The panelists are:
- Asma Barlas: a professor of Politics and Director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity, at Ithaca College (New York). She has an M.A. and Ph.D. in International Studies (USA) and an M.A. in Journalism (Pakistan). Asma has written extensively on Qur’anic hermeneutics, Muslim sexual politics and Islam and women’s rights. Her best-known work is “Believing Women” in Islam: Unreeling Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an.
- Lynda Clarke: a professor of Religion and Islam in the Department of Religion at Concordia University in Montreal. She focuses in her research and teaching on Shiism, gender and law, and has also written on Islam in the West and Canada. Her most recent publication in the latter field is “Asking Questions about Shariah: Lessons from Ontario”, a chapter in the volume Debating Shariah: Islam, Gender Politics and Family Law Arbitration, published by the University of Toronto Press in 2012. Professor Clarke is a longstanding ally of CCMW, having collaborated in several other projects, including the Muslim Marriage Contract Kit designed to provide a basis for Muslim couples to construct a more equal marriage using Muslim law. She is also the coauthor of the CCMW book on Muslim and Canadian Family Laws.
- Pamela Cross: a feminist lawyer who works in the violence against women sector. She is well known and respected in legal reform circles, particularly for her expertise on family law issues as they relate to violence against women. Pamela has worked as a researcher, writer, educator and trainer on the topic of violence against women and the law for many years. She is a member of the teaching faculty with the National Judicial Institute, where she plans and delivers educational programs on violence against women to Canadian judges and has recently completed the development of violence against women curriculum for law schools in a project with the Law Commission of Ontario. Pamela has worked with the Canadian Council of Muslim Women in the past, most notably as the co-author of “Muslim and Canadian Family Laws: A Comparative Primer,” as well as delivering workshops on family law to CCMW members. Pamela’s most recent paper is “It Shouldn’t Be This Hard: a gender-based analysis of family law, family court and violence against women” – available at www.lukesplace.ca.