Secular Global Institute

PD Dr. Elham Manea is of dual nationalities, Yemeni and Swiss. She is a political scientist, a writer, and a human rights activist. She has published academic and non-fiction books in three languages in addition to two novels in Arabic. She works as an associate professor of Politics in Zurich University and as a consultant for Swiss government agencies and international human rights organizations. She is a Member of the Federal Commission for Women Affairs. Dr. Manea is author of “Ich will nicht Schweigen: Der Islam, Der Westen und die Menschenrechte”, Herder Verlag, 2009, which is based on a series of articles she wrote in Arabic about the concept of a Humanistic Islam. Her latest academic publication was a book entitled The Arab State and Women’s Rights: The Trap of Authoritarian Governance, London: Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Politics, June 2011. Currently she is working on a book project entitled Islamic Law in the West: The Essentialists. She tweets @ElhamManea