Siti Musdah Mulia
Dr. Siti Musdah Mulia is an Indonesian women's rights activist. She was the first woman appointed as a research professor with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, which she still works as, and she also works as a lecturer on Islamic political thought at the School of Graduate Studies of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Indonesia. Since 2007 Siti has also been the Chairperson of the NGO called Indonesian Conference on Religion for Peace.
Siti was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in Islamic thought from the Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic State University in 1997. From 1999 until 2007 she was a Senior Advisor of the Minister of Religious Affairs, through which she was part of a team that created in 2004 a Counter Legal Draft of Indonesia's Islamic legal code, which among other things recommended prohibiting child marriage and allowing interfaith marriage. However, the Minister of Religious Affairs had to cancel the project due to violent protests. From 2000 until 2005 she was the head of the Research Division of The Council of Indonesian Ulema.
She has also written the books Islam Criticizes Polygamy, Reformist Muslimah, and Islam and The Inspiration of Gender Equity.
Siti has received a 2007 International Women of Courage Award, the 2009 Yap Thiam Hien Award, and the 2009 Woman of The Year award from the Italian government.
