Asra Q. Nomani
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Asra Q. Nomani is an Indian-American Muslim journalist, author, and feminist, known as an activist in the Muslim reform and Islamic feminist movements.
She is the author of two books Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam and Tantrika: Traveling the Road of Divine Love, and of the Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Bedroom, the Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Mosque, and the 99 Precepts for Opening Hearts, Minds and Doors in the Muslim World photo.
In November 2003, Nomani became the first woman in her mosque in West Virginia to insist on the right to pray in the male-only main hall. Later, she organized the first public woman-led prayer of a mixed-gender congregation in the United States. On that day, March 18, 2005, she stated:
- "We are standing up for our rights as women in Islam. We will no longer accept the back door or the shadows, at the end of the day, we'll be leaders in the Muslim world. We are ushering Islam into the 21st century, reclaiming the voice that the Prophet gave us 1400 years ago" [1][2].
Her efforts, despite ample media attention and discussion amongst Muslims, have largely been ignored within the mainstream Muslim community: no mosques or traditional Muslim women's organizations have participated in her mixed-gender prayers; her first prayer event was held at New York's Episcopal Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and the second (at Brandeis University) consisted of just 6 individuals including herself [3]. Some critics charged that the prayer events were being staged to promote her book. [4] Traditional Muslims often note her lack of involvement with Islamic practice or the Muslim community prior to 2002 [5], her open admissions of a liberal sexual life outside of marriage as documented in her first book, her having a child out-of-wedlock, and her use of the hijab (which she does not normally wear) on the cover of Standing Alone in Mecca. Shahina Siddiqui and Ingrid Mattson (the current president of the Islamic Society of North America) whose scholarly credentials and long history of social work within the Muslim community are widely respected, have chosen a less confrontational approach [6] and published "Women-Friendly Mosques and Community Centers: Working Together to Reclaim Our Heritage" [7] which advocated improvement within traditional parameters and was successfully distributed to mosques nationwide.
In addition to her books, she has expressed her experiences and ideas for reform in two New York Times editorials and in several secular publications and broadcasts. In 2006, she nominated Wafa Sultan, an anti-Islamic pundit made famous by MEMRI and widely promoted in the pro-Israel community, to Time Magazine 's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. She was a friend and colleague of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was staying with her in Karachi with his wife Mariane Pearl when he was abducted and later murdered by Islamic militants in January 2002 [8]. In the making of a movie of the book, A Mighty Heart, by Pearl's wife, the British actress Archie Panjabi will play the role of Nomani.
Contents |
[edit] Life
Nomani was born in Bombay, India and when she was four years old moved to the United States with her older brother to join their parents in New Jersey, where her father was earning a PhD at Rutgers University. At ten, she moved with her family to Morgantown, West Virginia. In her books Tantrika and Standing Alone in Mecca, she identifies Indian Muslim scholar Mawlana Shibli Nomani, known for writing a biography of Muhammad, as a "paternal ancestor," in her extended family tree. Newspaper accounts that she is his granddaughter are inaccurate.[citation needed] Nomani received her BA in Liberal Studies from West Virginia University in 1986 and MA from American University in International Communications in 1990.
[edit] Career
Nomani is a former Wall Street Journal correspondent and has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, Slate, The American Prospect, and Time. She was a correspondent for Salon.com in Pakistan after 9/11, and her work appears in numerous other publications, including People, Sports Illustrated for Women, Cosmopolitan, and Women's Health. She has delivered commentary on National Public Radio.
She was a visiting scholar at the Center for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University. She was a Poynter Fellow at Yale University.
Nomani is the founder and creator of the Muslim Women's Freedom Tour. She has also defied literalist interpretations of Islam that segregate women from men in prayers at Mosques, [9] and was a lead organizer of the woman-led Muslim prayer in New York City on March 18, 2005, which she described as "the first mixed-gender prayer on record led by a Muslim woman in 1,400 years." [10] However, this description is incorrect as there are indeed earlier documented instances of mixed-gender prayers led by a Muslim woman, such as those offered at the 1997 funeral of South African Muslim feminist Shamima Shaikh [11].
In Standing Alone in Mecca, she describes giving birth to her son as an unwed mother after his father abandoned them in Pakistan, then going to Mecca to perform the hajj in order to investigate and rediscover her religion. The Washington Post writes that the title echoes Standing Again at Sinai (1990), in which the author, Judith Plaskow, an American Jewish feminist, explored what she saw as the patriarchal origins of Judaism. [12]
[edit] Books
- Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam. ISBN 0-06-057144-6
- Tantrika: Traveling the Road of Divine Love. ISBN 0-06-251714-7
[edit] Articles
- Washington Post: A Gender Jihad For Islam's Future
- Washington Post:The Woman Who Went To the Front of the Mosque
- Sojourner magazine: The Islamic Reformation has begun
- Slate magazine: How retailers are marketing to fashion-conscious Muslim women
- Daily News: My answered prayers
- American Prospect Magazine: Pulpit Bullies
- Sojourner magazine: Struggle for the soul of Islam
- Salon Magazine: Who really killed Daniel Pearl?
- New York Times: Hate at the local mosque
- Washington Post: Rebel in the mosque
- Brandeis University Article on Asra Nomani Includes Photos
[edit] References
[edit] External References
- Asra Q. Nomani's website
- "A Pilgrim's Progress" by Leila Ahmed, Washington Post, May 1, 2005
- Detroit News Muslim women take bold steps for role in Islam Photo of Asra defying orders to move to women's section of Mosque
- Asra Q. Nomani. La Cueva de Zaratustra
- Article by Asra's father Excommunication From the Mosque?
