Part_V.qxp_CTR 6x9 5/4/14 3:51 PM Page 245 About the Authors Najla Abbes is a Fulbright alumna. She was a Fulbright Language Teaching Assistant at Pfeiffer University, North Carolina from 2007 to 2008. She has a Master’s degree in English Literature from The Higher Institute of Lan- guages in Tunisia. She is currently working as a MEPI administrator at the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia. In this position she advises civil society actors in relation to the writing of funding proposals. She conducts field research and reports on MEPI-funded projects. She has also worked as an Arabic language instructor at the Foreign Service Institute Tunisia (FSI) and the School for International Training (SIT). Her main duties were to teach different levels of Modern Standard Arabic and conduct lectures and workshops on Tunisian identity, education, and women in Tunisia. Najla is the co-founder, treasurer, and program coordinator of the League of Tunisian Women Voters (LET). The league aims to improve Tunisian women’s ability to participate effectively in public affairs, especially in politics and electoral practices, as voters and candidates based on the principles of human rights and social gender. As a program coordinator, Najla developed project proposals on women empower- ment strategies and helped to implement an exchange program between Tunisian female potential candidates for the coming elections and Danish female MPs. Nadia Ait-Zai, born August 5, 1952, holds a Master of Laws degree. She was elected vice-mayor of the municipality of Alger in 1979 and she held this post until 1984. She also held the post of Head of Department of the Direction Général des Nouvelles Galeries Algériennes. From 1984 onwards, she has been working as an attorney. She is also a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Uni- versity of Algeria. In 2004, she was awarded a diploma for her achievements as an educator of human rights. In 1993, Nadia became a member of an INSP- financed research group, which researches violence. In 1999, Nadia carried out a study for the Center of Women’s Rights in Palestine: “L’Exclusion des Femmes de la Protection Internationale.” In 2004, she carried out a study for UNICEF: “L’Impact de la Convention des Droits de l’Enfant sur le Droit National Algérien.” In 2005, she presented a report on the situation of Alger- ian children for the Children’s Rights Committee. In 2007, she gave an expert opinion on the Algerian national plan for the children to UNICEF and the Ministry of Women Affaires. The same year, she also carried out a study for the TESEC on the situation of Algerian women. In 2002, Nadia founded the Documentation Center for Women’s and Children’s Rights (CIDDEF). She is also the author of several books on women’s and children’s rights. Nadia is also a member of the Collectif Maghreb Egalité. Intisar Azzuz holds a PhD in Environmental Design in Architecture from Texas A&M University and an MS in Architecture from the University of Oklahoma. She was previously the head of the Architecture Department at 245 Part_V.qxp_CTR 6x9 5/4/14 3:51 PM Page 246 246 About the Authors Tripoli University in Libya. Dr. Azzuz is a civil society and community activist who has participated in, advised, and founded many organizations in Libya since 2011, including the International Egyptian Libyan Friendship Society, of which she is vice president. She was commissioned by the Deputy Minister of Health to work with people who were imprisoned and injured by Gaddafi’s troops during the revolution, and interviewed more than 25 people and pre- pared files in ongoing research. She served as the keynote speaker at the Your Right conference, hosted by the organization 1Libya, to promote women’s rights. She has also worked with Gender Concerns International, the Divorcees and Widows Society, the International Peace Organization for Human Rights, the International Women’s Organization, and One Voice, among others. Dr. Azzuz also advised and trained NGO leaders in advance of meetings with the President of the General National Congress of Libya, resulting in presentations of written recommendations. She was also responsi- ble for developing the curricula of the newly-formed International Libyan University’s School of Architecture. During her stay in the U.S., Dr. Azzuz was co-founder and board member of the Middle Eastern Women Empower- ment Center, President of the Oregon Chapter of the American Muslim Soci- ety, and an interfaith organizer for dialogue and understanding. Ghazi Ben Ahmed is the Director of the Mediterranean Development Ini- tiative in Tunisia and the Coordinator of the LEND Initiative for Tunisia. He is also the founder of the Club de Tunis, a Tunisian based think tank aiming to help policymakers to devise strategies for economic growth and regional development, and to empower both the private sector and NGOs in Tunisia