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Birth:1973Latheefa Koya is a prominent human rights and anti-corruption activist in Malaysia. She is chief of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), a direct appointee of Prime Minister Mahathir. She is a lawyer by training and member of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (also known as KEADELAN) but has resigned on taking ...
Birth:1982Moroccan photographer admired for her striking portraits Best known for a series of portraits of Moroccan people taken by Leila Alaoui and shown at the Biennial of Contemporary Arab World Photography in Paris. She embarked on a photographic project on migrants, a subject that remained of constant interest to her, ...
Birth:1867A convert to Islam The Scottish aristocrat, a convert to Islam, adopted the Muslim name Zainab. A noblewoman, Evelyn, at age 65, in 1933, became the first British-born Muslim woman to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1934, a personal account of her trip was published entitled Pilgrimage to Mecca. An excerpt from ...
Birth:1939Crown prince of Albania When King Zog fled with his family after Mussolini's troops invaded Albania Zogu was two days old. Half a century later, after communism fell in his homeland, Zogu made two abortive attempts to return to Tirana as king. Many Albanians, however, saw him as a historical ...
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Birth:1930Women's rights activist Fought all her life for women's rights, Princess Lalla Aicha of Morocco was the first female Arab ambassador. Unveiled and dressed like a modern Western woman, her appearance and her words shook many people. Symbolised as Moroccan independence and feminism, nationalist leaders took Princess Lalla Aicha's word ...
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Birth:1964Sudanese writer and playwright. In her third and the latest novel, Lyrics Alley (2010), Leila Aboulela encompasses themes of polygamy, female circumcision. Her second novel Minaret (2005) featured a woman culturally adrift in London and reconnecting with her Islamic faith after fleeing Sudan following civil war in the 1980s. Her debut, The ...
Birth:1967British journalist After having what she describes as a 'holy experience' during a visit to Iran British journalist and broadcaster Lauren Booth converted to Islam. She works for Press TV, the English-language Iranian news Channel. In the past Lauren has spent considerable time working in Palestine.
Birth:1906A man caught between East and West. Lev Nussimbaum was born on a train in tsarist Russia during the 1905 revolution. His father was a Baku oil magnet, his mother a political dissenter who committed suicide a few years later, reportedly by drinking acid. Nussimbaum grew up in Azerbaijan, came of ...
Birth:1979The first of the two Muslim women to reach the top of the world's highest mountain. On 30 May 2005, Laleh Keshavarz and Farkhondeh Sadegh made their long-awaited dream come true when they conquered the 8,850-meter high mountain, situated in eastern Nepal. Keshavarz, dentist by profession, was part of a 21-strong climbing ...
Birth:1934The quite and seasoned Arab diplomat. Lakhdar Brahimi who has been handling difficult international missions was rewarded with a comfortable appointment in New York as special advisor on conflict resolution to the UN secretary-general. Brahimi has now been charged with sorting out Iraq, possibly the most daunting challenge of his ...
