Anne Aly

Anne Azza Aly (born 29 March 1967) is an Australian politician, political scholar, academic and counter-terrorism expert. She has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since the 2016 election, representing the electorate of Cowan.

Aly is the first female federal parliamentarian of Muslim faith.^[1]

Early life and education

Aly was born in Alexandria, Egypt and migrated to Australia at the age of two years.^[2][3] Aly graduated from the American University in Cairo in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts degree with high honours in English Literature, with a minor in Acting;^[3][4] and in 1994, received a Graduate Diploma of Arts (Language Studies) from Edith Cowan University;^[4] followed by a Master of Education degree in 1996, and PhD in 2008, both from Edith Cowan University. Her PhD thesis focused on media and culture, and was entitled Audience Responses to the Media Discourse on Terrorism: The Fear of Terrorism.^[4]

Before she entered parliament, Aly worked in education and multicultural affairs policy for the Government of Western Australia from 2000 to 2007, and for the Equal Opportunity Commission WA from 2007 to 2008. After obtaining her PhD, she lectured in counter-terrorism and security at Edith Cowan University from 2009 to 2011, and then at Curtin University from 2011. She was appointed Associate Professor at Curtin in 2014, and Professor at Edith Cowan in 2015. She has also operated her own policy consulting firm since 2011.

Academic career

In 2008, Aly received the Dean's Award for Best New Researcher from Edith Cowan University.^[4] In 2009, she won a Publication Award from the Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers,^[4] and she appointed to the Council for Australian Arab Relations at Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.^[3] In 2011, she was inducted into the Western Australian Women's Hall of Fame.^[4] Aly's research has been funded by the Australian Research Council’s Safeguarding Australia Initiative.^[3]

Aly is the founder of People Against Violent Extremism, an Associate Professor and a Research Fellow at Curtin University, and an Adjunct Professor at Edith Cowan University. She has written on terrorist recruitment and counter-messaging^[5] and the involvement of former white supremacists in speaking out against violent extremism.^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

In 2014, Aly was a panelist on Islam and terrorism at an Australian Coalition meeting.^[11] In 2015, Aly announced that her organisation, People Against Violent Extremism had raised $40,800 for a mentoring program for young activists.^[12] The mentoring program includes training through MyHack, which trains university students to brainstorm and develop counter-messaging to extremist propaganda online.^[12]

Aly is an active member of Curtin University's The Centre for Culture and Technology (CCAT), leading its Countering Online Violent Extremism research program.^[13]

Political career

Aly was preselected as the Labor candidate for Cowan in January 2016 for the 2016 federal election.^[14] At that election Aly was successful in winning the seat from the incumbent, Luke Simpkins, but by a slender margin of 0.68%.

Bibliography

• Anne Aly (2011). Terrorism and Global Security: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4202-5640-6. ^[15]

See also

• Radicalization
• United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee
• Against Violent Extremism
• Counter Extremism Project

References

External links

• Opinion pieces on the Guardian
• Articles in The Conversation
• Opinion pieces on ABC's The Drum