Category: Visuals
Country: Egypt

About

Heba Amin is a young Egyptian artist whose work addresses the role of urban environment on human behavior.

Heba’s early work revolved around the theme of Bedouin women and the effect of urbanization on Bedouin culture, after she spent time with different Bedouin tribes. She has produced many drawings, paintings, photography, installations, interactive media and projections which have been exhibited throughout the US.  She recently illustrated an award-winning children’s book that profiles women role models from the Muslim World titled Extraordinary Women in the Muslim World. Her work is also featured on the WISE website.

Heba says about Muslim women, “The image of Muslim women in the United States is of veiled, oppressed people who have no voice. But in fact, Muslim women have a long history of remarkable achievements.”

Heba was born and raised in Cairo. She moved to the US where she attended Macalester College in Minnesota to study Studio Art. She is currently teaching at the American University in Cairo.

Category: Performing
Country: Tunisia

About

Hend Sabry is a Tunisian actress and lawyer. She received her law license at the Faculty of Law of Tunis in 2001 and her Master’s degree in law (intellectual property and copyright) in 2004. At the age of fourteen, Hend starred in her first film, The Silence of the Palace (1994) as one of its main characters, Alia¹. The film, which was set mostly in Tunisia in the 1950s during the reign of the country’s last monarchs, tells the tale of a kitchen servant and her daughter. The film, which was described as a “universal coming of age story with a feminist twist” follows Alia as she grows up in the palace during a time when female servants were expected to be sexually available to the men they served.²

Hend’s breakthrough film, Mothakarat Morahiqa, or “A Teenager’s Diaries,” was released in 2001 and made her a star across the Middle East. Some of her earlier films include Mawsim Al-Rijal, meaning “The Season of Men,” and Samt al Soqoor.³

In 2011, when anti-government rallies began in Tunisia, Hend severed her ties with former Tunisian President Ben Ali, who she had been coerced into supporting along with his family. In a Facebook post, Hend warned Ben Ali against ordering his security forces to open fire on protestors. She later admitted that making such a public gesture had been a frightening experience. She feared that she might have been forced to leave the country, or her relatives might have been harmed.⁴

Hend is currently in the pre-production phase of her new film Asmaa, which is being produced by Mohamed Herzy and written and directed by Amr Salama. Asmaais based on a true story and addresses taboos in Egypt. ⁵

[1] Hend Sabry: Biography.

[2] Movie Review: The Silences of the Palace (2004), The New York Times Review.

[3] Hend Sabry’s Official Website.

[4] “An Arab spring for women,” CBS News.

[5] Hend Sabry’s Official Website.

Category: Visuals
Country: Pakistan

About

Born in Kuwait, Hamra Abbas is an artist who works in a variety of media to reframe culturally loaded imagery. Though her main interest is sculpture, she has also used everything from stained glass to film to photography to installation work to simultaneously critique both modern Western and Islamic cultures. ¹

In her work Battle Scenes, Hamra takes inspiration from 16th century miniature painting from the Mughal Empire.  Using photos of London park-goers conscripted for the project, she recreates a battle scene from a diptych portraying the accomplishments of Mughal emperor Akbar. The subjects, from different ages, genders, and ethnic backgrounds all dressed in jeans and t-shirts, pose as warriors in two snapshots that are then used in a simple animation. The piece is intended to be “a critique of war and contemporary systems of neo-imperialism” in a “post 9/11 context.” ²

Hamra’s stained glass piece Woman in Black delves into the role of women in conflict.  Using religious imagery from the Christian tradition while incorporating styles found in Indian miniature painting, she depicts a woman caught in the middle of a violent scene, recalling the “worldly realities of contemporary society”: the central female figure appears either to be interceding in the conflict or under attack herself.  ³

Hamra earned a bachelor of fine arts and a master of arts in visual arts at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan.  She completed postgraduate work at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, Germany. Living and working between the United States and Pakistan, she has exhibited her work around the world including at the Sharjah Biennial, the Istanbul Biennial, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, United Kingdom. 

[1] “Hamra Abbas: Artist Talk,” Asia Society.

[2] “Work,” HamraAbbas.com.

[3] ibid.

Category: Visuals
Country: United States

About

Ameena Khan is an artist who works with a variety of media. Her work is inspired both by her religious convictions and by nature: Islamic calligraphy and other religious imagery are a central part of many of Ameena’s pieces, while more abstract works reflect her fascination with the natural world of north-central Florida, where she grew up. She often incorporates metal objects and yarn into acrylic painting to add texture and dimension to her pieces.

Muslim Women in the Arts, a network of artists, featured one of Ameena’s works entitled He is Not Me. Another work, We are not He, garnered a great deal of attention at the 2nd Annual International Muslim Artists Exhibition. The piece consists of an outer layer with an image of a “terrorist” surrounded by slanderous epithets for Muslim and Arab people and an inner layer that requires the viewer to lift up the first one to reveal outlines of individual Muslims on a background of multiple colors representing the diversity of the world’s Muslim population. The inspiration for We are not He was the planned Quran-burning that was to take place in Gainesville, Florida, where she lives. ¹

Ameena’s nature-inspired paintings may not have the same political messages, but they are painted thoughtfully and with a moral in mind. Becoming Dragons, for example, is an acrylic and oil painting that inspires reflection with its calming blue hues and curved forms.  For Ameena, the reflection is on the story of a Chinese legend about a koi that swam up a waterfall and became a dragon.  “Like the Koi,” says Ameena, “we too can meet challenges with determination and strength, and in doing so, be magnificent.” ²

[1] “Artist Series: Ameena Khan,” Muslim Women in the Arts.

[2] ibid.

Category: Performing
Country: Canada

About

Sofia Servando Baig is a poet and spoken word artist from Montreal, Canada. Although Sofia grew up in a Muslim family, she said that it was only much later that she learned what it meant to be a practicing Muslim.¹

Of Pakistani, Chinese, and Spanish descent, Sofia felt that the “world had labeled” her after 9/11, and the event compelled her to question and explore her identity.² In an interview with Muslim Girl magazine, she discussed the complexities of being of mixed race and Muslim. “The world had already put me into a category that I knew nothing about. You’re forced in this little box and you’re like, ‘Who am I?’ … And on top of that, being mixed, being diversely mixed, you’re already so confused about who you are.”³

Sofia writes about discrimination, prejudice, and Islam in her poetry. In 2008, she released her debut album, Daughter of the Sand. The spoken word album takes the listener on a lyrical journey through Sofia’s personal struggle in understanding the intersections between faith, culture, and race. In “Can I Breathe,” she says, “There is no ‘I’ in my life but a why, question mark. Question – who am I?”, and in “Runs Deep,” she speaks about a young couple falling in and out of love – “See love runs deep. Now they sit in the kitchen, heads in their hands, fussing with numbers and calculations. The equation for a perfect marriage is left for last.”⁴

In an interview with Azizah magazine, Sofia discusses the importance of perseverance and speaking out. “Muslim women are not represented enough and not that well…People say media doesn’t give voice, but sometimes women shy away from speaking up.”⁵ In response to her poetry and work as a social activist, Sofia has appeared on CNN, participated in Canada’s MuslimFest and HipHop4Islam, and been featured in numerous newspapers.

[1] Sofia Baig: CNN Interview.

[2] ibid.

[3] Misha Warbanski, “A Muslim poet gets political”, Thismagazine.com.

[4] Sofia Baig’s Official MySpace page.

[5] Nadirah Z. Sabir, “Rhyme and Reason,” Azizah Magazine, Vol. 6, Issue 1.

Category: Performing
Country: United States

About

Born in Flint, Michigan, Liza Garza is a Mexican-American, Emmy award-nominated vocalist. Liza began her career as a poet and spoken word artist, winning a string of poetry slams after she graduated from high school. While attending the University of Michigan, Liza continued to perform at open mics and competitions.¹ In an interview with Azizah Magazine, Liza said she grew up in a family of musicians. “We’d always gather and sing. I did it through high school, none of it was professional then, out to open mikes.”²

Weaving hip hop beats with Mexican folk song melodies, Liza sings about social inequities and the structural violence in urban jungles. In 2005 she published a collection of poetry entitled “You Never Knew Until I Spoke” and the following year released her debut album, “Bloom Beautiful.” In her poem “My Everything,” Liza writes about the importance of remaining accountable to one’s decisions:

“they said we’d become victim to the streets
as if the concrete could creep up and catch us
in the midst of walking lift up and grab us
cock back and blast us
backhanded slap us
and we believed em
did everything to create some sort of distance
in between em
the souls of our sneaks and the hot pavement beneath
anything just to bring us a lil closer to heaven
as if 18 inches was the next best thing to ascension
in a life full of question”³

Liza has performed on stage with artists such as Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, Amir Sulaiman, Mos Def, and Jill Scott, and was a featured poet on HBO’s ‘Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry.’⁴ In addition to her musical career, Liza recently launched a jewelry line which she says was “inspired by the desire to preserve my cultural heritage and a means to celebrate our unique identity.”⁵

[1] Nadirah Z. Sabir, “Rhyme and Reason,” Azizah, Vol. 6, Issue 1.

[2] ibid.

[3] “Liza Garza—My Everything,” Poetrygrrrl.com.

[4] “My Story,” LizaGarzaSignature.com.

[5] ibid.

Category: Performing
Country: India

About

Zeenat Aman is an Indian actress and former beauty queen. She was born on November 19, 1951 to a Muslim father, Amanullah Khan, and a Hindu mother, Scinda. Her father was one of the writers for the Bollywood film classics Mughal-e-Azam and Pakeezah.¹

Zeenat’s movie career began with a part in O.P. Ralhan’s Hulchul in 1971. However it was Hare Rama Hare Krishna, with its hit song, Dum Maro Dum, that made her famous. She received a Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award and Bengal Film Journalists’ Association Award for Best Actress for this role. With her 1973 film Yaadon Ki Baaraat, her popularity grew particularly for the scene in which she carries a guitar and lip-syncs Asha Bhosle’s Churaliya Hai Tumne Jo Dil Ko. 

Zeenat is known for breaking the stereotypically shy image of Bollywood actresses with several controversial roles.² In Roti Kapda Aur Makaan, Zeenat played the role of an ambitious girl who contemplates abortion to pursue her career; in Hare Ram Hare Krishna, a disenchanted hippie; a girl who falls for her mother’s former lover in Prem Shastra; and a woman having an affair on her crippled husband in Dhund. Zeenat has also acted in more conventional films such as Dostana, Chhaila Babu and Chori Mera Kaam.

Zeenat continued to make movies through the rest of the 1970s and into the 1980s including Ishq Ishq Ishq (1974), Kalabaaz (1977), Insaaf Ka Tarazu (1980) and Lawaaris (1981). Her last leading role was in the film Gawahi (1989). Zeenat has made several cameos in more recent Bollywood films such as Let’s Fall in Love (2006), Chaurahen (2007) and Ugly Aur Pagil (2008).

At the 2008 Zee Cine Awards for Bollywood films, Zeenat received a Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to Indian cinema.³

[1] Zeenat Aman Biography.

[2] Interview: Zeenat Aman.

[3] Zeenat Aman Biography.

Category: Performing
Country: Iran

About

Shohreh Aghdasloo is an Iranian actress who was born in Tehran in 1952 to an intellectual family. From an early age she was drawn to the theatre and by her early twenties was acting with various avant-garde performance groups such as the Drama Workshop of Tehran. Shohreh was soon noticed and cast by two prominent directors of the Iranian New Wave, Abbas Kiarostami and Ali Hatami, and played leading roles in their 1977 films Gozaresh and Sutedelan.

By the late 1970s, Shohreh’s work as an actress was either censored or banned by Ayatollah Khomeini’s strict new laws. Looking to escape post-Revolution Iran, Shohreh left her husband and her career to go to London. While there, a friend presented her with an opportunity to act in Rainbow, a play about the Revolution and the turmoil that ensued. The play was a success and brought Shohreh to the United States, where she married her second husband and settled in Los Angeles. 

