Our Team
Mohamed Shaheen
Board Chair and Artistic Director
Mohamed Shaheen | Board Chair and Artistic Director
Dr. Mohamed Shaheen completed his Bachelor’s degree at Dalhousie University, Halifax, before moving to Montreal to complete his Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering at McGill University. His doctoral research focused on low-power electronics for mobile and biomedical devices.
Mohamed has extensive experience in the innovation sector, having been involved in several technology startups, and is currently an Innovation Consultant advising the public and the non-profit sectors. In 2013, he founded the Silk Road Institute, an organization dedicated to creating captivating and professional artistic and cultural programming that strengthens Muslim representation, visibility, and contributions within the Canadian cultural mosaic. In 2018 the organization launched Canada’s and North America’s first professional Muslim theatre company. He now serves as the organization’s Chair of the Board of Directors.
Mohamed is a Fellow of the Ariane de Rothschild Fellowship in Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. His writings have appeared in the Globe and Mail and the Montreal Gazette, and he has been featured on CBC Radio One. He is also an avid photographer.
Nawal Salim
Communications Manager
Nawal Salim | Communications Lead
Nawal Salim is an actress, program producer and content developer with almost a decade of event planning experience and a background in digital marketing, communications, and image arts. During the pandemic, she was the program manager at Silk Road Academy where she produced master classes to connect emerging artists to acclaimed Muslim artists. Following that, she was the Programs and Operations Coordinator at Ontario Culture Days, and supported the production of 12 artistic programs for the 2021 & 2022 festival.
Diversity and the representation of marginalized communities is an issue that is deeply important to Nawal and as such, she has frequently volunteered as an arts educator and organizer to increase the visibility of Muslims in the the arts & culture sector. She volunteered at MuslimFest as the Rising Talent Coordinator where she put on a talent competition for young Muslims. Nawal has also facilitated filmmaking workshops through MIST Toronto and DawaNet Canada, where she taught high school students how to use digitals cameras and write stories.
During her undergrad at York University, she founded Greenlight Productions; a Muslim dramatic arts organization that allowed students to perform and create dramatic art. She also has her Master of Fine Arts in Documentary Media from Ryerson University. For her masters thesis project, she produced a documentary film about Muslim actresses and documented her own journey as a hijabi actress trying to get an agent. The film premiered at the DocNow festival on at Jackman Hall at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Check out her work at: nawalsalim.com
Our Board
Mohamed Shaheen
Board Chair and Artistic Director
Mohamed Shaheen | Board Chair and Artistic Director
Dr. Mohamed Shaheen completed his Bachelor’s degree at Dalhousie University, Halifax, before moving to Montreal to complete his Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering at McGill University. His doctoral research focused on low-power electronics for mobile and biomedical devices.
Mohamed has extensive experience in the innovation sector, having been involved in several technology startups, and is currently an Innovation Consultant advising the public and the non-profit sectors. In 2013, he founded the Silk Road Institute, an organization dedicated to creating captivating and professional artistic and cultural programming that strengthens Muslim representation, visibility, and contributions within the Canadian cultural mosaic. In 2018 the organization launched Canada’s and North America’s first professional Muslim theatre company. He now serves as the organization’s Chair of the Board of Directors.
Mohamed is a Fellow of the Ariane de Rothschild Fellowship in Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. His writings have appeared in the Globe and Mail and the Montreal Gazette, and he has been featured on CBC Radio One. He is also an avid photographer.
Haniya Sheikh
Board Vice-Chair
Haniya Sheikh | Board Vice-Chair
Haniya is a litigation lawyer at the Department of Justice with over 17 years of practice in multidisciplinary areas of the law, including dealing with high profile matters involving judicial reviews, civil and Charter issues. She is currently the Ward 12 Representative for the Parent Involvement Advisory Committee to the Toronto District School Board (TDSB).
Bochra Manaī
Board Member
Bochra Manaī | Board Member
Bochra Manaï has a PHD in Urban Studies from the INRS-UCS. She studied the spatializing of the Maghrebi community in Montreal and the public perception of this ethnicity in Montreal’s urban space. Her interests or research include ethnicity, immigration and cohabitation in the city space. After her doctoral studies, Bochra hopes to research the question of radicalization in Quebec, France and Tunisia to better understand how this process is constructed, especially in the media.
Nazia Sharfuddin
Board Member
Nazia Sharfuddin | Board Member
Dr. Nazia Sharfuddin is the Chief Resident of General Internal Medicine at the University of Alberta who is a strong champion in health equity and advocacy. She is also completing Harvard Medical School’s Safety, Quality, Informatics and Leadership certification program. Nazia is on the Executive Board of Directors of the Professional Association of Residents Physicians of Alberta where she chairs multiple provincial committees, notably as the Co-Founder & Co-Chair of the Inclusivity & Anti-Racism Working Group. Nazia works on anti-racism research and institutional change management at the University of Alberta. Nazia will be moving to her hometown of Toronto in summer 2021 where she will be working as a General Internist at Trillium Health Partners and Sunnybrook Hospital.
Nazia is the co-founder of Salaam B’y, a social enterprise focused on championing inclusion through storytelling and education based on the award-winning documentary film she co-produced, Salaam B’y – A Story of a Muslim Newfoundlander. Keen on community building, she is also on the Board of Directors of Edmonton’s Islamic Family Social Services Agency.
Narjis Karani
Board Member
Narjis Karani | Board Member
Narjis Karani is a designated Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) with over a decade of experience within the finance industry, as an Auditor, Tax Professional & Academic. She graduated as a UofT Top Scholar and completed her CPA experience at KPMG LLP. before joining The Office of the Auditor General of Canada. Narjis specializes in several areas within finance, including small-medium enterprises, NPOs, charities, government entities & personal finances.
Narjis is a CBC Op-Ed contributor & an award-winning champion of civic engagement. She previously served on the board of The Canadian-Muslim Vote.
Narjis is an avid storyteller & public speaker. She brings her passion for screenwriting, painting & filmmaking to the Silk Road Institute with the hopes of contributing to diversity within the arts.
Farah Fatima
Board Member
Farah Fatima | Board Member
Farah Fatima is the Director of Innovation at CIBC where she spends her days finding simple solutions to the big challenges facing the financial services industry. She’s a graduate from the University of Toronto and has previously been co-chair of Scholarships for at the Muslim Awards of Excellence (MAX).