Glasgow: Reflections from Robina Niaz, Turning Point September 22, 2011 On this trip to Glasgow for the gathering of interfaith fellows from New York, Barcelona and Glasgow each day is a learning experience as we visit places of worship, hear from experts from different governmental and charitable organizations and meet wonderful people. The warmth, hospitality, and humour of the Scottish people are truly heart warming! On September 22, I was blessed to be invited to a planning meeting of Muslim women from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Fife who had come together to form the ‘Muslim Women’s Influencing Group’. The meeting was held in the Blackhall Masjid in Edinburgh . In attendance were nine dynamic and intelligent, mostly young professional women who were driven by a strong desire to form a group that would help empower Muslim women and nurture young leaders. Apart from myself, there were two other observers: Khizra from the Police Department in London and Melissa from the Orthodox Jewish Community who runs the Edinburgh Women’s Inter-Faith Group. The meeting was being facilitated by Farkhanda Choudhry, a well known leader in Glasgow, a veteran in interfaith work and community service, and a strong proponent of Muslim women’s leadership. Farkhanda has been doing community development and equality work for the last 30 years and has a strong training background in Scotland, Europe and Israel. As the women introduced themselves I learned about their contributions to the Scottish society and their pride in being both Muslim and Scottish. Various issues discussed at the meeting included the growing prejudice against Muslims post 9/11 and 7/7 and how 9-year old kids are facing anti-Muslim hostility. They talked about breaking down stereotypes and underscored the fact that Muslim women, especially those who dress traditionally, face the direct backlash of any crimes committed by Muslims. Today the group’s task was to finalize the vision statement ( which they did!) and come up with a draft of the mission statement . All the women had come well prepared, were deeply engaged in the discussion and were goal oriented. The issues they listed they would focus on initially would be: Muslim women’s access to mosques, Muslim holidays in schools, positive image of Muslims in the media and social events that would bring Muslim women/girls together to encourage civic engagement. I witnessed how much the younger women look up to and are inspired by Farkhanda Choudhry and another member Bushra Iqbal (who has a long history of community service both in Scotland and Pakistan) – the two older women in the group who have worked tirelessly around women’s issues and capacity building for the Muslim community. I was also struck by the similarity in issues that Turning Point’s staff, youth members and volunteers face regularly and the issues we, Muslim women in New York confront in our daily lives. I had the opportunity to speak with the Scottish Muslim women about the ground breaking work Turning Point does in mentoring and nurturing young leaders, our annual ‘Mecca to Manhattan: Muslim Women Moving Mountains’ workshop series; our ARISE NY! Campaign against bullying and hate crimes targeting Muslim youth in schools and public areas and our work to combat domestic violence in the New York Muslim community. We discussed common challenges and best practices and I reminded them of how fortunate they were to have a large group of women coming together to commit themselves to their goals. It also reminded of how I started Turning Point by myself without any financial support or partners. Another thing that is strikingly different in Scotland is the Scottish government’s commitment and support to religious diversity and inclusiveness, interfaith work and integration of different ethnicities into Scottish society. I have observed during my one week in Scotland the lack of tension between government, police and citizens. They seem to have a harmonious relationship that facilitates integration of immigrants and the work of charitable organizations.
