Khan named Kraemer Distinguished Scholar in Residence
Sara Khan, director of Inspire, has been named the 2015 Kraemer Middle East Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence, the Wendy & Emery Reves Center for International Studies and the Program in Comparative Legal Studies and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding at the William & Mary School of Law recently announced.
Inspire is a women's human rights and counter-terrorism organization which seeks to address inequalities facing British Muslim women.
Khan will deliver two lectures at the university, both of which are free and open to the public:
Tuesday, March 3, 2015, 3:30 p.m.
“Making a Stand: A Woman’s Jihad against Violence and Extremism”
Brinkley Commons, Miller Hall (Raymond A. Mason School of Business)
Wednesday, March 4, 2015, 12:50 p.m.
"ISIS and Women's Rights: The Key Battleground for Extremists"
William & Mary Law School, Room 127
In January 2015, Khan was recognized as one of Britain’s 500 most influential people working toward peace and stability in the United Kingdom. In September 2005, after the London bombings, she sat on the Home Office’s Tackling Extremism and Radicalisation Working Group. She is currently sitting on the Government’s Department for International Development’s (DFID) External Expert Advisory Group on Girls and Women advising the International Development Secretary.
In 2009, Khan co-founded Inspire in order to empower Muslim women, raise awareness of the inequalities they face and challenge both religiously inspired patriarchy and extremism that seeks to marginalize women. She has been forthright in challenging male-dominated British Muslim institutions but also terrorist organizations including ISIS, the Taliban, Boko Haram and Al Shabaab, who at their core aim to deny women and girls their rights.
In September 2014, Inspire launched the Making A Stand campaign, a grassroots movement to reject the barbarism of the so-called Islamic state and to reject extremists and radicalizers. The Home Secretary, The Rt. Honorable Theresa May, MP, not only endorsed the program, but shared the platform with Khan at the announcement and made a speech in support of it.
Khan has written comment pieces for The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph, The Observer, The New Statesman, The Sun and Huffington Post. She has also appeared on Channel 4 News, Sky News, CNN Amanpour, ITV News, BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme, BBC Woman’s Hour, among others.
The Kraemer Middle East Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence was established with a generous gift from Carole A. and Richard C. Kraemer ’65. It is offered yearly, and provides the opportunity for a scholar specializing in Islamic law and governance to spend a short period of time at William & Mary sharing his or her expertise with the university community. It is open to all geographical areas and sub-disciplines, provided the scholar’s background, interest and topical focus are on or clearly related to Islamic law and governance.
