Exeter, NH (April 16, 2008)—On Thursday, April 24, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Phillips Exeter Academy’s Muslim Student Association, in collaboration with Exeter Student Service Organization (ESSO)’s “The Tents of Hope” project, will host a “Women in Islam” Night forum. This event is sponsored by Phillips Exeter Academy’s Religious Services. It will be held in the Sanctuary of Phillips Church, located on the corner of Tan Lane and Front Street. It is free and open to the public.

Speakers for the forum will be: Dr. Jamal Badawi, a scholar on Islam and professor at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; Nancy Khalil, Muslim Chaplain in the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life at Wellesley College, and Youth Director in the Muslim American Society of Boston; and Sufia Hassan, an African-American Muslim educator at Uphams Corner Charter School, and Youth and Women’s Program Coordinator for the Society for Islamic Brotherhood in Boston.

Following the forum, Middle-Eastern refreshments will be served. For more information, contact Zainab Qari at zqari@exeter.edu or (603) 777-3779. A complete list of upcoming events is available on the Phillips Exeter Academy public events line at (603) 777-4309 and on our website at http://www.exeter.edu/ or http://www.exeter.edu/news_and_events/news_events.aspx. For directions to Phillips Exeter Academy, call (603) 777-4330.

Phillips Exeter Academy is a coeducational, independent preparatory school that was founded in 1781 and originated the system of instruction known as Harkness teaching in 1931. In the spirit of its charter to foster both goodness and knowledge, a Phillips Exeter Academy education will now be free to any admitted student whose family income is $75,000 or less. Committed to educational excellence, the school meets all demonstrated financial aid needs of its admitted students, making the Academy effectively “need blind.” The diverse student body comes from a wide variety of geographic, economic, racial and religious backgrounds approximately from 45 states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands and 23 foreign countries.