“Here’s to strong women: may we know them, may we be them, may we raise them.”
There is a long story full of discouragements, being left alones, tears and sweats behind every strong woman that we know about. And believe it or not, there have been many incredible Muslim women in in history that we do not know about their stories. Because their voices were silenced, because they are still struggling, because they want to stay unknown due to safety issues.
Let’s remember the ones we know first with a hope that remembering them may open our eyes wider and see the unseen women around us.
Khadija bint Khuwaylid (RA)
If one wants to talk about strong Muslim women, she must begin with the famous business women of her era, our Prophet’s first beloevd wife, his biggest supporter Khadija. She was so brave that she was doing trades in an era that men held unquestionable power. She had her own caravans to carry goods from city to city. She was so reckless that she became the first supporter of our Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) when nobody believed him. She was so dedicated that she spent all she had for Islam, because she had a faith in Allah that He never leaves them alone, without help. There are many stories hidden in her life that we, Muslim women, should get inspired and benefit from.
Ibtihaj Muhammad
“Though I have had moments in my career where I’ve been on the receiving end of discrimination, I have never allowed
those moments to define me.”
Ibtihaj Muhammad, the first Muslim-American to wear hijab at the Olympics. She is a quite successful athlete, but it was not easy foır her to be so. She was excluded from the team because she wanted to fast in Ramadan, she was blamed for being lazy when she sprained her ankle, asked to take off her hijab in many places because of different excuses… She never gave up and brought a medal home with her team in the 2016 Olympics! She inspired many muslim woman to close their ears to all discouragements of society and do their best to be the best at whatever they desire to be doing.
Halima Aden
“Deen over Dunia.”
You may have heard about her, “the muslim model” Halima. She is incredibly beautiful and successful at her modeling career that she built by working so hard for years. She showed up on the famous brands’ shows in million dollar dresses and was watched by millions. She also was part of Unicef and helped thousands of kids all over the world. She inspired many young people to overcome the hardships that they had, to try to be a better version of themselves. But she reached some point in her life and felt like she was putting Dunia over Deen. She began feeling uncomfortable in the fashion world which may be very harsh sometimes. So she decided to end her unhappy career she was very successful at and quit modeling. She did not quit helping others, of course. She produced a movie focusing on refugees, which was released on Apple TV.
She says, “I don’t think the world needs me as a model or celebrity, it needs me as Halima from Kakuma – somebody who understands the true value of a penny and the true value of community.”
We listed three inspirational Muslim woman, all has unordinary courage and remarkable sucess at what they were doing. All are known by millions of people all around the world. There are many many more she-ro muslim women that we are not aware of: pur neighbors, our teachers, doctors, cousins, ourselves… We, Muslim women, all try so hard to do good, to be good. We are all heroes of our families, of our offices, of our societies. We are strong, and our imaan makes us even stronger. Whenever you feel down, you feel like the walls are too high to jump over, remember that you are capable of getting what you want. Just try harder, pray to Allah to help you.
