Ayesha Imam

Ayesha Imam is a human rights activist and the Board of Directors Chair of Greenpeace.

Previously, she was Chief of the Culture, Gender, and Human Rights department of the United Nations Population Fund and a founding member and pioneer national coordinating secretary of Women in Nigeria. She later became the coordinator of a BAOBAB for Women's Human Rights, a human rights advocacy group.

Prior to that, Imam was a faculty member of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) starting in 1980. In 1983, she was the coordinating secretary, the highest official position of Women in Nigeria, a feminist organization based in Zaria. In 1996, she co-founded BAOBAB, a women's rights group that provides legal protection for women who are charged under codified Sharia penal codes, customary or secular laws that involve women but were established without the consideration of the interests of women. Such codes deal with flogging or stoning of women. As director of BAOBAB during the introduction of Sharia, the organization held seminars across the country to discuss how Muslim laws can be interpreted to support women's rights.

In 2002, she was awarded the John Humphrey Freedom Award. Imam is a member of African Feminist Forum.

Imam earned a sociology bachelor's degree from Polytechnic of North London in 1980 and a masters from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in 1983. She completed her doctorate at the University of Sussex.