Though initially Shohreh found it difficult to find non-stereotypical roles for Middle Eastern women in Hollywood, she eventually found herself starring in Vadim Perelman’s adaption of the bestseller The House of Sand and Fog. In the film she played Nadi, a strong but submissive Iranian American wife, and was cast opposite Ben Kingsley. Her performance earned her an Academy Award nomination. She went on to have a recurring role on the popular television series 24 and starred in a number of films including The Exorcism of Emily Rose, American Dreamz, X-Men: The Last Stand, and The Lake House.¹

Shohreh also starred in two short films in a trilogy by fellow Iranian artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat entitled Possessed and Pulse.² In 2008, Shohreh starred in Cyrus Nowrasteh’s The Stoning of Soraya M, a film about an innocent woman, Soraya, who has been condemned by her husband and a village mob for adultery. Shohreh played Soraya’s aunt, who acts to defend her from her ill fate. The Stoning of Soraya M was the runner up to Slumdog Millionaire at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival for the Audience Choice award.³
 

[1] “Shohreh Aghdashloo,” NY Times Movies and TV.

[2] “Shohreh Aghdashloo,” Pars Times.

[3] “Movie Review: The Stoning of Soraya M,” NY Times.

Category: Performing
Country: Pakistan

About

Tina Sani is a Pakistani singer of ghazals, or dramatic poems. Her first experience with the professional world of singing was in 1980 when she was introduced by Ishrat Ansari on a television program for youth. “It was the first programme of its kind, with live recording,” Tina remembered. “I had taken up singing only six months prior to that, more for kicks than anything else, and my appearing on television was a culmination of that short period of practice. Considering that I had never been in the public eye, it was a luxury to have such a captive audience before me.” ¹

After her debut, Tina continued to make television appearances. However, she kept her engagements limited to ensure that she would continue to grow as a singer and not burn out too early in her career. She received her big break when she was asked to sing a ghazal by the famous Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz entitled Aai meray dil meray musafir. For Tina, singing this ghazal earned her a great deal of support from her listeners, along with her family and friends.²

According to Tina, her musicians have the room to play as they please. She believes that music comes not just from the instrument, but from the musicians themselves, a philosophy she applies to fusion as well. Perhaps this view is best demonstrated in an encounter Tina had in Greenwich Village in New York City.“There was a Spaniard singing a ballad which had been used by Raj Kapoor in one of his movies and I spontaneously started singing it in Urdu,” Tina recalled. “He came up to me and started playing the chords for me and then I sang Meray Hamdam, Meray Dost and just by hearing the melody, he played it for me. Before we knew it, we had gathered an audience that was applauding us madly. That was true fusion.”³

Tina’s career has allowed her to sing “inspirational, conscience-arousing lyrics” from a variety of sources. One of her future projects is to record an Urdu translation of the poet Rumi’s Mathnavi with Iranian and Turkish musicians.⁴

[1] Tina Sani—Interview.

[2] ibid.

[3] Tina Sani—Interview.

[4] “Tina Sani’s songs of hope,” The Hindu.

Category: Performing
Country: Malaysia

About

Sheila Majid is a Malaysian singer who has been present on the music scene for more than two decades with her signature style: contemporary pop music blended with jazz and rhythm and blues. Her debut album, Dimensi Baru (New Dimension) was released in 1985 and created a new dimension in the Malaysian music industry and sold-out concerts for Sheila.

Her second 1987 album Emosi (Emotion) allowed the Malaysian singer to become part of the music scene in Indonesia. She was not only the first non-Indonesian to win the BASF Award for Best Female Artist in R&B in 1987, but also embarked on a successful nationwide tour in 1988.

The following year Sheila and her music traveled to Japan, where she performed at the Tokyo Music Festival. She later performed in the Okinawa Music Pageant in 1990. To date Sheila remains the only Malaysian artist to successfully penetrate the Japanese market. While busy touring the region, Sheila released her third album Warna (Colour) in 1988 and later Legenda (Legend)  in 1990. The latter was her fourth and best-selling album to date and paid tribute to the late P. Ramlee, one of Malaysia’s most famous entertainers.

After a six-year hiatus, Sheila released her fifth album Ratu (Queen) in 1996. This album received much critical acclaim as her maturing and evolving style allowed her to collaborate with some of the world’s best musicians including Nathan East of the American Jazz group Four Play, Rex Goh of Air Supply and Japanese violinist Aska Kaneko. With this album, Sheila achieved another first for a Malaysian artist. East West Records, her UK affiliate label, arranged a special release of Ratu at Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus, London.

In 2000, Sheila won four awards at the Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM), including Best Pop Album for her sixth release Ku Mohon (I Pray). Cinta Kita, her seventh album, includes collaborations with some of Indonesia’s foremost entertainers such as Andi Rianto, Tohpati and Indra Lesmana.¹

[1] Sheila Majid: Bio.

Category: Performing
Country: United Kingdom

About

Shazia Mirza is an award-winning, British Asian stand-up comedian from Birmingham, England. She has toured in the United States, Sweden, Denmark, France, Holland and Germany and has appeared on 60 Minutes (CBS), Last Comic Standing (NBC), and Have I Got News for You (BBC). Shazia’s comedic talent has been featured on television shows such as Beautiful People, F**K off I’m a Hairy Woman, Richard and Judy, and The World Stands Up, as well as radio programs like On the Dot – Comic Fringes, a Good Read, Midweek, The Now Show, Between Ourselves, and Women’s Hour.¹

Shazia was also credited as a script consultant on fellow comedian David Baddiel’s 2010 release The Infidel, a film that humorously addresses ethnic identity and the troubling competition between religious groups in Britain. The hero of the movie is played by Omid Djalili, who portrays a moderate Muslim living a quiet life in East London when he discovers he was adopted and his birth parents were Jewish.² 

Shazia has received rave reviews from a number of top publications including The New York Times, which stated, “In that global menagerie of Comedy Mirza is that rarest of rare creatures. Mirza is a proven draw.”³She has won a number of awards for her work including the GG2 Young Achiever of the Year Award in 2003, the Columnist of the Year PPA Awards in 2008, and the Arts and Culture Award in 2010.⁴

In regards to her work and her faith Shazia commented, “I totally believe in my religion. I think if I were a practicing Muslim and a stripper, then there would be a problem. But there isn’t a problem with me being a practicing Muslim and a stand-up comic.”⁵

[1] Shazia Mirza: Biography.

[2] “The Infidel,” The Guardian.

[3] Shazia Mirza: Biography.

[4] ibid.

[5] “Funny, Shazia Mirza Looks Muslim,” The San Francisco Chronicle.

Category: Performing
Country: Pakistan

About

Sanam Marvi is a Sufi singer based in Pakistan. She began studying music under the guidance of her father, Faqeer Ghulam Rasool, until the age of seven. Eventually Sanam visited India, where she trained under Ustad Fateh Ali Khan of Gwalior. While there, she felt that Indian audiences were more appreciative of her talent than those back home. She also observed that Indian audiences responded positively to Allama Iqbal, a famous Pakistani poet. Sanam often recited his poem Gesu-e-tabdaar ko aur bhi tabdaar kar during her performances in India.

One of Sanam’s goals as a musician is to make Sufi music more popular with both Indian and Pakistani youth. “I have never performed any pop song in my life and don’t even plan to,” she declared. “My objective is to perform at every Sufi festival across the world so that people of my generation and many more come (to be) familiarized with this culture. I am only 24, and if I can get fascinated by it, so can others.”¹

As an artist, Sanam is inspired by the women of Sindh who have a special song for every occasion that they sing to the beat of a dhol, or Eastern drum. She hopes to break new ground with one of her upcoming projects, a collection of Sindhi songs. ²

Sanam not only hopes to break new ground musically, but socially as well. In February 2011, Sanam performed with Indian singer Rekha Bhardwaj in a concert for Aman ki Asha, an India-Pakistan peace project which was initiated by the Times of India and Pakistani Jang Group news outlets in an effort to spread peace through music. Rekha seemed to sum up the central message of the concert, saying, “I do not believe in Islam, I do not believe in Hinduism, I do not believe in any religion. All I believe in is the power of love and humanity.” ³

[1] <"Sanam Marvi: taking the Sufi world by storm," Daily Times..

[2] ibid.

[3] “Rekha, Sanam Marvi to perform together,” The Times of India.

Category: Performing
Country: India

About

Nargis Dutt was born Fatima Rashid on June 1, 1929 in Allahabad, India. Her first film was Taqdeer in 1943, but it was not until she played a role in Mehboob Khan’s Andaaz in 1949 that she became a star. With her portrayal of a modern girl caught between Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar in the 1949 film Barsaat, Nargis achieved widespread fame.¹ She was described as the “perfect muse” for Raj Kapoor, whose film company produced the movie because of Nargis’s unconventional beauty.²

As an actress, Nargis was said to have brought a sense of authenticity and self-assurance to every role she played. She was described as “savagely elemental” in Anhonee and possessed a “sense of quietness” in Jogan.³

However, she may be best remembered for her portrayal of strength and purpose in Mother India in 1957. Mother India is the story of an Indian peasant and a remake of the 1940 film Aurat. The title is said to be an allegory for Mother Earth and Nargis’ performance in this role, in which she cruelly kills her own son in the end, won her a Best Actress Award at the Karlovy Vary Festival. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

During the shooting of Mother India, Nargis met her future husband Sunil Dutt. After marriage, Nargis focused her attention on humanitarian causes. Still, her voice and silhouette appeared in Sunil Dutt’s Yaadein in 1964 and in 1967 she portrayed a woman with a split personality in Raat ur Din, for which she won the Indian National Award.

In 1981, Nargis died of cancer at the age of 52. Her family set up the Nargis Dutt Memorial Foundation to continue charitable work in her name,⁴ while her son Sanjay Dutt followed in his parents’ footsteps and became an actor.⁵

[1] Nargis Dutt Memorial Foundation.

[2] Barsaat—Movie Review, The Bollywood Ticket.

[3] Nargis Dutt Memorial Foundation.

[4] ibid.

[5] Sanjay Dutt—Family/Biography.

Category: Performing
Country: Pakistan

About

As an actress, painter, model, and singer, Meesha Shafi is a gifted artist with multiple talents. A graduate of the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan, Meesha comes from a family with a rich tradition of art and culture. Her mother Saba Pervaiz, for example, is a famous Pakistani television actress. When asked if going into entertainment was an obvious choice given her family background, Meesha responded, “If it’s in your blood, there’s no escaping it. I know I was born with the performing bug in me. If it was there from such an early age, it was probably because of my mom.”¹

Meesha is a member of Overload, a percussion-based fusion performing group considered to be the loudest band in Pakistan. Overload’s music has a heavy rock influence with an element of fusion through the sound of the dhol, an Eastern drum. As the group’s lead vocalist, Meesha is seen as Pakistan’s first female rock star. She recently performed a “groovy rendition” of “Alif Allah Chambay di Booti” with Arif Lohar on Coke Studio, a Pakistani music program.²

When Meesha is not making music, she is busy modeling. She is considered one of Pakistan’s leading fashion models and was selected as the country’s L’Oréal Paris’ spokesperson. In regards to this accomplishment, Meesha commented, “I definitely feel extremely flattered. It gives me great pride to represent the world’s largest beauty brand and to know that they chose me to communicate to thousands of beautiful women across the country.”³ With her position at L’Oréal, Meesha hopes to represent the limitless beauty of Pakistan, its tradition, culture, and exotic beauty, much of which she feels the world is unaware.⁴

[1] “Meesha Shafi – The Dum guttkoon, Jugni ji Girl,” from Dawn.

[2] ibid.

[3] Meesha Shafi talks to Fashion Central.

[4] ibid.

