Women and Islam to be Focus of 2007 Elizabeth Neuffer Forum

Women and Islam to be Focus of 2007 Elizabeth Neuffer Forum

Washington, DC – Women and Islam: Understanding and Reporting is the theme of the third annual Elizabeth Neuffer Forum on Human Rights and Journalism, which will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 29 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.

The forum is presented by the International Women’s Media Foundation in collaboration with the family and friends of Elizabeth Neuffer with support from The Boston Globe. It is co-sponsored by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.

Elizabeth Neuffer, a Boston Globe reporter and a 1998 winner of an IWMF Courage in Journalism Award, was killed while on assignment in Iraq in 2003. Her life mission was to promote international understanding of human rights and social justice.

Keynote speaker for the luncheon is Major General William Nash (U.S. Army, Ret.), director of the Center for Preventive Action, the conflict prevention initiative of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The forum will also offer a panel of distinguished journalists and human rights advocates. Panel moderator Eleanor Clift is a contributing editor at Newsweek and co-chair of the IWMF’s board of directors.

Panelists include:

• Geneive Abdo, Gallup Organization
• Huda Ahmed, reporter, Iraq; 2006-07 Elizabeth Neuffer IWMF Fellow
• Irfana Anwer, KARAMAH (Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights)
• Kishwer Falkner, Baroness of Margravine
• Lily Zakiyah Munir, Centre for Pesantren and Democracy Studies

The Elizabeth Neuffer Forum on Human Rights and Journalism is a project of the Elizabeth Neuffer IWMF Fund. In addition to the forum, the fund supports the Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship. The nine-month fellowship is given each year to a woman journalist as an opportunity to focus exclusively on human rights journalism.

The Elizabeth Neuffer Fund is generously supported by The Boston Globe; the Boston Globe Foundation; Peter Canellos; Carolyn Lee; Mark Neuffer; MIT Center for International Studies; the Rose Foundation; Warner, Corbett and Gutentag and numerous friends of Elizabeth Neuffer.

The Elizabeth Neuffer Forum is open to the public. Space is limited and reservations are required. Lunch will be served. Please RSVP to neuffer@iwmf.org or (202) 496-1992.

For further information about the Elizabeth Neuffer IWMF Fund, visit the IWMF website, www.iwmf.org/programs/neuffer, or e-mail neuffer@iwmf.org.

The International Women’s Media Foundation was launched in 1990 with a mission to strengthen the role of women in the news media worldwide. The IWMF network includes women and men in the media in more than 130 countries worldwide.

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