Produced and Directed by Sabina Khan-Ibarra, editor at altMuslimah.
Our Voices, episode 2, unpacked the complex relationship Muslim women have with the mosque (masjid). This conversation built on our #HijabAndMihrab Twitter conversation on International Women’s Day.
Panelists included:
- Hind Makki, founder and curator of Side Entrance
- Marwa Aly, one of the producers of UnMosqued
- Sarah Sayeed, board member of Women in Islam, Inc.
- M. Hasna Maznavi, founder and president of The Women’s Mosque of America
Sarah Sayeed has been involved in interfaith activities in New York City for more than a decade. As Director of Community Partnerships, at the Interfaith Center of New York Sarah currently runs the Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer Retreats for Social Justice, and programs that bring Catholics and Muslims together in social service partnerships. She is also a board member of Women in Islam, Inc., a social justice and human rights volunteer organization dedicated to the empowerment of women through knowledge and practice of Islam. In this capacity, she helped author the booklet, “Women-Friendly Mosques and Community Centers: Reclaiming Our Heritage, and a survey report Women and the American Mosque. Sarah earned a degree in Sociology and Near East Studies from Princeton University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. She also holds a certificate in Reconciliation Leadership through the Institute for Global Leadership. Sarah’s work at the Interfaith Center of New York and with Muslim communities is featured in an online exhibit of the Tribute World Trade Center Visitor Center, titled “Renewing Our American Dream after 9/11.” She regularly presents and facilitates discussions on Islam, Muslim women, and interfaith relations.
Hind Makki is an interfaith educator who focuses on interfaith action, anti-racism education and youth empowerment. A writer for the Muslim Channel at the national religion news site Patheos, Hind often dissects the challenges facing Western Muslims. Hind holds a degree in International Relations from Brown University and has offered workshops on interfaith cooperation and civic integration in the United States, Western Europe and the Middle East. Hind is the founder and curator of Side Entrance, a crowd-sourced website that documents women’s prayer experiences in mosques around the world. The site won the “Best Female Blogger” Brass Crescent in 2013, an award that honors the best of the Muslim blogosphere. Side Entrance has helped to catalyze a national conversation on the spaces women occupy in North American Muslim communities.
Marwa Aly is a producer of the documentary film, “UnMosqued.” The documentary aims to answer the question, “What role does/should the mosque play in the Western context vis-a-vis the millennial generation?”
Marwa is trained in Islamic chaplaincy and served Trinity College and Wesleyan University from 2008-2012. She provided pastoral care from an Islamic perspective and guidance counseling for the Muslim students on campus. She has been invited to lecture at various institutions and retreats covering issues ranging from spirituality to personal development. Prior to her appointment at Trinity and Wesleyan, she was the first Muslim Chaplain at Manhattanville College located in Purchase, New York.
Aly received her Bachelor of Arts with High Honors from Fordham University with a double major in Philosophy and Middle East Studies. She received her master’s degree in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations from the Hartford Theological Seminary.
Marwa is a mother of two and hopes to raise her children with a strong sense of justice and God-consciousness.
M. Hasna Maznavi is Founder and President of the Women’s Mosque of America. She is a comedy writer and filmmaker committed to changing the way Muslims are represented in mainstream American media. She holds an MFA in Film & TV Production from the USC School of Cinematic Arts and a BA in Art and Mass Communications from UC Berkeley. Hasna hopes the Women’s Mosque of America will help spark the pathway toward a worldwide Islamic Renaissance — one that is shaped by Muslim women’s voices, perspectives, scholarship, and leadership — inshAllah.
Some references:
http://www.hartfordinstitute.
Sabina Khan-Ibarra is a mama, writer, activist. She is the founder Muslimah Montage, the Social Media co-Chair for MuslimARC, and an editor for AltMontage. She is working on her novel, Poppy Flower and lives in Northern California with her husband and two children.
