2008 Woodie Awards
Author challenges stereotypes of Muslim women
Brittany Davenport
Issue date: 9/25/08 Section: News
As she took her place behind the podium she had only one question: "When you think of a Muslim woman, what comes to mind?"
"Subornment, suppressed, Berka, Middle Eastern," the audience shouted.
During the discussion last Thursday in upstairs Powell, Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur wore makeup and left her traditional Hijab head covering at home.
"When you look at me, do you think of those words?" she asked the full crowd in the Regents Dining Room.
Abdul-Ghafur, editor of Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak, smiled at the crowd, knowing her point had been made: stereotypes fall apart when it comes to Islamic women.
"Now more than ever the world needs to hear our voice," Abdul-Ghafur said.
Raised in New Jersey and now living in Atlanta, Abdul-Ghafur has spent years standing up for Islamic women and defending what defines them.
She said there's a role God gives people in life and there's a role that we fill in our communities.
"My work is bridging that gap," Abdul-Ghafur said.
For her book, Abdul-Ghafur traveled for three years to find the stories of real women. Women who weren't Islamic immigrants or new converts to Islam, but women who were born and raised Islamic right here in America, she said.
The women she chose were women doing something in the public eye, whether it was at work or in their community.
They had to have the courage to share their stories honestly and be "women who don't remember a time when they weren't both American and Islam," Abdul-Ghafur said.
Abdul-Ghafur said she was looking for the women who wore "underroos," watched MTV and knew the most important parts of the Koran and Michael Jackson's "Thriller" by heart.
Showing people what Muslims really look like is what's important, Abdul-Ghafur said. She said she was tired of the stereotypical images that the mass media provides of Muslims.
"When people hear the word Muslim they think of one or two particular images probably seen on CNN, and that's the only way they see them," Abdul-Ghafur said.
"Subornment, suppressed, Berka, Middle Eastern," the audience shouted.
During the discussion last Thursday in upstairs Powell, Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur wore makeup and left her traditional Hijab head covering at home.
"When you look at me, do you think of those words?" she asked the full crowd in the Regents Dining Room.
Abdul-Ghafur, editor of Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak, smiled at the crowd, knowing her point had been made: stereotypes fall apart when it comes to Islamic women.
"Now more than ever the world needs to hear our voice," Abdul-Ghafur said.
Raised in New Jersey and now living in Atlanta, Abdul-Ghafur has spent years standing up for Islamic women and defending what defines them.
She said there's a role God gives people in life and there's a role that we fill in our communities.
"My work is bridging that gap," Abdul-Ghafur said.
For her book, Abdul-Ghafur traveled for three years to find the stories of real women. Women who weren't Islamic immigrants or new converts to Islam, but women who were born and raised Islamic right here in America, she said.
The women she chose were women doing something in the public eye, whether it was at work or in their community.
They had to have the courage to share their stories honestly and be "women who don't remember a time when they weren't both American and Islam," Abdul-Ghafur said.
Abdul-Ghafur said she was looking for the women who wore "underroos," watched MTV and knew the most important parts of the Koran and Michael Jackson's "Thriller" by heart.
Showing people what Muslims really look like is what's important, Abdul-Ghafur said. She said she was tired of the stereotypical images that the mass media provides of Muslims.
"When people hear the word Muslim they think of one or two particular images probably seen on CNN, and that's the only way they see them," Abdul-Ghafur said.