Book this speaker: Irshad Manji

About This Speaker: Irshad Manji

Irshad Manji is the founder of Moral Courage College, where she teaches businesses, universities, and K-12 schools to transform contentious issues into constructive conversations and action. Through her work, she empowers individuals to challenge political correctness, intellectual conformity, and self-censorship.

Irshad is the best-selling author of Don’t Label Me, a guide on achieving diversity without division. Chris Rock has even called her book “genius.” Furthermore, she is the first recipient of Oprah Winfrey’s Chutzpah Award for boldness and conviction.

As a professor of leadership at New York University, Irshad Manji has inspired students for many years. She now teaches with Oxford University’s Initiative for Global Ethics and Human Rights. Her expertise on Islam and its role in today’s world has earned her recognition as one of the leading reformist voices.

Her earlier works, including The Trouble with Islam Today, are internationally acclaimed for their calls to reform and reconcile faith with freedom. Irshad’s PBS film Faith Without Fear, which was Emmy-nominated, continues to spark conversation on Islam and women’s rights, especially in the Middle East and North Africa.

Irshad’s journey began when her family was expelled from Uganda in the 1970s and resettled in Canada as political refugees. Upon graduating from university, Irshad worked as a legislative aide to Canada’s most feminist member of parliament. She went to on become press secretary for Ontario’s first women’s issues minister, and then speechwriter for the leader of the New Democratic Party. In 2005, she became a visiting fellow at Yale University and later, a senior fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy.

Irshad Manji’s mission is clear: through moral courage, any individual can challenge the status quo and spark meaningful change. Her engaging talks, filled with passion and humor, inspire audiences to confront challenges and find common ground in a fractured world.

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