Asma Barlas was born in 1950 in Pakistan and studied English literature and philosophy at Kinnaird College, a women’s college in Lahore, Pakistan. After completing her BA, she began studying for a Master’s in Journalism at the University of the Punjab before moving to the United States to study at the University of Denver. In Denver, she received her Masters and PhD in International Studies. Prior to her move to the US, she was inducted into the foreign service in Pakistan, becoming one of the first women to join in 1976. After six years in the foreign service, she was dismissed by General Zia ul Haq, who had declared marital law in the country in 1977. She worked briefly as an Assistant Editor of The Muslim, a newspaper in opposition to Haq’s administration before she fled Pakistan, seeking political asylum in the US in 1983. An academic now, Barlas’ work focuses predominately on Islamic religious knowledge, particularly the patriarchal interpretations of the Quran and the influence these interpretations have had on Islamic practice at large. She has written a number of works on women in Islam, gender equality, social justice, and South Asia, but her most famous work - “‘Believing Women’ in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an” - discusses the patriarchal exegesis of the Qur’an.