Muslim Women Archive | Page 28 of 79

Cemalnur Sargut

Cemalnur Sargut is one of Turkey’s deepest and most inspiring spiritual teachers.¹ Her name means beauty of light.² She was born in Istanbul where she and her sister Asuman underwent spiritual training with her mother, Meskure Sargut. Their father, Omer Faruk Sargut also provided Cemalnur and her sister knowledge in various disciplines. While she was in primary school, one of her spiritual teachers, Mother Nazli, told her that she would be a teacher one day.

After graduating from Kadikoy High School for Girls, Cemalnur studied Chemical Engineering at the National Academy of Architecture and Engineering in Istanbul. Following Mother Nazli’s words, she worked as a chemistry teacher at Gunes Private High School for two years and then at the Cumhuriyet High School for 18 years until her retirement. Thoughout her teaching career, she trained numerous students in the light of the education she had received. She provided them with both spiritual and scientific knowledge in attempt to teach them how scientific inquiry can lead one to hakikat (divine truth).

During the course of her ongoing spiritual education she became a scholar of Ken’an Rifai who famously said, “There is a piece of ‘hakikat’ in all of these philosophers in the past, and thus we cannot neglect any of them.”³ Cemalnur went on to study Muhyiddin Ibn-i Arabi, Mısri Niyazi, Şibli, Konevi and Cili for more than 25 years. She has also studied and researched the works of Ahmed-er Rifai, Ken’an Rifai, and Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi.

Currently, Cemalnur is working as the Head of the Istanbul Branch of the Turkish Women’s Cultural Association. She is also an active participant in radio and television programs and gives seminars and panel discussions in Turkey and abroad.⁴

[1] Baraka Institute: Transformation through spiritual experience.
[2] Baraka Institute: Podcast with Cemalnur.
[3] Cemalnur Sargut.
[4] ibid.

Anisa Abd el Fattah

Anisa Abd el Fattah was born in 1955 into a “family of Baptist ministers.”¹ When her parents divorced, she began attending Catholic schools. She credits this experience with fostering in her “an interest in religion and particularly how religions impact people and the world that we live in and share.”² She converted to Islam in the 1980s and began her career in Muslim community work in 1989 as the business director for the Jamaat Ibad el Rahman private school in Jersey City, New Jersey. Prior to joining the school, she had worked as an independent local community activist, working with immigrant Muslim women and families in the New York metro area. It was while employed at the Jammat Ibad el Rahman that Anisa founded the National Association of Muslim Women which became the National Association of Muslim American Women (NAMAW) in 1994. Anisa says of the organization:

We began as a self-help Muslim woman’s organization that was mostly Muslim women raising money to help other, mostly single and divorced Muslim women to pay rent, purchase food, and keep their lights on. That was in 1989. Now we are a UN-accredited NGO, that is also a political action committee. Our goal is to bring the political voices of Muslim American women into the mainstream political dialogue in the U.S., where we can use our unique perspectives and experiences to make a positive difference in the lives of others.³

Later, Anisa was invited by the International Right to Life Organization to join its delegation to the Beijing Conference as an observer but the Chinese government repeatedly refused her application for a visa. Unable to attend the conference, she continued efforts to lobby for the pro-life position in the US and was quoted by many leading newspapers in the US on the topic. She also appeared on NPR, the USA Radio Charlie Butts Show, and CNN International.

Following the Beijing conference, she established the International Association for Muslim Women and Children, an accredited NGO with the UN Habitat Conference, and also the UN Division on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinians. Most recently, through the International Association for Muslim Women and Children, Anisa along with Ethiopian human and women’s rights activists established the Al-Falah project, an HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment project in Ethiopia. Anisa has been credited with developing the blueprint for what later became the American Muslim Council and served for nearly 10 years as an unofficial advisor. She was also a founding member of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). In 1996, she founded Muslim Women for America and initiated a national Muslim voter’s registration campaign. That same year she wrote, Islam and the Veiling of Women and co-authored The Agent: Truth Behind the Anti-Muslim Campaign in America.

