Asra Nomani

Asra Quratulain Nomani (born 1965) is a journalist and teaches journalism at Georgetown University and is co-director of the Pearl Project, a faculty-student, investigative-reporting project into the kidnapping and murder of her former colleague, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The project was published by the Center for Public Integrity.

Nomani is the author of two books, Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam and Tantrika: Traveling the Road of Divine Love. She is also the author of numerous articles, including "Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Bedroom", the "Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Mosque", and "99 Precepts for Opening Hearts, Minds and Doors in the Muslim World".

Nomani's story is surveyed in the documentary, The Mosque in Morgantown, aired nationwide on PBS as part of the series America at a Crossroads.

Early life

Nomani was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. When she was four years old, she moved to the United States with her older brother to join their parents in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Her father, Zafar Nomani, was earning a Ph.D. at Rutgers University. When Nomani was ten her family moved to Morgantown, West Virginia, where her father became an assistant professor of nutrition. Her father (cited as M.Z.A. Nomani) published studies on the health effects of Ramadan fasting, and also helped organize mosques in both New Jersey and West Virginia. In her books Tantrika and Standing Alone in Mecca, Nomani states that she descended from Indian Muslim scholar Mawlana Shibli Nomani, who is known for writing a biography of Muhammad. Nomani received her B.A. in Liberal Studies from West Virginia University in 1986 and M.A. from American University in International Communications in 1990.