Draft:Azza Karam

Azza Karam (born 1968, Cairo, Egypt) is an Egyptian professor, CEO, and author, known for being the first woman executive director of Religions for Peace.

Early life and education
Karam was born in Egypt, but lived in New Delhi, India, till the age of 4. She grew up in a conservative Egyptian Muslim family, but had an Hindu nanny while living in India. Karam has said that seeing both salat and puja from a young age sparked her interest in religion and religious collaboration. Her father was a diplomat, so Karam traveled frequently throughout her childhood.

When she was older, Karam became interested in the intersection of religion and politics when she saw her religious aunt struggle to obtain a divorce in Egypt in the 1970s.

She attended St George's English School, before going on to earn a bachelor's degree in Economics, Business Administration, and Political Science from American University in Cairo. She earned a master's degree in Politics of Alternative Development Strategies from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam.

She earned a Ph.D. in environmental sciences at the University of Amsterdam.

Early career
While Karam was researching her PhD at the University of Amsterdam's then International Center for Development Research (InDRA), she was also working with the Netherlands based Humanistich Overleg Mensenrechten (HOM) and the Arab and Egyptian Organisations for Human Rights. Dr. Karam co-founded the Muslim Women's Network in the Netherlands, and represented it at both the UN International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994, as well as the Fourth Beijing Women's Conference in 1995. During the 1990s, she completed a number of consultancies and trainings on gender and international development, with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the OSCE and UND, among others.

Karam worked as a Senior Programme Officer at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), where she founded and Co-Directed four Programmes: Deep-Rooted Conflict, Women and Politics, Democratization in the Arab World, and Applied Research. She also co-led Democracy Assessment missions to South Africa, India, Morocco, Egypt, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Karam coordinated the production and global launches of the Arab Human Development Reports (on governance and Gender) ("the most downloaded report in UNDP's history"). She represented the Arab Regional Bureau in coordination of, and presentations at, United Nations Inter-Agency Task Forces. She also represented key governmental and non-governmental partnership strategy meetings in Algiers, Amman, Beirut, Cairo, Casablanca, and Dubai.

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
In the late 2000s, Karam began working as Senior Advisor on Culture at the UN Population Fund. In 2010, She founded and chaired the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on FBOs and Sustainable Development (UNIATF). In 2018, UNIATF established the Multi Faith Advisory Council with 45 international faith-based organisations.
 * Secured UNFPA's first Global Interfaith Network on Population and Development with over 600 global faith-based development NGOs.
 * Provided training and capacity building for UN Staff and civil society partners on religion, development and humanitarian work, and intercultural and multicultural management and leadership initiatives.
 * Provided strategic policy advice to UN and non-UN development partners, on religion, culture and development;
 * Supported colleagues in representation functions on respective Inter-Agency bodies and other non-UN bodies on development-related dynamics.
 * Supported colleagues on substantive matters relating to social and cultural dynamics of development – including strategic partnerships with faith-based NGOs and Religious Leaders – on human rights and gender equality;

High Level-Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism
Karam has been a member of the High Level-Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism since April 2022. The board "was established to build on the ideas in Our Common Agenda – including the centrality of women and girls, and the need to take into account the interests of young people and future generations – to make concrete suggestions for more effective multilateral arrangements across a range of key global issues".

Religions for Peace
Karam first became involved with Religions for Peace in 2000, as founder and Director of the Global Women of Faith Network and Advisor on Middle East Interreligious dynamics. She stayed in the position until 2004. While working as director, she established the first Global Network of Religious Women's Organizations, which comprised more than 1,000 religious women's organisations representing all major religious traditions around the world.

She also served as President of the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations, and as the Special Advisor to the Secretary General on Middle East Affairs (conflict, HIV/AIDS, women's empowerment, and establishment of Interreligious Councils).

In 2003, she set up the Iraqi Inter-Religious Council/Iraqi Council of Religions for Peace, where she managed the first interreligious conference with the then Iraq Coalition Provisional Authorities.

Karam created a number of written materials while working at Religions for Peace. These included a newsletter to accompany the 'Religion and Gender' Seminar Series she established; two books: Global Directory of Women of Faith, and A Woman's Place: Religious Women as Public Actors; and manuals on Gender Mainstreaming and conflict transformation within religious communities.

In August 2019, Karam was elected Secretary General of Religions for Peace, becoming both the first woman and the first Muslim to hold the position.

During her time with the organization, Karam helped create the " first multi-religious council of leaders within the UNHCR". Karam also advocated for equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, spoke out against vaccine hesitancy justified by religion, and aided in mpox prevention efforts. In relation to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Karam urged organizations and policymakers to not generalize religious leaders in the country, and recognize religious diversity in order to meaningfully address the situation. She resigned from the position in June 2023.
 * Karam built the first (ever) Multi Religious Humanitarian Fund - and through it, secured humanitarian relief services to 30 countries, reaching hundreds of thousands of recipients throughout the Covid lockdowns.
 * Codified the first Global Code of Conduct for Inter-religious Collaboration.
 * Strengthened communication and accountability mechanisms within and with over 90 Inter-religious Councils (IRCs) in 90 countries through over 40 trainings.
 * Produced the first knowledge Hub on inter-religious collaboration with the World Economic Forum.
 * Organized the first global Conferences on Faith and Diplomacy and on women of faith with the German government.
 * Received two international awards in recognition of the organisation's efforts.

Teaching
Karam taught at West Point University from 2002 until 2018. She became a Professor of Religion and Development at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) in 2019, where she has continued to work.

Personal life
Karam became a citizen of the Netherlands in 1996. She moved to the United States in 2000.

Publications
Karam has been published on a wide scope of areas including democratization, human rights, peace and security, gender, religious engagement, and sustainable development.

Contributor

 * The Lancet (2015)
 * The British Medical Journal
 * The Routledge International Encyclopaedia of Women
 * The Encyclopaedia of Women in Islamic Cultures

Books

 * A Woman's Place: Religious Women as Public Actors. Editor and Contributor. NY: WCRP.1998.
 * A Woman's Place: Religious Women as Public Actors. Editor and Contributor. NY: WCRP.1998.


 * Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers. Stockholm: International IDEA. (Editor) June 1998. (Translated into Bahasa Indonesian; Spanish and French).
 * Nisaa fi Muwajahat Nisaa – in Arabic (Cairo: Sutour Press, 2003).



Awards

 * Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from John Cabot University (Rome, Italy) in 2022.
 * International Religious Liberty Award. Awarded by the International Religious Liberty Association, Washington DC, 2023.
 * The Spirit of the United Nations Award (2015), Committee for Spirituality and Global Concerns at the United Nations.
 * Distinguished Alumni Award (2009), American University in Cairo
 * Bright Young Scholars Award (1997) - Ford Foundation, Boston, USA.
 * Special NGO Representation Grant (1994), the International Conference on Population and Development, ICPD, Amsterdam University.
 * Special NGO Representative Grant (1995), to Beijing Women's Conference from Mama Cash, Amsterdam.
 * Ph.D. Research Scholarship (1990) Stichting De Zaaier, The Hague.