Zainab Al-Suwaij

Zainab Al-Suwaij is the co-founder and Executive Director of the American Islamic Congress (AIC), a nonprofit established in the wake of the September 11 attacks to build interfaith understanding, mobilize a moderate voice in the American Muslim community, and promote civil rights in the Muslim world.

Al-Suwaij’s personal mission is to promote a positive Muslim-American voice that strengthens interfaith relations and addresses the many challenges in the Muslim world. She actively leads interfaith and tolerance programs across various religious and educational institutions. Al-Suwaij serves on Connecticut’s Hate Crimes Advisory Board and is a board member of George Mason University’s Center for World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution. She has also been recognized as an Ambassador for Peace by the Interreligious Federation for World Peace.

Born in Basra, Iraq, in 1971, Al-Suwaij participated in the failed 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein, an experience she recounted in a memoir for The New Republic, before fleeing to the United States. Coming from a prominent religious family, she is a Hashemite, a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, and blends traditional and progressive elements in her personal religious beliefs. Since the toppling of Saddam Hussein, Al-Suwaij has been instrumental in efforts to rebuild the Iraqi education system and strengthen women’s rights in Iraq, co-founding the Iraqi Women Higher Counsel which successfully lobbied for a mandate that 25% of Iraqi parliamentary seats be allocated to women. She also established the Iraqi Women’s Educational Institute.

Al-Suwaij has testified before the Senate, briefed the President and the Secretary of State, and her writing has been featured in major publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and others. She has appeared on media outlets like NPR, CNN, and Al-Jazeera, and spoken at prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Yale, and Georgetown. She also participated in a major rally alongside George Clooney in April 2006 to Save Darfur in Washington, DC.

Her latest initiative, HAMSA, supports human rights activists in the Middle East through projects like an essay contest judged alongside figures like Azar Nafisi and Gloria Steinem. Al-Suwaij also directs the AIC’s Washington office, where she continues to advocate for a progressive Muslim agenda to political leaders and policymakers.