Expertise in: Women’s and minority rights in Sri Lanka

Nabeela Iqbal is an activist in women’s and minority rights in Sri Lanka where engagements were recognised by Amnesty International and the UN Youth Envoy as a young human rights defender in the face of the pandemic. She founded Sisterhood Initiative in 2020, to mobilize young Muslim women in community decision making and work to protect and advocate for their rights against discriminatory laws. She completed her postgraduate studies at University College London in Human Rights under the Chevening Award. She is the National Coordinator for Sri Lanka with the Asia Network to end female genital mutilation and cutting. Nabeela is involved in treaty body reporting as part of the 2025 NGO delegation at Sri Lanka’s 9th review under CEDAW in Geneva and is a Kofi Annan Changemaker. She was one of three recipients from across the Asia-Pacific region to the highly competitive William P Fuller Fellowship in Peacebuilding by The Asia Foundation for 2025 and a Fellow with Musawah’s Islam and gender equality and justice (I-nGEJ) Fellowship programme.