Dr Nor Aishah Hanifa has won Global Impact Award

Dr Nor Aishah Hanifa has won Global Impact Award

• November 04, 2025

Dr Nor Aishah Hanifa is a teacher, an educator, and an inspirer. She trusts education has no aging; it is a lifelong practice. For women, education is an empowerment, an identity, self-respect, and a great meaning for her existence. She is currently serving the National Defence University of Malaysia as a Senior Lecturer. She obtained BA Hons in History from University of Malaya. The university awarded her with three book prize awards for her academic achievement; 1) The University Senior Scholarship 1989, 2) The University Subject Prize 1990, 3) The R.R Bonney @ Mohd Hamdan’s Book Prize 1990. She had completed post graduate studies in Education Administration, Primary School Curriculum Development, and Special Education and Services at the St John’s University, New York, USA. She also attended the New York State Teacher Certification Examination for Arts and Social studies.

She has almost 30 years of service as a teacher before embarking as a university lecturer. She had started teaching when she was 18 years old as a voluntary teacher, coaching students in the plantation sector. She is popularly addressed as “cikgu” (teacher in Malay language) in her hometown. In her teaching career, she taught in the national level schools, private schools, and international schools. She is well verse with the national and international school syllabus and curriculum. She received Master of Science in Diplomacy and Strategy from National University of Malaysia in collaboration with Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (NUM-IDFR). In 2018, she obtained PhD in Strategy and International Relations from the National Defence University of Malaysia. Following this, she got appointment as a Senior Lecturer in the same university.

Dr Aishah had has published two books on Israel-Palestine Conflict. The first bookpublished in 2020 with title The Power of AIPAC and the US-Israel Special Relationship: The Future of the Palestinian State. The second book published in 2022 in Malay language with the title Jerusalem/Baitul Maqdis dalam Cengkaman Israel (Jerusalem in the Grip of Israel). She also authoredtens of articles on Israel-Palestine Conflict, and other academic articles both in Malay and English languages.Dr Aishah is a staunch follower of Maulana Rumi. She is fascinated by Rumi’s thoughts on love and God. Her upcoming book is “Searching God with Rumi”scheduled to be in publishedby the end of this year.

Her fourth book is on “Israel’s Strategy in Jerusalem: Archaeology as a Weapon”is labelled as coming soon.She is one of the reputable Palestinian studies academicians in Malaysia, a significant woman figure in the field, often invited to various international and national forums to speak on Palestine and Palestinians’ resistance.In addition, she is invited asa lecturer/speaker in various institutes like the National Resilience College (NRC) and the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs (IDFR). She appears regularly in the local medias with her articles and dialogue sessions. She has been a preferred reference for questions on Israel-Palestine conflict, Middle East issues, regional issues, and national issues. Her areas of expertise are International Relations, History of Malaysia, Malaysia’s Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Security, Israel-Palestine Conflict, and the Middle East politics.

Dr Aishahmentions she has purposeful life aspirations which she wants to carry until to the end of her life. Reading on war as a young student and teaching wars as a lecturer inspires her to think more about the power of peace. She is a staunch supporter of global peace. In her perspective, peace is not difficult to achieve. According to her, peace is equivalent to love. Whoever loves God truly would love peace without no regards to race, religion, and nationality. At the age of 13 years old, she did her first presentation on “The Camp David Accord 1978 and the Peace” in her English Language class. Her English teacher, Miss Goh Sook Hoon and her classmates applauded her enthusiastic presentation. This occasion is an unforgettable moment of her life. This first rising in writing given her inspiration and had shaped her perspectiveon Israel-Palestine conflict and peace.

Now as an academia, she continues academic contributions to support Palestinian self-determination toward state formation. She supports the creation of the State of Palestine and an end to all misery of Palestinians. At the same time, Dr Aishah is actively spreading awareness on Palestinian struggle and rights to the public in Malaysia.These are guided by principle that peace as a destiny and diplomacy as an instrument of policy to achieve the noble cause. She urges truth, honesty, and transparency in diplomacy and the support of international community to make the peace process to attain triumph. She is standing firm with President Carter’s words, “Palestine Peace is not Apartheid.” Palestinians deserve justice and recognition.

In addition, Dr Aishah aspires to bring excellence in Malaysia’s education system.She emphasizes on building solidarity through noble education. According to her unity among diverse groups of people in Malaysia is vital to mould national strength. She believes loveas an essential elementto nurture solidarity. Love would cultivate all other virtuous values to eradicate social illness. Students need education inseminated with love. She trusts Malaysia Madani philosophy by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim with core values like sustainability, prosperity, innovation, respect, trust, and compassion are vital in empowering education.She is seeing the play of love in Malaysia Madani, love for the people and love for the nation. As a way of realization,  Dr Aishah with support of her friends had have founded the Association of Excellence in National Education (Persatuan Perkasa Pendidikan Nasional) in 2023. Through this association she aspires to strengthen excellence innational education. Currently she is promoting teaching of four languages: Malay, English, Tamil, and Mandarin in all schools.

Furthermore, Dr Aishah has been motivating students to embark in research work on Indian Muslims community in Malaysia. She says there exists big academic gaps in Indian Muslims history in Malaysia and in the Malay Archipelago. Since 2018, she has been opening the possible research areas on this subjectin her blog, exposing the history and dilemma of the community in Malaysia. For now, she had posted 39 segments on Indian Muslims in Malaysia. She encourages students of historyin the local universitiesor international students to look at the history of diaspora Indian Muslims in Malaysia and publish more academic literature to enrich the collection of Malaysia’s history. Currently she is doing consultations to the public on this subject matter. Dr Aishah considers this humble projectis to acknowledge contributions of her late father Hanifa Mohamed, late Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Khoo Kay Kim, and Prof Jeyamalar Kathiritamby-Wells. These key figures are responsible to mould her thinking on history of Indian Muslims in Malaysia.

Dr Aishahhas her distinctphilosophical journey. She says life is a perfect balance. It is all about walking through valleys, climbing the mountains, and the cycle continues. She derives inspiration from Maulana Rumi. She adores his wisdom on love and God. She determines to preach the importance of love throughout her life. She passionately believes love should enfold every unit of human life.When love embraces the units of individual, families, villages, societies, provinces, and countries, our life and the world is free from all crises and conflicts. Love shows the way how to solve human problems. Love can make miracles; hence war has no place in human life. The Just Peace can be attained through love among people and love among nations.

Dr Aishah points out that lack of love or missing of love is the root of all human problems, from family ruin to country’s destruction. The Gaza sad story is the best example to testify how people and country is annihilated when love is absent. She is in the process to publish a book on searching for God under the light of Maulana Rumi. She hopes this humble writing would bring changes in the mind set of people to embrace love in every aspect of life. Dr Aishah is ambitious to contribute more books, write ups, lectures, and talks to lead people toward loving the love. “Love is the bridge between you and everything” – Rumi.

Dr Aishah is expressing her highest gratefulness to God Al Mighty for His guidance throughout her life. Shemanifests her special dedication to her late father Hanifa Mohamed and late mother Rasul Begum for their love and sacrifices. She is thanking her children; Khan, Kashf, and Meher for their strength and inspiration in her life. She conveys her gratefulness to her sister,Aunt, husband, and all relatives. Finally, she acknowledges the role of all teachers, lecturers, professors, friends, and students in her life journey; in making her life full of meanings. Dr Aishah is thankful to the National Defence University and feel very proud to serve the university.