While we celebrate all of the women of our past and present, MIIM Designs chooses today to highlight Khadija, who as a woman entrepreneur in pre-Islamic Arabia exemplifies the empowerment of women more than a century before the concept of gender equality even existed. A talented merchant, Khadija inherited both her father’s trade business and his business acumen. It is related that when the Quraysh tribe’s caravans embarked upon their extended trade journeys, Khadija’s caravan equaled the sum of all of the other caravans of the Quraysh combined. In fact, among her titles, Khadija was known as “Amīrat-Quraysh”, or the Princess of the Quraysh. Her talent and expertise caused many highly respected Arabian men to seek her hand in marriage.
Read MoreAilya Vajid
(De-)Centering Islam and the Question of Authenticity /
Director of Research, Ailya Vajid, will be giving a talk entitled The Multiple Meanings of Mourning: How Shi’i-American Women Negotiate Tradition and Culture Through Commemoration and Activism. This paper focuses on how American Shi’i women negotiate tradition and authenticity with their own American cultural values, and how they draw upon the courage and strength of powerful female Shi’i symbols in their socio-political endeavors and in their activism for social justice and religious freedom. Read more.