Aisha Lemu

Aisha Lemu, MON (died 5 January 2019) was a British-born author and religious educator who converted to Islam in 1961 and lived most of her life in Nigeria.

Lemu was born in Poole, Dorset, in 1940, as Bridget Honey. At the age of thirteen, she began to question her faith and began exploring other religions including Hinduism and Chinese Buddhism. She studied at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), pursuing her interest in Chinese history, language and culture. While there, she met Muslims who gave her Islamic literature to read and she converted to Islam at the Islamic Cultural Centre in 1961, during her first year of study. She subsequently helped to found the Islamic Society at SOAS, becoming its first secretary, and also assisted in the formation of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies.

After graduating from SOAS, Lemu studied for a postgraduate qualification to teach English as a foreign language and while doing so, she met her future husband, Sheikh Ahmed Lemu, who had been studying at another college of the University of London and was involved in the Islamic activities around the institution. Having obtained her Postgraduate Certificate in Education, she moved to Kano in Nigeria in August 1966 to teach at the School for Arabic Studies there, where Sheikh Ahmed Lemu worked as headmaster. They married in April 1968, with Aisha becoming his second wife. She subsequently moved to Sokoto to take up the position of principal of the Government Girls College.

Dr. Sheikh Ahmed Lemu was Grand Qadi of the Sharia Court of Appeal of the State of Niger when it was founded in 1976, and Aisha was principal of the Women's Teachers College in Minna from then until 1978. The couple founded the Islamic Education Trust, which now operates in several Nigerian states has offices and a library, includes a publisher, primary and secondary school and adult education centre for women. Lemu was a member of the Islamic Studies Panel, set up by the Nigerian Educational Research Council, which was to revise the national Islamic curriculum for different school levels.

In 1985, Lemu founded the Federation of Muslim Women's Associations of Nigeria (FOMWAN) with other Muslim women and was elected as its first national Amirah for four years. Lemu served as a civil servant after this term of office.

In 2000, Lemu was awarded the Member of the Order of Niger (MON) national honour by the President Olusegun Obasanjo.

She died on 5 January 2019 in Minna, Niger State, Nigeria.

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• Islam, one God, one humanity. A paper presented at the Annual Convention of the Islamic Society of North America, Chicago, USA 3–6 September 1999 . IET Publications, Minna, 2001. ISBN 978-2159-41-7 .
• Revelation and the Scriptures. An Islamic perspective. A paper presented at a seminar organized by the Catholic Biblical Movement of Nigeria, Minna, September, 1992 . IET Publications, Niger State 2001. ISBN 978-2159-42-5 .
• Women in Da'wah. A working paper presented at the International Council for Islamic Information, Markfield Da'wah Center, Leicester, UK, July 1996 . IET Publications Division, Islamic Education Trust, Minna, 2001. ISBN 978-2159-43-3 .
• Teaching for tolerance in Nigeria . In: Recep Kaymakcan, Oddbjørn Leirvik, Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief (eds.): Teaching for tolerance in Muslim majority societies . Center for Values Education (DEM) Press, Istanbul, 2007. ISBN 978-975-6324-98-1 .