Notes on Contributors
Feda Abdo is the Communications and Community Relations Manager for Muslim Women Australia and teaches Islamic sciences at various locations around Sydney, Australia.
Amira Aftab is a Lecturer in the School of Law at Western Sydney University, Australia. Amira’s research explores gender in formal and informal institutions with a particular focus on religion, state policies of multiculturalism, and the law.
Dr Mahsheed Ansari is a Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation, Charles Sturt University. Her research interests include the history of Islamic thought, spirituality and culture. She is also a historian interested in the formation and development of minority communities in Australia. She is currently working on the Muslim Pioneers research project at the Public and Contextual Theology Research Centre at Charles Sturt University.
Dr Fadi Baghdadi completed his PhD at the University Sydney exploring migration, culture, and citizenship for Lebanese Muslims living in Australia. In this time, he taught 26 courses across the areas of Sociology, Gender and Culture Studies, and Communications at the University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney. He currently works with The Moroccan Children’s Trust to understand, develop, and implement child protection systems and practices through relational social work in Morocco.
Dr Susan Carland is a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) fellow and Churchill fellow at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Susan is a social scientist, author and social commentator, specialising in the junction of faith, gender, and society for Muslim women, with a particular focus on the varying intersectional discriminations they face and how they respond to them.
Tasneem Chopra is a cross-cultural consultant who addresses the management of diversity and intersectionality in leadership and communications for clients in many sectors. This involves board and advisory role responsibilities across business, arts and emergency services. Further, as an author, Tasneem centres issues of identity, race and gender inequity in her work praxis.
Dr Mehreen Faruqi is the Greens Senator for NSW and spokesperson for anti-racism, education, animal welfare, housing, industry and international development. She is a civil and environmental engineer and a life-long activist for social and environmental justice. She became the first Muslim woman to sit in any Australian parliament when she joined the NSW Parliament in 2013.
Derya Iner is Senior Lecturer and Research Coordinator at the Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisations (CISAC) and a member of PACT Research Centre at Charles Sturt University. She completed her PhD in Cultural Studies and Gender Studies in Wisconsin-Madison (USA). Her research focuses on Islamophobia, especially women and children’s experience with Islamophobia, Western Muslim Youth and Religious identity. She is the chief investigator and editor of the Islamophobia in Australia Reports.
Balawyn Jones is a PhD Candidate at Melbourne Law School, researching domestic violence, women’s agency and the intersection between gender, religion and law. She also currently holds the positions of Research Fellow at Melbourne Law School, Sessional Teacher at La Trobe University and Consultant at Muslim Women Australia.
Souha Korbatieh is a PhD candidate at Monash University in Islamic criminal law. She has a B.Juris/LLB and completed her Master of Islamic Studies at Charles Sturt University in 2018 and Master of Research (Law) at Macquarie University in 2019.
Dr Ghena Krayem is an Associate Professor at Sydney Law School, University of Sydney, Australia. Since 2000, Ghena has been a legal academic teaching in the areas of constitutional law, public law and family law. She has researched and published in many areas to do with Islam in Australia, particularly focusing on Muslim women and Islamic family law.
Mehal Krayem has a PhD in Communications. Her research interests focus on the intersections between race, class and gender. Mehal currently leads the UTS Shopfront program in the Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion.
Ayah Wehbe is a social researcher, community advocate and blogger of Silent Signs. She specialises in disability, diversity and deafness. Her Honours thesis (UNSW 2016) focused on Australian, Lebanese-Muslim women with hearing loss and she started her PhD in 2019 (UNSW) exploring Australian Muslim women with hearing loss.