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Yesterday marked Muslim Women’s Day, what is #MuslimaWomensDay you ask? Well, it's a day that was first commemorated on March 27th, 2017 by MuslimGirl.com creator Amani who felt the world needed a day that amplifies Muslim women’s voices and stories during Women’s month. Now 6 years on this day is celebrated all around the world and recognized by brands, influencers and publications as an opportunity to shed light on the many accomplishments of Muslim women. This year’s theme is “Securing Our Space.”, which is I honestly feel we first have to carve out or build rather than secure because the truth is Muslim women have a long way to go to secure our own autonomy let alone spaces to exist. But that is another conversation for another day, I’d rather redirect your focus about spotlighting a curated list of stories that star Muslim women making an impact and changing the narrative in their own small way.
Muslimah’s in the Metaverse
We all know that NFTs are a new hot commodity and its cropping up everywhere. Just last week Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that NFTs are making their way to Meta (Facebook) and more than ever we are starting to see them crossover to the physical spaces as brand clamber to collaborate with creators. Naturally, this is a great space for Muslim creators to share their own take on NFTs as we see am interesting bunch of artists and Muslim led startups creating their own collections. What I especially noticed and am here for is finding out that a lot of the well-known Muslim NFT initiatives are actually women led! So here are some of the projects I am particularly fond of.
Veiled Treasures - Christina Rountree’s collections -A series that explores the common principle of "The Lataif Al Qalb" which means levels of the heart. It is sometimes referred to as Islamic chakras.
Women Rise - Women Rise is a collection of 10,000 randomly generated and unique NFT art pieces created by the internationally acclaimed visual artist Maliha Abidi. The collection represents women from around the world and the traits go beyond the diversity of just skin colors.
Hijabi Queens - Hijabi Queens is a limited NFT collection of 10,000 unique art pieces. Built by couple Doaa Alhawamdeh and Karter Zaher, Hijabi Queens aim to cultivate a strong network of Generation M creators and entrepreneurs.
The Digital Sisterhood - TDS is a start-up that works to showcase the religious and artistic expression of Muslim women, centralizing the beauty of Islam and of sisterhood. They have launched their discord community with over 1000 members and are looking to launch its collection soon.
Women of Arabia - This is a female-led NFT team about to launch its collection soon. Its mission is to empower and build a community that supports Arab women across the world.
I’ve linked all the projects socials and pages for you to follow their work on. Next up we have our on-screen moment!
Not all representation is created equal - The good, the bad and the ones we could have done without it
Did you manage to catch the trailer release of the highly-anticipated miniseries, Ms Marvel, starring the first EVER ‘Muslim’ superhero Kamala Khan (played by Iman Vellani).
A Muslim superhero….I had to let that sink in for a moment.
If your reaction was anything like mine, excited with a slight whiff of anxiousness stemming from all the ways Muslim women have been represented in the media in the past, then I am here to tell you that I am not the only one.
Because believe it or not, all representation are not created equal and I am tired of these cliched portrayals for one. We have historically seen how Hollywood's characterization of Muslims have been less than impressive. For starters lets not forget the infamous clip from a Netflix show where the a muslim girl says “Bismillah” before knocking back a shot to another one taking off her hijab the second a white boy looks in their direction. This affirms that “diversity” in TV and film has a long way to go when it comes to Muslims, let alone Muslim women, even if that is starting to change for other groups.
Well one coalition decided to take matters into their own hands by conducting a developing a standardized evaluation test that hopes to stop harmful Muslim stereotypes in media dead in its tracks.
Enter Muslim Casting, Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and Pillars Fund, three organizations that have created “From ‘Surviving’ to Thriving.” the new on-screen test for Muslim women in TV and film. The test, much like the infamous Bechdel test aims to measure Muslim representation in projects on a new sliding grade scale from A-F through 5 easy questions.
The President and CEO of the Geena Davis Institute said this about the evaluation, “Creating a representation test centered on Muslim women will allow for their unique lived experiences to be highlighted in a media landscape where they are often relegated to victim roles, merely ‘surviving’ their circumstances or used as background props to further perpetuate stories of oppression and trauma,”
The test also cites existing research that “media often pit Western values against Islam, with Muslims shown as enemies instead of partners, and as a separate community instead of integrated with other communities.” Not only that, but it also goes as far as sharing recommendations on how a Muslim woman can have varied approaches to her identity, where she is given the space to question parts of herself but not fall into Western tropes of oppression.
And lastly, the test demonstrates how a Muslim woman can be portrayed expressing joy, often an act of resistance for so many underrepresented groups. UGH, MUSIC TO OUR EARS.
It like Muslim women are ready to exit the wings from muted background characters and onto the main stage. The test was launched yesterday as part of Muslim Women’s Day celebrations. You can read the full research paper here
Carving out several seats at the table
Developing an evaluation system to incorporate inclusion is a positive step in the right direction but without the right systems in place enabling a diverse set of perspectives from Muslim producers, film-makers, and screenwriters, who are able to tell stories that hold the power and shift mindsets, then we can’t really make any headway.
Which makes the Pillars Artist Fellowship the first-of-its-kind initiative. Initially launched in June 2021 with a mission to provide resources and mentorship to a group of talented Muslim artists to hone their talents to change the game in the film and television industries.
The fellowship created by Pillars Fund, actor Riz Ahmed and his Left Handed Films company unveiled the inaugural cohort of fellows last week. Most interestingly 6 of the 10 emerging Muslim directors and screenwriters are women which is incredible to hear and I wish each and every one of them all the success in the world.
This is the type of initiative we need, one that supports Muslim artists and storytellers signaling that it's high time we change the game, create our own table and share that table for creators to present our unique POV with the world. Because I personally cannot wait for the day when I get to turn on my laptop, or go to the movies and see myself represented authentically on a screen.
Honorable Mentions -
The power of wearing a headscarf, a short film - Sarajevo-born, London-based filmmaker Una Gunjak returned to her native city to capture a film portrait of one woman’s experience of wearing a headscarf—all shot in 16mm using a hand-cracked Bolex camera.
Madinah is named the safest city in the world - https://mvslim.com/medina-named-safest-city-for-solo-female-travellers/?utm_source=MVSLIM&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=facebook
Beauty according to Hijabi women - https://hypebae.com/2022/3/hijabis-muslim-womens-day-beauty-interview-khadija-sillah-junaynah-el-guthmy-shada-abdelaal
Debunking Myths about Muslim women - https://www.teenvogue.com/story/myths-about-muslim-women-debunked
What taking my hijab off taught me about glorification of sin - https://www.amaliah.com/post/64195/struggling-with-hijab-islam-publicly-sinning
Dear World - A short manifesto https://www.tiktok.com/@thedigitalsisterhood/video/7079851006082747653?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7053726250234152449