Thursday, January 21, 2010

Canada: Sheema Khan

From the Ottawa Citizen:
Sheema Khan was just three years old when she emigrated with her family from India to Montreal. They wanted a country with a good education system, and work opportunities. But mostly, they wanted to leave behind the sectarian violence between Hindus and Muslims in their Calcutta home.

Canada was that land of promise for them. Today, Khan is a patent agent who holds several patents of her own in drug delivery systems. She has a PhD in chemical physics from Harvard, and took a year off to do social work before continuing her studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is married, the mother of three, and a faithful follower of Islam who started wearing a hijab after much soul-searching. She loves hockey (the Canadiens, of course), and plays soccer once a week with a women's team near her home in Kanata.

Most recently, however, she has become a public advocate for Muslims in Canada, particularly women, who find their rights and points of view not always heard.

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