Gay Igloo Recipient (January 2009)

Irshad Manji was born in Uganda in 1968 to parents of Egyptian and Gujarati Indian descent. Her family moved to Canada when she was four due to Idi Amin's expulsion of South Asians. She and her family settled in Vancouver. She receivd an honours degree in the history of ideas from the University of BC. In 1990 she won the Governor General's Medal for the top humanities graduate. She was a speech writer for the NDP party and at 24 became the national affairs editor for the Ottawa Citizen. She has hosted several public affairs programs on television and has won a Gemini award.

She also produced and hosted QT: Queer Television for CityTV Toronto. In 2002 she became the writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto's Hart House till 2006 writing, "The Trouble with Islam Today". She is currently a senior fellow with the European Foundation for Democracy in Brussels. Jan 2008 she joined New York University's Wagner School of Public Service to spearhead the Moral Courage Project. She has received numerous death threats and her apartment is fitted with bullet proof windows.

Awards
Governor General's Award for Scholastic Achievement (Humanities)

Awarded Oprah Winfrey's first annual Chutzpah Award for "audacity, nerve, boldness and conviction."

Ms. Magazine named her a "Feminist for the 21st Century".

Immigration Equality gave her its Global Vision Prize.

2008 Honorary Doctorate from the University of Puget Sound