Qaisra Shahraz FRSA is a prize-winning and critically acclaimed novelist, scriptwriter and peace and gender activist. She is the founder, curator and Executive Director of MACFEST, Muslim Arts and Culture Festival. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a literary judge, a former Director of Gatehouse Books and Asia Pacific Writers & Translators partnership, advisor to International Journal IJRHS. Her novels - The Holy Woman, Typhoon, Revolt - and her collections of short stories - A Pair of Jeans and other stories and The Concubine & The Slave Catcher - stories from around the world - have been translated into several languages.