‘We’re all united in the struggle of being women’

Naema Ahmed, Nouran Younis, and Zainab Faizan set up for a United Muslim Relief’s women empowerment event in Nyumburu Amphitheater.

A group of sisters came together to discuss how to combat issues among women this past week. 

This university’s chapter of the United Muslim Relief held a weeklong series of events to advocate women’s causes and rights as part of Sisters’ Week: Empowerment Through Awareness, promoting the idea that all women are sisters to one another. 

Each year, the group focuses on a different group of issues. Now in its third year, Sisters’ Week focused on women’s dress, violence against women and education, said Momina Mazhar, a junior physiology and neurobiology major and UMR chapter fundraising coordinator.

“We want it to be engaging; we want people to start talking about it,” Mazhar said. 

The week featured a discussion-based event called iEmpower, in which attendees addressed issues such as the importance of women’s dress and how it is viewed in society as well as men’s role in women’s issues and empowerment.

Women everywhere are “criticized for what we wear,” said Aisha Hussain, senior community health and psychology major and UMR chapter president. “We’re all united in the struggle of being women.”

The iEmpower discussion featured Darakshan Raja, a research associate at the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center, who talked about dangerous perceptions on the policy level about violence against women, forced marriage and sexual assault.

Raja offered advice on how to find one’s voice and take a stand when “gaps in the policy” mean not everyone is protected. 

Denial can further the issue, Raja said. Some people don’t consider domestic violence and sexual assault prevalent issues or even problems in the Muslim community. However, up to 70 percent of women internationally will experience domestic violence or sexual assault in their lifetime, she said.

Earlier in the week, group members asked volunteers if they wanted to spend one day wearing a hijab — the traditional Muslim head scarf — to give a different perspective to those who had never worn one.

The idea stemmed from a 2011 event called Undercover as a Muslim Woman, and Hussain said she wanted to incorporate a humanitarian aspect this time rather than a religious one. The group at this university wanted to focus on women’s empowerment and the importance of men in these issues, she said.

“I’m actually glad that a lot of males came out,” Hussain said. “These are issues that don’t only affect women, but they affect everyone, like men and boys and family in general.”

Ahmed Abbasi, a freshman business student, came to iEmpower as an avid supporter of the cause.

“My sister and my mom, both women, having them immediately in my family … they go through so much struggle in their everyday lives,” he said. 

Mazhar said that no matter the victim’s background or religious affiliation, domestic violence and stigmas against women’s dress are international problems. The focus was to “find similarities between all of us women, as opposed to using something like dress to divide us,” she said. 

Another day focused on spreading awareness about women’s education, with group members handing out postcards near Nyumburu Amphitheater.

Passersby were encouraged to use the postcards to send a note to a woman who inspires them. All proceeds went to the Hoshyar Foundation to help fund programs for educating girls, specifically in Pakistan. 

Posters of successful women throughout history surrounded the educational advocacy area. One featured was 16-year-old Pakistani Malala Yousafzai, who advocates girls’ education. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year and survived being shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012.

“We selected influential women who contributed to the education movement throughout history and in different fields,” said Nouran Younis, a freshman computer science major and committee member. “We tried to make [the posters] really appealing to look at to catch people’s attention.”

The week also included a discussion about Saving Face, a documentary about women in Pakistan who suffer acid attacks, often inflicted by someone the victim knows. The discussion examined causes of acid attacks, in which attackers use acid to disfigure victims, and the implications of a gender power rift and the value of women. 

“What is the value of women?” asked Mahwish Askari, sophomore physiology and neurobiology major. “If they’re not told they’re valuable, they don’t realize it.”