Women’s Learning Partnership: Program Advisors

Women’s Learning Partnership]: Program Advisors

• Maria Chin Abdullah (Malaysia) is the Executive Director of the Women's Development Collective (WDC), a non-governmental organization in Malaysia focused on research, education, and training. Established in the early 1980's, WDC's programs focus on gender analysis, worker health and safety, awareness and understanding of Malaysian laws, and leadership and grassroots organizing.

• Aziza Abemba (Zimbabwe) is the Executive Director of the Women’s Self-Promotion Movement (WSPM) in Zimbabwe. WSPM provides training and education for Zimbabwean women and girls and for refugee women from African countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi. Their programs promote women’s leadership, micro-enterprise, and political participation, as well as provide training in conflict resolution skills and domestic violence prevention.

• Lina Abou-Habib (Lebanon), a gender and development specialist, is Executive Director of the Collective for Research and Training on Development-Action (CRTD-A), a non-governmental organization that creates opportunities for women to learn and exchange information about women's rights through networks of grassroots NGOs across the Middle East and North Africa. CRTD-A conducts trainings for women and works collaboratively to develop communication material and resources in Arabic that focus on women’s human rights, gender, and development.

• Sengul Akçar (Turkey) is General Director of the Foundation for the Support of Women's Work (FSWW), a Turkish non-profit that works with poor women and local governments to support women's equal participation in social, economic, and political decision-making processes. FSWW's programs include a micro-credit program, community-run child-care centers, training and technical support of other women's NGOs, and a Grassroots Women's Resource, Training and Networking Center in Istanbul.

• Mehrangiz Kar (Iran) is a leading Iranian attorney, writer, and activist working towards the promotion of democracy, rule of law, and human rights within the framework of Islamic law of the Islamic Republic of Iran since the 1979 Revolution. She is among the first women attorneys who opposed the Islamization of gender relations following the Revolution. She has been an active public defender in Iran’s civil and criminal courts and has lectured extensively, both in Iran and abroad, on political, legal and constitutional reform, promotion of civil society and democracy, and dismantling of legal barriers to women’s and children’s rights. Her books have received international critical acclaim.

• Asma Khader (Jordan) is Coordinator of Sisterhood Is Global Institute/Jordan, former Minister of State and Government Spokesperson for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and former President of the Jordanian Women’s Union. She is a member of the Arab Lawyer’s Union, the Arab Organization for Human Rights, and the Executive Committee of the International Commission of Jurists. She was instrumental in creating a Legal Literacy/Legal Assistance program for Jordanian women. Elected to the Permanent Arab Court as Counsel on violence against women, she is a leading advocate of the campaigns to strengthen legislation outlawing honor killing.

• Odilia Kukah (Cameroon) is the Coordinator of Community Education and Development Services, a Cameroonian women’s NGO that implements empowerment and leadership development programs for women in Anglophone and Francophone Cameroon. She joined CEDS in 2001 and has actively organized leadership training workshops and HIV/AIDS education programs. She draws from a background working as a family planning practitioner and trainer, nurse and mid-wife in Cameroon and Britain.

• Amina Lemrini (Morocco) is a Founder of the Moroccan Human Rights Organization, and a Founder and Executive Committee member of the Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc (ADFM), a non-governmental organization working on the promotion and defense of women's rights in Morocco. She is also on the Board of Directors of Collectif 95 Maghreb-Egalite, a women's regional NGO working in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. Ms. Lemrini has lectured and published on a variety of issues dealing with human rights, particularly on the rights of the child and women's rights.

• Sindi Medar-Gould (Nigeria) is Executive Director of the Nigeria-based organization BAOBAB for Women's Human Rights, a non-profit organization working for women's human rights and legal rights under customary and religious law in Africa. BAOBAB also coordinates programs for Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) in Africa and the Middle East. Ms. Medar-Gould has been a women's human rights activist for over 20 years, and is an experienced teacher, trainer, and researcher.

