This was Rania’s suggestion when I asked my students what they wanted me to teach them the following year.
What does it mean to be a Muslim woman?
What does it mean to be a Muslim woman?
Hmmmm, it means a million things… How am I gonna teach that? I thought about women of the past, but then I thought, let’s be present and in the moment.
Alhamdulilah for a lovely idea that we actually implemented. The best person to speak about what it means to a Muslim woman is a Muslim woman herself. So in the 2015-2016 academic year at Hikma Academy, we invited Muslim women who were doing meaningful work in the community to come and speak to us about their personal life, visions and commitments, inspiration, their relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala and the role of Islam in their life.
The girls’ feedback?
They all agreed it was the highlight of their month! They looked forward to having raw conversations with our speakers! I tried my best to invite a diverse group of women, of different backgrounds, specializations and experiences in life. Each one of them inspired us and kept us captivated.
These are the women and this is what they taught us…
- Our first speaker, 33 year old Dr. Ifrah Abdi, talked to us about her journey in becoming a gynecologist. The girls could relate a lot to her as she was like most of them had been raised in the USA since she was 6 months old. A theme that was repeated by Ifrah and resonated with the girls was how Ifrah dealt with all the difficulties by making dua. She wasn’t afraid to admit the difficulties in her journey and how the dua strategy made it easier for her. She told us about her marriage, her siblings, her career, and her #1 principle which is to do everything around Salah. Ifrah said: “If I’m catching a movie with a friend, I make sure it’s after the time of salah… I schedule things around salah.”
- Our second speaker with sister Johara, a 59 year old Oromo sister in our community who is an outstanding therapist. Johara talked to us about her traveling journey from Ethiopia, to Somalia, to Djibouti, to Saudi, to India and finally to the USA. She talked to us about the great auntie who helped raise her, who was rich business woman, who traveled a lot and was extremely generous to the entire family. She taught Johara to work hard, to be courageous, and to seek education wherever it took her. Johara is married and has one son and the girls felt like her story was so similar to the type of stories their mothers had. She talked to us about common mental health concerns she sees in the community and urged the girls to seek help if they ever needed it and to practice self-care.
- Our third speaker was Anse Tamara Gray. Anse Tamara, 49 years old, is one of my most amazing inspirations and we are fortunate to have her in the Minnesota community. She talked to us about her upbringing in St. Paul MN, how she was a Christian, a feminist, and then the hilarious story of ow she became a Muslim. She told us about her journey of seeking knowledge in Syria, about her children, her return to the USA, the serious problems she sees in the Muslim community and especially the struggles of Muslim women, her love and passion for books, writing, publishing, and of starting Daybreak; the beautiful bookstore she invited all of us to. As a doctoral student, a social-entrepreneur, an activist, a teacher of Islam, a mother, a grandmother, a wife, Anse Tamara inspired so much in all of us. One parent called me because her daughter wouldn’t stop talking about how excited she was. The mother said her daughter told her: “Mom, you can go back to school and finish your bachelor’s, you can do it, you are so smart, I will help you!” It really warmed my heart, anyone that makes you want to be a better person is truly special.
- Our third and fourth speakers were by far the best speakers that came to our class. Well, their talk was different, they gave us a workshop about Racism in America. It was Sara Osman -19 years old- and Faduma Warsame -22 years old-, two wonderful speakers and activists in our community. We had this workshop because there were many heated debates in our class about racism, Black Lives Matter movement and how to bring about positive change. To be honest, I felt like I needed the education more than my students because it was clear and evident to me that we saw things differently; obviously our age difference and cultural background had a lot to do with it. I am still trying to make sense out of this and so I will leave at that we were all enlightened at this workshop and we were all awakened to the sad and deep realities of racism and being biased. This is definitely a topic I don’t want us to stop talking about and learning more about and I hope too we can figure out a way to be active without steering from justice.
- Our fifth and last speaker of the year was sister Danyal, 34 years old. Over half of the girls were familiar with sister Danyal because they are also students at Pearls of Hope. She’s an amazing activist who founded and runs Pearls of Hope with other hard-working women in the community. She’s a wife and a homeschooling mother of 4 children. Danyal and her two kids accompanied us to a field trip to the Compassion Project (which I’ll write a separate post about, insha Allah) and after it was done she inspired us all with the story of how she became a practicing Muslima, how she turned her beautiful journey to find Islam into a passion project herself of Pearls of Hope. Danyal also talked to us about lending a hand and supporting people regardless of their race and cultural background. Danyal also talked to us about her marriage, a beautiful romance story, masha Allah. What I most love about Danyal is her amazing ability to come up with great ideas and how she commits to her ideas by taking immediate action. She had an idea during our field trip and I remember smiling because I saw the spark in her eyes as she suggested it. It was a charity project that I’ll write more about it as we will be dedicating time to realize it, bi idhni Allah during the 2016-2017 academic year.
This is something we are definitely continuing in 2016-2017 and are thinking about more ways we can connect our young girls with women they can find support and aspiration in. May Allah grant us success.