Jannatul Maoa
Jannatul Maoa is a writer and an interfaith dialogue activist. She has more than ten years of experience in working and dealing with people from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. As a student of the Department of World Religions and Culture, Jannatul participated and voluntarily facilitated several interreligious dialogue programs arranged by the Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue of Dhaka University, Bangladesh. She has worked with various organizations like the International Association for Religious Freedom, Universal Peace Federation, and the Youth Group of Global network for Rights and Development.
She has presented many papers at several international and local conferences that have been published in local and international journals. In addition, she has published a book in Bengali on gender discrimination in religious contexts. Acknowledging her contribution to the field of interreligious dialogue in Bangladesh, the US State Department invited her to participate in a leadership training on interreligious dialogue.
Currently, Jannatul is pursuing research for her master’s degree. Her plan is to spread the message of interreligious harmony among children. She believes that dialogue between atheists and people of faith is also important. She also thinks gender discrimination in religion should be a topic of dialogue between women and religious leaders so that conflicting views can be discussed openly. For Jannatul, dialogue is not just a polite discussion, but about the development of new ideas.