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Azizah Y. al-Hibri

Dr. Azizah Y. al-Hibri is a professor at the T. C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond. She is a former professor of Philosophy, founding editor of Hypatia: a Journal of Feminist Philosophy, andfounder and president of KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights (see http://www.karamah.org).

For the last two decades, Dr. al-Hibri has written extensively on issues of Muslim women’s rights, Islam and democracy, and human rights in Islam. More recently, she co-edited the section on Islam in Sex, Marriage and Family in World Religions (Columbia University Press 2006), contributed an article entitled “The Nature of the Islamic Marriage Contract: Sacramental, Covenantal or Contractual,” to Covenant Marriage in Comparative Perspective, J. Witte and E. Ellison, eds. (Eerdmans 2006), and an article entitled “Divine Justice and the Human Order: An Islamic Perspective,” to Humanity Before God: Contemporary Faces of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Ethics, ed. William Schweiker et al. (Fortress Press forthcoming 2006). Currently Dr. al-Hibri is completing a book on Muslim women’s rights.

Dr. al-Hibri publishes mostly in law journals and other legal publications. She guest-edited a special volume on Islam for the Journal of Law and Religion (fall, 2001). Her articles include: An Islamic Perspective on Domestic Violence, 27 Fordham International Law Journal 195 (December 2003), Redefining Muslim Women's Roles in the Next Century, in Democracy and the Rule of Law, Norman Dorsen and Prosser Gifford, eds. (Congressional Quarterly, 2001), Muslim Women's Rights in the Global Village: Opportunities and Challenges, in The Journal of Law and Religion (Fall, 2001); Islamic Jurisprudence and Critical Race Feminism, in Global Critical Race Feminism (New York University Press, 2000), and An Introduction to Muslim Women’s Rights, in Windows of Faith, (Syracuse University Press, 2000).

Dr. al-Hibri has traveled extensively throughout the Muslim world in support of Muslim women’s rights. She has visited fourteen Muslim countries and discussed with their religious, political and feminist leaders, as well as their legal scholars, issues of importance to Muslim women. Dr. al-Hibri also acted as a consultant to the Supreme Council for Family Affairs in Qatar in the development of that country’s personal status code. She also selected Qatar for her Fulbright award (2001).

Dr. al-Hibri visited some Muslim communities in Europe, most recently in Brussels. She gave lectures upon the invitation of the United States Embassy in Belgium and official Belgian institutions. These included a lecture in the Belgian Senate Building. She has also lectured extensively within the United States at universities, religious and interfaith institutions, community centers, governmental agencies, think tanks and various public forums.

Dr. al-Hibri is the recipient of the Virginia First Freedom Award, presented in 2007 by the Council for America’s First Freedom, and the Dr. Betty Shabazz Recognition Award, presented by Women in Islam in 2006. In 2004, the University of Richmond awarded her its Distinguished Educator Award. She received the Willie L. Moore Award from the Law School's Black Law Student Association in 2003.