Muslim Women: Navigating Identity « The Buxton Initiative

Muslim Women: Navigating Identity

On Thursday, July 22nd, The Buxton Initiative held an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Muslim Women: Navigating Identity gave voice to the personal stories and experiences of four Muslim women. The program helped facilitate discussion on the challenges Muslim women are facing in order to better support and understand one another.

To start the event, Karen Meacham from the Center for Strategic and International Studies welcomed all of the participants to the venue before briefly introducing moderator Sandy Brock and former Senator Bill Brock. Following Karen’s welcome, Bob Woody and Kathryn Goetz from the Buxton Initiative spoke about the goals of the events and Buxton’s emphasis on open and honest conversation. Before the panel began, Buxton welcomed Shaista Mahmood to open up the discussion. Shaista, a native of Pakistan and co-founder of the Aschiana Foundation, which provides education and training to street children in Afghanistan, discussed living out one’s identity as a Muslim women in the United States and the importance of engaging in interfaith dialogue.

Buxton was pleased to feature four unique women:

Melody Fox Ahmed joined Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs in June 2006 and serves as the Director of Programs and Operations. Previously she worked at the Corporate Executive Board and with the Buxton Initiative, and has studied and worked in Spain, Mexico, and Brazil. She received her B.A. from Vanderbilt University and her M.A. in Global, International, and Comparative History from Georgetown University, where she focused on Latin America and the Muslim world.
Dalia Mogahed is an American Muslim scholar of Egyptian origin. She was born in Cairo, Egypt and immigrated to the United States at the age of 4. Dalia is the Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, a non-partisan research center that provides data and analysis to reflect the views of Muslims all over the world. She was selected as an advisor by US President Barack Obama on the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Along with John Esposito, she co-authored the book Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think.
Sarrah AbuLughod was born in Saudi Arabia but grew up in Wisconsin. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Human Development & Family Studies. Sarrah has worked with low-income and at-risk populations with the Washington Scholarship Fund and currently with the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust in DC. Sarrah also works as an advocate for survivors of domestic violence with the Domestic Violence Resource Project, and the Rape and Incest National Network online hotline.

Fauzia Rashid was born in the historic city of Lahore, Pakistan, where she was educated in local schools before graduating from Government College. She was the first woman to clear the nationwide accountancy exam and served for some years as the Chief Financial Officer of a major corporation in Pakistan. Fauzia and a small group of friends established the Lahore Grammar School in the 1970’s to provide high quality education to girls. Today this school has 32 campuses throughout Pakistan which serve around 20,000 students.

In the media, the loudest voice is most often heard, and this voice tends to be a negative one that discredits Islam. Melody, Dalia, Sarrah, and Fauzia provided an alternative, not seeking to push a certain issue, but rather speaking from their heart about their personal journeys. Instead of looking at identity from an academic standpoint, Buxton tried to humanize the issue through the personal stories of the four panelists.