Morad Awad – Duha Fahmy Ummah Movement Institute I Diary of Da’ee #17
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The host of a video discusses a social media movement focused on empowering women, but also addressing issues with women. The movement is a preventative program that focuses on addressing issues with women, not just general. The movement is a preventative program that is focused on addressing issues with women, not just a general. The movement is a preventative program that is focused on addressing issues with women, not just a general. The movement is a preventative program that is focused on addressing issues with women, not just a general.
AI: Summary ©
Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh and welcome to today's
episode of The Diary of a day today we have yet another day with
their unique presentation and what they're offering to the Ummah and
to the to the communities of America and hunting a lot of black
women today. We have a sister with us but not just any sister. This
sister is a biology teacher in a school and honest lemic school,
but a local school in Southeast Michigan, a very active youth
leader in her community mashallah Tabata kala she actually brought
an Maghrib Institute which is an institute I'm sure you're all
familiar with. She brought that chapter to Michigan Masha Allah
Tala and let it for about three plus years and is currently
serving as an advisor there Masha Allah but now most importantly in
what we want to like speak about for the rest of the interview. Dot
founded a nonprofit organization called OMA movement Institute and
its name is exactly what it's doing. Well my movement Institute
is intended to empower visibly Muslim women right and giving them
workshops and helping them with their careers and helping them
give back in their communities strengthen their identities, masha
Allah, you're my what I'm going to call OMA movement Institute from
now on you mi I'm gonna you know these acronyms sometimes they flow
around so I just want to clarify it from the beginning.
She has these power talks, it's a podcast that you're my offers
Masha Allah, when they speak about, like they have raw
conversations about
you know, things that like these taboo type of topics, right and
things that
nobody really talks about hamdulillah and I'm sure they've
been very effective. If you never heard of them, you should be
tuning into them from now on and show Allah to Allah. She was also
a consultant and some famous brands that you may have heard of.
One of them is yes, I'm hot in this. I don't know if you ever saw
that. I think I saw a coffee cup. A coffee cup. My wife got it one
day and it said it was all black and in white. It says yes, I'm hot
in this. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I'm like
Subhanallah because that's what everybody's wondering. Right?
Imagine a hijabi walking in, it's like 100 degrees outside and she's
wearing mashallah for hijab she comes into the coffee cup and it
says yes, I'm hiding this isn't that cool? It's like wow, you know
the answer to the question that you might be thinking of another
one is treat your treat you better treat you better is for like, it's
a woman owned cookie shop and they do cookie sales mashallah also
intended to empower Muslim woman mashallah demonic Allah and hijabi
coach, it's a career Consulting
Group hamdulillah and there's so much more this is so active
Mashallah. She's been running Hala cars for almost 15 years right
now, and I can't finish you know, it's like such a long
introduction. Now with our guest for today sister diaphragm es
Salaam aleikum, wa Rahmatullah.
So now I have the love of God. First, I want to apologize for the
long introduction. I know some people don't, don't like that, but
inshallah we'll just kick it off. Because look, you're from
Southeast Michigan. We're all the way here in Dallas, Texas. So we
got to let people know who we're bringing on to the show, right? So
forgive us for that.
Today, I want to ask you a question. Now you're doing a lot
of work Michelle at the watercooler
and you're on many different fronts specially on the sisters
front of things, which is kind of neglected a lot of times in
communities Mashallah. You're helping the sisters a lot in your
community and this is something we want to spread to different
communities all over the United States inshallah. Tada, so, did
you wake up one day and say, Yeah, I want to do I want to make this
you on my project? I want to move the camera or start on the
movement Institute, or did something happened to you? Were
inspired you to do it.
I mean, I think all began with a very, very simple task. I think
the very beginning in my activities. I used to go to a
halacha at the masjid and I loved it. I was very involved. I love
the Hulk a leader and then one day to head up here was like, Alright,
I'm out. And I'm like, What do you mean? Like, how are we going to
continue and I would almost beg her on on a weekly basis that to
come back and she would say when you do a heck of for my little
girl, then I'll come back. And I was like,
I don't know anything how? How am I going to do a HELOC ah, and
actually going to an another live class before we had another tip
here
was was probably one of the first like, things to me that signaled,
hey, I can do this not because I knew a bunch of things. But I took
imperfect action. And I just started the head, I thought, and I
just kind of kept it up. And then because I do have a love for
girls, I just saw consistent issues, consistent problems. And
it was it was tiring that I was literally answering the same
questions every single time. So it was kind of something that came in
the flow of things as I was working with the girls, as I was
working in Ms. Kid, and just being super active opportunities came up
where we wanted to do,
you know, the conference for women that, you know, it's a generic
thing that people say, like, let's do a woman empowerment conference.