and North Africa as an engine for regional integration, job creation and shared prosperity. Previously he was the Lead Trade Expert in the African Development Bank (AfDB) working in the private sector department of the Bank. He was in charge of the $1 billion Trade Finance Initiative of the Bank. He received the “Highly Commended” prize for the Best Development Finance Institution (DFI) in Africa at the Trade Finance Magazine 2010 Awards for Excellence, the Trade Finance Deal of the Year 2010 and the Trade Finance Bank/House of the Year Award 2010. Before joining the AfDB, he was employed at the UNCTAD, the United Nations Agency for Trade and Development, in the Africa and LDC Division, as Senior Advisor, providing support to African trade negotiators in multilateral trade negotiations and regional trading arrangements. He provided economic studies and reports; elaborated the Diagnostic Trade Integration Studies and assisted the coun- tries in mainstreaming trade into the national development plans under the Integrated Framework. He has also worked for almost 10 years in the Euro- pean Commission in Brussels, in several Directorates-Generals. He was also responsible for the task force on market access and non-tariff barriers and the High Level Dialogue between the EU and China. He holds a PhD in Eco- nomics from the University of Montpellier I (France). Part_V.qxp_CTR 6x9 5/4/14 3:51 PM Page 247 About the Authors 247 Adel Awni Dajani is the founder of several specialist Maghreb-related finan- cial companies, including The International Maghreb Merchant Bank (the Maghreb’s first licensed investment bank, established in 1995 with the IFC, European banks, and finance professionals from Tunisia, Libya and Algeria). Mr. Dajani was IMBank’s first Managing Director and was a member of the Executive Board of the Bank from its inception to 2003. Maghreb Venture Partners, a specialized and Maghreb-focused private equity vehicle estab- lished by Mr. Dajani in 2004 that acts exclusively as a corporate finance advi- sory vehicle and packager of private equity opportunities in Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania. Mr. Dajani is an independent board mem- ber at the Aman Bank, one of Libya’s leading private banks, owned by private Libyan investors and Banco Espirito Santo of Portugal. He has also been a private equity principal investor in several start-up companies in Libya, Tunisia and Morocco. Mr. Dajani was educated at Eton College and the Uni- versities of London and the Sorbonne. He is a qualified barrister at law and a member of the UK, Hong Kong and Libyan Bar Associations. Mr. Dajani has had published several articles on banking, investment, and the post-Arab Spring challenges in leading business journals and has spoken at many inter- national investment conferences on the Maghreb. Mr. Dajani is the Alumni Representative for the Maghreb Chapter of the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London and a founder of the Old Eton- ian MENA Association. Mr. Dajani co-wrote The Islamic Frontiers of China, Peoples of the Silk Road, first published in London in 1990, based on his exten- sive travels in China with How Man Wong, an acknowledged authority on Chinese minorities and President of the China Research and Exploration Society. The book was updated and republished by IB Tauris in London in 2011. Emily Dyer joined the Henry Jackson Society as a researcher in January 2012. She is currently researching women’s rights in Egypt having recently returned from Cairo. Beforehand, she co-authored Al-Qaeda in the United States: A Complete Analysis of Terrorism Offenses and helped present its findings to policy makers on various platforms, including the British Parliament, the White House and the National Counterterrorism Center. Emily previously worked as a Higher Executive Officer for the Preventing Extremism Unit at the Department for Education, where she wrote several papers on extremism within educational settings. Beforehand she was based at the Policy Exchange think tank. Emily has written for publications including The Observer, The Te l eg ra p h , The Huffington Post, City AM, The Atlantic, World Affairs, CTC Sen- tinel and Standpoint magazine, largely on women’s rights in the Middle East, extremism, and human rights. Emily studied International Relations from the University of Birmingham, where she produced a First class dissertation on Islamic feminism in Iran, and has travelled widely within Syria and Turkey. Part_V.qxp_CTR 6x9 5/4/14 3:51 PM Page 248 248 About the Authors Dajana Džindo is a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University SAIS. She was Project Manager for the Women in Leadership and Civil Society Conference held in Sarajevo in November 2013. Dajana received a Master’s degree in Business Communication with Honors from the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Sarajevo in 2011.