Title: Executive Director
Organization: American Islamic Congress
Area of Expertise:  Islamic Studies, Politics & Civil Society, Women’s issues
Media Experience: TV, Print, Radio, CNN, FOX News, CBS

Location: Washington, DC
Contact: : Kristin Russo, American Islamic Congress
Email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   Phone 202 595 3160

Zainab Al-Suwaij is the co-founder and Executive Director of the American Islamic Congress (AIC), a non-profit organization established in the wake of the September 11 attacks to build interfaith and interethnic understanding; mobilize a moderate voice in the American Muslim community; and promote civil rights in the Muslim world.

Al-Suwaij was born in Basra, Iraq, the granddaughter of Basra’s leading cleric; she is a Hashemite, a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.  After participating in the failed 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein (an experience she recounted in a memoir for The New Republic), she fled to the United States and began working as a teaching fellow in Arabic at Yale University.   Al-Suwaij characterizes her personal religious beliefs as a hybrid of traditional and progressive (the AIC welcomes individuals of all religious outlooks and makes no religious rulings).

Al-Suwaij leads interfaith and tolerance programs for mosques, churches, synagogues, colleges and high schools. She has developed classroom curricula; works with the Anti-Defamation League and Facing History & Ourselves; and serves on the State of Connecticut’s Hate Crimes Advisory Board. She is a board member of George Mason University’s Center for World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution; has been named an Ambassador for Peace by the Interreligious Federation for World Peace; and addressed the Center for Ethics and Public Policy.

Al-Suwaij has testified to the Senate; briefed the President and Secretary of State; and works with Congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Boston Globe, and Hartford Courant. Al-Suwaij has been interviewed on NPR, CNN, Fox, and Al-Jazeera. She has lectured at Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, and many other campuses.

Since the toppling of Saddam Hussein, Al-Suwaij has been working in Iraq to strengthen women’s rights and help rebuild the Iraqi education system. She led the State Department-funded Iraqi Women’s Educational Institute, which trained female civil society activists in principles of democracy and civic leadership. Al-Suwaij also co-founded the Iraqi Women Higher Counsel – which successfully lobbied the Iraqi Interim Governing Council to mandate 25% of parliamentary seats for women.

Al-Suwaij’s latest initiative is HAMSA, an international civil rights initiative that unites Americans to support individual freedoms in the Middle East. Al-Suwaij also directs AIC’s Washington office, and has recently established the Capital Hill Speaker Series to promote a progressive Muslim agenda to political leaders and policy makers.