How do you speak up against the backlash targeting Muslims while still advocating for women’s rights? How do women from Muslim heritage speak up without emboldening or strengthening political extremes?
Author: Sussan Tahmasebi
Sussan Tahmasebi is the Director of FEMENA an organization working to promote women's rights, support feminist movements and women human rights defenders in MENA and West Asia. Between 2011-2017 she served as the MENA/Asia Director at the International Civil Society Action Network which she cofounded. From 1999-2010 she worked in Iran to promote women’s rights and equality. Prior to that, she worked in the US to ensure women's access to reproductive health services. She is the recipient of Human Rights Watch’s Alison Des Forges Award for extraordinary activism and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta’s Power to Inspire award. In 2011 Newsweek identified her as one of 150 women who “Shake the World.”