This is an article I wrote for the Redbridge Muslim Newspaper (February 2009)
I for one am an aptitude believer in all these self development courses, so was very excited to finally see one tailor made for Muslim woman.
Aimed at Redbridge Muslim woman, and a crèche it was perfectly up my street.
On the day I arrived stressed, clutching my daughter and over one hour late. Our body clocks always fail us on a Friday! Not a good start but lucky for me the topic was de-stressing oneself.
Following this was the inspiring role models, which for me was by far the best session of the day. First on stage was Rashda Mahmood, a development manager at HSBC Amanah Finance.
Rashda a natural born speaker, and clearly in her comfort zone, had her audience captivated. She had arrived from Pakistan at the age of two, attended Walthamstow secondary school, where she chose her 4 A-levels: 2 of which were Urdu- simply to prove her Urdu teacher wrong after she said she’d never get a GCSE in the subject, and Geography because it meant her spending a week in the Isle of Wight. Thereafter from humble beginnings as a bank clerk she worked her way up to the esteemed position she asserts today.
Every inspiring sentence she spoke was followed by a note of good humour which left the audience in hysterics, and made my wonder why she had not been head hunted by comedy group ‘Allah made me funny’ to be their first comedienne. The modern day superwoman she is, she’d easily fit it into her schedule alongside her 9 to 5, director of an afterschool madrassa ‘AMMA’, school governer, and mother to two girls.
As I work in investment banking too, she had me utterly enthralled; I had found my new super role model!
Next was Eiman Munroe, a graduate physicist from Imperial college, she had worked in actuary for 3 years, then got married, and found her business ‘Loop cards’ whilst on maternity leave! She talked us through her pointers for success and during the Q & A was inundated with questions on business. I couldn’t help thinking her next business move needs to be providing courses for women with new business ideas.
Extremely curious to know how both Munroe and Rashda husbands’s view their lifestyle considering they spend little time in the home, Rashda said ‘I would not be who I am today had it not been for my husband’ and Munro echoed the same response.
So is the other side of the coin to the phrase ‘Behind every successful man is a woman’ also that ‘Behind every successful woman is a man’, or is it as Islam teaches, ‘Marriage is a partnership’. The Nikkah is not based on equality, but promotes justice between the spouses’.
By the afternoon it was beginning to dawn on me that the attendees were mostly all successful professional mothers. As the afternoon speaker said, she felt she was ‘preaching to the converted’.
Although I continued to learn great new tips and facts, and left feeling elated having made talented new friends, I did feel the absence of the huge Redbridge Muslim population that would have benefitted immensely almost to the point of it being a life changing experience, had they attended. An example are the ladies I attend the Sunday session at the Ansar with, who a few weeks ago were asking what is happening in Gaza.
The movement of Muslim woman has begun, and they have broken away from the stereotype of ‘oppressed’ and ‘chained to the kitchen sink’, but what about the men? I can think of maybe 10 women successful in deen, career and family, for every male counterpart.
Consequently, my message to the absentee women, and the men, is if there’s an ‘Inspire’ course near you, you absolutely must attend!
What a refreshing article – celebrating women’s achievements is not nearly done often enough, and I personally feel very motivated to attend the next ‘Inspire’ course….thank you!