Shareen Gokal

Shareen is the Strategic Initiative Manager of Resisting and Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms for the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID). With over 15 years experience in the not-for-profit sector, Shareen worked with Canadian refugee-sponsoring organizations in the area of capacity-building and refugee legislation and has developed and managed programs for recently immigrated Afghan women to Toronto as part of her work with the Afghan Women's Organization. Shareen also spent several years in the Dominican Republic working with Haitian migrant workers and in marginalized neighborhoods in Santo Domingo. Since joining AWID in 2001 Shareen has held several positions in the organization- she was the Forum Manager for the 2002 AWID Forum, the first one held outside the USA in Guadalajara, Mexico, the Programme Manager for the Women's Human Right Net website and resources and in 2007 launched and presently manages AWID's 'Resisting and Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms initiative. She holds a degree in International Development Studies and her Masters in education- Sociology and Equity Studies at the University of Toronto.