!! ! #ImamsForShe # ’ Topic of Discussion: Date: Tuesday March 10 2015 The purpose of this panel discussion is to Time: 10.30 AM highlight the intersection between policy and Location: United Nations Church religion and specifically, the compatibility Centre, 777 UN Plaza (corner of 1st between women’s human rights and Islam. At th this event, Muslim women’s human rights Avenue and East 44 Street), New York activists will be sharing their insight on how 8th Floor – Boss Room Islam provides women’s rights and how they, in their role as community leaders, defy Moderator: traditional, discriminatory practices within the Ani Zonneveld, President and Founder of Muslim community. This panel particularly Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) serves to empower Imams and Islamic scholars from the West and the Global South who are promoting women’s rights, who are Speakers: supporting gender equality initiatives and Zeinab Eyega, Executive Director of Sauti Yetu who are taking a stance against violence Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Chairman of the against women. In addition, this panel’s Cordoba Initiative discussion will shed light on the definition of Sharia versus Sharia law. Imam Shamsi Ali, Chairman of the Al-Hikmah Mosque in Astoria and the Director of Jamaica Muslim RSVP before March 8 2015 to Center in Queens, New York [email protected] ! | @mpvusa | #MPVUNSeries | #CSW59 | | #ImamsForShe | This event is part of Muslims for Progressive Values’ United Nations Lecture Series: http://www.youtube.com/ProgressiveMuslims Moderator Ani Zonneveld is founder and President of Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV). Since its inception in 2007, Ani has presided over MPV’s expansion to include chapters and affiliates in Los Angeles, Washington DC, Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Columbus, Canada, France, Chile, Germany, Australia and Malaysia, and to securing consultative status at the United Nations. She has organized interfaith arts and music festivals, and participated in many interfaith dialogues. Ani is an unconventional bridge-builder as she speaks-sings her message of social justice and peace from a progressive Muslim woman’s perspective. She is a cultural innovator in her songwriting and production of Islamic hymns with the release of several solo CDs. As a songwriter/producer she has won many awards including a Grammy certification for her song contribution to Keb’ Mo’s album, “Keep It Simple”. Ani is the brainchild of Alliance of Inclusive Muslims, Literary Zikr – a project that counters radical Islam on- line, co-editor of an anthology “Progressive Muslim Identities – Personal Stories from the U.S. and Canada”; a contributor for HuffingtonPost, OpenDemocracy and al-Jazeera America. Email: [email protected] Speaker Zeinab Eyega, M.Sc, is the Executive Director of Sauti Yetu – a community- based organization that works with African immigrant women and families both in the New York City metropolitan area and across the USA on issues including violence against women and girls, early forced marriage, gender, education and much more. Ms. Eyega provides oversight, management, and leadership in developing the strategic focus of Sauti Yetu’s programs and operations. This includes direct services, pubic policy and advocacy, community engagement and fundraising. She has over sixteen years experience working on issues affecting African immigrant women and girls in the United States and in Africa. Ms. Eyega has developed training and educational materials as well as facilitated numerous cross-cultural competency workshops for health care providers throughout the United States. Her commitment to the advancement of African women and girls was recognized in 2004 by the Open Society Institute, which awarded her the Soros Community Fellowship Award and she was recognized by NYC Mayor Bloomberg during the immigrant week, a celebration of the contributions of immigrants to the City of NewYork. Ms. Eyega’s current areas of work include but are not limited to issues of gender, race and ethnicity in Africa, in particular the Afro-Arab border lands. Speaker Imam Shamsi Ali is a renowned Muslim Scholar and a well-known Imam in New York City, USA. He was an Imam of the city’s largest mosque located in 96th street and 3rd AV Manhattan. He is Chairman of the Al-Hikmah Mosque in Astoria and the Director of Jamaica Muslim Center in Queens. Imam Ali serves as an Advisory Board member to numerous interfaith organizations, including the Tanenbaum Center and Federation for Middle East Peace. He is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Asean Muslim Federation of North America. Imam Ali also is a Board member for the Partnership of Faith in NY, and co-founder of the UNCC (Universal Clergy Coalition-International). Furthermore, he is also Assistant Director and a Board member of the Muslim Foundation of America, Inc., and Chairman of the annual Muslim Day Parade in NYC. He also serves as the Vice President of the Asian-American Coalition USA (AAC-USA) and its UN Representative. Well known in the interfaith community, Imam Ali is a visible face of Islam. He has lectured in churches, synagogues and other institutions both nationally and worldwide. He was among a few religious leaders who had been invited to accompany the then President George W. Bush to visit Ground Zero days after September 11th, and represented his community during the Yankee Stadium Prayer for America event along side religious and government high ranking officials, including Former President Bill Clinton and then Senator Hillary Clinton. A revered Qur’an scholar, who speaks fluent, beside his native Indonesian language, English, Arabic and Urdu, Imam Ali obtained his BA in tafseer from the International Islamic University Islamabad-Pakistan in 1991, an MA in comparative Studies of Religions from the same university in 1994. Speaker Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is the founder and Chairman of The Cordoba Initiative, a multi-national, multi faith organization dedicated to improving Muslim-West relations. He has engaged in outreach to moderates of all faith traditions, engaging in interfaith dialogue and forging connections of trust and mutual support. In 1997, he also co-founded the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA); the first Muslim organization committed to building bridges between Muslims and the American public by elevating the discourse on Islam through educational outreach, interfaith collaboration, culture and arts. Born of Egyptian parentage and educated in England, Egypt, and Malaysia, Imam Feisal holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Columbia University in New York and a Master of Science in Plasma Physics from Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. Some of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s published work includes What’s Right with Islam Is What’s Right with America and Moving the Mountain: Beyond Ground Zero to a New Vision of Islam in America. He has received many awards, including Alliance for International Conflict Prevention and Resolution (AICPR); Annual Alliance Peace Builder Award; the Annual James Parks Morton Interfaith Center of New York award; Open Center of New York Interfaith Award (2010), Arianna Huffington’s “2010 Game Changer” Award, and was listed as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2010 by Foreign Policy Magazine; TIME magazine included him among the 100 most influential people of the world in 2011; along with his wife, Daisy Khan, the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award presented by the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (2011); the Search for Common Ground for Interfaith Diplomacy (2012); and most recently the Faith-in-Action Award by the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy (ICRD) (2014). .