Irshad Manji

Irshad Manji is author of the international bestseller, The Trouble with Islam. It has been published in twenty countries, including Pakistan. She wrote the book while serving as Writer-in-Residence at the University of Toronto's Hart House. She now sits on the inter-faith editorial board of Seventeen magazine. In her life beyond the book, Ms. Manji hosts Big Ideas on TVOntario. She frequently writes for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, OUT, Glamour, and TIME.

Serving as National Affairs Editorialist for the Ottawa Citizen since the age of 23, she produced and hosted Queer Television on Toronto's Citytv. Winner of a Gemini, this was the world's first program on commercial airwaves to explore the lives of gay and lesbian people. In 1997, she wrote Risking Utopia: On the Edge of a New Democracy. This book chronicles how young people are re-defining democracy in an age of fluid communication networks, shifting social values and flexible personal identities.

Ms. Manji attended the University of British Columbia, graduating with an honours degree in history and becoming the first humanities student to win the Governor-General's Medal for top graduate. Since then, Ms. magazine has selected Ms. Manji a Feminist for the 21st Century. Maclean's magazine has named her to its 2004 honour roll of Canadians Who Make a Difference. She has won the Simon Wiesenthal Award of Valour.