A00035 - Haleh Afshar, Iranian British Muslim Feminist Activist

 Afshar, Haleh

Haleh Afshar (‎b. May 21, 1944, Tehran, Pahlavi Iran – d. May 12, 2022, Heslington, England) was a British life peer in the House of Lords. 

Haleh Afshar was born as the eldest of the four children born to Hassan Afshar and Pouran Khabir on May 21, 1944 in Tehran.  Afshar was a professor of politics and women's studies at the University of York,  England, and a visiting professor of Islamic law at the Faculté internationale de droit comparé (international faculty of comparative law) at Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg, France. Afshar served on several bodies, notably the British Council and the United Nations Association, of which she was honorary president of international services. She was appointed to the board of the Women's National Commission  in September 2008. She served as the chair for the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies.  Afshar was a founding member of the Muslim Women's Network. She served on the Home Office's working groups, on "engaging with women" and "preventing extremism together".

Afshar was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2005 Birthday Honours for services to equal opportunities.  On October 18, 2007, it was announced that she would be made a baroness and join the House of Lords as a cross-bench life peer.  She was formally introduced into the House of Lords on December 11, 2007, as Baroness Afshar, of Heslington in the County of North Yorkshire.

In March 2009, Afshar was named as one of the twenty most successful Muslim women in the United Kingdom on the Muslim Women Power List 2009. The list was a collaboration between the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Emel Magazine, and The Times, to celebrate the achievements of Muslim women in the United Kingdom. 

In April 2009, she was appointed an academician of the Academy of Social Sciences. 

Afshar died from kidney failure at her home in Heslington on May 12, 2022 at the age of 77.

In 2011, Afshar received an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.  

In January 2013, Afshar was nominated for the Services to Education award at the British Muslim Awards. 

In 2017, Afshar received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bradford.  

A00034 - Shireen Abu Akleh, Trailblazing Al Jazeera Journalist

 Abu Akleh, Shireen

Shireen Abu Akleh (b. January 3, 1971, Jerusalem – d. May 11, 2022, Jenin, State of Palestine) was a Palestinian-American journalist who worked as a reporter for the Arabic-language channel of Al Jazeera for 25 years, and was a household name across the Middle East for her decades of reporting in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. She was shot and killed on May 11, 2022, while covering an Israel Defense Forces raid on the West Bank city of Jenin.  Abu Akleh was one of the Arab world's leading journalists, a veteran reporter who was described (by The Times of Israel) after her death as having been "among Arab media's most prominent figures". 

Abu Akleh was born on January 3, 1971, in Jerusalem. Her family were Catholic Arab Palestinian Christians from Bethlehem.  Abu Akleh spent time in the United States, obtaining United States citizenship through members of her mother's family who lived in New Jersey. 

Abu Akleh attended secondary school in Beit Hanina, then matriculated at the Jordan University of Science and Technology to study architecture, but decided not to pursue the trade; she instead transferred to Yarmouk University in Jordan from which she graduated with a bachelor's degree in print journalism.  After graduating, Abu Akleh returned to Palestine.

Abu Akleh worked as a journalist for Radio Monte Carlo and Voice of Palestine. She additionally worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA); Amman Satellite Channel; and MIFTAH, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy. In 1997, she began working as a journalist for Al Jazeera, becoming well known as a reporter on their Arabic-language channel.  She lived and worked in East Jerusalem, reporting on major events related to Palestine including the Second Intifada, and additionally covering Israeli politics. She often reported on funerals for Palestinians killed by Israeli forces.

Abu Akleh's career inspired many other Palestinians and Arabs to become journalists. Her live television reporting and distinct signoffs were particularly well-known. Abu Akleh continued in her role with Al Jazeera until she was killed on May 11, 2022.  At the time of her death, she had been studying Hebrew in order to better understand narratives in the Israeli media, and had recently earned a diploma in digital media. 

On May 11, 2022, the Palestinian Health Ministry announced the death of Abu Akleh. According to Al-Jazeera, she had been shot and killed by the Israel Defense Forces  I (IDF) while reporting on IDF raids in the Jenin refugee camp. Al Jazeera and the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that Abu Akleh was killed by the IDF, with an Agence France-Presse photojournalist also reporting Israeli forces had shot and killed her.  

A00023 - Asma Khader, Jordanian Women's Rights Activist

 Khader, Asma 

Asma Khader (b. January 25, 1952, Zababida, West Bank under Jordanian rule – d. December 20, 2021, Amman, Jordan) was a Jordanian politician and women's rights activist. She served as Jordan's Minister of Culture from 2004 to 2005 and was a member of the Senate from 2014 to 2015. Khader died from pancreatic cancer on December 20, 2021, at the age of 69 in Amman.

Asma Hanna Khader was born on January 25, 1952, in Zababida, a town in the West Bank, which at the time was under Jordanian rule. Her father, Hanna, was a translator for the Jordanian Armed Forces. Her mother, Martha, owned a clothing shop in Amman. Asma attended school in the city and worked in her mother’s store.

Khader earned her undergraduate law degree from the University of Damascus in 1977. She established her own legal office in 1984 and was one of Jordan’s few practicing female lawyers.

In Jordan, Khader experienced life under martial law, imposed by King Hussein after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The law banned political parties and large public meetings, and gave the government broad powers to restrict freedom of speech and the press and to try ordinary criminal cases in military courts.

Khader joined the male-dominated opposition movement, becoming a vocal political activist despite the risk of detention. She also represented political prisoners.

She established the Solidarity is Global Institute in Jordan in 1998 to provide women with legal services and educational programs, and to lead campaigns for legislative and policy reforms. She served as the institute’s executive director until her recent illness.

Khader, along with other female activists, organized support, did research and lobbied lawmakers in an attempt to protect human rights in Jordan by revising the country’s penal code. That work led to the repeal of a law that had allowed rapists to avoid punishment by marrying their victims. In later years, Khader's Solidarity Is Global advocated the suspension of capital punishment in Jordan.

Khader married Adel Daibes, a lawyer, in 1977. They had four children, Osama, Ruba, Hanan and Farah.