Tales of a Muslim Girl

I am a Muslim. I am a girl. I like to laugh, and occasionally rant.
Welcome to this blog.

Forgotten Ummah™

For the past few months my husband and I have been going over an idea we came up with for an amazing project called Forgotten Ummah. The project consists of several different aspects and if it really gets off the ground I know it will be a great program that will help many people. The project aims to highlight members of the Ummah (community) that are overlooked or treated poorly. This includes people who have disabilities, lgbtq* identifying people, people who have faced racism..etc but that’s not all, it also aims to bring us ALL together (Muslim and Non-Muslim alike) to dispel negative stereotypes forced on Muslims. In this post 9/11 world we have been shown as terrorists, hateful, ignorant, backwards, and oppressed but the truth of the matter is that no stereotype fits every member of any group and through this project we hope to show just how diverse the Muslim community is.

Part 1 - The first part of the project is a Youtube channel we want to set up which will display videos sent in from around the world from Muslims showing or telling a part of their day to day life as a member of the “forgotten Ummah” or showing/telling a part of their day to day life that goes against the mainstream idea of what a Muslim is or does. We want you guys to be creative and we want you guys to challenge the minds of those that have their heart set on fitting us into a small, ignorant box. We always will be displaying videos sent in from Non-Muslims that have Muslim family members, friends or coworkers and want to share their stories of how the Muslim person in their life has impacted them and their view of Islam.

Part 2 - The second part of the project is moving it from the virtual world into the real world. We want to have seminars, educational programs, large events, and even parties. It will be a lot of work and we’ll need a lot of people to help us out but it is completely possible and we’ve even been looking into places to hold them at. Maybe an annual huge event that will focus on acceptance, love, and the importance of unity and respect within the community. We want this to be an ONGOING MOVEMENT not just a momentary fad.

Part 3 - The last part of the project is YOU. We need you all to really be behind us 100% in making this project happen. Message us here on Tumblr (samiracortez.tumblr.com/ask or thesmallestactofkindness.tumblr.com/ask) or email us (samiracortezz@hotmail.com) if you want to be a part of this project.

We are looking for people to spread the word, we are looking for people to help us get all the different pieces together, we are looking for people to help plan events and we are of course, looking for people to help sponsor the project although the majority of any costs will be coming out of our own pockets because we really want to see something that means so much to us grow with our help and help from you. Please, please take the time to reblog this :)

~Samira

Edit- I forgot to add that we will be making donations of half of anything we earn to people in need so when this picks up if there’s ever a time when you need money for groceries, rent, clothes..anything inshallah we will be able to help you with that. I’ve seen so many people that are turned down by masjids or even government aide and we want to be there for you all in those situations.

(via faineemae)

Tagged: signal boost, .

samiracortez 287 ♥ 04.26.13

"In Mecca I was a fully realized human being. There were no back doors for me. There was no back entrance. There was no back row where I had to pray. I prayed alongside my father. I walked in through the front door with him. When I dared to try to do the same at my mosque in Morgantown, I was screamed at and yelled at and I was told to take the back door. I was told to sit in the balcony. And so for almost two years now, we’ve been fighting and we walked in through the front door and into the main hall. And I now sit on trial because 35 men at the mosque have signed a petition to have me banned for being a troublemaker. So on March 1st, the start of Women’s History Month, I launched what we’re so proud to call the Muslim Women’s Freedom Tour. And what I did was I posted on the door of my mosque 99 precepts for opening hearts, minds and doors in our Muslim world. And with it I attached a bill of rights for women in the mosque and a bill of rights for women in the bedroom, so that we can assert and reclaim all that Islam created for women."

— Asra Nomani, author of Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Mosque (via thepiratealchemist)

(via konnichiwahabibisan)

Tagged: asra nomani, Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Mosque, feminism, mosque, muslim women, muslim woman, .

konnichiwahabibisan 24 ♥ 03.15.13

hijaboverheels:

romewasnotbuiltinaday:

hi-sick:

My favorite badge

Someone please get this for me

needed.

