Dr. Sohaira Siddiqui

Professor Sohaira Siddiqui is the founding Executive Director of Al-Mujadilah: Center and Mosque for Women, an initiative of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, and Professor of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University. A scholar, strategist, and institutional leader, she works at the intersection of knowledge, community, and transformation, and has spent over two decades building and strengthening educational and religious institutions that reimagine how Muslims learn, lead, and engage with the world. In 2025, she was named to The Muslim 500, the annual list of the world’s 500 most influential Muslims.

At Al-Mujadilah, Professor Siddiqui has led the Center from concept to global recognition. Under her direction, it has launched more than 150 programs, established a global research network of over 100 Muslim female scholars and practitioners, and built local and international partnerships that advance accessible scholarship and capacity-building. Through her leadership, Al-Mujadilah has become a pioneering institution shaping contemporary conversations on Muslim women’s religious education, authority, and participation.

At Georgetown, she researches and teaches Islamic law and political thought, and their intersections with gender and modernity. She is the author of three books: Islamic Law on Trial (2025), Locating the Sharia (2019), and Law and Politics Under the Abbasids (2019). She is currently editing her fourth, The Cambridge Companion to Islamic Law, and writing her fifth, a legal history of wilaya. She has also written more than three dozen academic and public pieces advancing nuanced understandings of Islamic law, colonialism, and Muslim societies.

Beyond Al-Mujadilah and academia, she plays a leading role in institutional development and governance, serving on numerous boards and advising Muslim organizations globally. Her work is driven by a vision to build institutions that unite intellectual excellence, ethical leadership, and transformative community engagement.