Sherizaan Minwalla is a human rights lawyer who has spent the past decade living and working in Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan. In the US, Sherizaan represented several hundred survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault to legalize their immigration status. In Iraq, she ran legal protection programs to enhance access to justice for women and girls facing gender-based violence in the criminal justice system and the Personal Status Courts. This included working with local organizations and lawyers to represent victims of sex trafficking who were charged with prostitution, and those facing honor-based violence. More recently, Sherizaan has responded to urgent protection needs of women and girls fleeing extremism and violent conflict in Iraq and Syria. Sherizaan currently consults on human rights and gender programming.
