Natasha Bakht

Natasha Bakht is a Full Professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, holding the Shirley Greenberg Chair in Women and the Legal Profession (2020-2024). She graduated from the University of Toronto (BA in Drama, Political Science, Women's Studies), Queen's University (MA in Political Studies), and the University of Ottawa (LL.B.) before earning her LL.M. at New York University as a Global Hauser Scholar. She clerked for Justice Louise Arbour at the Supreme Court of Canada and was called to the Ontario Bar in 2003.

• Teaches Criminal Law and Procedure, Family Law, and Multicultural Rights in Liberal Democracies
• Research focuses on law-culture intersections, particularly religious freedom vs women's equality and niqab-related legal challenges
• Her work was cited in Supreme Court decisions R v NS (2012) and Michel v Graydon (2020)

Her recent publications examine Indigenous religious rights, constitutional guardrails, and systemic Islamophobia. She co-authored the 4th edition of Families and the Law (2024). Awards include the Huguenot Society of Canada Award (2020-21), South Asian Bar Association Legal Excellence Award (2019), and Ottawa Order of Merit (2022).

• Co-founder of Canada's first legal co-motherhood arrangement
• President of Canadian Society for the Study of Islam and Muslims
• Former English Editor of Femmes et Droit (2014-2020)
• Artist in residence at Ottawa School of Dance