Speaker biographies

Ruthie Blum is the features editor of the Jerusalem Post, as well as a columnist and interviewer. She writes and lectures about the paradoxes and humor of daily life in Israel in her weekly column, “Flip Side”. She wrote the paper’s first advice column, “Dear Ruthie,” which ran for nearly a decade and a collection of which was later published as a book in 1996. Over the years, she has written numerous other regular columns and features, including book reviews and op-eds. She also hosted a radio program on the Jerusalem Post website.

Mireille Chidiac-El Hajj is a teacher of economics and a Lebanese women’s rights activist. Her sister, May Chidiac, was targeted in a car bomb explosion on September 25, 2005, in Jounieh, Lebanon. This was one of a series of bombings in Lebanon targeting critics of Syria. May Chidiac, a renowned television anchor at the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) and a Christian Lebanese journalist, was severely injured and lost her left arm and leg in the bombing. On the day she was nearly killed, she had hosted a talk show in which she voiced fears over further violence ahead of the United Nations report on the death of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. Mireille Chidiac-El Hajj turned into a fierce activist after her sister's assassination attempt and has been a strong advocate of defending and promoting freedom of the press in Lebanon.

Amel Grami is a professor in the Department of Arabic Studies at the University of Manouba in Tunis, Tunisia. Grami, who teaches courses on gender in Islam, studies gender roles in the Arab world and Middle East education. She has written for both academic journals and Muslim reformist websites.

Sawsan Hanish is the executive director of Libya’s National Society for Social Development and the assistant secretary of its Environment Friends Society. Also active in Libyan women’s rights organizations, Hanish has participated in the United Nations Development Program’s National Consultation Committee on Women. She also works as an education inspector.

Mariam Memarsadeghi is senior program manager for the Middle East and North Africa at Freedom House. She founded the Iran Program there, which recently launched a Persian/English online journal on democracy and human rights called Gozaar. Ms. Memarsadeghi has worked in the fields of democracy and governance, women’s rights in Islamic contexts, conflict mitigation, and emergency response management. She has lived and worked in the Balkans and has been active with human rights groups throughout the Middle East. She has studied political theory, in particular social contract theory and contemporary feminist theory, as well as international relations.

Rasha Shokr is a radio journalist and host for Cairo Radio, and a translator currently based in the U.S. In 2004, she moved to the U.S. to work for the World Bank as a consultant. Previously, Shokr worked as a translator and interpreting instructor at the American University in Cairo and has worked extensively with USAID development projects in Egypt. A year ago, she started blogging (blog name anonymous) to comment and provide analysis on developments in Egypt with the objective to promote political and social freedoms. She has since been quoted and interviewed by several international media outlets and research institutes.

Wafa Sultan, a Syrian-American psychiatrist, rocketed to fame in February 2006, when she forcefully decried Muslim extremism in a debate with a cleric on Aljazeera television. An online video of the debate has been viewed more than one million times. Sultan, who was named one of the “100 People Who Shape Our World” by Time magazine in May 2006, is writing a book titled The Escaped Prisoner: When God Is a Monster. She is an editor at Annaqed, a reformist Muslim website.

Pascale Warda serves as a human rights advisor to Iraqi president Jalal Talabani. In 2004, she was appointed Minister of Displacement and Migration as a member of Iraq’s interim Council of Ministers. Warda, who co-founded the Iraqi Society for Human Rights in Damascus in 1995, served as the Paris representative of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, the largest Iraqi Assyrian political party, from 1993 to 1995. She has also been the chairwoman of the Assyrian Federation of Women since 2001. At the 2004 G8 summit in the Democratic Republic of Georgia, Warda discussed women’s rights issues with first lady Laura Bush.

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