Ayesha Imam

Dr. Ayesha Imam "has lectured and carried out research in women's studies and gender analysis at universities and research institutes in Nigeria, the U.K., Canada and Senegal. She has published widely for both academic and activist uses.  Her formal publications include Engendering African Social Sciences (CODESRIA 1994, also published in French 2002) and two special issues of Africa Development, Re-Visiting Gender I and II, as well as numerous journal articles.  She was the initiator and co-director of the first Gender Institute in Africa, initiated by CODESRIA in 1994 and held annually since, which brings together young researchers from across the continent and introduces them to gender critiques, methodology and research. Simultaneously, Ayesha Imam is a woman's human rights and democratic development activist. She is founding director of BAOBAB for Women's Human Rights in Nigeria, which undertakes research, advocacy and education to protect and develop women's legal rights issues under customary, secular and religious laws. With BAOBAB, Dr. Imam was the 2002 recipient of the John Humphrey Human Rights Award for the work in protecting women's rights under the new Sharia Penal Codes in Nigeria, which have been drafted and implemented in a retrogressive and discriminatory fashion. Ayesha Imam is a core group member of the international solidarity network, Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), and coordinated research in 8 countries in Africa and the Middle East on the ways in which different systems of laws and social practices combine to structure women's lives in Muslim countries and communities. Dr. Imam has also worked on gender training, evaluation and research for activists in NGOs, for mid-level planners and functionaries in government, and for researchers. She is also the current chair of the Africa Democracy Forum, a network of African democracy activists which works on mutual solidarity, information and skills exchange across the continent.“


 * Director, Greenpeace International
 * Advisory Council, Women’s Learning Partnership
 * Director, Africa Action
 * Former Council Member, International Council on Human Rights Policy
 * Global Fund for Women: Advisory Council 2005-06
 * Director, Women's Environment and Development Organization