Mehlaqa Samdani is the founder and director of Community Alliance for Peace and Justice, a Massachusetts-based advocacy group focused on South Asia and the Middle East. She previously led Critical Connections, educating the public on issues like Islamophobia and U.S. foreign policy. Mehlaqa has held roles at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations, researching civil society and women’s roles in Muslim-majority countries. Her writings have appeared in Foreign Policy, the New York Times, Huffington Post, and Foreign Policy in Focus