In 1998, she served as director of community outreach for a pro-life senatorial candidate in northern Virginia. She has also served as the editor-in-chief of Al-Jathiya, the newsletter for the National Association of Muslim American Women. She has also published many op-eds in The Washington Times and The New York Times. Many of her articles and essays are archived at Media Monitors. In 1998, she attended the eleventh International Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran and was one of only two women ever to address the international body of Muslim dignitaries and academicians gathered for the annual conference.

[1] “First Person: Your Voices, Your Stories,” American Public Radio.
[2] ibid.
[3] ibid.

Faghmeda Miller

Faghmeda Miller was the first Muslim woman in South Africa to publicly disclose her status as a person infected with HIV.¹ Since making that decision soon after her husband died from the disease, she has become an HIV/AIDS activist, focusing specifically on the Muslim community.

When she discovered in the mid-1990s that she too was infected, her initial reaction she said was one of shame. “The first thing that went through my mind,” she says in an interview with South African non-profit Positive Heroes, “was the shame I had brought on my family. I, therefore decided to keep this information to myself, after all it wouldn’t be long till I die.”²

Faghmeda said she did not realize the possibility for people infected with HIV to lead full, productive lives, a message she now actively shares with others. Learning the facts about HIV and AIDS has been a transformative experience for Faghmeda who claims in her life, her attitude, and even her personality changed. In the process, she said she found the courage to battle the stigma attached to infection, even announcing her status on community radio.

In 2000, Faghmeda founded Positive Muslims, an organization that provides emotional and psychological support as well as workshops and train to those infected with HIV/AIDS as well as their families. In the same year, she was given Femina magazine’s “Women of Courage” award for her work. In addition to working with the organization she founded, she does home counseling and does television, radio, newspaper, and magazine interviews to support HIV/AIDS awareness. She was also the subject of the documentary The Malawian Kiss directed by Akiedah Mohammed.

[1] Positive Heroes.
[2] ibid.

Hwaida Hussein Shabo

Hwaida Hussein Shabo is the Chairperson of Africorp International (ACI), a certified organic fair-trade international African agricultural and manufacturing company based in Khartoum, Sudan.

ACI is a leading Sudanese exporter of cash crops grown by smallholder farmers throughout Sudan’s agriculture production regions. Africorp International has 35 permanent staff and around 800 casual labor, including over 90% of women. ACI operations enable over 4,000 farmers’ access to agricultural knowledge, financing, and technology.

Prior to this Ms. Shabo was a member of the Sudanese National Assembly. She received her MBA from the University of Khartoum in 2005 and her BSc Honors in Civil Engineering from the University of Westminster in London in 1995. From September 2004 to April 2006, she was the director of the Women’s Center for peace and development. in 1996 she worked for the Civil Aviation Corporation as a civil engineer.

Fawzia Gilani-Williams

Fawzia Gilani-Williams is the project coordinator of the Eid Stories project which is dedicated to giving visibility to the Muslim community through knowledge of their celebrations and deter the otherization of the Muslim people. The goal of the project is for the strange to become familiar through the raising aware of the Eid holiday as they are aware of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Fawzia’s published work include: The Adventures of Musab (2002), The Emir and the Verse of the Throne (2003), The Lost Ring (2006), and Husna and the Eid Party (2006). She was awarded scholarships from the Highlights Foundation to attend Highlights Writer’s Workshop in July, 2006 in Chautauqua, New York. She also awarded first place by the Foundation for Economic Education for co-designing an educational board game that in the US national competition was selected for its “design, educational value, playability and clarity of instructions.”

Fawzia Gilani-Williams was born in England. She serves as an international educational consultant with a PhD in children’s literature and character development. She is also a Global Representative for the International Positive Education Network.

