Lena Larsen is a research fellow at the University of Oslo, Norway, writing a thesis titled “Fiqh Facing Everyday Challenges: Fatwas as Solutions for Muslim Women in Western Europe”. She also works on the project Ethical Guidelines for Muslim Family Law within the framework of the Oslo Coalition of Freedom of Religion or Belief (see oslo coalition) based at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, at the same university. She is currently on leave from her position as the project director of the Oslo Coalition, a position she has held since 1999.

She is a member of the advisory committee on continuing education for immigrant religious leaders at the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo.

She is co-editor of New Directions in Islamic Thought and Practice: Exploring Muslim Reform and Tradition (London: forthcoming 2008), and assistant editor of Facilitating Freedom of Religion or Belief: A Deskbook (Hague: 2004).

Lena Larsen has been president of the Islamic Council Norway (20002002), and is member of The Islamic Information Bureau (DIIF), which publishes Islamic books as well as the main Islam-related web portal islam.no in Norwegian. In 2008, Egypt awarded her its Science and Arts Medal.