Islam Around the World

Islam Around the World is a series of events where college students celebrate the diversity of Muslim Communities. This year Project Nur DC area chapters celebrated the International Women’s day, students spotlighted inspiring entrepreneurial stories from people of different faiths, in particular, the Muslim women who are living in a non-Muslim country. The event served to provide an alternative narrative of how Muslim women are depicted in the media. That was an opportunity for college Muslim women to have the broad picture of success, and step out of their fear zone.

Participating Chapters were:

George Washington University

American University

Howard University.

Panel Speakers were:

Hiba Mohammed: Hiba Mohammad was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, and is a transfer student from Howard Community College where she concentrated in entrepreneurship. Hiba started "Asli," a for-profit online retailer that designs and sells sports clothing for active Muslim women of all ages.

Sabrina Siddiqui: one of the newest political reporters at The Guardian, is adept at covering politics and will be one of the journalists writing about the 2016 Presidential election. Previously, she  was a politics reporter at The Huffington Post covering Capitol Hill. She joined HuffPost in 2012 to cover Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign and previously worked as a stringer for two years with the White House Team at Bloomberg News. Siddiqui has appeared on MSNBC, ABC Fusion, Al Jazeera English, Al Jazeera America, CNN-IBN, the BBC, Sky News and C-SPAN. She is a contributing host of The Bill Press Show and was named one of the Top 50 Coolest Desis of 2013 by Desiclub.com. Siddiqui also helped re-launch Divanee.com and served as its editor-in-chief from September 2010 to May 2012.

Rahama Wright: is a social entrepreneur working to innovate the shea butter supply chain in West Africa. Her social enterprise Shea Yeleen markets and distributes high quality skincare products, while providing living wages to cooperative members in Northern Ghana.

The Secretary of Project Nur chapter at GWU Sohail Hosian moderated the panel discussion.  The discussion covered the following questions:

1. What inspired you to become an entrepreneur/journalist?
2. What has helped you get to where you are and what advice would you have for others who want to set off in a similar direction?
3. What are common misconceptions people have about your field? How have you/can we combat these misconceptions and communicate more effectively?
   
4. What’s the question you are most tired of hearing on this subject, and what would you like to say about it so you never have to answer it again?
5. What is one piece of practical advice you would give to someone starting out?
6. What is the best resource for people who want to dive in deeper?
7. How have you gone about identifying and/or working with male advocates for gender diversity?