And that didn't sit well with me, because I was like, we're not even
doing the work at home. Like, we're not even empowering the
women individually for us to have them come together and empower
each other. And so I felt that we were going about it all wrong. I
mean, not to say that women parent conferences aren't good. They are.
But I felt that there needed to be a more integrated into the
logistic approach. And so that's where a movement came about is
it's a preventative program. Oftentimes we have programs for
Muslim women that are reactionary, like after they've gone through,
like domestic violence, for example, which is the typical
response. Or after that, you know, something has happened in their
family, we, we respond, but why don't we just put our efforts
before the action, and we empower these men to build themselves up
before anything like that were that were to happen. And so that's
the purpose. And that's kind of how it evolved. It was just a slow
process. That's beautiful. Mashallah, that's very
inspirational. So, and this is something I want, everyone that's
watching, especially if you're young, if you're in high school,
if you're in college,
what we get from what Sister diet said in the last three or four
minutes, is that she saw a problem. And she got up and did
something about it. She didn't just say, Hey, this is the
problem. She just kept complaining, she was like, hey, I
need to do it the way I think it's right, and if it's right, Allah's
Pantos is going to put Barack in it is going to give me success,
and Hamdulillah. But I mean, this is what this is the message that I
want everybody to get out of this duck. That was very inspirational.
But I'm going to ask you something from a different point of view
right now. You are hijab, Hamdulillah, and your Islam is
visible, people can see you and just associate associate you with
Islam, unlike a lot of the men, you know, men can be seen, but,
you know, perhaps can work in a place for 10 years, and not be
known to be Muslim, right. Whereas a sister the first day, she walks
in for an interview, like she'll be like, Oh, Shia Muslim, right,
just by her hijab. So it's obviously more challenging. You
work as a biology teacher in a non Islamic school. Right? And you
teach probably mostly non Muslim students? How did that settle in
with your students? Is that Did you know, give them a positive
image of you or a negative image of you? How do you deal with it?
Are you like the Cool Teacher? Because you have a job on? You
know, how would you like maneuver?
I think it all begins with really trusting yourself and trusting who
you are and accepting who you are completely because this school
that I teach that is one of the top schools in Michigan, it's
highly coveted, very difficult to get into.
And very rigorous. And so when I came in, of course, I wanted to
work for a school like this. But I also didn't want to put myself in
a situation where I was going to hurt me internally, I'm a very
confident person. But that doesn't mean I'm going to willingly put
myself in a situation where
I'm going to hurt myself. So of course, I did the interview. They
were interviewing me as much as I was interviewing them. So I had
actually asked questions that were not just about my hijab, but just
about my views in general, that they were open, are they open to
these views, you know, that have to do with a lot of social and
justices. And if I can incorporate that in my, in my lessons as a
biology teacher, and the fact that I got hired, I was shocked because
I was like, did I just mess this up? Or did I just, you know, give
myself a way to really, like, get in and be my whole self. And when
I got hired, I was like,
Yeah, I did good. You know, I was really I was really excited not
because I got the job but because I was my true self in the
interview, you know, I completely put myself 100%
So coming in was difficult, I'm not going to act like it was
refreshing, it was not refreshing. Because I generally work with
minority groups. I've worked in Detroit, and before that I worked
in a song school before that. And so it was very weird to have a
population of teachers that were primarily white. But my student
base is all minorities. And I don't want to say that they
completely understood when they saw me, or that they felt like,
Oh, my God, it's someone who's an other. And that was their kind of
their doorway to connect with a teacher. And it might have been
that. But I also tried to use a lot of relationship building. So
one of the first things I do, and this is just as a, as a person, in
general, when I meet someone new, I try to learn a lot about the
person I'm talking to. So one of my first assignments with my
students, is for them to create a whole PowerPoint about themselves.
One of the first things I do before I introduce, all the stuff
that we have to do in class is talk about myself from A to Z, I
talk about why I wear a scarf, I talk about how they might see me
pray, you know, if they come in between classes, I will eat my
100% authentic self. And I think that people in general, and
students for sure, really appreciate that kind of
personality, and then they are able to open up and become them
themselves as well. It's just genuineness. You know, I think
everybody appreciates the genuineness, right? You're not
trying so hard to like, fit in, hey, this is me, this is what I
stand for. And you know, that, that comfort with your identity,
is what makes other people comfortable with you, if you know
what I mean. You know, a lot of times, high schoolers feel like,
while you know, everybody's doing this, I gotta get on it. Everybody
trying this, I gotta try it. Everybody's wearing this, I got to
wear it. Right. But what they don't know is that, you know, when
you just follow, follow the trend, you won't get as much credibility
in the eyes of people as you know, actually having being proud and
comfortable with your own identity and just being you. And somehow it
says if I feel like, you know, being genuine, always attracts
genuine people.
