- ABU programme
- M.A.; faculty member from 1983
- Class year
- 1983
- Field
- Civil society & advocacy
- Recognition
- Founding Director, BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights (John Humphrey Freedom Award, 2002); Chair, Greenpeace International Board (2017–2023)
Civil society & advocacy
Ayesha Imam
Scholar-activist whose organisation BAOBAB won international recognition defending women’s rights under religious, customary and secular law.
Their work
Ayesha Imam founded BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights in 1996, defending women charged under Sharia penal codes, customary and secular laws; the organisation received the John Humphrey Freedom Award in 2002.
Her work spans the international network Women Living Under Muslim Laws, a senior culture, gender and human-rights role at UNFPA, and the chairmanship of Greenpeace International’s board from 2017 to 2023.
Their ABU connection
Imam joined Ahmadu Bello University in 1980, took her master’s degree there in 1983 and taught on its faculty, the academic base from which her scholarship and activism grew.
