Anse Nawar Taleb-Agha serves as Tajwīd Coordinator for the Ribaat Academic Institute. She holds a bachelor’s in Linguistics from University of California at Berkeley and a master’s degree in Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) from San Francisco State University. She has been teaching ESL at local language centers and community colleges since 2013. She also holds multiple certifications in tajwīd.
Born and raised in the Bay Area, California, Anse Nawar was introduced to a tajwīd teacher during her first visit to Syria. She worked swiftly through to receive an ijāza in the Hafs recitation from the late Shaykh Abu Al-Hassan Al-Kurdi (may Allah have mercy on him). While studying tajwīd, she fell in love with Damascus and began to visit more frequently until she moved there for three years to study Arabic, tafsīr, fiqh, hadith sciences, and more.
During her time in Damascus, Anse Nawar also memorized the Quran and received an ijāza from Shaykh Muhammad Nizar al-Kurdi. Anse Nawar has been teaching tajwīd since her first ijāza in 2003. She currently lives in California with her husband and enjoys indoor gardening and crochet.
Anse Nawar started teaching with Ribaat in 2015 as a Tajwīd instructor.
