ANI ZONNEVELD

FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT

Linkedin | Twitter | Facebook | +1 323 696 2678 | info@mpvusa.org |

Ani Zonneveld is a writer, singer/songwriter, founder and President of Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV), an international human rights organization that advocates for social justice and equality for all, a strong supporter of freedom of expression and of conscience, women’s rights and as an ally, LGBTQ rights. Ani promotes these values at the United Nations by challenging human rights abuses in the name of Islam, and by offering an inclusive understanding based on universal human rights and justice. Since its inception, Ani has presided over MPV’s expansion to include chapters in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Washington D.C., New York, Boston, Columbus and Chicago, and the founder of Alliance Of Inclusive Muslims, the first Muslim human rights umbrella organization made of members spanning six continents.

Ani is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; on the U.N. Inter-agency’s Faith Advisory Council, and recently commissioned by the U.N. Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect to create an anti-hate speech workshop for Muslim communities. In 2023 she was selected as an “inspirational woman” in the LA Times. Recently, Ani co-authored and co-designed an “Inclusive Islam Curriculum Rooted in Human Rights” for children ages 4-7 and co-authored a chapter titled "Transnational Progressive Islam: Theory, Networks, and Lived Experience" for a book titled “Handbook of Contemporary Islam and Muslim Lives” published by Springer (2021). She is the co-editor of MPV’s first book, an anthology titled “Progressive Muslim Identities – Personal Stories from the U.S. and Canada”; executive producer of a video series “LGBT+ Rights in Islam”; has contributed to many forewords and anthologies, and is a contributor for HuffingtonPost, OpenDemocracy and al-Jazeera. She has a TEDx talk titled – Islam: As American As Apple Pie, and is the subject of a documentary title "al-imam" featuring Ani's activism works, and screened at the Cannes Film Festival. 

As a Grammy certified award winning songwriter, she utilizes the power of music and the arts in countering radicalism as she speaks-sings her message of social justice and peace from a progressive Muslim woman’s perspective. She has organized numerous interfaith arts and music festivals, and is the first woman to release an English Islamic pop album in the U.S. in 2004. She continues to create spiritual worship songs for the purpose of creating a new culture for Western born Muslims.

Born in Malaysia, Ani, a Muslim since birth, spent a good portion of her formative years raised in Germany, Egypt and India as an Ambassador’s daughter. Her exposure to different politics, religions and cultures has shaped her inclusive worldview.

For a full CV, please click here.   LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter: @AniZonneveld