Can “religious rights” ever supersede human rights? Is the concept of “Islamic feminism” a contradiction, or can it be the intellectual genesis for a modern faith?

The panel of ex-Muslim women will discuss their experiences with religious dogma – from modesty culture to equal rights before the law, and how the modern Western feminist movement fails in its approach to Islam and Muslim women.



Speakers:



Sarah Haider



Sarah is an American writer, speaker, and activist. In 2013, she co-founded Ex-Muslims of North America (EXMNA), where she advocates for the acceptance of religious dissent and aims to reduce discrimination for those who have left Islam. Sarah has worked with a variety of secular organizations, and served as board member of the Reason Rally 2016.

Hiba Krisht

Hiba is a writer, editor, and translator from Beirut. Her literary work appears in The Kenyon Review, Blackbird, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and Mizna, among other journals. She is a recipient of the 2016 Rebecca Mitchell Tarumoto Short Fiction Prize from Virginia Commonwealth University, the 2013 JoAnn Athanas Memorial Award in literature from the National Society of Arts and Letters, and the 2012 Jane Foulkes Malone Fellowship from Indiana University. She has been interviewed about her life and work for VICE, the Humanist Hour, and BBC radio, among others.

Hiba serves as Editor in Chief for Bidah Magazine, a fledgling publication breaking new ground in skeptical inquiry under the auspices of the Ex-Muslims of North America.

Ghada



Ghada is a Saudi national that grew up in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Her family is a fundamentalist Shia muslim family. Ghada was a practicing Muslim until researching women’s role in Islam and reading on theology and jurisprudence. She left Islam in 2011, while studying engineering in the United States.









