IDA LICHTER

MAC.ROB Student, 1961-1964
PORTRAIT GALLERY INDUCTEE, 2014
AMusA, MB, BS MRCPsych FRANZCP
psychiatrIST & writer

In 1963, Ida Lichter was awarded the Associate in Music, Australia, AMusA (pianoforte).

She graduated with MB BS Honours from the University of Melbourne in 1970 and worked at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, the Department of Psychological Medicine at Kings College London, and the Maudsley Hospital, London. In the UK, she gained Membership of the Royal College of Psychiatry (MRCPsych). She became a Member of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (MRANZPC), was elected a Fellow of the College (FRANZCP), and worked as a staff specialist psychiatrist, lecturer, and examiner at Sydney Hospital.

An interest in women’s rights led to her awareness of Muslim women reformers who were challenging gender discriminatory laws in Muslim-majority countries.

Ida’s book, Muslim Women Reformers: Inspiring Voices Against Oppression, published in New York (2009), aimed to amplify the voices of these courageous “suffragettes” and their supporters. The book has become a standard resource in many American universities.

She was a founder and director of “Music In The Hunter,” a chamber music festival in the Hunter Valley, NSW, and the author of The Secret Magic of Music: Conversations with Musical Masters (Evgeny Kissin, Foreword), published in New York (2016).

A well-known writer and commentator, Ida has written for The Australian, the Huffington Post US Edition, The Spectator Australia, The Sydney Institute Papers Online, the Australian Financial Review, and other publications. She has addressed The Sydney Institute and participated in writers’ festivals, podcasts, panels, and many radio and TV programmes.

In 2011, she was appointed to the review committee for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and, in 2014, to the judging panel for the Prime Minister’s Australian History and Non-Fiction Awards.

Ida is married with two children.