If you're not, I mean, I don't know, like this is from my
experience. I feel like genuineness attracts genuine
people. So you end up making genuine friends, you know, but
fakeness makes you attract fake people. So that's why that's why
you know, a lot of the youth go through these, like issues you
know, with with bad friends and people betraying them backstabbing
them backbiting, you know, it really affects them betrayal and
whatnot. And that's because they, you know, you're trying so hard to
please them, but they aren't the plausible type of people, right?
So it's always good to be genuine, humble little blonde. I mean,
that's beautiful. But I don't know how you mix biology with civil,
you know, actors.
Epic actually helps prove that
cell membrane and all that stuff.
It's so tied in you would be, you'd be surprised, I could
probably teach a whole a whole course about it in college.
That's amazing, which I love to medical law. So now with another
thing that was UI, right? You are my own non Muslim
movement Institute. Michelle, I'm sorry about that. So you Mi is a
great Institute, Mashallah. And it's it's doing some great work
out there, empowering women, and doing some things that we're not
accustomed to seeing, you know, like fighting
or tackling massagin ism, within our own cultures, right, because
we come from different cultures. And those cultures can, you know,
don't necessarily have the best
customs, right, or the best tradition, especially like when it
comes to massagin ism and whatnot. And they come here to the west,
and, you know, that needs to be fixed. And you are, you're like a
catalyst to this process, Michelle Mathematica, and that's a great
thing. But now, a lot of people, especially people with a certain
mindset, if you know what I mean, would look at an institute like
this and think or feel like, okay, this is one of those liberal or
progressive type movements, you know, meant to liberate the woman
from this from that and eventually, from her religion to
begin with, so that there's no Deen at all, you know, do you feel
like you have to compromise certain Islamic values
with this institute or no? Do you feel like you're upholding it? And
you're preaching Orthodox 100% accurate Islamic tradition? Okay,
before I answer that question, I want to touch base on something
that you
Read said, I think a lot of people think that misogyny is, you know,
an overseas problem. And it is not it is so hive. In the US I work in
a non Muslim. Sure, mostly white school. And I can tell you, that
was one of the first things that hit me hard. Was this how
misogynistic white men specifically can be? Okay, so it's
not, it's not actually rooted in a culture, I would say it's a world
problem.
I just want to clarify that I don't think it's, it's a Arabs
issue, or AC issue, or whatever
your culture might be. It's actually lodged in everything, and
every single culture. The problem is, it looks different in every
culture, and first itself differently. It's the same
mindset, but like, the way it manifests itself in every society
is different. Yeah. And I think that Muslims are hypersensitive
about this, because we've been under attack about these things
when it comes to hijab and what it looks like, and that's oppressive
and so and misogynistic. We've been given that narrative, and we
have the responsibility to accept it or not. And, and I'm telling
you, that that's, you know, even if you're like, No, it's not
oppressive. The thing is, don't respond to that. Don't even
respond to that question. Because then you're saying that misogyny
is only a problem in our culture. And that's not the case. It's a
problem worldwide. Now, to go back to your question.
We, the whole reason we wanted to start this was because we, it's
not that we're against feminism, feminism is a powerful movement.
But there is something called White feminist feminism. And that
is a it's a movement that is based off of the perspective of a white
perspective, sorry, a white perspective of what is considered
liberating and what isn't. And recently, the POC community has
really been trying to take back that narrative and say, feminism,
to me looks like XYZ. And we're part of that movement, where
feminism in conservative Islam looks like XYZ. And this is what
we're trying to achieve in a movement Institute is we're trying
to create this sense of
acceptance of self, and not a reactionary approach to other
people telling you what you should and shouldn't do. And, on top of
that, when people talk about misogyny, oftentimes they are
talking about how other people treat them. But I can tell you,
one of the biggest problems women face is their own,
limiting beliefs, their own negativity towards themselves. And
this isn't for anybody to use against them, this is something so
that they can self reflect and approach themselves in a better
manner, so that they can achieve whatever their potential is,
oftentimes, women are the ones who bring themselves down, and
sometimes other women down. And our role is to identify that and
be able to have a lot of self talk and self reflection, and that
support the female support, to push each other to achieve what,
what we can and want to do.
