modern Global Civil Society and Multi-Culturalism”
“Globalisation, Gender and Religion: The Politics of Women’s Rights in Catholic and Muslim Contexts”
She is the co-founder, advisor and editor of www.islamonline.net. She travels extensively, doing lecture tours in New York, Boston and London and is a regular speaker at many inter-faith dialogues.
Dr. Heba was also on the prestigious Member of the Council of 100 for Western – Islamic Understanding, and the Religious Leaders Forum of the World Economic Forum Annual meeting in Davos from 2003 – 2006
She is the proud mother of three children.
3. SUSAN CARLAND : “LIFTING THE VEIL – AUSTRALIAN MUSLIM OF THE YEAR SPEAKS HER MIND”
Susan Carland is a lecturer in the school of Political and Social Inquiry at Monash University where she specialises in gender studies and sociology, and is also a researcher for the Centre for Muslim Minorities and Islam Policy Studies at Monash University. Susan is currently completing her PhD, researching leadership challenges facing Western Muslim women. In 2004, she was awarded ‘Australian Muslim of the Year’.
In addition to her research interests, Susan is a grass-roots youth worker with Muslim young people at the Islamic Council of Victoria. Susan is a creator and panelist on the multi-award winning national community television program Salam Cafe, and is often consulted for commentary about Islam and Muslims in a variety of mainstream media.
Susan has been invited to speak extensively to Muslims and non-Muslims around Australia and internationally on Islam, Muslim women and the Australian Muslim experience, with appointments as varied as the International Women’s Day address at Victorian Parliament House, Chatham House in London, and as a panelist for Issues Deliberation Australia: Muslims and non-Muslims in Australia. Susan is a state-coordinator for the Train the Trainers Course in Dawah and Dialogue. She is married with 2 children.