Seemi Bushra Ghazi

Seemi Bushra Ghazi is a lecturer in Classical Arabic at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She has a special interest in Islamic literature, culture and spirituality, as well as Islam and Gender. Ms. Ghazi is also a student in the Rifa`i Ma`rufi spiritual lineage and a performer of traditional Islamic arts, including recitation of the Qur’an and Hamd, or divine praise songs. She has lectured widely and her interviews and performances have been featured on BBC, CBC, NPR and PBS. Her Qur’anic recitation is available on the CD accompanying Michael Sells’ Approaching Islam: the Early Revelations, as well as on the PBS documentary “Islam, Empire of Faith.” Her article, “The Birth of Aliya Mariam,” has appeared in Praeger Press’ A New Encyclopedia of Islam. Ms. Ghazi is deeply involved in interfaith work, including at The Centre for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University, and she currently hosts a monthly Unity Dhikr in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is a founding Board Member of the Rumi Society of Vancouver and the Vancouver Interspiritual Centre Society. Born in London, England and of South Asian origin, Ms. Ghazi was educated in the United States at Bryn Mawr College, the University of Chicago, and Duke University, as well as in the Middle East at King Abdul Aziz University (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) and The American University in Cairo.