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The Oldest Progressive Muslim Organization in America |
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A Year Ago
March 15-26 are the dates for this year’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). This time last year marks the last time I got on a plane! Happy to report, at this time of writing I have received my first shot of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccination, and before long I will look forward to travelling and being in the field again rather than cooped up in my home office.
This month’s newsletter is a little late so as to be able to provide all the information on events at CSW65 we will be involved in and/or organizing. Do check the events offered and join me for our panel on reforming the Kadhi court in Kenya.
Staying with the women’s rights theme. Here in the U.S. there is a very hard push for the 28th constitutional amendment, the Equal Rights Amendment, that will insert “non-discrimination on the basis of sex” language. If you haven’t noticed, we are still very behind in the protection of women as well as LGBTQ+ rights. To learn more about ERA, and MPV’s involvement in it, scroll to our media section. Good news is that President Biden is an ally and on March 8 he issued a statement in establishing a Gender Equality Council.
With Covid-19, MPV and many of our partner organizations have seen a drastic drop of funding for our work. I am not really sure how to explain it away. We are not in the business of finding a cure for Covid-19, and the issue of human and women's rights haven’t gone away. If anything, studies have shown that COVID has resulted in a huge setback to the progress made.
So, in the last few months, at MPV we have restructured ourselves to create an income stream in the wedding services we have been providing for the past 15 years -- particularly for the many Muslim women marrying non-Muslim men, and without the fake and forced conversions expected of the non-Muslim partner. Visit our interfaith Islamic marriage page for details, and do share. And while you’re there, check out the theological basis for the permissibility of such an interfaith wedding.
In addition, we have created a progressive Islam Chaplain endorsement services for those who want to be endorsed by an institution with our inclusive worldview. It is interesting to start seeing hospitals, prison systems calling us for recommendations of such Muslim chaplains.
And lastly, the Inclusive Islam Curriculum rooted in human rights for children ages 4-7 is complete! Stand by for the launch date.
So, we will prevail. Onward and upward…
Ani Zonneveld
Founder, president
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U.N. Updates: Commission on the Status of Women
MPV will be involved in four side events:
MPV’s own side event, co-sponsored by the Foreign Ministry of The Netherlands
March 24: A Women's Rights Compliant Sharia Court
10:00 a.m. EDT (7 a.m. PDT/5:00 p.m. Kenya)
This event will feature our Kenyan partner African Muslim Women Action Network (AMWAN), the Chief Kadhi of Kenya, and a Sharia law expert. Opening remarks will be by Mr. Jos Douma the Special Envoy for Religion and Belief. Here is the event page. Do share!
Speakers:
Opening remarks - Mr. Jos Douma - Special Envoy Freedom of Religion and Belief, Foreign Ministry of The Netherlands;
Ms. Ani Zonneveld - Muslims for Progressive Values, founder and president; Chair.
Ms. Ulfat Hussein - AMWAN, founder and director;
Mr. Al Muhdhar A.S. Hussein - Cheikh Kadhi of Kenya;
Ms. Mwanakitina Abubakar - Sharia law expert
MPV is offering a guest perspective in the following panels.
March 16: “Women in Faith Based Organizations”
10:30-12:00 p.m. EDT
Organized by the World Jewish Congress, a conversation to be introduced by Alana Baranov of the Jewish Diplomatic Corps with female Rabbi Rav Maya Leibowitz and imam Ani Zonneveld.
This is an excellent opportunity to underline our commitment to gender diversity and equality while examining the crucial role of bridge building across religious and geographic divides in order to address today’s global challenges. RSVP here.
Other speakers and panelists include:
Dr. Husna Ahmad (CEO of Global One); Prof. Azza Karam (Secretary General, Religions for Peace), Elaine Neuenfeldt (ACT Alliance), Mr. Amichai Wise (Member of WJC Jewish Diplomatic Corps)
March 21: “Shared Stories: Culture, Religion &Women's Empowerment”
12:30-2:00 p.m. EDT
Organized by ISKCON Vaisnavi Ministry, co-sponsored by ACT Alliance and MPV. The premise of this panel is ensuring religious diversity and inclusion in global faith-based advocacy on women’s empowerment in support of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Goal: To share and understand important cultural variations in how a society values the
individual, the family and the community, and how non-western countries and varied religious
communities address female empowerment. To identify language/concepts/tools/structures that help
develop culturally inclusive female empowerment programs.