Category: Visuals
Country: United Kingdom

About

Lateefa Spiker was born to American and English parents, both of whom were converts to Islam. Growing up, Lateefa often felt that she did not belong to any one group, having lived and studied in the United Kingdom, Spain, Jordan and the United States, Egypt, and Morocco. She once remarked that her favorite kinds of conversations are nonverbal ones, and that she translates her experiences of not belonging into the universal language of visual art.¹

Lateefa’s work explores the structures and flowing forms of traditional Islamic art and its relationship to the experiences of contemporary life. She examines the boundaries of established order and its encounter with postmodernism and the frontiers of chaos, providing a unique visual meditation on the delicate balance between them. Lateefa uses a wide range of media that include oil on canvas, gouache on gesso board, engraved gesso boards, prints, drawings and kinetic installations.²

In one of her latest collections, Lateefa combines traces of American Indian color schemes, luscious waterfalls and Indonesian ikat fabric. She uses a smooth velvety gesso that she says is reminiscent of the adobe architecture present in her New Mexican childhood. Although Lateefa draws on traditional Islamic patterns, she brings to them a new fresh perspective, which is popular amongst many Western Muslims. She believes that “traditional art is like a time machine that can bring the past into the present. I think Islamic art is one of the most relevant traditional forms as it represents infinity, nature, things that are timeless. But you need to speak in the language of the time.”³

Lateefa is currently based in East London, where she has been teaching and collaborating with other artists since 2006. She completed her foundation course in the Building Arts program at the Princes School in 2000 and went on to study painting at Northumbria University, both in the United Kingdom.⁴

[1] “Unravelling Disorder—Profile of Artist Lateefa Spiker,” Emel Magazine.

[2] Muslim Women in the Arts: Artists.

[3] “Unravelling Disorder—Profile of Artist Lateefa Spiker,” Emel Magazine.

[4] Muslim Women in the Arts: Artists.

Category: Performing
Country: Pakistan

About

Haniya Aslam and her cousin Zebunissa Bangash are internationally known as Zeb and Haniya, Pakistan’s first all-female music group. Their debut album Chup, a collection of 10 songs, was met with rave reviews from Pakistan’s major newspapers. They are from the Northwest Frontier Province, an area that is widely synonymous with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Through their music, a blend of eastern and western influences, they present a different image of their homeland. Paimona, a Pashtun love ballad set to the sound of blues, is one of the best illustrations of their unique style. Although they are not involved in politics, Zeb and Haniya feel it important to dispel stereotypes about their country abroad. ¹

In the band, Haniya is the main songwriter and provides some vocals, while Zeb is the lead vocalist. While completing their album Chup the duo were helped greatly by local musicians. After the album’s release, Zeb and Haniya received praise by young Pashtuns for promoting their culture. Haniya has said that her family was a big influence on Zeb and Haniya’s musical development. Her father was always very enthusiastic about music, and everyone in her family plays an instrument.  Her grandmother was a poet and spoke three languages fluently.  ²

Deutsche Welles has described Zeb and Haniya as “among the most innovative musicians in Pakistan.”  ³ To date they have performed in Pakistan, Malaysia, Italy, France, and at music festivals in the United States and Norway. Their music, with its variety of sound and language – Pushto, Urdu, Dari and Turkish – has been claimed by a diversity of audiences. ⁴

In addition to her talents as a musician, Haniya is also a photographer. Through her photographs she captures the beauty of Pakistan and everyday life. Her work includes pictures entitled Afternoon in Jinnah Bagh, Early Morning Lahore, Lahore Fort Façade, Baadshai Masjid Gallery, Pakistan Today and Vespa Gone Native.  ⁵

[1] “Pakistani Girl Band Creates a Stir,” BBC.

[2] ibid.

[3] Zeb and Haniya’s Official Website.

[4] ibid.

[5] Haniya Aslam’s Photography.

Category: Visuals
Film-making
Country: Malaysia

About

Born in 1958, Yasmin Ahmed was an acclaimed Malaysian film maker. Beginning her career through her work in television commercials, Yasmin created the advertisements for the Malaysian oil firm Petronas. In her commercial work, Yasmin wove emotionally charged parables about contemporary society, and her advertisements earned her several awards and nominations.¹ 

In her lifetime, Yasmin produced six films that chronicled the socio-economic and racial politics of Malaysia. In her well-known film, Sepet, a 19-year-old Chinese boy who sells VCDs and a 16-year-old Malay school girl fall in love as they talk about poetry and films. Through their story, Yasmin portrays a complex narrative which comments on a variety of Malay issues such as mixed racial couples, evolving languages, and the relationship between Chinese, Malay and Indian peoples in Malaysia.²  The film was one of the first to reflect how Malay people talk in everyday life by showing the linguistic blends of English and Malay in conversations. Amir Muhammad, a fellow Malaysian filmmaker, admired her choice to reflect Malaysia’s diversity. “Most films in Malaysia are only in Malay, but she saw our multicultural heritage as a blessing rather than a burden, which is how her films gained their colourful mix of languages and people.”³ 

Yasmin’s other films include Rabun, Gubra, Mukhsin, Muallaf, and Talentime. Yasmin’s films have been shown at numerous film festivals and won several awards, including Most Original Story and Best Film by the Malaysian Film Festival for Sepet in 2005 and Best Screenplay and Best Film by the Malaysia Film Festival for Gubra in 2006. Yasmin also received the Berlin International Film Festival Grand Prix award, which was awarded by the Kinderfilmfest International Jury and Generation K-Plus Crystal Bear.⁴ 

[1] Amir Muhammad, “A Dreamer’s Dream,” Aquila Asia, February 24, 2010.
[2] “Sepet,” WorldCinema.com.
[3] “Sepet,” WorldCinema.com.
[4] ibid.

Photo courtesy of Iman Zawahry.

Category: Visuals
Film-making
Country: United States

About

Iman Zawahry was born in Panama City, Florida in 1980. From a young age, Iman felt a pull towards filmmaking.  As a teenager, she created spoof productions of the Arsenio Hall Show and 90210, complete with commercial breaks starring friends. Although she originally planned on pursuing Islamic studies, Iman gravitated towards filmmaking as a way to allow her to pursue activism. She focuses on creating comedic films about the American Muslim experience since she believes that humor is the best approach for tackling serious issues. She says:

“Once an audience member is able to laugh at something that would normally make them uncomfortable, they are able to let go of their previous prejudice and begin on the path of understanding. When you see a Muslim police detective, who wears a scarf, chasing a pig and covered in pig pen mud, you are able to forget the negative connotation [that a] Muslim equals [a] terrorist. Instead you see a Muslim as a person who deals and tackles the same issues as everyone else.”

Iman has worked as a freelance journalist with Bridges TV, the first American Muslim television network, and today Iman has directed and written several films including Under Cover, Tough Crowd, The Cape, and Neighbors of Mass Destruction.  Her third film Tough Crowd, which chronicled the journey of an aspiring female Muslim stand-up comic, won an Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Student Emmy Award and the Award of Merit at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. Tough Crowd also qualified as a finalist in the NBC Comedy Short Cuts where Iman was a finalist to pitch a sitcom with NBC executives. Consequently, the Directors-In-Training program at NBC nominated Iman for its exclusive program.

Iman was also a recipient of the exclusive Princess Grace Award and completed shooting her fourth film Under Cover that she produced, directed, and co-wrote. Under Cover has been awarded Best Short in six festivals, along with Best Director and many nominations.  Iman is currently writing a feature film with the stand-up comedians from Allah Made Me Funny.

Category: Visuals
Calligraphy
Country: United States

About

Elinor Aisha Holland is an Islamic calligrapher from Pennsylvania. Growing up in a suburban neighborhood, Elinor longed to escape the doldrums of her town.¹  Fortunately, a Turkish family invited her to stay with them in Turkey for a summer and she fell in love with the people and culture there. After seeing Islamic calligraphy, she immediately began learning the ancient art. In an interview with Azizah magazine, she recalled, “Instantly, I wanted to do it….I started learning the Arabic alphabet. My hosts were artists and they produced paper, ink and pens for me. I began copying things out of a book.”² 

Over the years, Elinor took countless calligraphy classes and became a student of the famed calligrapher, Mohamed Zakariya. She also frequently travelled to Turkey, where she eventually adopted Islam as her faith.³  As an Islamic calligrapher, Elinor said that it is important to expose people to different kinds of art from around the world, especially from the Middle East. “There are so many people who have no idea that there is this beautiful art from that side of the world,” she said, adding sharing Islamic calligraphy has enabled her to become an ambassador of art to others.⁴  Elinor has taught numerous workshops in schools, museums, and university programs, and her work has also been highlighted in The Book of Sufi Healing and Believing Women in Islam.⁵ 

[1] Dujanah Descartes, “The Soothing Art,” Azizah, Volume 6, Issue 2.
[2] ibid.
[3] ibid.
[4] ibid.
[5] “About the Panelists: Elinor Aisha Holland,” HVCAA, 2007.

Category: Performing
Music
Country: Pakistan

About

Nazia Hassan was born into a wealthy family in Karachi in 1965.  She began her singing career in the late 1970s when she appeared on Pakistani television programs as a child star.  At the age of 15, Nazia began her professional career by recording lead vocals on Aap Jaisa Koi, a song featured in the 1980 film Qurbani.  In 1981, she won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback for this song.¹ 

Aap Jaisa Koi was one of the biggest hits in Bollywood film music. It also made Nazia Hassan a star with young Asians in the Indian subcontinent who enjoyed the tune on the dance floor. The song’s London-based producer Biddu also brought Nazia into the limelight on the British pop scene.  Together, they went on to produce Disco Deewane (1981), a wildly popular album known for it’s “racy songs” and “harmonious blend of eastern rhythms and western beats.”  The album was number one for a year and it made Nazia the queen of Asian pop.

After the success of Disco Deewane, Nazia and her brother Zohaib sang together in the Bollywood film Star and returned to Pakistan in the early 1980s to record Young Tarang that was followed by Hotline in 1987. Nazia’s last solo album, Camera Camera was released in London in 1992. Her later works were criticized for lacking the expressiveness of early work.²

To her fans, it was her commitment to promoting social causes that really made her unique.  Nazia worked to help women and youth living in underprivileged areas in Karachi.  She began a non-profit organization called Battle Against Narcotics (BAN) and was an active member of organizations such as Voice of Women and the National Youth Council of Pakistan.  In the early 1990s she spent two years working for the Security Council at the United Nations and one year with UNICEF.³

Nazia passed away due to lung cancer on August 13, 2000. She was only 35 years old.⁴

[1] Nazia Hassan: A disco queen remembered.
[2] Nazia Hassan.
[3] ibid.
[4] Nazia Hassan: A disco queen remembered.

Category: Performing
Music
Country: Pakistan

About

Noor Jehan is known as Mallika-e-Tarannum, the Queen of Melody. Her career spanned six decades in the 20th century, included songs in Urdu and Punjabi and reached an audience of millions of people across the Indian Subcontinent.¹ 

Born in the Kasur region of the Punjab in 1926, Noor Jehan’s fascination with music began at the age of six.  One of her childhood idols Akhtari Begum advised her to learn classical music. Obliging her advice, she studied classical music under Ghulum Mohammed Khan and began playing small roles in films such as Sheila: Pind di Kudi (1935) and Gul-e-Bakavali (1939).  Noor Jehan received her big break when she played the female lead in Khandaan in 1942. Not only did one of her songs, Tu Kaunsi Badli Mein Mere Chand Hai Aaja become a big hit, she also ended up marrying the film’s director, Syed Shauqat Hussain Rizvi.

Following the success of Khandaan, the newly-married couple moved to Bombay, India’s movie capital. Recognized for her incredible voice and strong stage presence, she became the number one actress in India. Her films included Dhuai (1943), Nadan (1943), Dost (1944) and Village Girl (1945).  Noor Jehan also popularized qawwali, a form of poetry in her film Zeenat with her song Aahen Na Bhari Shikwen Na Kiye, a duet with Zohra Ambala. 

