Ulfat Hussein

President

Ms. Ulfat Hussein Masibo founded Africa Muslim Women Action Network (AMWAN) in 2019 and based in Mombasa. AMWAN is Muslim women led organization seeking to bring forth an egalitarian society by advocating for gender equality and women empowerment. She is also the current Regional co-ordinator for Coast People Forum (CPF), an organisation seeking to educate the girl child at the coast region.

Ms. Hussein is a Kenyan citizen born from an Arab Muslin mother and a Christian father of African origin, the late Patrick Masibo. 

Muhammad Ali Aluma

Vice President

Muhamad Ali Aluma is a final student of Masters in Law (LLM) from Islamic University in Uganda. He has completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice Waiting for Results from Law Development Centre (LDC) and a Degree in Law (LLB) from Islamic University in Uganda. Currently, he heads the Social Services Department at Uganda Muslim Supreme and is a Board Member Peace, Justice and Governance Committee - Inter Religious Council of Uganda.

Sherine Elbanhawy

Secretary

Sherine Elbanhawy is pursuing an MA in Islamic Studies with a specialization in Women and Gender Studies at McGill University. She holds a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. She’s the founder of Rowayat, a literary magazine showcasing Egyptian writers. Her writing has been published in The Malahat Review, Room Magazine, Arablit and others. She loves to travel, read and spend time with family, and friends. She’s AIM’s board member and secretary, tweets @CaireneGirl

Kelsey Hatchitt

Deputy Secretary

Kelsey Hatchitt is a social worker, feminist, and manager of two successful online platforms, Femislay and Muslim Women You Should Know. Hailing from Florida, Kelsey nourished a passion for travel, education, and social justice, specifically women’s rights. These passions have taken her across the world, living for extended periods of time in Washington DC, Malaysia, France, and the United Kingdom. Kelsey converted to Islam in 2021 and has since dedicated time her time to study Islam through a feminist lens. She is currently works as a Digital Advocate for Muslims for Progressive Value while managing her two online platforms.

Ani Osman-Zonneveld

Treasurer

Ms. Ani Zonneveld is Founder and President of Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV), a faith-based, grassroots, international human rights organization that embodies and advocates for the traditional Qur’anic values of social justice and equality for all. Ms. Zonneveld has presided over MPV’s expansion to include chapters and affiliates in 12 countries and 19 cities. She is the co-editor of MPV’s first book “Progressive Muslim Identities – Personal Stories from the U.S. and Canada”; , and is the subject of a documentary title “al-imam” featuring Ani’s activism works.

Ms. Zonneveld is the founder of the Alliance of Inclusive Muslims and now serves as its Treasurer.

Imam Khalfan Bukuru Elie

Global Director, Human Rights Promotion

Imam Khalfan, President, Founder, and Legal Representative of AICNDH, is a leader in the Muslim community in Burundi. Imam Khalfan was born in Nyagatovu in 1984. After college, he went to study Islamic Studies at the Islamic Institute of Mombasa. At that time, he became aware of harmful interpretations of sacred texts. In 2012, upon returning from Mombasa, Imam Khalfan did a six-month training on Islamic Thought at the Islamic Cultural Center in Kigali.

Through AICNDH, he engages in promoting human rights, especially Muslim women’s rights, citizen participation, and humanitarian development. Imam Khalfan holds a graduate degree in Mathematical Physics from the Normal Superior School of Burundi (ENS). As a student, Imam Khalfan founded and led the Association of Muslim Students of Normal School (AEMENS). He also served as Executive Secretary for Muslim Students of the East African Community.

Kassoum Coulibaly

Global Director Sexual, Reproductive & Health Rights

Mr. Kassoum Coulibaly is an economist, a strategist, an intellectual, economic and social entrepreneur with more than 21 years working experience with Youth and Women across Africa and the World.

Mr. Coulibaly is the Founder, President and CEO of the Global Institute for Women’s Empowerment Group (GIWE GROUP), a member of MenEngage Global Alliance and also the National Coordinator of MenEngage Network Mali and Vice-Chair of the Steering Committee of MenEngage Africa Alliance. He is also a UN Women’s HeForShe Initiative Member and the Co-Founder of the African Development Group (ADG), the African Mining Alliance (AMA), the Alliance for African Renaissance (ARA) and the African Youth Center (AYC).

Mwanga Mastullah Ashah

Global Director of Family Law Reform

Ashah is a PhD Human Rights Fellow at Makerere University, Uganda. She is re-known human rights activist, a writer, and lawyer who tries to talk, write, live, work and love the feminist way. 

She is a 2017 global award-winning young woman along-side twenty other young women having been selected by the Coady International Institute of the St. Fx University- Canada as global change leader doing amazing human rights and access to justice work for women in within the African region. The same year, Women in International Security (WIIS) also recognized her as a woman in peace scholar. In 2018, she was selected by the Johannesburg Institute for advanced Study (JIAS) as a residence writing fellow of Muslim women human rights. In 2020, she was selected as a community fellow with the Tempest Washington DC. In 2019, she was selected by Equitas, Canada for the International Human Rights Training Program. She is the founding Executive Director of the Islamic Women’s Initiative for Justice Law and Peace (IWILAP), a lecturer of gender and the law, human rights law at Makerere University. She also lectures criminal justice at Busitema University in Uganda. 

Odette Yilmaz

Board Member

Odette Yilmaz (she/her) resides in Hamburg, Germany and has been a member of LIB Germany since 2011. Over her professional career, she has dedicated her time to becoming an activist for women’s rights, gender equality and an inclusive society, condoning any kind of group-focused enmity that threatens these rights. Since her election as Chairperson of LIB in 2018 she has been defending inclusive and progressive values in the context of Islam in several committees and federal ministries. Outside of politics, Ms. Yilmaz works as the Head of Administration at Mamalies, a Hamburg-based institution working to create an empowering and safe space and educational opportunities for refugee women and their children.

Frej Fenniche - Adviser

Board Member

Mr. Frej Fenniche was, until recently, the Chief of Asia, Pacific, Middle East and North Africa Branch (APMENAB) at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, based in Geneva. He started working with the UN in 1997 as the Head of the OHCHR Country Office in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In 2001, he was appointed Senior Human Rights Officer in charge of the coordination with NGOs in the context of the World Conference Against Racism (Durban, September 2001). From 2002 to 2004, Mr. Fenniche was Chief of the Middle East and North Africa Section (MENA). He also served in the field as Regional Representative in the Arab Region, based in Beirut (2004-2006), and Regional Representative for Africa, based in Addis Ababa (2007-2010). From 2010 to 2015, Mr. Fenniche was appointed again as the Chief of MENA Section in Geneva. Prior to joining the United Nations, he was the Executive Director of the Arab Institute for Human Rights (Tunis, 1989-1996) and he was working as a junior researcher with the League of Arabs States (1984-1989).

Mr. Fenniche holds a Master’s degree from Institut de Presse et des Sciences de l’information, Tunis University and a First degree from Ecole Nationale d’Administration, Tunis University. In addition, between 1993 and 1995, he attended courses in political science at the Faculty of Law at Tunis University.

Mr. Fenniche is now an Independent Advisor to the Alliance of Inclusive Muslims board.