Speakers:
Radha Devi Dasi (Women’s Ministry, ISKCON)
Gladys Nairuba (Co-Chair, ACT Alliance Africa, Gender Community of Practice)
Ani Zonneveld (Muslims for Progressive Values, founder, president, and Alliance of Inclusive Muslims)
March 23: “Equality in Family Law: Committing to Reform” 10:00-11:30 a.m EST
Organized by Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law
Government Sponsors and UN Co-Host: Maldives, Sweden, UN Women.
Civil Society Sponsors:
● Act Church of Sweden
● CLADEM
● Equality Now
● Musawah
● Muslims for Progressive Values
● SOAWR represented by FEMNET
● Women’s Learning Partnership
This objective of this panel is to encourage government commitments for family law reform with concrete actions, using all platforms to support and hold each other accountable to these commitments and reforms - treaty bodies, UPR, Generation Equality Forum, SDGs / HLPF, etc.
Program and Speakers:
- Welcome by Representative of the Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law and Moderator, Femi Oke, International Journalist, Moderate the Panel
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Opening Remarks by Government Co-sponsors
- High-level Representative from Sweden & other Government Ministers
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High level talk-show style panel of speakers
- H.E. Aisha Mohamed Didi, Minister of Gender, Family and Social Services, Maldives
- H.E. Mayra Jiménez, Minister of Women, Dominican Republic and President of OAS Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM)
- Scarlet Bishara, Judge, Ecclesiastical Court of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land
- Melissa Upreti, Vice-Chair, UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls
- Contributions from the floor - primarily from member states
- Closing Remarks - Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women
To learn more about CSW65 Parallel Events, visit NGO CSW65 Parallel Event Schedule. To register for the conference visit here.
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Book of the Month
We recommend you check out this beautiful book of artwork by the artist Maira Hamid out of the U.K. titled “The Expression of Art inspired by The Holy Quran.”
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MPV-LA
March 20: Our monthly and virtual progressive Quran reading group continues. This dedicated group of about 25+ has grown to include attendees from Canada, U.K., Bosnia, and various parts of the Arab world. For details, check out our page.
MPV-NY
March 11: MPV-NY will begin the 2021 series of Monthly Quran Reflections. This month’s reflection will be based on Isra and Mi’raj. For information on the event and to sign up, please refer to MPV-NY’s FB event page.
MPV-Boston
On March 5, MPV-Boston held a monthly event about “Progressive Muslims in 2020 elections.” Guest speaker for this event was Feroza Sysd. Feroza is a trans activist and advocate. She is also one of the appointees to Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom’s historic first LGBTQ Advisory Board for the City of Atlanta. After coming out to a viral Facebook post as a trans woman living in anonymity, Feroza has quickly jumped into activism head on with involvement in Trans housing Coalition, Desi Q Diaspora, Stonewall Pride celebrations in Atlanta, and various tremendous efforts for local communities. Feroza shared her incredible journey of being an immigrant, south Asian, Muslim, trans and women with many inspirational stories and uplifting words for progressive Muslim organizers.
April 2: MPV-Boston will host their monthly event about ‘Misogyny, Gender roles and Muslims’. Please RSVP by using this link.
MPV-San Francisco Bay
On February 21, MPV-San Francisco Bay Area had a session with discussion on “Islam and the Secular.” Portions of that will be posted after the video is edited.
On March 21, MPV-San Francisco Bay Area will have an interactive group "Healing Our Wounds from Cultural Dogma - Finding a Way to the Truth in Islam" led by Muna Al Sheikh an activist and therapist from Santa Cruz. More details will be posted this week on our Meetup Group and our Facebook Page.
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MPV in the News
In a long-form conversation with Dr. and Imamah amina wadud’s “Friends Along the Way” series, Ani Zonneveld sings a song, discusses her experiences from using music in her human rights work as well as her grassroots, education, policy and UN work.
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- President's Greeting
- U.N. Updates
- Book of the Month
- Chapter Updates
- MPV in the News
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