After completing Mirza Sahiban (1947) and Jugnu (1947), Noor Jehan moved to the newly formed nation of Pakistan.  Chan Wey, a film that she acted and directed was released in 1951. She continued acting in Pakistan until she switched over to playback singing. Her last film as an actress was Ghalib (1961).  Noor Jehan’s film Heer Ranjha (1970), is considered one of the best films to be produced by Lollywood, Pakistan’s movie industry. 

It was in 1996, that Noor Jehan recorded her last song, Ki Dam Da Bharosa for the film Sakhi Badshah.  She ended her singing career due to deteriorating health and changing trends in music.  Noor Jehan passed away on December 23, 2000 in Pakistan due to heart failure.²

[1] Madam Noor Jehan.
[2] Noor Jehan.

Category: Performing
Film
Country: India

About

Mumtaz Jahan Begum Dehlavi or as she is best known to her many fans, Madhubala, was born on Februray 14, 1933.  She began acting when she was only nine years old and become known in the Hindi film industry as Baby Mumtaz.  Her early films included Basant (1942), Dil ki Rani (1947), Chittor Vijay (1947), Khubsurat Duniya (1947), Amar Prem (1948), Lal Dupatta (1948) and Parai Aag (1948). However, it was the movie Mahal (1949), a suspense thriller that made her a star. She played opposite Ashok Kumar. “Aaega Aanewala,” remains one of her signature songs today.¹

After Mahal’s success she starred in a number of films with the leading men of the day including Dilip Kumar. They included Pades (1950), Tarana (1951), Sangdil (1952), Aaram (1951), Arman (1953) and Badal (1951).  By the mid-1950s, many of her major films began to flop. In addition, she became involved with Dilip Kumar and her father’s opposition to him eventually took its toll on her. Eventually, Madhubala came back with a string of successful movies in the late 1950s including Phagun (1958), Howrah Bridge (1958), Kala Pani (1958) and Chalti ka Naam Gaadi (1958).²

In 1960, Madhubala starred in the most famous Hindi movie of all time, Mughal-e-Azam. Her performance in this movie as Anarkali was the highest achievement of her career. She received much acclaim from critics and gained a great deal of popularity.³ Over the years, Mughal-e-Azam has been described as a work of art, a classic and an unforgettable part of Hindi film lore and Madhubala through this film is immortalized as a talented actress and a timeless beauty.⁴

Shortly, after the release of the enormous success of Mughal-e-Azam she was diagnosed as having a hole in her heart and was forced to cut her career short.  Madhubala also found herself in a loveless marriage with Kishore Kumar that lasted until her death on February 23, 1969.⁵

Madhubala remains a true icon Bollywood even today.

[1] Madhubala.
[2] ibid.
[3] Acting Career and Films of Madhubala.
[4] Mugal-e-Azam: A Work of Art.
[5] Madhubala.

Category: Visuals
Country: Jordan

About

Born in Amman, Jordan, Shereen Audi began her career as a painter in 1992.¹ Under the supervision of various artists in Jordan and abroad, Shereen developed her style as an abstract expressionist artist. She cites Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Joan Miró, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell and Andy Warhol, in addition to other Arab artists, as sources of inspiration and admiration.² Shereen considers herself “a woman with a golden brush” who is motivated solely by her inner spirit. Utilizing dramatic colors and lines, Shereen believes that “art is a world of its own.”^3,4

Shereen has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions. In an interview with Elan Magazine, she said that her emotions drive her work. “[Painting] is an escape from the burdens of daily life that tend to lead to monotony.  Painting gives me the feeling of contentment, both from my heart and soul. It frees my mind and spirit.”⁵ Before painting, Shereen often meditates in order to clear her mind. “Abstract art is about the expression of freedom of mind and ideas, she has said, “I want people to look at my paintings and see through them, let their minds wonder and uncover the truth of my expressions.”⁶

[1] ShereenAudi.com
[2] “Shereen Audi – A Woman With a Golden Brush,” Elan Magazine.
[3] ibid.
[4] “Shereen Audi,” Saatchi Online.
[5] “Shereen Audi – A Woman With a Golden Brush,” Elan Magazine.
[6] “Shereen Audi,” Zara Gallery.

Category: Visuals
Country: Hong Kong

About

Originally from Hong Kong, Pik converted to Islam in college and married her husband soon afterwards.¹ Along with her husband, she opened an Islamic art company, Sakina Design, which strives to use and promote only environmentally friendly products. With her husband, Jontie, handling the business end of the company, Pik designs contemporary wall art and greeting cards.² Drawing upon Islamic calligraphy and traditional designs, she creates clean, minimalistic pieces.  For instance, in one greeting card, Pik designed a pattern “inspired by architecture from Isfahan, Iran” which came from “the famed Chehel Sutun (Forty Columns) Pavilion, built during the Safavid era.” Overlaying the pattern against a mossy green background, Pik creates a simple yet elegant card inspired by Muslim architecture.³

All products are made with sustainable or recycled materials.⁴ Not only are the materials Pik uses eco-friendly, but Pik and her husband also attempt to only source from companies which employ green manufacturing processes. For instance, the company which produces wooden frames for Sakina Design uses a furnace that burns leftover sawdust, which is used in the manufacturing process and heating the plant. Pik and her husband also user local suppliers for their work.⁵

[1] Sara Elghobashy, “Sakina Design Brings an Environmental Conscience to Islamic Art,” Elan, April 8, 2010.
[2] ibid.
[3] “Greeting Card,” Sakina Design
[4] “Sakina GREEN,” Sakina Design.
[5] ibid.

Category: Performing
Music
Country: United States

About

A Los Angeles native, Ms. Latifah is a spoken word artist who started her career at the Jazzman’s Café in Atlanta in 2006.¹ Since then, she has developed a loyal fan base for her witty, sophisticated poetry and engaging performances. After recording some of her poetry, Ms. Latifah talked with several radio stations about playing her work, but was told by one DJ that despite her obvious talent,  radio stations would never play her poetry. The experience, however, motivated her to prove that she could in fact succeed on her own terms, writing a piece entitled, “Radio,” which went on to be played at radio stations across the country.²  Although Ms. Latifah considers herself primarily a spoken word artist, she also raps and sings, fusing hip hop, rap and neo-soul elements into her work.

As a black Muslim, Ms. Latifah strives to remain an example that individuals do not need to sell out in order to fit in.³ She says, “I perform because there are few young, African-American women that are not conforming to society’s expectations. I want to be the one to prove that you can be yourself and still get support.”⁴ Ms. Latifah has written a number of tracks including, “Bites the Dust,” “Plan B,” and “They Call Me Crazy.” Ms. Latifah has won several poetry slams and also performed on stage with artists like Lupe Fiasco, Ludacris, The Last Poets, Malcolm Jamal Warner and Ken Ford.⁵

[1] MySpace: Ms. Latifah.
[2] ibid.
[3] “Hip Hop: Ms. Latifah” Muslim Hip Hop.
[4] ibid.
[5] MySpace: Ms. Latifah.

Category: Visuals
Film-making
Country: United States

About

Lena Khan is an independent filmmaker from Alta Loma, California. A graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, Lena initially studied political science but switched because of her increasing interest in continuing social activism.¹ In 2008, she won the grand prize for the One Nation, Many Voices film contest for her short film, A Land Called Paradise.

For A Land Called Paradise, Lena solicited the responses of over 2000 Muslim Americans about what they wished the broader American public knew about the Muslim community.² Set to the song, “A Land Called Paradise” by the country singer Kareem Salami, the video captures the diversity and ordinariness of the American Muslim experience as individuals hold up handmade signs such as, “I am black and I am not a convert,” “I visit my parents every weekend, even though they drive me insane,” and “I, too, shop at Victoria’s Secret.”³

Lena has also directed several other films, such as Baseem Is Trying, a humorous social commentary on the sense of the intensified scrutiny associated with being Muslim.⁴ In the short video, a Muslim man named Baseem struggles to appear as a normal American, fully aware of the how he may be perceived negatively by his coworkers or others in the community. For instance, in one scene, Baseem prays in his office, but the moment his coworker unexpectedly comes in, he immediately pretends to have been doing push ups.

The absurdity and humor of the video originated from Lena’s own life, in which she often felt extremely aware that she could be the “only Muslim” her coworkers or classmates had ever met. In an interview about the film, she said, “You always feel like they’re going to base everything they know about Muslims off of how they see you. So you find that you’re always trying really, really hard to make a good impression even if it’s for things you normally do.”⁵

[1] “Lena Khan: Best Under 60,” LinkTV.
[2] ibid.
[3] “A Land Called Paradise” Video
[4] “Baseem Is Trying” Video
[5] “Lena Khan: Best Under 60,” LinkTV.

Category: Visuals
Country: United States

About

Sarah Jawaid is an urban planner and environmentalist currently residing in Washington DC.  When she is not busy advocating for environmental issues from a faith-based perspective or doing art programming for youth in under-served areas, she is busy writing. Her writing has appeared in Khaleej Times, Marrakech, Avocado Journal and has been translated into Arabic, French, Indonesian and Urdu. She is also an associate editor of Altmuslimah, an online publication that aims to explore issues on all sides of the gender divide. Her featured articles include an interview with aspiring Hollywood screenwriter, Sameer Asad Gardezi and a review of the Inner City Muslim Action Network‘s special edition of the Community Café at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem in January 2010.¹

Sarah has been involved in a number of initiatives regarding the environment. One of these initiatives is working with the DC Green Muslims. At one of the group’s dinners in 2008 she offered a soliloquy called “Niyyah of Space,” which applied the Islamic concept of doing something well intentioned for the sake of Allah to questions of the built environment. She urged participants to be present in the moment in a way that it is possible to see God’s work in one’s life and to look within to find ways to be better protectors of the earth.² 

In 2010, Sarah commented on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in the Huffington Post.  She spoke to the need of individuals to shed their apathy and make changes at the individual and community levels in order to bring about global ecological awareness.³

Originally from Southern California, Sarah is also an artist or an explorer, as she prefers to be called.  She works with a wide range of mediums that include painting, sewing, and pottery.  Sarah finds art to be a tool through which she can reveal herself in layers both in the mirror and to the world.

Sarah received her MA in Urban Planning from the University of California, Irvine and is part of Muslim Women in the Arts (MWIA), a network of Muslim women artists.⁴

[1] Altmuslimah, Exploring both sides of the gender divide.
[2] DC Muslims Embrace the Environment.
[3] Islam and the Spiritual Malaise of the Oil Spill.
[4] Muslim Women in the Arts: Artists.

Category: Visuals
Architecture
Country: Iraq

About

Born in Baghdad in 1950, Zaha Hadid found inspiration early on in life, among the Sumerian ruins in the south of Iraq. “The beauty of the landscape - where sand, water, reeds, birds, buildings and people all somehow flowed together”¹ has inspired the innovative architecture that has made her the world’s most famous female architect.² 

Critic and architect Joseph Giovannini describes Hadid’s style as “off the drawing board.”  She “abandoned the regularity of the T-square and parallel rule” in creating buildings that are asymmetrical and seemingly gravity-defying.³ 

In 2004 she became the first woman to win the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize that honors living architects “whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision, and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.”⁴  The impact of her contributions also won her a spot on the 2008 Forbes list of the world’s 100 most powerful women.

Some of her notable works include a fire station she designed for the premises of designer furniture manufacturer Vitra in Germany, a ski jump at Bergisel in Innsbruck, Austria, the MAXXI Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome, and the Guangzhou Opera House in China. 

Though her built work consists primarily of cultural projects—museums, galleries, and venues—she reveals in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian a passion for designing schools, hospitals, and housing.  “Of course,” she says, “I believe imaginative architecture can make a difference to people’s lives, but I wish it was possible to divert some of the effort we put into ambitious museums and galleries into the basic architectural building blocks of society.”

