Speaker Bios

Dr. Sh. Haifaa Younis

Dr. Sh. Haifaa Younis is an American Board Certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist with roots from Iraq. She is the founder and Chairman at Jannah Institute, and a resident scholar at Jannah institute and the Islamic Center of Irvine (ICOI). Dr. Younis graduated from the Mecca Institute of Islamic Studies and Al-Huda Qur’an Memorization School (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) where she completed the memorization of the Qur’an. Currently, she lives and works in the United States, and teaches various Islamic studies courses with a focus on purification of the heart (Tazkiyah).

Zaynab Ansari

Zaynab Ansari serves as an adjunct instructor at Boston Islamic Seminary and a full-time instructor at Tayseer Seminary, where she teaches classes on Islamic law, Qur’anic studies, Prophetic biography, American Muslim history, and women in Islam. She also serves on the boards of Tayseer Foundation and the Muslim Community of Knoxville.

Prior to joining the latter, Zaynab Ansari was based in Atlanta where she was active in interfaith dialogue and bridge-building through the award-winning Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta. A strong believer in women’s education and leadership training, Zaynab Ansari is a regular contributor to the Rabata curriculum, a pioneering online resource for women’s theological training. She studied in the Middle East, spending her formative years in Damascus, Syria, where she was introduced to the foundations of traditional Islam and the etiquette of seeking knowledge. Upon her return from the Middle East, she enrolled in Georgia State University where she focused on interdisciplinary studies in the humanities.

Ieasha Prime

Ieasha Prime is the Director of Women’s Programming at Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Virginia and the founder of the DC Muslim Women’s Conference. She converted to Islam more than 20 years ago after being a Youth Ambassador to Morrocco and Senegal. There she developed a thirst for knowledge that would cause her to sit at the feet and learn from some of the top Islamic Scholars of our time. After having participated in several circles of knowledge in the US, Ieasha decided to pursue religious studies abroad. She studied Arabic, and Quran at the Fajr Institute in Cairo, Egypt. Later, she moved to Hadramaut, Yemen and enrolled in Dar al Zahra, an Islamic University for Women. There she studied Aqeedah, Quran, Hadith, Arabic, Jurisprudence (Fiqh), Islamic law, Purification of the Heart and other religious related learning. She has received several scholarly licenses (ijaza). The work that she is most committed to and enjoys have been the development of Islamic programming, Islamic Studies curriculum and Rites of Passage programs for youth and adults. Majority of her life has been spent as an educator and activist. She is most passionate about combining Islamic studies, cultural art, activism and service for the purpose of training leaders to rise above whatever challenges stand in their way and that of the community they serve. In addition to her full-time work, she is the co-founder and Executive Director of Barakah INC, an organization committed to training Muslim women in traditional Islamic sciences with a focus on modern application. Sister Ieasha is recently known for her participation in the National Women’s March, and the courses she teaches on traditional knowledge, the challenges of race and gender in the Muslim community and Spirituality. Ieasha Prime is a proud wife and mother of three children.

Youssra Kamel Kandil

Youssra Kamel Kandil is a motivational speaker whose goal has been to bring focus back to the Quran and Sunnah. One of her objectives is to reconnect the hearts back to the spirit and light of Islam. She spent her childhood in Kenya and Zimbabwe before moving to Egypt, where she worked with world renowned preacher, Dr. Amr Khaled and was part of the weekly Islamic show, “Parables of the Quran”. After moving to the United States, she continued her studies while teaching Quranic studies and Islamic history to children at a prominent Islamic school. She has completed the Uwaylim Scholarship track with Sh. Shadee El Masry, and is currently working on hifz. Sister Youssra believes it is everyone’s duty to convey even the littlest bit of knowledge and that’s what drives her to continue filming inspirational videos and give lectures around the world, in hopes of fulfilling what our beloved Prophet Muhammad(s) stated, “Convey from me even if it’s one verse".

Muslema Purmul

Muslema Purmul was born in Raleigh, North Carolina and raised in San Diego, California. She graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a double major in Religious Studies and Middle Eastern Studies. During these years she served a number of different roles at her local MSA at UCSD as well as MSA West. After graduating she left to study in Egypt where she spent the better part of the next 7 years. She completed the Bachelors program in Sharia from al-Azhar University in Cairo and also completed almost two years of graduate work at the American University in Cairo in Islamic Studies. She also attended the International Union of Muslim Scholars “Future Scholars Program” while she was studying in Cairo.

Upon her return to America, she served the Southern California community in various capacities including religious instruction, directing youth and young adult programs, university chaplaincy, and offering community pastoral care at and with local masjids and organizations. She has taught classes and spoken nationally and internationally about issues related to Islamic law and ethics in an array of educational settings including conferences, retreats, universities, libraries, and mosques. Currently she serves as Religious Director at The Majlis, a community organization she and her husband co-founded together seeking to nurture safe community spaces where people can learn and live Islam, based on the traditional sources of understanding the faith, while acknowledging the particular challenges of the American context. She is a mother of two and resides with her family in Southern California.

Hadia Mubarak

Hadia Mubarak is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Queens University of Charlotte. She previously served as Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Guilford College and as a Research Fellow at New York University-Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). Mubarak completed her Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from Georgetown University, where she specialized in modern and classical Qurʾanic exegesis, Islamic feminism, and gender reform in the modern Muslim world. She currently serves as a scholar-in-residence with the Muslim Community Center of Charlotte (MCC), a Board of Advisors member with the Carleton Center for the Study of Islam (CCSI), and a scholar with the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU).