WISE - Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality

The voices of Muslim women, and women of all backgrounds, are repeatedly silenced in today’s headlines and within our accounts of history. On International Women’s Day, March 8, WISE remembers the legacy of Muslim women leaders of our past and present. Learn about a few of the countless Muslim women that have shaped the world and put YOUR knowledge to the test by taking our Muslim Women’s History Quiz.

Early this morning, Sr. Aminah Assilmi was pronounced dead. After returning from an engagement in New York, a car accident set in motion the end of her life on this Earth. She was 65 years old. She was an author, an activist and although rising in age kept speaking around the United States about Islam.

I have two master’s degrees from Columbia, keep the h silent in haute couture (you’d be surprised at how few Pakistanis like me do so), and know to scour the fine print before I sign anything. But I scrawled my signature on the most important contract of my life without reading a word. And, as I later found out, many of my also well-educated female friends did the same. Why do Pakistani women agree to marriage contracts without scrutinizing them first and making sure they won’t be sorry later?