[1] “‘I don’t do nice,’”  The Guardian.
[2] “Hadid finally wins Stirling Prize,” Financial Times.
[3] “The Architecture of Zaha Hadid,” Hyatt Foundation.http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/962728c2-cec0-11df-9be2-00144feab49a.html#axzz1JtsCC8dl
[4] “Zaha Hadid 2004 Laureate: Biography,”  Hyatt Foundation.

Category: Visuals
Film-making
Country: South Africa

About

Akiedah Mohamed is a documentary filmmaker and playwright from Cape Town, South Africa.  She has used documentary filmmaking to explore sensitive issues in both her religious community and in South African society as a whole. 

In 1999 she made her first film, The Malawian Kiss, a documentary about the life of Muslim HIV/AIDS activist, Faghmeda Miller.  It won the Special Jury Merit Award at the Sithengi International Film Market in November of that year.  Her next film was The Second Wife, a documentary following the lives of a Cape Town couple in a polygamous marriage.  Tales of the Tukamanies followed in 2001, documenting the stories of Muslim women tasked with the ritual preparation of the dead.  Her fourth film, appearing in 2003, was called Portraits of Ramadan.  It discusses the holy month of Ramadan and its significance for Muslims in Cape Town.  In 2004 she made Freedom is a Personal Journey, a documentary dealing with South Africa’s prison system.  More recently, she wrote a Gerty’s Brother, a screenplay adaption of a short story by South African writer Ahmed Essop that centers on a taboo romance that crosses color lines. 

In addition to her documentary work, she has directed several episode of Nomzamo, a sitcom that explores how societal issues affect different generations of one South African family.

Category: Visuals
Painter
Country: India

About

Salma Arastu is a painter who blends spiritual themes and images into her work. Although Salma was raised as a Hindu in India, she converted to Islam after marrying her husband.¹ Educated in both India and the United States, Salma has traveled widely and has lived in Iran and Kuwait. She has won several awards for her work in India, New York, and Pennsylvania, and has shown her work in various exhibitions across the world, such as at the Museum of Modern Art in India, and the Reading Museum in Pennsylvania.²

Salma has noted that folk art, miniature art, and Arabic calligraphy are the three primary influences in her work.³ She fuses Eastern spirituality with Western painting techniques, creating ethereal layers of color and movement in expressing the human personality.⁴ Over the years, Salma has created a large collection encompassing a variety of forms ranging from abstract art, sculptures, digital art, to Arabic calligraphy. Moving between surrealistic to realistic forms, her paintings reflect a yearning to transcend social, cultural or religious barriers in an attempt to inspire unity and tranquility. “I always thought my works were personal stories,” she said. “They reflect my thinking, my personality, my joys and my sorrows. But when I sit to describe them I know it is not personal, these are the stories of love and fears, dreams and anticipations of us all, the whole humanity.”⁵

[1] “Artist’s Biography,” Imanworld.org
[2] “Salma Arastu,” Art Jaz Gallery
[3] Salma Arastu’s Official Blog
[4] “Salma Arastu,” Art Jaz Gallery
[5] ibid.

Category: Visuals
Photo
Country: United States

About

Sadaf Syed is one of today’s leading feminist photographers. Born in Illinois and raised in Los Angeles, Sadaf focuses on breaking down stereotypes, especially those relating to Muslim women, through her photography.¹ After graduating from California State University at Fullerton, Sadaf worked as a photojournalist.

After 9/11, the change in social attitudes towards American Muslims, however, compelled Sadaf to chronicle the diversity of Muslim women across the country. With her two young children, Sadaf traveled the nation photographing a wide spectrum of Muslim women in their daily lives, ranging from surfers to military women, hair stylists to homecoming queens, and from truck drivers to boxers. She compiled the photos into a book, iCover: A Day in the Life of an American COVERed Girl, and within a few months of publication, the book sold out.²

Her work soon caught the attention of a White House official, and on August 13, 2010, she was invited to the White House along with other interfaith leaders to celebrate the beginning of Ramadan.³ Her work has been reviewed and featured in The Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, Emel Magazine and Zaman Newspaper.

[1] “Sadaf Syed” SadafSyed.com
[2] ibid.
[3] ibid.

Category: Performing
Music
Country: United Kingdom

About

Neelofer Mir is a Muslim rapper from London. As an emerging hip hop artist, Neelofer blends lyrical language with smooth beats, rapping about the hidden strength of women, faith, ideals of beauty, and gender equity. Of Pakistani descent, she has worked with DJ Talvin Singh, an award-winning artist, and was also included in the Sisterhood Project, a collective of up-and-coming female Muslim rappers and vocalists.¹ In her song, “Wildflower,” Neelofer raps about others being too “scared to notice” her and of the unexpected, “roaring beauty” that can be found within with her, and in “Do You Follow,” she explores a spiritual, natural world while implicating the limitations of humanist technology.²

As one of the few Muslim female rappers in the business, Neelofer has faced challenges in being recognized as a performance artist within the Muslim community. Despite her love for music, Neelofer said that female Muslim artists are doubly challenged in being accepted by a male-dominated rapping industry and by the Muslim community. In one interview, Neelofer discussed the difficulties of “Baring your soul on stage. ”³ She said, “…There is a an old-school mentality, very much alive today, that women really don’t belong in the performing arts – they should remain in the domestic arena. And me being a strong-minded, very opinionated female from a Muslim family, it’s difficult for me, because I’m seen as going against the grain.”⁴

However, as a fan of artists like Jill Scott and Alicia Keys, she finds no conflict in pursuing her passion while remaining true to her faith. In another interview, Neelofer said, “My passion for music and my faith are not two separate entities but are one. My talent for creative expression was God given and therefore my passion for music and words only reinforces my faith it does not conflict with it.”⁵

[1] Interview with the Members of the Sisterhood Project, Punjab2000.com.
[2] Neelofer Mir’s MySpace page.
[3] Vic Motune, “Sing Out Sisters,” New Statesmen, July 14, 2008.
[4] ibid.
[5] Interview with the Members of the Sisterhood Project, Punjab2000.com.

Category: Visuals
Photo
Country: United States

About

Afiaa Alwazir is an avid photographer, activist, blogger.  She earned a bachelor’s degree in media and communications from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.¹ Her passion for photography, which began in high school, has evolved into a successful career.  Not only she been able to turn her passion into a profession, she has also used it to contribute to important causes such as the growing youth revolution in her native Yemen.  In March 2011, she captured images in a nationwide day of protests against US military aid to Yemen in Washington DC.² A collection of these images along with stirring images from various sources can be found on YouTube.

As a child, Afiaa watched her father spend endless hours at his typewriter. Now as an adult, she regards photography as her way to tell stories about herself and the world around her. “ A number of these stories along with written accounts can be found on Afiaa’s blog. Notable entries include “Café Heaven” and “It’s Hipster Time.”³

Afiaa is part of Muslim Women in the Arts (MWIA), a network of Muslim women artists.⁴

[1] Muslim Women in the Arts: Artists.
[2] FREEDOM RALLY: Yemen’s Youth Revolution ‘11.
[3] Afiaa’s Blog.
[3] Muslim Women in the Arts: Artists.

Category: Visuals
Painter
Country: Afghanistan

About

Saadia Yasmin (Khattak) is a self-described “rebel through the arts.”¹ She is a Pushtun-American artist who seeks to begin a revolution through her work on behalf of the voiceless of the world, most notably the Pushtuns.² Through her paintings and drawings that include experimentation with Japanese ink, watercolor and acrylic paint, she hopes to capture the sorrow of war and poverty around the world.

Saadia has participated in many art shows in the Washington DC area including a featured exhibition in collaboration with Sheila Mahoutchian entitled, Unveiled Courage – identity, plight and courage of womanhood under the duress of wars, cultural strictures and media disenfranchisement. ³

Her work is described as being infused with soulful influences of the music, customs, and culture of her itinerant upbringing in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Ethopia, Greece, Pakistan and the United States.⁴ Nowhere is the variety of her experiences more apparent than in her weekly broadcast, Global Rickshaw Radio.  Her audience can tune in from all over the globe to hear music and commentary on a variety of topics including Pashto folklore, marriage around the world, breaking barriers through travel and comedy in the Muslim world.⁵

Saadia is part of Muslim Women in the Arts (MWIA), a network of Muslim women artists.

[1] Muslim Women in the Arts: Artists.
[2] ibid.
[3] Unveiled Courage.
[4] Muslim Women in the Arts: Artists.
[5] Global Rickshaw Radio

Category: Visuals
Country: United States

About

Lamia Yassini was born and raised in Algeria.¹ She has a deep love of culture and language.  She speaks English, Arabic, French, Berber and Spanish.² At the age of seven, Lamia embraced drawing and since then has developed a special interest in expressing herself through charcoal and pencil. She says that her inspiration comes from human behavior and movement.³ Many of her drawings are focused on the experiences of women and girls. Her work includes Mother: Lost and Found and Algerian Woman. ⁴

Lamia earned a professional degree in quality auditing focusing on biology and engineering from Université Djillali Liabes and is part of Muslim Women in the Arts (MWIA), a network of Muslim women artists.

[1] Muslim Women in the Arts.
[2] ibid.
[3] ibid.
[3] Lamia Yassini on Facebook.

Category: Performing
Country: United Kingdom

About

Born and raised in London, England, Rohina Malik is a Chicago-based playwright and solo performance artist. Of South Asian descent, Rohina uses her cultural background as a continuing source of inspiration for her work. Her first one woman play, Unveiled, received high acclaim for its emotional portraits of five Muslim women living in the West. The Chicago Tribune called her play a “terrific show…[an] intellectually engrossing work of theatre,”¹ and the Chicago Examiner described it as a “compelling 70-minute piece rich with illuminating surpirsies, drawing the audience into worlds that both unique and truly universal.”²

Unveiled tells the stories of five Muslim women in a post-9/11 world as a series of monologues. Each character reflects the diverse range and depth of Muslim women who wear the headscarf in the West.  One character is a Texan mother living in the American South and another is a teen immersed in hip-hop culture who is raised in West London.³ The play begins with a Pakistani wedding dress designer describing the ritual of brewing tea as an essential element in getting to know her clients, and this motif of tea making extends throughout the entire narrative, becoming a critical metaphor for each woman’s culture. In weaving together the disparate and yet shared problems and joys of living as a Muslim woman, the play tackles hate crimes, hospitality, fear, violence, love, language, and Islam in an effort to reveal the diverse reasons why individual women claim the veil as a source of empowerment.

Rohina describes writing as a “mysterious experience,” one which is often “messy.” She says, “The seed for my plays usually comes from a word, a sentence that someone casually says. I listen carefully to the side remarks, the stuff people say that they think is insignificant, that’s where I start to dig for treasure.”⁴ She believes in the transformative powers of art as a means of personal and social resolution. “I write because it’s my way of solving problems. Art, in its many forms, has the power to solve world problems. That’s why I believe we should do everything we can to nurture and protect it.” ⁵

She has also written two other plays entitled, “The Mecca Tales” and “Yasmina’s Necklace (El Collar de Yasmin).” ⁶

[1] “Rohina Malik,” South Asian Playwrights.org.
[2] ibid.
[3] ibid.
[4] “People: Rohina Malik,” 16th Street Theatre.
[5] ibid.
[6] “Rohina Malik,” AOI International.

