Michelle R. Kimball

AUTHOR,

A Peacemaker For Our Time

Michelle R. Kimball was born in Washington D.C. Her father was a diplomat and later, an international business consultant. In her childhood she traveled to many parts of the world with her parents. In 1971, while in high school, she moved to Tehran, Iran.  She worked for National Iranian Radio and Television, writing articles on The Shiraz International Festival of the Arts. She began college in Shiraz, Iran, but later received her BA from the University of California at Santa Cruz, with honors for her senior thesis on geometric symbolism in Islamic architecture. She pursued graduate studies in Near Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley, where she was awarded a fellowship for Arabic language study, then transferred to UC Santa Barbara where she received her MA. She compiled Muslim Women Throughout the World, an annotated bibliography (available on Amazon). She has written articles on Persian philosopher-poets Jalaluddin Rumi, Suhrawardi, and on women in Islam. She founded the International Peace Project, an affiliate of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Beginning in the 1990’s she took up the cause of the plight of the Iraqi people, especially children, suffering under US imposed UN sanctions and bombardment.  She made an aid trip there with 80 other people, headed by former US Attorney General and human rights lawyer, Ramsey Clark, to show support while spreading the information of their plight.  She wrote articles on the topic and contributed her article, “Let the Children Live,” to the book A Challenge to Genocide. She made media appearances, gave lectures and organized many events focusing on global peace initiatives. She lectured at interfaith gatherings with fellow Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist colleagues. She hosted Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Gabriel Kassab and organized events to support his charitable work in Iraq. She is one of the signatories to “A Common Word Between Us and You,” an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders, calling for peace and understanding. She produced a CD of mystical chants dedicated to world peace, which was distributed in the United States. While committed to working for peace, she also hosted Senegalese presidential candidate and member of parliament, Shaykh Abdoulaye Dieye who introduced her to the work of Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba. After years of research, she wrote the book, A Peacemaker for our Time about his life and teachings.