THE 500 MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSLIMS - CESD

Women’s IssuesWest AfricaMAURITANIAel mokhtar, aminetouEl Mokhtar is a Nouakchott-based human rights lawyer and president of the L’Association desFemmes Chefs de Famille, which defends and supports women heads of households and theirchildren. She is also chair of the African Democracy Forum, a network of organizations promotingdemocracy.NIGERmindaoudou, her excellency dodo aichatouMindaoudou is the Nigerien Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation, and African Integrity.She has served the government since the mid-1990s, and is the former secretary general for theNetwork for Rural Law. She has written extensively about economic development and women’sissues. She is one of the most senior-level women politicians in West Africa.AsiaAFGHANISTANbarakzai, shukria [new]Barakzai is the editor of Afghanistan’s first and only newspaper targeted at women, Aina-E Zan(Women’s Mirror). She is also a member of Afghanistan’s parliament.quraishi, colonel shafiqa [new]Quraishi is the Director of Gender, Human, and Child Rights in Afghanistan’s Ministry of theInterior. She has focused on increasing women’s employment in the government and created theAfghan National Gender Recruitment Strategy.BANGLADESHhossain, dr hameeda [new]Dr Hossain has published many books and articles relating to human rights and women’s issuesin Bangladesh, in Islam, and worldwide. She is a founding member of Ain o Salish Kendra, a legalaid and human rights organization.INDONESIAalawiyaah, prof. dr tutiAlawiyaah was the Indonesian Minister of Women’s Empowerment in President Suharto’s lastcabinet. Alawiyaah is currently the dean of one of Indonesia’s oldest and most prominent Islamiceducational institutions, the As Syafi’iyah University. She is a prolific preacher and broadens herreach through her regular television appearances on almost all Indonesian television channels.muhammad, husein [new]Husein Muhammad is a commissioner of Indonesia’s National Commission on Violence AgainstWomen. He is one of the founders of Fahmina Institute (in 1999), an NGO that advocates women’sissues using an Islamic framework and reinterpretation of Islamic classical literature, tafsir andfiqh. Muhammad led an anti-trafficking media campaign, which included the distribution of22,000 leaflets each week in mosques after Friday prayers, along with outreach to village healthclinics. His scholarship highlights the Islamic perspective on victims’ rights, the rights of womenand children, and the immorality of human trafficking, while emphasizing that victims should notbe criminalized and that communities have a responsibility to combat trafficking.zulminarni, nani [new]Zulminarni is the National Coordinator of PEKKA, the Program for Women-Headed Householdsin Indonesia. The organization supports thousands of widows in rural communities throughoutthe country.133