Charis Waddy

Charis Waddy (24 September 1909 – 29 August 2004) was an Australian-born British author, lecturer and Islamic scholar. She worked full-time with the Oxford Group from 1935 after which it became Moral Re-Armament (MRA; now Initiatives of Change). Waddy wrote her first book, Baalbek Caravans, in 1967 on her experiences of staying long-term in Lebanon. She wrote The Muslim Mind in 1976 and authored Women in Muslim History four years later. Waddy received the Pakistani Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Distinction) in 1990 and was highly regarded worldwide by Muslims.

Early life and education On 24 September 1909, Waddy was born in Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia. She was the daughter of the clergyman Percival Stacy, and the journalist Etheldred Stacy ( Spittal). In 1919, following the conclusion of the First World War, she relocated from Sydney to join her father in Jerusalem, Her objective was to explore the approach of Muslims to contemporary and practical issues such as family life, forgiveness, the meaning of Jihad, the Quran, war and women's rights and featured quotes from several friends of hers and high-figure officials in the Middle East. Three weeks following Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984, Waddy was invited to lecture at the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore's Shantiniketan ashram in Calcutta and went on to give a talk at the Islamic medical institute Hamdard Pakistan.