Category: Visuals
Country: United States

About

Nadia Janjua is a freelance artist, architect, and entrepreneur in the Washington DC area.¹ 

Her love of art began in childhood and has blossomed into a successful career.² She pays homage to her journey to the holy city of Mecca through a series of paintings entitled Of the Earth. Her other noteworthy series include I Found My Soul in a Parking Lot and Violently Happy.  Nadia’s mastery of Arabic calligraphy is evinced in the 99 Names of Allah, Alhamdulillah and Bismillah and she pays tribute to Kahlil Gibran’s excerpt on love from his book, The Prophet, through her piece, Moving Shores.³

Nadia has a number of photography series as well. These include Fish ‘R Halal, Smoke Like Silk and Visions of Winter.⁴ Her sketches include The Sky is Cracking, Prayer Bead Light and Moti Masjid India.⁵

The style of her architectural designs is as varied as her artistic talents.  Nadia’s portfolio includes designs for homes in the Washington DC area, a schematic design of the Al Fatih Academy in Herndon, VA.⁶

When asked about art and spirituality, Nadia believes that the two are directly connected. “I believe nurturing your creativity is in itself, a form of meditation, which allows an artist to simultaneously confront and part with oneself, and the worlds we create.”⁷

Nadia earned her Masters in Architecture from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and is part of Muslim Women in the Arts (MWIA), a network of Muslim women artists. Her work has been exhibited in the United States, Canada, and Malaysia.⁸⁹

[1] Nadia Janjua, Artist and Architectural Designer: Profile.
[2] Muslim Women in the Arts: Artists.
[3] Nadia Janjua, Artist and Architectural Designer: Paintings.
[4] Nadia Janjua, Artist and Architectural Designer: Photography.
[5] Nadia Janjua, Artist and Architectural Designer: Sketches.
[6] Nadia Janjua, Artist and Architectural Designer: Architecture.
[7] Introversed - Spirit of the Artist: An Interview with Nadia Janjua.
[8] Introversed - Spirit of the Artist: An Interview with Nadia Janjua.
[9] Nadia Janjua, Artist and Architectural Designer: Paintings.

Category: Performing
Music
Country: Malaysia

About

Yunalis Zarai—known by her stage name, Yuna—is an independent singer-songwriter equally at home in her native Malaysia and on stage in the United States where she has performed twice at South by Southwest, the country’s biggest independent music festival, as well as at venues in New York and Chicago.  She was recently signed to New York-based FADERLabel, home to recording artists Matt & Kim and Neon Indian among others. 

Those describing her sound focus on her unique vocal talent.  Sara Elghobashy of Elan, an online guide to global Muslim culture, speaks of Yuna’s “sweet sound” that “captures raw emotion” while an official press release from Yuna’s label highlights her “uniquely exquisite” voice and her “true talent that is beyond compare”.  Singing isn’t all she does, though.  She picked up the guitar at nineteen while in law school and in the half-decade since, has combined voice and strings in ways that have earned her fans the world over. 

In an interview with Elan, Yuna describes her songs as ranging from “very, very happy” to having a “darker element”.  In the former category is her song “Random Awesome”, a celebration of puppy love.  “And I smile, I love, no,/I laugh happier somehow”, she sings, expressing the giddy confusion of a new relationship.  On the flip side, in “Deeper Conversation” she addresses a longing for honesty and connection singing, “I’ve let my guard down for you /And in time you will too”. 

On her own, Yuna released her self-titled first EP in 2008, attracting attention with the Malay language track “Dan Sebenarnya”.  She was first runner-up at the Anugerah Juara Lagu competition in 2009 and won Best Pop Song (for “Dan Sebenarnya”) and Best Local English Song (for “Deeper Conversation”) the following year at the 17th Annual Malaysian Music Industry Awards.  Soon thereafter she released Decorate, which was re-released with five of the original ten tracks by FADERLabel in the United States in March 2011. 

Yuna is also part-owner of IAMJETFUEL, a “successful couture boutique” in Subang Jaya.¹

[1] “Yuna joins The Fader Label!,” Yuna Music.

Category: Performing
Dance
Country: United States

About

Zuleikha is an international dancer, performer and teacher and aspires women, girls and children across the world to bring awareness of their body and health through performance and rhythms. She is the founder and director of The Storydancer Project (TSP).

Growing up with a musical background, Zuleikha attended Ali Akbar College of Music and Dance in San Francisco and went on to study classical dance. Besides performing, Zuleikha took an interest in the deeper connection of music and video and began creating a “sacred technology of art”. Zuleikha has performed throughout various worldwide cities and events including for theater audiences, international conferences, and a PBS Special “Dances From The Wild.”

Zuleikha recently received the 2010 prestigious media award from Images & Voices of Hope for “infusing the art of dance with the gifts of healing, understanding and love of life” through her outstanding work in the world promoting positive personal and social change. 

Category: Performing
Country: United States

About

Iman Salam is very dedicated towards her work; to educate others about Islam. She and her husband made a documentary DVD called “On a Wing and a Prayer” which chronicles their adventures in Bellingham, WA while he attempts to obtain a pilot’s license after 9/11. She is planning another documentary titled “Faith Walks The Land” which will depict Iman traveling across the U.S. meeting small-town Americans and discussing stereotypes about Islam.

She is also a mother of three young children and successfully juggles motherhood while promoting a better understanding of Islam. She and her husband have also founded a non-profit called “Peaceful Communications”. The name Iman originates from Arabic and means “faith”.

Category: Performing
Film
Country: Canada

About

“The stereotypical Muslim is a wife beater trying to blow up the world and Muslim women are subservient, silent. I consider myself a feminist Muslim. I’ve read the Qur’an. The Prophet Muhammad’s wife was a businesswoman 15 years older than him.” -Zarqa Nawaz

Zarqa Nawaz is the head of Fundamentalist Films which produces the popular Canadian show Little Mosque on the Prairie.

Nawaz worked as a freelance writer/broadcaster with CBC radio, and in various capacities with CBC Newsworld, CTV’s Canada AM, and CBC’s The National. An associate producer with a number of CBC radio programs including Morningside, her radio documentary The Changing Rituals of Death won first prize in the Radio Long Documentary category and the Chairman’s Award in Radio Production at the Ontario Telefest Awards.

Deciding journalism did not entirely suit her, Nawaz took a summer film workshop at the Ontario College for Art and filmed BBQ Muslims, a short film about two Muslim brothers whose grill explodes that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1996. Subsequently, they are investigated for terrorism. Her next short film, Death Threat also premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1998. Other short films include Fred’s Burqa and Random Check. In 2005, Nawaz’s documentary, Me and the Mosque was broadcast on CBC’s Rough Cuts. She has recently finished a feature- length screenplay entitled Real Terrorists Don’t Belly Dance.

Her most well-known work has been on Little Mosque on the Prairie which provides a lighthearted look on the daily lives of Muslims in Canada.

Category: Performing
Film
Country: United States

About

“My film making process is usually quite tactile. Much drawing and doodling and gluing and thinking through form making. Sometimes its (sic) just about getting in touch with the intuitive way of communicating.”
—Shereen Abdul-Baki

Describing herself as a designer, filmmaker, and food enthusiast, Shereen Abdul-Baki is an American experimental filmmaker who lives and works in the Netherlands. Her work centers on integrating media and narrative cinema.

Elegy (2008), her animated short, plays with color, line, motion, and shape. It was nominated for the Best Experimental Animation Award at the California International Animation Festival in 2008 and in 2008 won the Golden Buffalo Award in the ‘Animation Only’ category at the CamboFest Film and Video Festival in Cambodia.

An earlier work of Abdul Baki’s The Kitchen Conqueror (2003) is about Reem who, as she walks through a grocery store daydreams about her family, her history, love and marriage. The Kitchen Conquerer won the Festival Director’s Choice Award at the DC Shorts Film Festival in 2004 and is featured in DV Filmmaking: From Start to Finish by Ian David Aronson.

Category: Visuals
Calligraphy
Country: United States

About

Born in the United States, Reem Hussein holds a BFA in Interior Design and Objects Restoration from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She has exhibited her artwork throughout the United States as well as abroad.

Having been invited to show and discuss her work in many US colleges and universities such as Yale, Columbia, NYU, Rutgers, and the University of Pennsylvania, Hussein has devoted much time to introducing Middle Eastern and Islamic art through workshops for students and teachers, as well as adult lectures sponsored by the local non-profit organizations Long Island Traditions and the Huntington Arts Council. Reem’s career and artwork were profiled in two documentaries and have been featured in articles for publications, including Newsday and the Chicago Sun-Times.

More recently, her paintings were selected by the Art in Embassies Program and exhibited in American embassies located in Egypt and Malaysia. She currently lives and works in New York City, where she is a MFA candidate.

Photo courtesy of Lady Khadija.

Category: Performing
Country: United States

About

Lady Khadija is a self proclaimed ‘Defender of the Truth’ “…even if it is against myself.” She can be described as a poet, vocalist, musician, songwriter and digitial designer. She uses her voice to serve the voiceless and the oppressed and to serve her Creator. She has had the opportunity to work withTalib Kweli, Tony Award winning, seven time HBO Def Poet Georgia Me, Canadian Smash Ember Swift, Watusi Tribe, Harry Belafonte, and HBO Def Poet Abyss.

In 2002 she published her first book of poetry Peace it Together. Lady Khadija is founding member of 144k, a collective of artists/activists and WordSound Alliance a network of artists. 144k serves to evaluate the arts, music, and performance in relation to activism.

Photo Credit: Gary He/AP Images

Category: Performing
Country: United States

About

Actress and stand up comedian, Maysoon Zayid, is considered a pioneer as the first Muslim American comedian to successively navigate the competitive channels of Hollywood and American media at large. She is also considered a pioneer for premiering as the first person to perform stand up in Palestine and Jordan. Zayid has been featured on Comedy Central’s The Watch List, PBS’S America at a Crossroads: Muslim Comics Stand Up, and in Adam Sandler’s You Don’t Mess With the Zohan.

Her other Hollywood sightings include As the World Turns, Law & Order, MTV, NBC Nightly News, CNN & ABC’s 20/20. She is also currently a headliner on the “Arabs Gone Wild Comedy Tour” Some of her leadership roles include her work as a co-founder and co-executive producer of the New York Arab American Comedy Festival. In 2008, Zayid’s screenplay Little American Whore (LAW) was selected for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab; Zayid has been casted as the lead of production.

As a Muslim Arab American Zayid is active in American media and entertainment, Zayid remains connected to her global community through her organization “Maysoon’s Kids” in Palestine. Maysoon’s Kids is a wellness program for Palestinian refugee children who are injured or are living with disabilities.

Category: Performing
Country: United Kingdom

About

Muneera Rashida and Sukina Abdul Noor were both born in Bristol to Jamaican parents, and have come together to form Poetic Pilgrimage. They have fused African and Caribbean musical trends to bind their progressive message with a creative and unique sound.

Poetic Pilgrimage has grown into a well-known hip hop group and has developed a substantial following. Rashida and Noor have achieved this by holding their own in a very male dominated music genre but also through their work teaching youth how to write poetry and express themselves.

Category: Performing
Country: United States

About

Tavasha, or Miss Undastood, began rhyming while attending the Al-Iman school in New York. She eventually realized that the music was more than just a hobby. She started rhyming in ciphers in New York and continued to pursue her art form while attending Borough of Manhattan Community College. She became the first female battle champion in 2003. However, she didn’t want to continue with the gangster attitude and profane lyrics. She just completed a new CD titled “Hijabi Hip Hop 2010.”

Category: Performing
Country: Iraq

About

Born in Kurdistan, Iraq, Sister Haero and her family moved to the United States when she was only 11 months old. Haero decided early on to use her talent in the art of poetry writing, rapping and free styling to introduce Islam to the San Diego Community that she was a part of. She has been invited to make many public appearances to read her poems and perform her work. Haero’s work has helped spread awareness about the role of women in Islam. Haero graduating from SDSU with a B.A. in Journalism. She was one of the founders of the Imam Jamil Coalition that started in April 2002. Haero is now recording an album and also a kindergarten teacher at a private non-profit school in San Diego.

Category: Performing
Country: Egypt

About

Hanan Turk is an Egyptian Actress, who recently (2006) decided to wear Hijab regardless of the roles she was cast to play. Turk came to the decision with a group of Egyptian actresses including Hala Shiha and Abla Kamel.

