Her specialties include comparative and international politics, Islam and Qur'anic hermeneutics, and women's studies.
[3] She earned a bachelor of arts in English literature and philosophy from Kinnaird College and a master's degree in journalism from the University of the Punjab.
[4][6] She worked briefly as assistant editor of the opposition newspaper The Muslim[7] before receiving political asylum in the United States in 1983.
She was the founding director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity for 12 years.
[9] She rejects the designation of her views and interpretations of Islam as "Islamic feminism," unless that term is defined as "a discourse of gender equality and social justice that derives its understanding and mandate from the Qur'an and seeks the practice of rights and justice for all human beings in the totality of their existence across the public-private continuum.