Fatima Shama

Fatima Shama was born and raised in New York City. Her mother, a Brazilian-Catholic and father, a Palestinian-Muslim immigrated to the United States in the early 1960s. Fatima became actively involved with American Muslim organizations shortly after September 11th. Her passion for Islam is steadfast and her commitment to creating a society where differences are celebrated remains strong. Currently, she is the executive director of the Fresh Air Fund, “a nonprofit agency that provides free summer experiences to New York City children from low-income communities.” Fatima joined the Bloomberg administration in early 2006 and works in the area of education and community development for the Mayor’s Office. Her specific focus is on health literacy.

Prior to joining the Mayor’s Office, Fatima was the executive director of a health coalition in Brooklyn. Fatima has worked in the areas of economic and workforce development, international health and human rights and immigrant rights. She graduated with a bachelors degree from SUNY Binghamton, attended Temple Law School in Philadelphia, and completed the Executive Management Program at the Columbia Business School’s Institute for Nonprofit Management. In 2005, Fatima was a United Way of New York City Senior Fellow. Currently, she is completing her masters in public administration at Baruch College’s School of Public Affairs. Fatima lives in New York City with her husband Ziad Mansouri and their son Samir.

Debbie Almontaser

Debbie Almontaser is currently the coordinator of external programs for Brooklyn Public Schools. As a multicultural specialist and diversity consultant, Debbie facilitates workshops for teachers and the public on Arab culture, Islam, conflict resolution, cultural diversity around the city and at local and national conferences. She also serves as a consultant to Nickelodeon’s Nick Jr. Muslim American Series Project, Independent Production Fund’s Islam Project, Educators for Social Responsibility, the Interfaith Center of NYC and the Church Avenue Merchants Block Association’s (CAMBA) diversity project. In addition, she sits on the board of the Dialogue Project and Women in Islam among other organizations.

She is also a co-founder of Brooklyn Bridges, The September 11th Curriculum Project, Justice for Detainees and the We Are All Brooklyn Coalition. Debbie has also co-designed and developed a curriculum for the Muslim Communities Project at Columbia University and for Educators for Social Responsibility/Metro. She has a B.A. from St. Francis College and M.S. from Baruch College’s School of Public Affairs through their Aspiring Leaders Program. During her year as a Charles H. Revson fellow, Debbie took courses from the International Center for Cooperation & Conflict Resolution (ICCCR) at Teachers College and received a certificate in Conflict Resolution. The Conflict Resolution Certificate program is a rigorous and thorough program of study in the field of conflict resolution exploring local and global conflicts as well as the various mediation models. Debbie plans on incorporating these courses into a doctoral program.

Fareena Alam

Fareena Alam is Editor of Q-News, Britain’s leading Muslim current affairs magazine. Born in London and brought up in Singapore, Fareena is of Bangladeshi Chittagonian heritage. As a community activist in Singapore, she headed up the United Nations Students Association at the National University of Singapore for which she organized a six-month awareness campaign called “The Children of Bangladesh.” The campaign highlighted the plight the street children. She then took the campaign a step further by leading a student delegation of twenty people to carry out relief work in Bangladesh in 1998.

Since moving back to the UK, Fareena has become an established journalist and commentator on Muslim and minority affairs. After becoming a news editor at Q-News in 2001, she went on to become the publication’s managing editor leading it through a major revamp and relaunch. Fareena completed her MA at City University’s prestigious international journalism programme and followed up with a five-month stint with the Observer before taking up her duties at Q-news. She is also freelance contributor to the British and international newspapers. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, the Observer, the Times Education Supplement, the New Statesman, openDemocracy.net and Qantara. She has also reported for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and is a regular on-air contributor and consultant to a variety of media organizations including the BBC, Sky News, RTE, BBC World Service, CNN and others.

In 2005, she was named Media Professional of the Year by Islamic Relief. In 2006, she was named Media Professional at the Asian women of Achievement Awards. Fareena’s work has been profiled in the UK Press Gazette and the New Stateman.