Before becoming an actress, Turk was a ballerina at the Cairo Ballet Institute in Egypt. She starred in her first movie, “Raghba Motawahesha” in 1991, and since then has acted in numerous films (Dehk We Le’b We Gad We Hob”, “Al-Mohager”, and “Haramiyyah fi Tayland”) and TV series (“Al-Sabr Fel Malahat”, “Al-Mal We Al-Banoun”, and “Lan A’esh Fe Gelbab Aby”). In 2007, Turk was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Category: Performing
Country: Denmark

About

Born to Palestinian parents in Germany in 1979, Abdallah grew up in Denmark, where she continues to live. Abdallah specializes in Arabic percussion, especially darbuka, long considered a “masculine” instrument and overwhelmingly played by men in the Middle East.

One of the few women to play the darbuka professionally, Abdallah was self-taught and has been playing since she was fifteen. Abdallah states that she has faced many challenges in her profession due to her gender and her instrument of choice. In fact, youtube users sometimes post recordings of her playing on YouTube with telling titles like “female on darbuka” and “female playing darbuka.”

Abdallah works as a soloist as well as with the Middle East Peace Orchestra and with Missing Voices, a consortium of Muslim women musicians across Europe. She also support various dance acts with her percussion, including belly dancers and hip-hop dancers.

Abdallah plays traditional Middle Eastern style as well as Western styles such as rock, house and pop on the darbuka and is currently looking to record an album that fuses Middle Eastern beats with Western musical styles. Her music and artistic collaborations reflect this interest in musical fusion and understanding.

Photo courtesy of Hena Ashraf.

Category: Performing
Country: United States

About

Hena Ashraf is a filmmaker with interests in photography, writing, and new media. Ashraf, whose parents emigrated from India, was born in London and spent her early years in the UK before immigrating to the US. She is a graduate from the University of Michigan with concentrations in Film & Video Studies, and Political Science and she currently lives in NYC. In 2008, she founded the Ann Arbor Palestine Film Festival. In May 2010, she was invited by The World Islamic Economic Forum to Kuala Lumpur to show her work, including her latest film “TruthSearch.”

Ashraf is a fierce advocate for the making and use of independent media, and believes that people can empower themselves by creating their own media to amplify their voices. According to Ashraf it is particularly important for Muslims and other marginalized groups to create avenues outside the film industry through the use of independent media: “We can’t expect huge monopolized media companies, of which there are basically five, who own everything, to accurately represent our voices, or any other community, religious or ethnic.”

Ashraf sees filmmaking as a craft and a way of giving voice to the lived experiences of a community. Her first film “Uzair,” explored life in East London for its Muslim/Bangladeshi population and featured provocative subject matter, including drugs and crime. Since then, her work has remained politically and critically engaged. A short film, “Love Makes Me Silly,” questions representations of love and gender relations in Bollywood cinema. “TruthSearch,” a short experimental film, examines and critiques mainstream media coverage of the Iraq War, contrasting it with the voice of an Iraqi journalist working in Baghdad.

Category: Visuals
Country: United States

About

Asiya Khaki is a freelance photographer based in the New York metropolitan area who specializes in portrait, wedding, newborn and event photography. Her passion for photography is rooted in a fascination of people and culture.

Through her photographs, she endeavors to tell stories about people in her effort to portray human life in its natural element. She graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University with a degree in architecture. Her study of architecture enhanced her skills and visions as a photographer by deepening her understanding of space and light. She has photographed in many places around the world, including the United Kingdom, India, Ghana, Tanzania, Italy, Turkey, Jordan, Syria, & Lebanon.

Photo Credit: Owen Hoffmann/PatrickMcMullan/ Sipa Press/AP Images

Category: Visuals
Country: Iran

About

Neshat a contemporary visual artist who lives in New York. She is known primarily for her work in film, video and photography. Her work refers to the social, cultural and religious codes of Muslim societies and the complexity of certain oppositions, such as man and woman. It addresses the social, political and psychological dimensions of women’s experience in contemporary Islamic societies. Although Neshat actively resists stereotypical representations of Islam, her artistic objectives are not explicitly polemical. Rather, her work recognizes the complex intellectual and religious forces shaping the identity of Muslim women throughout the world.

The history of Shirin Neshat’s bodily portrayals of this “Islamic woman” is the unwritten chronicle of a mute and concealed femininity. Her photographs show and tell what has been forbidden to show and tell.

Category: Visuals
Country: Saudi Arabia

About

Haifaa Al Mansour is the first woman filmmaker in Saudi Arabia. The success of her short films in the Gulf and around the world has inspired a new movement of independent filmmaking in the Kingdom. Al Mansour is well known for penetrating the wall of silence surrounding the sequestered lives of Saudi women and providing a platform for their voices. Her work is dedicated to fostering direct political, social and economic change for Arab women.

Category: Performing
Country: Somalia

About

Yasmina fled Somalia in 1987 to Belgium and the Netherlands, where she came to work as an actress. She performed in various ensembles and performed with a solo program. In 1998 she debuted the successful novel Idil, A Girl. Her second novel, The General with Six Fingers, was a highly praised novel, which served as her foundation for her third novel. The Blue Room tells the poignant story of two young women. In her most recent worked entitled, “Displacement and Yet at Home” she relays her experiences growing in up in a small Somalian community.

In her essays Yasmine Allas portrays the environment of her childhood and compares it to what is happening in Africa today. Yasmina says that she is happy that Muslim men in the Arab world and Africa are now beginning to realize that their power is shifting to women.

Her works also showcase the movements that are happening among Muslim women in the Netherlands and Flanders, but she notes that the movements need to be faster and further wide-spread. Yasmina urges Muslim women to fight for sexual freedom, saying, “demand your sexual rights, women of Islam, it’s your turn to take matters into their own hands.” She calls on Muslim women to “live and enjoy your way.” Yasmine gets to the heart of the problem in her literary works by addressing the need for Muslim women to struggle in opposition to any form of oppression.

Category: Visuals
Country: United States

About

Anida Yoeu Ali is a first generation Muslim woman who was born in Cambodia but grew up in the city of Chicago.  She began her career in the Fall of 1998 when she started out with performances in poetry.  Anida tackles many fields within the performing arts- her talents and interests include installation, performance, sound and video.  In her work, she explores the use of materials and memories to create and understand the connection between the artistic, political, and spiritual aspects that, together, create a sort of “hybrid transnational identity.”

Since 1998, Anida has been to over 300 colleges/venues with the pan-Asian spoken word ensemble. She has co-founded several groups such as: “Young Asians with Power!” Asian American Artists Collective-Chicago; the National APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit, and the MONSOON fine arts journal.

Anida has received grants for her artistic work from the Ford Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, the National Endowment of the Arts, and the Rockefeller Foundation.  She has also received recognition for her work in political activism- she was awarded with the Community Activism award by the Cambodian Association of Illinois and also was a recipient of Insight Arts’ Creative Movements Festival Award.

Category: Country: United Kingdom

About

Sarah Yaseen is a British singer, producer, and musician, who specializes in soulful nasheeds (Islamic spiritual songs) and Urdu nazams. Trained by her father, a well-known nasheed singer in the Oldham area, Yaseen has performed in front of all-female audiences as well as nationally and internationally for audiences of up to 3,000 people. A spiritually inspiring first album, titled PEACE, is currently in the works.

Yaseen hopes to further her tradition’s legacy while reaching a larger audience with her art and fostering interfaith understanding. Thus her songs combine a yearning for the traditional with a sense of connection to the wider world, both formally and lyrically. Her lyrics focus on peace and love and are in Urdu and as well as English. Following her participation in Muslim Women Music Makers Tour, Yaseen was inspired to incorporate the guitar and the tabla alongside the traditional drum in her songs.

2003, Yaseen founded a nasheed group for Muslim girls aged between four and nineteen called WING (Women’s Innovative Nasheed Group), which has performed successfully at many cultural and diversity events, raising awareness of Islam through simple songs of devotion and peace.

Category: Performing
Music
Country: United Kingdom

About

Sarah Sayeed is a London-based MC, vocalist, and musician, who is known for her politically conscious lyrics and unique style of wordplay.  Inspired by committed hiphop artists like Tribe Called Quest and MCs like Roxanne Shante, Sayeed began writing and performing at an early age, cutting her musical teeth on the Manchester live circuit in her early twenties. Since then, Sayeed has performed in live venues across Europe and has recently returned from a recording tour in San Francisco and Toronto. In the spring of 2009, she participated in the Muslim Women Music Makers tour, organized by the Missing Voices consortium.

Sayeed describes her musical style as “hip hop, going into new soul and jazz, roots music, ska, lovers’ rock” and cites a wide range of influences from traditional Bengali songs to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan through Miles Davis and Madonna to the Arctic Monkeys.

Sayeed is known for her bold lyrics, which take women’s rights, independence, and politics as subject matter. She sees herself as a woman musician first and foremost: “I’m here to advocate Muslim women in music, but my work isn’t directly related to my identity as a Muslim. But it’s closely related to who I am as a Muslim woman – or a woman, or a British woman, or a woman from Walthamstow.”

Category: Performing
Music
Country: Denmark

About

Mizgin, who was chosen the official refugee artist of the year in 2007, has followed a challenging and inspiring road to this accolade. Born in an isolated Kurdish mountain village in the East of Turkey, Mizgin contracted polio at the age of two, leaving her partially paralyzed. Unable to go to school and isolated from peers, Mizgin taught herself to sing and play the saz, a string instrument common to the region. Music, which began as a pastime of necessity, soon became an integral way of self-expression.

Mizgin moved to Istanbul and soon after to Denmark, but her music still has roots in the wild beauty of Kurdish mountains. Her songs, lively folk ballads accompanied with saz and traditional percussion, reflect the rich history of folk music in the area.

Since 2003, Mizgin has been collaborating with Shohreh Shahrzad, a Muslim woman drummer and performer with Iranian roots. In the spring of 2009, she participated in the Muslim Women Music Makers tour, organized by the Missing Voices consortium.

Category: Visuals
Painter
Country: Jordan

About

She was one of the youngest Muslim artists to have her work showcased at the exhibition Breaking the veil: Muslim Artists around the World. Her picturesque Unity at the exhibition evoked feelings of sisterhood and unity that transcended race, color, religion and culture. She is known for her deep use of color and different human characters.

Category: Visuals
Painter
Country: Iraq

About

Suad Attar is a world renowned Iraqi painter whose work is in private and public collections worldwide, including The British Museum and the Gulbenkian Collection. She has held over twenty solo exhibitions and recipient of many awards. She became the first solo exhibition in the country’s history for a woman artist in 1964. Most Suad’s painting is characterized by an intense dreamlike and poetic sensibility that draws on motifs and symbols from within the traditions of Middle Eastern art. In recent years, her use of rich colors, representations of paradise and of sleeping cities bathed in turquoise blue, have disappeared as the situation in her homeland Iraq has worsened. 

Category: Visuals
Country: Morocco

About

Mehadji presented several performances that incorporated drawing and sound and she also contributed to the feminist review Sorcières, which published her early drawings.
 In the 1980s, Mehadji began to employ unusual media such as gesso and transparent paper on large pieces of raw canvas in order to generate symbolic, highly geometric forms.


In 1996, Mehadji changed technique and hence style, adopting large oil pastels that enabled her to draw long, continuous lines on raw canvas, generating spheres of pure reds or yellows, which yielded three series known as Gradients, Chaosmos, and Souira.
 
Her recent works display a symbolism related to nature, particularly to the cosmos and the plant kingdom.

Category: Visuals
Painter
Country: Algeria

About

Niati is a painter, singer, and poet. She often accompanies her painting with Algerian songs and reads her own poetry in French in an attempt to bring the past, present, and future together. Her paintings (mainly in oil paintings and pastels) are very much expressive and embody feminist issues and proclaim her objection to stereotyping Arab women. She sees her work as ‘a visual explosion of the mind, an interaction of ideas in space and time’. Her work is influenced by her rich cultural background and consists of strong Arab-Muslim influences from her family and her experiences growing during the French occupation.