(via fuckyeahfatbrownhijabis)

1266 ♥ 03.12.13

How Not to Rescue Muslim Women

kawrage:

(Quoted from an article by Shabana Mir)

Muslim women are done being rescued. Muslim women are done being defined. Muslim women are done being told what they need.

But Muslim women could use help, doing what they think they should doWomen could use help in the worldwide community of patriarchy. Muslim women are engaged in struggles for humanity, equality and justice as are their global sisters. They sure could use some help. But when they reach out for assistance, to fellow warriors for all kinds of justice and equality they call for a few ground rules:

Respect.
Understand that we’ve been engaged in the struggle for gender equity for a very long time, even if you hadn’t “discovered” us before.

Empathy and support.
Support the cause of gender equity, and offer every assistance that you can, as long as it is combined with respect.

Don’t infantilize.
Don’t tell them you have exactly the diet of morality and values they need. Don’t tell them you know what they need, and what they should refrain from.

Humility.
Share your ideas and experiences, humbly, but never assume you know. Which means -

Embrace your ignorance.
We sally out into the world armed with assumptions because otherwise we could not function. But a modicum of uncertainty about your own assumptions is useful.

Learn and listen
You can’t put us in a box. The “different” folks of the world aren’t an easy minor in a college course for affluent White people to “master.”

Don’t crash the party.
When you fly in to “rescue” Muslim women, you can do serious damage to the work and to the credibility of feminist activists.

Tagged: saving muslim women, .

kawrage 330 ♥ 03.12.13

themindislimitless:

blusterjay:

It’s my dream job to work as an animator, so I thought I should practice. xD

Took roughly about three hours from concept to finish. Just some happy twirlin’~

This little animated girl looks so happy she makes me happy. I feel happy for absolutely no good reason at all, and my sister had to ask me what I was looking at because I was grinning at my screen like an idiot. This animation is adorable.

Tagged: gif warning, epilepsy warning, happy, .

blusterjay 468 ♥ 03.10.13

To be a Black. Convert Muslim. Female.

gardariki:

Read this Muslimahs account on her struggles with racism in the Muslim coumminity

(via balkan-thug)

gardariki 129 ♥ 03.09.13

outburstm:

Thanks kawrage for Supermuslim - the compilation

(via pbnpineapples)

Tagged: muslim women, .

kawrage 641 ♥ 03.09.13

faineemae:

since i’m already talking about crushes.

In 8th grade when I was rebelling against everything desi and muslim, there was this boy in our grade. He was a bosnian muslim but he wasn’t religious. He was this bad boy/skater boy and he had long dirty blonde hair, he’d always wear black sabbath, misfits, led zepplin t-shirts and I started listening to all those bands because he liked them. We had a lot of the same friends so people would try to get us to talk to each other but he didn’t like me. I pined over him for a whole year, wrote poems about him and tried to become into a girl that I thought he would like but he got suspended two weeks before graduation and the last time we talked before high school started, he told me he would never wear clothes like abercrombie & fitch or aeropostale because it was for “preps” and I thought he was the coolest person I’ve ever met because wasn’t a douchebag.

The first day of freshman year, I was walking down the crowded hall wearing all these new clothes that my mom finally let me buy. This tall, skinny boy with short hair wearing a polo walked past me and smiled. I didn’t understand why this random guy smiled at my awkward self. Then I realized that it was that boy who I was head over heels for. It was so heartbreaking hahahahaha

faineemae 66 ♥ 02.13.13

muslimwomeninhistory:

A feature documentary about ‘Poetic Pilgrimage’.

Two Muslim converts promoting women’s rights through music… and finding their own voices on the way.

We have lots of great footage but need your help to edit it!

Check out the perks and more info here:

http://www.sponsume.com/project/hip-hop-hijabis

(via themindislimitless)

Tagged: hip hop hijabis, hijabis, music, .

hiphophijabis 301 ♥ 02.09.13

thegreaterjihad:

“Real Muslimahs” don’t fall into an all-encompassing image. We are free thinkers, writers, scientists, educators, mothers, and students. Covered or uncovered. Shy or outgoing. We are all equally important to this ummah. Don’t forget it.

(via thebeautyofislam)

thegreaterjihad 322 ♥ 02.06.13

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