Do we need more platforms/articles/books for Young Muslim women?

If you’re a stubborn yet curious soul like myself, you’ll know the feeling of needing to know even the smallest of things and you click away at every google/bing link possible before even thinking about asking another actual human.

Maybe it’s my inner ‘Upper East-side Blair Wardorf’ that refuses to know less than ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. Sorry, I’ve recently hooked myself back on to Gossip Girl and being in my 20’s now, I resonate so much more with Dorota it hurts.

But yes, as I was saying..

I admit I do find it hard going about my days without attaining some sort of knowledge no matter how minute the info is..

If you’re, again, like me; searching for answers when it comes to topics related to Islam and, more specifically Muslim women, can seem like a maze.

And more to the point.. nothing is really ever to the point.

I’m a huge fan of Yasmin Mogahed.

She answered a lot of my questions as an anxiety-ridden 19 year old crawling into adulthood.

I understood the importance of “holding the Dunya in our hands and only leaving space for Allah in our hearts”. I soaked up every rich word she spoke and learnt to leave expectations behind and just ‘be’.

As humans (forget everything else), we all resonate with holding high expectations, regardless of whether we make it obvious to others or not. A part of our heart naturally sinks to our stomach when something doesn’t pan out the way we hoped or prayed for.

Being Muslim on top of that, we’re taught to keep the faith and trust in Allah SWT when things (from the surface) look like they’re plateau-ing. Reading the likes of Ms Mogahed’s work is something that definitely aided me in thinking different and being open-minded in situations.

What if you’re not into books though?

If you’re clued up on other platforms, you would know the works of Amaliah, a media platform who pride themselves on offering podcast series (amongst many other dazzling services), perfect for the busy, working women on the go.

Podcasts are an amazing way to retain a bunch of information and insights into topics all while commuting or perhaps, crazily nesting in the last trimester of your pregnancy.

However your day looks, engaging in podcasts is an easy and totally fun way to get the mind stimulated.

Alternatively and more relevant to our modern day sisters, ‘The ‘Gram’.

And although my mid-evening Instagram scrolling is filled with beautiful (MashAllah) Muslim Women influencers who have expanded the Islamic market-place and displayed how inclusive our religion is, I do struggle to see the faith-centred notion to a lot of these pages.

I get the flip side to it though.

Maybe speaking on religious matters and the important stuff for us Muslim women can lead to creating big political statements that become bold adhesive labels stuck to the forehead of influencers and perhaps lead to even bigger impacts on their careers.

*exhales*

I respect if this is the avenue people are coming from, especially when a career/brand has been built upon a set of skills on which they wish to centre their platform. I also acknowledge this detrimental ‘cancel culture’ that is living among us that scares the absolute daylight out of people talking about the big stuff if it’s just. not. trending.

I further realise the online manipulation that takes place when you say you prefer the colour ‘blue’ and suddenly you’ve discriminated against all the other colours of the rainbow, the colour ‘red’ now doesn’t feel worthy and people are shaking. I get it all. It can be out of control.

It’s toxic, I agree.

And it therefore makes talking about religion on major platforms just 1000 times harder to do!

People are fearful of backlash or whatever else they could face. But the issue we are often confronted with is not having enough resources in the digital world that can aid Muslim women, shed light on our modern day problems and tackle the demons maybe, most of us have.

Imagine if a whole bunch of other sisters were dealing with a certain struggle similar to you.. now imagine dealing with that certain struggle and overcoming it as one!

My point is more to do with making sure the right information is out there for Muslim women, especially when currently, Islamic lectures are hard to attend & it’s difficult to get the ladies in your community together, so articles and easily accessible resources is all we got. Lets make sure it’s as beneficial as possible.

Now is the time.

If you’ve ever thought about creating a blog, a channel, a podcast or any digital platform that can amplify our voices and not shy away from speaking on what you feel is relevant to our communities and families today, this is the time.

Our media-saturated world and busy day to day lives can often lead us astray, silence us for the time being and allow for the accumulation of excuses to push discussions aside because we believe so many other things to take priority..

I hope this platform alone can empower us women and give us the confidence to openly get to know Islam more, not be afraid to enter the major conversations and puts the spotlight on the morals that keep us united, InshaAllah.

Until next time..

Anonymously,

Zara