Category: Visuals
Painter
Country: Saudi Arabia

About

She is well known for her watercolor painting entitled Three Women. She illustrates the Japanese Golden Rule “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”. It was showcased in the exhibition: Breaking the Veils: Muslim Women around the World.  The painting depicted three veiled women and the first woman was covering her eyes, the second her ears, and the third her mouth. 

Category: Visuals
Painter
Country: Sudan

About

She is well known for her break from the Khartoum School and her contribution to Crystalist movement. Her artwork is imbued with existential and feminist expressions. Ibrahim’s is known for using muted and sombre color in all her subject matter. She illustrates the issues that women in Sudan have to face within their own society. In her pieces, time is motionless while emotions accelerate the depth of the subject’s anguish.

Category: Country: Iraq

About

Her work has a simple expressionistic style and communicates her anger and violence against her adopted country Iraq. Her message is her art is very visual with no words needed to express her rage against war, violence, and injustice. One of her well known pieces is Agression that was showcased in the exhibition Breaking the Veils: Women Muslim Artists around the world. This painting spoke about the political realities and challenges some women face in war torn countries.

Category: Visuals
Country: Pakistan

About

Afroze deals with feminist issues in her paintings and graphics.  Her compositions are filled with symbols that represent woman through her various emotions and for her thought provoking imagery. Through her artwork she asks questions of humanity and identity. Her work has been featured in so many exhibitions such as Takhiti Exhibition and breaking the Veils, Muslim Women around the world. 

Category: Performing
Country: United States

About

Sumayya Ali was born to parents who were second generation African-American Muslims.  At the early age of nine, Sumayya was deeply inspired by a certain violin performance at her school and she expressed a strong interest in taking lessons to her parents.  Her mother and her late father happily agreed and arranged for these lessons to take place.  It was these lessons that led Sumayya onto the musical path and that started her career in the performing arts.

After practicing the violin for years, Sumayya transferred to Washington’s Duke Ellington School of the arts.  It was here where she discovered her true talent: singing.  One day, Sumayya began to mock her peers who were vocalists because “they were making this funny sound that [she] never had heard.”  Samuel L.E. Bonds, a voice teacher at the school, was completely shocked when he heard this little girl’s voice- rather than being angry at her for mocking the works of other students, he took her into the studio to help Sumayya start working with her voice.  Sumayya claims that Georges Bizet’s Opera, “Carmen,” was also an extremely influential piece for her and the performance really made her decide that opera singing was the right path for her.

However, Sumayya did not end up as a successful Opera singer without her share of adversities.  As a practicing Muslim, she found it challenging to combine her career as a singer as well as her own values as a Muslim. While she was earning her master’s degree in vocal performance, she was put in a situation when her character, in a play, would have to be kissed.  Sumayya could not abide by this requirement because of her own values and thus had to take a position in the chorus, which was an extremely devastating event for her.

Since that set back, Sumayya has excelled in many ways.  She was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition for the Boston District, and has performed in many different operas including Motzart’s “The Magic Flute,” Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Night Visitor,” and many more.

Sumayya finds that her spiritual relationship to the music she performs and the fact that she is also Muslim distinguishes her from other artists in her field.  She claims that “a lot of [her] work is analytical” as she likes to study the musical dimensions.

With regard to her career, Sumayya has been on Broadway’s 2009 revival of “Ragtime,” performed on “American Idol” and Zulu danced with Step Afrika in Vietnam.

Category: Performing
Music
Country: United States

About

Having grown up in a home where music was greatly valued and encouraged, Tasleem developed interests in several different kinds of artistic forms at a young age. When she was nine years old she began to explore writing and illustrating. She continued to explore the arts by taking dance classes and piano classes. Her mother, who was also an artist, was clearly an influence on Tasleem’s development in all of her artistic specialties. 

Tasleem likes to express different feelings she has about her faith: growing up on the South Side of Chicago and her cultural experiences that she has from being of both Native American and African descent. She accomplishes this by expressing herself in several different ways.  Tasleem now considers herself to be an activist, an actress, a fashion designer, a poet, a radio host/producer, and a writer.  With regard to her activism, she is an avid fighter for children’s rights.  Her music is an interesting hybrid of Hip-Hop, Soul, and Jazz.

Tasleem has been on stage with several artists such as Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Lupe Fiasco, Malik Yusef, Ilysha Shabazz (Malcom X’s daughter), Rock Steady Crew, and more.  She likes to spend her time teaching at various Spoken Word workshops and volunteering as a mentor for youth in need of guidance.  Her debut CD, “Tasleem,” was released in march of 2008- she even managed to release her own fashion line, “House of Firdausee,” the same month!

Category: Visuals
Country: Pakistan

About

Shela Qamer was born in Pakistan and studied art under Ali Imam in Karachi.  When she emigrated to the U.S., Shela decided to further her education in art by enrolling at Washington’s Corcoran School of Art.  In an interview with USINFO, Shela stated that she tries to “maintain some sort of balance and rhythm in my [her] paintings through the use of different colors, textures, materials, and lines.” She experiments with different kinds of paintings varying from images of the earth, Arabic calligraphy, architectural images, as well as trying out abstract paintings.  In her Artist’s Statement, Shela claims that one of her objectives as an artist is to create “unique and vibrant pieces of art work that everyone can enjoy and use to further enhance their environment.”

Recently, over the past 2 years, Shela has used her art to help raise money in charity fundraising events that are typically organized by various non-profit organizations.

Photo courtesy of Nayla Al Khaja

Category: Visuals
Mixed media
Country: United Arab Emirates

About

As the United Arab Emirates’s first female film producer, Nayla Al Khaja explores issues such as hidden teen dating and pedophilia in the Muslim world.

Nayla graduated from the Dubai Women’s College with a degree in Mass Communication.  She initially started out by having her own travel show on an Arabic Radio Network.  Her show flourished and she earned extremely high ratings. However, Nayla was not satisfied with this and wanted to continue to develop her skills in Film making.  Consequently, she enrolled at Ryerson University and graduated with a Bachelor in Image studies. In 2002, she founded D-Seven Motion Pictures, which is a Dubai based company.

Her first documentary film was titled “Unveiling Dubai” (2004) which was shown at the Dubai International Film Festival.  The media sought after Nayla as she was, essentially, the first woman in the U.A.E. to make a career in film.  Her next project, a movie entitled “Arabana,” developed in 2006. This movie examined the issue of child abuse.  Interestingly enough, the issue of child abuse is somewhat of a taboo in Middle Eastern culture so it was brave of Nayla to dig into this issue in her film.  This movie also had its premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival where it received special acknowledgment for the depth of its composition and substance.

On top of producing and directing these films/documentaries, Nayla has been devoting a lot of time trying to develop a talk show that she hopes will handle touchy cultural issues.

Currently she is working on a film about a couple on their honeymoon and on a documentary about the ruling family of Dubai.

Photo courtesy of Huda Totonji.

Category: Visuals
Country: Saudi Arabia

About

Huda is an artist who was born and raised in Saudi Arabia but moved to the United States as an adult.  By establishing herself in both Eastern and Western environments, Huda has developed a unique style in her art that incorporates traits from both of these cultures.  Huda plays with both image and text and thus cannot be categorized into a single category. She is an Arab artist and a master calligrapher. Certified in Teaching Arabic Calligraphy (Ijazat Alkhat Alarabi), she obtained her BA in Studio Art and MFA in Art and Visual Technology.

Huda is also a lecturer at Dar Al Hekma College in Jeddah and is part of the faculty at the Art Institute of Washington.  Aside from lecturing, Huda also is a visiting speaker and has been to several universities including Portland State University, Oregon State University, George Washington University, University of Pennsylvania, and many more.

Huda’s work has moved formally from painting towards video, performance and text in response to investigating issues about femininity and representation. Working with the female gaze, her MFA thesis show from George Mason University presented these challenges through the use of Performance Art, Video Installation, Multi-Media, Drawing, Painting, and Photography. Her PhD dissertation explored the integration of text and image researching Islamic calligraphy, female subjectivity, and art and science.

Huda’s artwork ranges from painting, to performing, to handling videos.  She has explored many areas of art and sees her future career to be something that helps to “establish robust educational channels between international universities and other universities in Saudi Arabia, leading the Saudi female educators and artists into an outstanding productive and creative educational environment.”

Category: Visuals
Painter
Country: Pakistan

About

Asma Shikoh grew up in Karachi, and found that her society was very limited by both tradition and the after effects of colonial legacy.  In Pakistan, she wanted her artwork to demonstrate cultural and national identities of a developing country.  Her work continued to advance after she made her move to New York City-a place that had a huge impact on her own identity as a Muslim immigrant who was also newly wed.

Between the years of 1999-2001, Asma completed her “Karachi Work” collection. This was an important time for Pakistani society because the American Fast Food Industry had arrived. It was here that Asma was able to express her opinions about how this arrival complicated society- many of her paintings convey the message of largeness and invasiveness of this phenomena.

Between the years of 2003-2005, Asma completed her “Home” collection. She completed this upon moving to NYC from Karachi.  This collection has several interesting pieces that seem to combine the worlds of the west with the ways of the east.  Asma has painted different maps with Urdu writing.  In this collection, she also painted a “Self Portrait,” which is an image of the Statue of Liberty with typical Pakistani accessories.  According to Asma, this painting symbolizes “immigrants, and a new beginning.”

In 2007, Asma’s “Liberated” collection was displayed in Ceres Gallery, Chelsea, New York City.  This work displays the individual conception of creating a “unique national identity.” Her works here include the idea of wearing the hijab in a non-Muslim environment.

Category: Visuals
Country: Pakistan

About

“This process (of painting) has a mysterious meditative quality for me.” -Lubna Agha

A renowned Pakistani artist, Lubna Agha works mainly with wood and canvas. Drawing inspiration from various forms of Islamic art—from African woodwork to Turkish architecture to calligraphy—she applies principles of “the rich tradition of ornate, intricate architectural forms and design motifs, where the meditative and ornamental qualities of the original media take on new meaning and beauty.”

Her work also draws inspiration from her personal experiences of womanhood and being an expatriate in the United States.

Her artwork includes Star 1, a large geometric star in graded orange which has been influenced by motifs in Moroccan art. Bookstand 2, acrylic on wood, was inspired after a visit to the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. Thus, Agha’s artwork converts various styles of Islamic art into modernity.

Her work has been exhibited in art museums and galleries throughout the world—in Pakistan, Great Britain, Japan, Jordan, Switzerland, and the United States.

One of the leading South Asian and Pakistani women artists, Agha has earned her place in art history, according to her biography on her website.

Category: Performing
Music
Country: Mali

About

Oumou Sangare is a Malian singer and known as one of Africa’s most outstanding artists. Using the traditional music of her ancient homeland, Wassalou, Oumou’s songs address many of the social problems taking place in Mali society such as the place of women and polygamous marriages. Her fierce dedication to women’s rights is evident in her song lyrics and her language, as in an interview with The Observer, “‘I will fight until my dying day for the rights of African women and of women throughout the world.” Some of Oumou’s albums include Moussoulou (1989), Ko Sira (1993), Worotan (1996), Laban (2001), Oumou (2003). She released Seya in 2009. 

Category: Visuals
Painter
Country: Pakistan

About

Trained in the art of Indian and Persian miniature painting, Shahzia Sikander is a painter whose work focuses on the tensions that exist in Islam, Hinduism and Christianity as well as her personal history, politics and sexuality, and particularly that of the role of Muslim women.

Shahzia received an MFA in 1995 from the Rhode Island School of Design and has exhibited around the world. She has won several awards for her work including the honorary artist award from the Pakistan Ministry of Culture and National Council of the Arts.