Conversations with...Mona Siddiqui

The renowned Islamic theologian, Professor Mona Siddiqui OBE, is Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Born in Karachi, Pakistan, the family moved to the UK in 1968 and she currently resides in Scotland. She earned her BA in Arabic and French at the University of Leeds, and her MA in Middle-Eastern Studies and PhD in Classical Islamic Law from the University of Manchester. In addition to being the first Muslim woman to be appointed the Head of Theology and Religious Studies Department at University of Glasgow, her academic work includes texts on the Qur’an (2007), Islam (2010) and Islamic Law (2012a). Professor Siddiqui has also worked extensively on promoting interfaith relations, for which she was awarded an OBE in 2011. She currently holds a visiting professorship at the universities of Utrecht and Tilburg and is an associate scholar at Georgetown University’s Berkley Centre for Religion, Peace and World Affairs.