Zakia Soman is a

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

activist from India and one of the founding members of

Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan or BMMA ('Indian Muslim Women's Movement') is an autonomous, secular, rights-based mass organization led by Zakia Soman which fights for the citizenship rights of the Muslim women in India. The BMMA was formed in Ja ...

, a membership based human rights movement.

Life

Zakia is from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, in India. She worked as a university professor of Business Communication in English at the University of Gujarat. Zakia Soman

Activism

Zakia is an advocate of the rights of

Muslim women The experiences of Muslim women ( ''Muslimāt'', singular مسلمة ''Muslimah'') vary widely between and within different societies. At the same time, their adherence to Islam is a shared factor that affects their lives to a varying degree a ...

. She has worked and written extensively on issues of

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

and

justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on Secularity, secular, Naturalism (philosophy), naturalistic considerations. Secularism is most commonly defined as the Separation of church and state, separation of relig ...

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

, and

minority rights Minority rights are the normal individual rights as applied to members of racial, ethnic, class, religious, linguistic or gender and sexual minorities, and also the collective rights accorded to any minority group. Civil-rights movements ofte ...

. She also set-up the Peace and Human Security theme in

ActionAid ActionAid is an international non-governmental organization whose stated primary aim is to work against poverty and injustice worldwide. ActionAid is a federation of 45 country offices that works with communities, often via local partner organis ...

. She is a member of South Asian Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE). She used to be a university professor in

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

before she quit her job and started working for minority rights. She is a founder of Centre for Peace Studies, which engages in knowledge

activism Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in Social change, social, Political campaign, political, economic or Natural environment, environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes i ...

for peace and tolerance.

Recognition

In 2014,

National Commission for Women The National Commission for Women (NCW) is the statutory body of the Government of India, generally concerned with advising the government on all policy matters affecting women. It was established on 31 January 1992 under the provisions of the I ...

awarded Zakia the Outstanding Women Achiever's Award. She has also featured in BBC's 100 Fearless Women in November 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soman, Zakia Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Indian women's rights activists 21st-century Indian women politicians 21st-century Indian politicians Women human rights activists