Nahid Angha

Angha is the daughter of the 20th century Persian Sufi master Moulana Shah Maghsoud (d. 1980) of the Uwaiysi lineage.[11] Her mother, Mah Talat Etemad Moghadam (d. 2012), was from one of the prominent Persian families, and a descendant of Etemad Saltaneh[12] whose journals and memoirs remained as one of the important manuscripts on Qajar Dynasty, Iran.[13] Her father appointed her to teach and lead Sufi gatherings when she was in her early twenties. She initially held gatherings at her father's Khaneghah in Sufi Abad, Iran, she continued to teach in the United States. Angha has studied at the University of Teheran, Iran; SW Missouri State University, US; and University of Exeter, UK, and has doctorate degrees in Psychology and in Islamic Studies. Angha has two daughters, Hamaseh and Sahar and she lives in California with her family. She began her humanitarian, interreligious collaboration and peace efforts in the US in the early 1980s and continues those efforts today.[14]

Angha, together with her husband Ali Kianfar, co-founded the International Association of Sufism(IAS), a California-based non-profit devoted to the teachings of Sufism and Sufi Masters (1983).[15] Historically, Sufis have made great contributions to the development of science, literature, poetic styles, astronomy, architectural designs, and more.[16] The International Association of Sufism has as its mission to make known the interrelations between Sufi principles and scientific principles through lectures, publications, Sufism An Inquiry Journal, and creating a forum for a continuing dialogue among Sufis from around the world. Angha has said that it took her about ten years to gather Sufi schools and Sufi masters from around the globe for the first Annual Sufism Symposium, a weekend conversation in March 1994; she considers organizing that Symposium one of her greatest achievements.[17] Her vision and tireless works brought together Sufis masters and schools from around the globe,[18] an unprecedented effort that made the International Association of Sufism the first organization ever created to initiate a global intra-faith movement within the Sufi community, and she became one of the leading Sufi voices for women's rights.[10] As a response to the need at the time, she expanded the IAS' roles to include humanitarian, interfaith collaboration,[19] and human rights advocacy. Through her efforts IAS received a UN NGO/DPI status, in 1997, and her peace works have also made the IAS a Messenger of UNESCO's Manifesto 2000 for contributing to a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence. She serves as IAS main representative to the NGO/DPI.

In 2015 she celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the Sufism Symposium, and published the history and the biography of over 140 Sufis masters and interfaith leaders who have participated and presented during those twenty years in Caravan: Biographies from Sufism Symposia 1994–2014.

In support of and to advocate for expressive art and to honor the roles of sacred lyrics, hymns and songs of faith traditions in our social justice and civil rights movements,[20] she organized the Songs of the Soul Poetry and Sacred Music Festival, 2012,[21] and Building Bridges of Understanding: Expressions in 2014, highlighting the beauty of poetry and sacred music in spirituality and faith traditions.

Women have played important roles in the development of art, science, education, entertainment, politics and more, yet the field of religion remains one of the most challenging for women's leadership. It is important to also acknowledge women who, through their endeavors and perseverance, have made contributions towards equality[22] and freedom in the field of religion and spirituality. Angha has been one of those pioneers whose vision of and works towards humanitarian efforts, inter-religious dialogue and intra-religious movement, equality, peace, and freedom have played fundamental roles in creating the International Sufi Women Organization in 1993.[23]

Angha has made a point in her work to redefine the social standard for gender roles in the Sufi religious context.[24] At the 1994 Sufism Symposium, as the first Sufi woman sitting together with male leaders in the center circle of zikr, a position historically reserved for men, she led meditation and paved the way for other Muslim women to participate and lead in Sufi worship.[25] Her efforts continue to create forums for harmonious, global, peaceful dialogue[26] within Sufi communities as well as normalizing the leadership of Sufi women in the traditional Sufi gatherings.[27]

Through her efforts and the works of many Sufi women from around the globe, the Sufi Women Organization was able to create a global dialogue among women of different cultures and spiritual backgrounds[28] with the goals to promote women's rights, promote the right to education, and to create social awareness as a pathway towards peace. In 1999, it held its first international conference on Women's Wisdom, Women in Action[29] which hosted women leaders from diverse spiritual and cultural backgrounds for a weekend conversation in 1999. The Organization has also created a thirteen-article Code of Ethics to promote human rights, the right to education, equality, support those who are oppressed or abused, and promote equality of genders in both spiritual and secular domains. Angha organized a series of workshops and round table discussions on the prevention of domestic violence in 2004 and 2005 in California, as well as a round table research program series on cross-cultural study of Middle Eastern families recently migrated to the US, which studied and discussed how they were coping with the new culture, language, and environment, and sought how to learn the pressures of the new environment affect spousal relationships, parent/child relationships, parent/teen relationships, and sibling relationships.[30]

Angha has organized a team of well-accomplished women to oversee the Sufi Women Organization's women's leadership series, begun in 1993. She has also initiated a youth organization with a multi-religious, multicultural unified voice to advocate for children's rights, Voice for Justice, which has earned ambassadorship status from UNICEF, created programs such as: Summer 2016 free breakfast for school children of low-income families[31] and has partnered with several humanitarian organizations to support the well-being of all including social justice programs; and HIV/AIDs prevention; Aids Walk; Cancer Awareness; Education: Adopt a classroom, and more.[32]

Angha says that globalization leads to partnership, and valuable partnership expands the mission of organizations, and following her own ideology, she has initiated partnerships with other like-minded organizations to establish greater possibilities to contribute towards humanitarian efforts. Through these partnerships, IAS and SWO and its Chapters, both local and international, were able to expand their charitable efforts to include care for children caught in refugee and migrant crises; providing basic medicine and clean water in refugee areas; educational scholarship; ending HIV through training local nurses; orphan care; health education; mobile health clinics in Africa; and in California, SWO was able to contribute towards medical case management, free testing, and free syringes in its work to end HIV by 2030.[33]

Her continual advocacy for non-violent solutions for women and children in conflict areas[33][34] has led her to participate in peace campaigns, including National Interreligious Leadership Initiative For Peace In The Middle East,[35] "The Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders," and present talks[36][37] regarding women's rights and humanitarian intervention, such as: "Human rights, responsibilities and spirituality" at the 53rd Annual United Nations DPI/NGO Conference at the UN Headquarters; "Women in Islam: Sufi Women & Human Rights," Cape Town 1999; "Human Dignity and the New Frontier of Science," Italy; she has also written many articles on those topics.[38]

Her works in collaboration with inter-religious organizations and faith traditions began in the early 1980s. She has served in many-faith based organizations (1983–2016), including as a Board member as well as a President of the Board of Directors of the Interfaith Center at the Presidio, San Francisco; the Board of Directors of the Marin Interfaith Council; a Founding member of the United Religions Initiative (URI) Council for Women; the Board of Directors of Marin Museum of American Indian; a Member of the Assembly of the Parliament of the World Religions, Cape Town and Barcelona; a Member of the National Interreligious Leadership Delegation;[39] a Member of the Assembly for UNESCO: Culture of Peace, Mexico; on the Advisory Board of the Mystic Heart Institute; on the Advisory Board of the Institute for World Religions; Scholar Advisor for Interfaith Sacred Space, presented at the CPWR conference in Spain, 2004;[40] and she presented Bay Area faith communities to the Goldin Institute, in Manresa, Spain, and more.