As a social entrepreneur, Irshad has launched Project Ijtihad, an initiative to develop the world’s first leadership network for reform-minded Muslims. In that capacity, she was recently named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Oprah Winfrey honored Irshad with the first annual Chutzpah Award for “audacity, nerve, boldness, and conviction.” Ms. magazine chose Irshad as a “Feminist for the 21st Century.” Maclean’s, Canada’s national news magazine, selected her one of ten “Canadians Who Make a Difference.” And the Jakarta Post in Indonesia—the world’s largest Muslim country—identified Irshad as one of three women creating a positive change in Islam today.
Born in 1968, Irshad is a refugee from Idi Amin’s Uganda. In 1972, she and her family fled to Vancouver, where Irshad grew up attending public schools as well as the Islamic madressa. In 1990, she earned an honors degree in intellectual history from the University of British Columbia, winning the Governor-General’s medal for top graduate.
After graduation, Irshad became legislative assistant to a member of parliament, then press secretary to the Ontario Minister for Women’s Issues. In 1992, at age 24, she entered the media as National Affairs Editorialist for the Ottawa Citizen, the youngest person to sit on the editorial board of a Canadian daily newspaper. She left to take up the post of speechwriter for the first female leader of a Canadian political party.
From there, Irshad went on to write Risking Utopia: On the Edge of a New Democracy. Published in 1997, it chronicles how young people are re-defining democracy in an age of fluid media networks, shifting social values, and flexible personal identities. Today, Risking Utopia is widely used by Canadian educators to re-imagine public schooling.
In 1998, Irshad began producing and hosting QueerTelevision on Toronto’s Citytv. This was the world’s first program on commercial airwaves to explore the lives of gay and lesbian people. She also negotiated the syndication of QueerTelevision through San Francisco-based Web portal, planetout.com, making QueerTelevision among the first programs ever to be streamed entirely on the Internet. As such, it built a global audience quickly while circumventing state censors. It also won the Gemini, Canada’s highest broadcasting award, for best-edited general information show.
Despite her multi-media approach, books remain Irshad’s passion. With the release of The Trouble with Islam Today, Irshad’s ideas are capturing international attention. That means condemnation as well as praise. As Indonesia’s Jakarta Post writes, “She not only has a funky hairdo, but The Trouble with Islam Today has caused much debate.”