On purpose facade. Yeah, and I'm, I like how you redefine things.
Because a lot of times, you know, like these, these terms like
cultural massagin, ism, and feminism and all these isms, you
know, they need to be, they need to be defined, and they need to be
defined good. Because
we can be in a sitting and 10 people can be talking about
feminism, and you'll have 10 different ideas of what feminism
is in the same room. And you could be talking about the same thing
for 10 hours, and not get to any conclusion because you're talking
about 10 different things. Right? So I love how you you just defined
it from the beginning. And a humbler we can take that take is
like given Islamic perspective of feminism, you know, because there
there are some good things in feminism, right, and empowering
women, but there are obviously some things that are contrary to
Islam as well. And those things have to be like kind of filtered
out and and explained to the women explain to the women why this is
out and why it's for their own good. And how Allah subhanaw taala
made it this way for your own good, you know, and just like
that, like defining that and putting everything in its nisab in
its place, is always is always a great practice, mashallah about
UCLA so
I love the work so far. And so now I'm sure a lot of the youth are
out there thinking, what they can do for their communities to do
what you're doing in your community in Southeast Michigan.
Like what advice would you give our young sisters specifically,
and our youth in general that are, like tuning in with us today?
Okay, well, first, I'm going to tell you to follow us
on memo.org, on our website, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook,
so that you can be part of the discussion, because one of the
first things that you need to do is a lot of self reflection of
what you can give to the community. A second thing that I
suggest you do is get a mentor, attach yourself to somebody, or
some buddies, because it's very often times that we don't have one
person that can provide all of that support for us, but several
people who can, can guide you, and you ask them questions, and help
them push you to where you want to see yourself. And then thirdly, I
mentioned this earlier, take imperfect action, you have an
idea.
Go do it. Don't need anybody's, you don't need anybody's
permission to do it. But we all need guidance, I can tell you,
it's kind of funny how you said, you know, so we can sit around a
table and talk about what feminism is and isn't in the Muslim
community. And we would be talking for hours. Yeah, that's exactly
what happened. We were talking for hours, trying to define and
calculate exactly what this means to us and what it is and what it
isn't. And so sometimes, your idea,
you started out imperfectly, but that doesn't mean you help it, you
don't stop there, and just keep on doing it imperfectly. You grow and
you have to get better from feedback and ideas from other
people do not wait for the shape line to give to give the shape on
time to tell you, you know, who are you don't like you know,
anything? When are you going to, you're not going to be the next,
you know,
woman woman that's going to be or man that's, that's, that's going
to change the world?
Why, why? Why? Why listen to that negative talk, you know, when you
can just do it, and then at least you could say, I did this doesn't
matter how bad it was, you did it. And that's better than not doing.
And that's my, my advice, Elijah, thank you so much for the advice.
That's a beautiful piece of advice, just to get up and do it.
You know, make it work and think about perfecting it later, you
know, or as it goes, right? And that's, they always tell me, you
know, just do something, get it to work and then start, you know,
perfecting it afterwards. Right. Especially the IT folks like
paralysis, analysis paralysis. If you read when I somebody told me
that I was like, That is the definition of me. You know,
sometimes you need someone's gonna slap you in the face and just say,
Does it do it? Okay. Yeah.
Exactly. And how long and it works a lot of the time and if it
doesn't work, what's beautiful about Islam? You know, when when
you're not Muslim, and you're not doing stuff sincerely for the last
one at isla. When you fail, you can be like, I suck. I am not
good. I just wasted time I wasted money. I wasted energy. I wasted
my face. But you know what, when you're working with Allah subhanaw
taala you're not wasting anything. Because it's all going to be on
your skill. They have judgment as if it worked. 100% So do not ever
think you're going to lose with Allah subhanaw taala Alhamdulillah
that's beautiful. Just having that. That mindset Elijah clear,
sister.
I'd like to thank you for coming to the program and show I really
hope you enjoyed it. Because I personally enjoyed it. And I hope
my viewers enjoyed it. Definitely do. Sign up, follow and
go get on social media and follow you on my right Omar Omar movement
Institute. I want you guys to follow like look it all up you
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want you guys to be on it. Anything that benefits you is
something that epic Masjid is with 100% and this is why we're
facilitating these talks SR da duck Mala fer for tuning in. And
my last point I'll accept from you.
I am Allah and with that inshallah we're going to end the episode
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