Team

c_auddin2Asma T. Uddin is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of altmuslimah.com. She is also a Legal Fellow with the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) and Legal Counsel at The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a non-profit, non-partisan, public interest law firm based in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining The Becket Fund, she practiced commercial litigation at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Philadelphia and corporate real estate at Greenberg Traurig in Miami.Her editing experience includes, among other things, Dr. Umar F. Abd-Allah’s A Muslim in Victorian America, which was published in 2007 by Oxford University Press. As Associate Editor and legal columnist for Islamica Magazine, Asma focused her writings on how American Muslims can rethink their social position within the American legal framework.Asma’s writing has appeared in Muslim Girl Magazine, altmuslim, beliefnet, and in the Guardian’s Comment is Free. She is also an expert panelist for the Washington Post religion blog, On Faith, and a contributor to Huffington Post Religion, CNN.com, and Common Ground News. Her more scholarly work has been published by the Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, The Review of Faith & International Affairs, St. Thomas University Law Journal, and the First Amendment Law Review, and she has book chapters forthcoming by Ashgate Publishers and several prominent university presses.Asma speaks widely on constitutional issues in legal academia. She has also traveled throughout Europe and the Muslim world to meet with Muslim and other minority groups as well as politicians, journalists, and anti-discrimination organizations. She is a 2005 graduate of The University of Chicago Law School, where she was an editor of The University of Chicago Law Review. A full list of Asma’s speaking engagements on behalf of Altmuslimah can be found here. Contact: asma.uddin@altmuslimah.com

c_zrizavi Zehra Rizavi is a writer and Managing Editor at Altmuslimah. For the past two years, Zehra has worked as Associate Editor, and now Managing Editor, for Altmuslimah, writing nearly a dozen original pieces, and editing close to 100 articles for the magazine. Her responsibilities range from developing story ideas and soliciting relevant pieces for publication to revising submissions, including those of academics and award winning authors, for content, style and grammar. Zehra also guides both writers and editors by leading workshops and creating reference material for internal and external use.Zehra has extensive editing experience, having edited brochures, academic journal articles and magazine articles. She completed her Bachelors in Public Relations and International Relations from American University in Washington D.C., and has a Masters degree in Communication. She has worked at a D.C.-based public relations firm which served non-profit organizations, and served as the associate editor for a book titled, “Strategic U.S. Public Diplomacy in a Global Communication Era.”
c_skamal Shazia Kamal Farook is Associate Editor at AltMuslimah.com, overseeing and facilitating the marketing and promotion of AltMuslimah in the social media sphere. Her other responsibilities include co-planning the AltMuslimah marriage, dating, and relationships roundtable series, building partnerships with other faith/gender media organizations, and developing AltMuslimah’s offline projects.

Shazia holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a community activist and has worked with a line of non-profit public policy and community-based organizations to improve understanding between people of all faiths and backgrounds. Her commentary has also appeared on the On Faith religion blog at the Washington Post, as well as Common Ground News Service. When not in her writing lab, Shazia ’emcees’ and hosts weddings and cultural and religious events. She can be reached at shaziakamal(at)gmail.com.

Shazia Ansari has previously been responsible for maintaining the AltMuslimah website. She completed her B.A. in History and her M.Ed. in Elementary Education from Douglass College and the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University. As a history major, Shazia was particularly interested in the role of women in South Asian history, Islamic architecture, as well as the history of Science. A portion of her graduate research involved the study of the representation of Islam in world history textbooks.

As a fifth grade teacher for six years, Shazia had the pleasure of teaching Mathematics, Literacy, Science, and Technology to a consistently enthusiastic group of students. She has participated in various professional development institutes, workshops, and seminars offered by Rutgers University, Rider University, Princeton University, Columbia University, The College of New Jersey, and ETS. Her interests include exploring big ideas in science, inquiry based learning, and the benefits of professional learning communities on student and teacher achievement.

When not in the physical classroom, participating in professional development activities, or maintaining a virtual classroom on the web for her students, Shazia enjoys traveling near and far, often taking photographs and displaying parts of the world through her eyes at her photography website.

c_nmohammad Nadia is Assistant Editor at Altmuslimah. Her articles on faith, feminism and politics are often featured on Altmuslimah@On Faith at The Washington Post.

Growing up as a Pakistani-South African American Muslim in suburban New Jersey, Nadia spent much of her childhood thinking she was too “Desi” until she moved to Pakistan and learned she was too American. Returning home to the US with this new perspective she delved into the world of South Asian and Muslim American media and civil-rights activism.

Nadia is also the Associate Editor for Elan, a leading Muslim lifestyles magazine, and is a contributing writer for the South Asian lifestyle e-zine, Divanee.com.

Nadia holds a BA in Communications and Political Science from Cedar Crest College and a JD from Loyola University Chicago School of Law. An avid baker, she continues to believe in the values of justice and equality with chai and cupcakes for all.

c_sriaz Shazia Riaz heads up Altmuslimah’s public relations. After receiving her degree in psychology from the University of Alberta, she has focused on using her keen understanding of people in a variety endeavors, including working in forensic assessment, running teams for case management in behavioral health, being a marketing director in a political campaign in Philadelphia and volunteering in the North Western Frontier Province of Pakistan post the 2005 earthquake. She can be reached at pr[at]altmuslimah.com