Ustadha Zaynab Ansari spent a decade studying Farsi, Arabic, and traditional Islam in the Middle East, graduating from a seminary in Damascus, and spending time in the land of her ancestors. She also took degrees in history and Middle Eastern Studies at Georgia State University, where she collected oral histories from Atlanta’s historic African-American Muslim community for her research.
Ustadha Zaynab serves as an instructor, board member, and scholar-in-residence at Tayseer Seminary, where she teaches classes on Islamic law, Qur’anic studies, Prophetic biography, American history, and women in Islam. She is a contributor to various Islamic educational portals, including SeekersGuidance and Rabata, the latter a pioneering online resource for women’s theological training.
Ustadha Zaynab has been teaching with Ribaat since 2015. She teaches the Level 2 course, “Understanding the Muslim World”.
