Sherifa Zuhur is an academic and national security expert on the Middle East and is currently the Director of the Institute of Middle Eastern, Islamic, and Strategic Studies, an international think tank. She holds a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern history, an MA in Islamic studies, and a BA in Political Science and Arabic and Arabic Literature, all from UCLA.
Zuhur was a Distinguished Visiting Professor of National Security Studies, and then Research Professor of Islamic and Regional Studies, at the U.S. Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute from 2004-2005[1]. She has also held faculty positions at various other universities. Zuhur has contributed to numerous governmental and defense studies work groups and other efforts on numerous subjects, including counterterrorism and Islamic movements in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza. She has also testified before the United States Congress and contributed to work on human and women's rights. A past President of the Association of Middle East Women's Studies[2], Zuhur has been an active advocate for legal reforms to benefit women in the region.[3] In 2009, she presented a plan for a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Zuhur has written more than 16 books and monographs, and over 200 articles. Her works have included a unique contemporary history of the Middle East (The Middle East: Politics, History, and Neonationalism, 2006); studies on Iraq, Iran and Iraq, Egypt, counterterrorism, Hamas, and Saudi Arabia for the Strategic Studies Institute; a study of Islamism and gender in Egypt (Revealing Reveiling: Gender Ideology in Contemporary Egypt, 1992); several volumes on the arts (Images of Enchantment, 1998 and Colors of Enchantment, 2001); and a biography of Asmahan (Asmahan's Secrets, 2000, 2001 and in Arabic, 2007).