• Aminetou Mint El Mokhtar (Mauritania) is President of the Association des Femmes Chefs de Famille (AFCF). AFCF works to promote and defend the rights of women and children, support women in precarious situations, create a network of associations working to improve living conditions of women heads of household and their children, and contribute to the emergence of an active solidarity amongst women of different social classes.

• Malena de Montis (Nicaragua) is a Nicaraguan feminist with a doctoral degree in Education from the University of Massachusetts. She is the founder of the Center for Democratic Participation and Development (Cenzontle) and the Women's Development Fund (FODEM), both non-governmental organizations that seek to support the economic and political empowerment of women and earned the Central American award for Best Practice from INTERCAMBIO. She is a pioneer in the Autonomous Women's Movement and founder of the Women's Coalition in Nicaragua.

• Mishka Mojabber Mourani (Lebanon) is Senior Vice President of International College in Beirut, Lebanon, one of the largest international schools in the world. A member of the board of the Machreq/Maghreb Gender Linking Information Project, she is involved in developing and running educational leadership training programs and facilitating leadership training workshops. She has worked as an educator and educational consultant to establish schools, develop curriculum, and train staff in numerous countries in the Middle East and Africa.

• Rabea Naciri (Morocco) is President of the Association Démocratique du Femmes du Maroc (ADFM), and founding member and former Executive Director of the Collectif 95 Maghreb Egalite, a network of women's associations and women researchers from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia committed to preventing violence against women. Ms. Naciri is also a Professor in the Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines at the University of Rabat in Morocco.

• Anna Pinto (India) is Director of the Gender Program at the Centre for Organization Research & Education (CORE) in Guwahati, India. CORE works with indigenous women’s groups in the India’s northeast region on issues such as land rights, conflict and violence, sexual abuse, the sex trade and trafficking, and governance.

• Lina Quora (Jordan) is the Executive Director of Sisterhood is Global Institute/Jordan (SIGI/J), an NGO that works to promote women's human rights education, develop strategies to eliminate gender-based violence, and conduct training of trainers programs to amplify women's advocacy efforts. Ms. Quora is a member of the Jordanian Women’s Union, Family Development Association, and Protection of Victims of Domestic Violence Society.

• Enas El Shafie (Egypt) is the Executive Director of the Forum for Women in Development (FWID), which serves as the focal point for MACMAG-GLIP and a network of 17 Egyptian development NGOs, including women, gender, health and environmental groups, training centers and other local organizations. The main activities of these groups are networking, capacity building, training and communication on women and development, as well as advocacy on gender violence and women’s legal rights through CEDAW.

• Rose Shomali (Palestine) is Director General of Women's Affairs Technical Committee in Palestine, a coalition established in 1992 to eliminate discrimination against women in the pursuit of a democratic society that respects human rights. She is a former program coordinator for UNICEF and the General Union of Palestinian Women in Lebanon. An experienced community activist and advocate for women's rights, Ms. Shomali is a published author and poet.

• Marfua Tokhtakhodjaeva (Uzbekistan) is Founder and co-Director of the Women's Resource Center in Tashkent, an NGO founded in 1995 to work towards economic and social stability, democratization, and increased awareness of women's human rights in the region. Ms. Tokhtakhodjaeva is former Director of Projects at the State Institute for Restoration of Architectural Monuments. Since 1992, she has focused on improving the status of Muslim women. She has written extensively on architecture and, most recently, on the status of women in post-communist societies of Central Asia.

• Sakena Yacoobi (Afghanistan) is Founder and Executive Director of the Afghan Institute of Learning, an Afghan women's NGO that establishes girls schools and provides teacher training, health education, human rights education, women's leadership training, and literacy programs for Afghan women and girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan's refugee camps. She is co-Founder and Vice President of Creating Hope International, a Michigan-based non-profit organization, and formerly Coordinator of the women's education programs for the International Rescue Committee in Pakistan.

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