meet us

Board of Directors

Sahar Zaidi

Chair

Sahar Zaidi has 10 years of management experience with a track record of effectively supporting staff, volunteers, and board with budgeting, strategic planning, evaluation, and policies and procedures.

Sahar has sat on various advisory committees on topics such as domestic violence, forced marriages, human trafficking, cyberbullying, Muslim and Christian dialogue, and women’s rights. Through her work in the violence against women sector, Sahar has experience being a presenter and facilitator with community groups and service providers.

She currently works as an Operations Manager for Mary’s House Services Limited, which provides a refuge and a community centre for women affected by domestic abuse.

Dr Shakira Hussein

Dr Shakira Hussein is a multi-award winning writer, researcher and advocate who has undertaken groundbreaking work on topics including gender violence, racism, disability, and the far-right. She is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute and has held numerous other leadership roles and was awarded the 2019 Brenda Gabe Leadership Award by Women with Disabilities Victoria.

Dr Hussein’s work has been published by leading academic, literary and media outlets. Her book “From Victims to Suspects: Muslim women since 9/11” was included by International Affairs on its list of Top Ten Summer Reads for 2019. She has been awarded several major literary awards and has served as a judge for the 2021 Liminal Literary Award for Non-Fiction, as well as the 2020 and 2023 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award.

Jeena Joyan

Jeena Joyan holds a Bachelor of Business degree from The University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) with a major in marketing. 

Jeena has worked for over 15 years in the corporate marketing space, working primarily in the IT & T industry for organisations such as Optus, Telstra and McAfee, holding both national and international marketing roles.  Additionally, she has also worked as a freelance marketing consultant for small & medium sized businesses. In 2016, Jeena decided to channel her skills into the for purpose sector, working with corporate partners who support the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation (SCHF) from a fundraising perspective. 

Jeena has also served on the Board of The Co-Op Bookshop (now National Geographic) and is a proud mother of two boys. As a Muslim woman who migrated to Australia as a child from war-torn Afghanistan, Jeena sees her position on the board of AMWCHR as an opportunity to support and give back to the community. 

Nazia Ahmed

Nazia is an economist, entrepreneur and social innovator. She specialises in evaluating and designing initiatives that improve social outcomes. She is the CEO and founder of social impact consulting firm the Social Outcomes Lab (SOULAB) and founder of a number of social initiatives, most recently Her Kitchen Table.

Nazia was born in Saudi Arabia to Bangladeshi born parents and has lived in Australia since she was 10 years old. From a young age, she had an interest in wealth disparity and was perplexed by how a person’s whole life could be altered from a lack of wealth and income. This led her to study economics and particularly the issues that mattered to disadvantaged population groups. Prior to starting SOULAB, Nazia was Chief Economist in NSW Government’s human services portfolio and Strategy Consultant in a big four consulting firm. 

Dr Nuzhat Lotia

Dr Nuzhat Lotia has more than 25 years of experience of working in the not-for-profit sector in Australia and Pakistan. She is currently working at Victoria Legal Aid as the Senior Consultant (for Diversity and Inclusion). She has previously worked as the Director Operations at Women’s Legal Service Victoria and prior to the community legal sector, Nuzhat worked for fifteen years at the Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights (AMWCHR). She led and managed the design, development and delivery of several groundbreaking programs for Muslim women and their families in Victoria and set the foundation for working with other Muslim women’s organisations across Australia.

She has managed programs focusing on community participation and capacity building at AMWCHR. In addition to her work in the not-for-profit sector, Dr Lotia teaches management subjects at the University of Melbourne. She received her PhD in management from the University of Melbourne and her MBA from the San Francisco State University. 

Miran Hosny

Miran Hosny is a senior solicitor in the area of family law, with a particular interest in not-for-profit and low-bono organisations.

She is currently practising at Wallumatta Legal, a low-fee, not-for-profit law firm  servicing individuals and families who require legal advice, representation, advocacy and support following separation.

At the heart of her practise of the law, Miran is driven by values of social justice and an empathy for families and communities.

When not lawyering, she has channelled that mission through oral and written storytelling spanning years of radio presenting and producing, published fiction and non-fiction writing, and her contribution to the PanMacmillan anthology,  ‘Arab, Australian, Other’.

Aliya Ahmad

Aliya Ahmad is a media campaigner with high-level experience leading and developing state and national campaigns on issues of housing and homelessness, racial and economic justice, and more. She is an experienced media trainer for CEOs and executives in civil society as well as grassroots campaigners and activists.

Aliya was the Co-Director of the Economic Media Centre, a non profit organisation that built the media capacity of grassroots and community advocates and spokespeople on a range of issues. Aliya has also worked in the homelessness and housing sector, in national racial justice campaigns, and more.

She sat on the Board of Switchboard Victoria and National Media Engagement Advisory Group for Media Making Change at Our Watch.

Alaa Karrar

Alaa Karrar is an emerging corporate leader with over 10 years of financial services and banking experience, covering treasury, payments, product, digital experience, and project delivery. As a woman of colour she has a multi passion for intersectional inclusion and equity and leads the executive leadership and engagement stream within her organisation’s Diversity and Inclusion committee with a mission to drive diverse representation at senior leadership roles.   

She has previously worked with for purpose philanthropic boards in driving funding projects for marginalised communities and recently joined AMWCHR in 2023 as a board member imparting experiences in governance, sponsorship, project management and inclusive leadership.    

Alaa is of east African decent and has lived in 3 countries and speaks over 3 languages. She is passionate in driving social equality and justice by creating access and opportunities for marginalised or underrepresented communities. 

The Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which we conduct our work, and that sovereignty has never been ceded. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and future.