Asra Nomani

Asra Nomani
Born	Bombay (now Mumbai), India
Alma mater	West Virginia University (BA), American University (MA)
Occupation	Journalist
Home town	Morgantown, West Virginia
Children	Shibli Daneel Nomani

Asra Quratulain Nomani (born 1965) is an Indian-American journalist, author, and feminist, known as an activist involved in the Muslim reform and Islamic feminist movements. She teaches journalism at Georgetown University and is co-director of the Pearl Project, a faculty-student, investigative-reporting project into the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The project is based at the Center for Public Integrity.

She is the author of two books, Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam and Tantrika: Traveling the Road of Divine Love. She is also the author of numerous articles including "Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Bedroom", the "Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Mosque", and "99 Precepts for Opening Hearts, Minds and Doors in the Muslim World".

Her work is the subject of a documentary, The Mosque in Morgantown, aired nationwide on PBS as part of the series America at a Crossroads.

Biography

Personal life

Nomani was born in Bombay, India, and when she was 4 years old moved to the United States with her older brother to join their parents in New Jersey, where her father, Zafar Nomani. was earning a Ph.D. at Rutgers-New Brunswick. When she was 10, her family moved to Morgantown, West Virginia, where her father became an assistant professor of nutrition. Her father (cited as M.Z.A Nomani) published papers on the health effects of Ramadan fasting. He also helped organize mosques in both New Jersey and West Virginia. In her books Tantrika and Standing Alone in Mecca, she states she is descended from Indian Muslim scholar Mawlana Shibli Nomani, known for writing a biography of Muhammad. Nomani received her B.A. in Liberal Studies from West Virginia University in 1986 and M.A. from American University in International Communications in 1990.

Career

Nomani is a former Wall Street Journal correspondent and has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, Slate, The American Prospect, and Time. She was a correspondent for Salon.com in Pakistan after 9/11, and her work appears in numerous other publications, including People, Sports Illustrated for Women, Cosmopolitan, and Women's Health. She has delivered commentary on National Public Radio.

She was a visiting scholar at the Center for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University. She was a Poynter Fellow at Yale University.

Nomani is the founder and creator of the Muslim Women's Freedom Tour. She has also defied literalist interpretations of Islam that segregate women from men in prayers at mosques, and was a lead organizer of the woman-led Muslim prayer in New York City on March 18, 2005, which has been described as "the first mixed-gender prayer on record led by a Muslim woman in 1,400 years." Various mixed-gender prayers have been led privately by a Muslim woman, including a 1997 funeral prayer led by a South African Muslim feminist Shamima Shaikh. Nomani has said the prayer was the first publicly led Friday prayer in modern day history.

Influence

In November 2003, Nomani became the first woman in her mosque in West Virginia to insist on the right to pray in the male-only main hall. Her effort brought front-page attention in a New York Times article entitled Muslim Women Seeking a Place in the Mosque. The article chronicled Nomani's "Rosa Parks-style activism."

Inspired by Michael Muhammad Knight's punk novel The Taqwacores, she organized the first public woman-led prayer of a mixed-gender congregation in the United States, with Amina Wadud leading the prayer. On that day, March 18, 2005, she stated:

"We are standing up for our rights as women in Islam. We will no longer accept the back door or the shadows, at the end of the day, we'll be leaders in the Muslim world. We are ushering Islam into the 21st century, reclaiming the voice that the Prophet gave us 1400 years ago".

In his book Blue-Eyed Devil (p. 209), Knight recalls the event as follows:

"Inside the chapel there might have been as many reporters and camera crews as there were praying Muslims. The imam of the day, Amina Wadud, was so distracted by the long rows of popping flash-bulbs that in the middle of the prayer she forgot her ayats. At PMU's first board meeting, Ahmed Nassef would read to us an email from Dr. Wadud that completely washed her hands of the event. Though she still believed in woman-led prayer, she wanted nothing to do with PMU or Asra Nomani. ... Wadud had drawn a clear line between the Truth and the media whores, and we knew that PMU was on the wrong side. To avoid public criticism, PMU's website made no mention of Asra's role in organizing the prayer. Asra complained of PMU shutting her out."

In separate developments, several major Muslim organizations in the United States, including the Council on American Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of North America, issued their first substantive work aimed at affirming women's rights in mosques, publishing "Women-Friendly Mosques and Community Centers: Working Together to Reclaim Our Heritage." The booklet, written by long-time social activist Shahina Siddiqui and Islamic Society of North America president Ingrid Mattson, was successfully distributed to mosques nationwide. In addition to her books, she has expressed her experiences and ideas for reform in one New York Times editorial and in several other publications and broadcasts. She was a friend and colleague of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was staying with her in Karachi with his wife Mariane Pearl when he was abducted and later murdered by Islamic militants in January 2002.

In the making of a movie of the book, A Mighty Heart, by Pearl's wife, the British actress Archie Panjabi plays the role of Nomani. The Washington Post published a review, by Nomani, of the film A Mighty Heart. Nomani argued "...that Danny himself had been cut from his own story."

Criticism

The Pakistani-American lawyer Asma Gull Hasan, author of Why I Am a Muslim: An American Odyssey, admires Asra Nomani:

Other critics similarly maintain that although they do not object to Nomani's views, they do have a problem with Nomani herself. One such view is held by Louay Safi, executive director of the Islamic Society of North America's Leadership Development Center in Plainfield, Ind. He points out that many women were unhappy with the Morgantown mosque, not just Nomani. Unlike other women, however, Nomani wanted things to change overnight, says Safi. He describes Nomani as a "loner" who "doesn't have the experience of engaging the community, negotiating and trying to change things gradually."

Some critics charged that the prayer events were being staged to promote her book.

Nomani broke the news regarding Random House's decision not to publish The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones, a historical novel about Aisha, wife of the Prophet Muhammad. She expressed disappointment in Random House's decision.

Works

Books

• Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam. ISBN 0-06-057144-6
• Tantrika: Traveling the Road of Divine Love. ISBN 0-06-251714-7

Articles

• Marie Claire: Project Pearl: The Bravest Class in Town
• Washington Post: A Gender Jihad For Islam's Future
• Washington Post:The Woman Who Went To the Front of the Mosque
• Sojourner magazine: The Islamic Reformation has begun
• Slate magazine: How retailers are marketing to fashion-conscious Muslim women
• Daily News: My answered prayers
• American Prospect Magazine: Pulpit Bullies
• Sojourner magazine: Struggle for the soul of Islam
• New York Times: Hate at the local mosque
• Washington Post: Rebel in the mosque
• Brandeis University Article on Asra Nomani Includes Photos
• "Playboy's Muslim Cover Girl: Is Sıla Şahin Good for Women?", The Daily Beast, May 1, 2011 8:36pm. Relating to awrah.

Anthologies

• Living Islam Out Loud
• Because I Said So, ISBN 0060598786

Monograph

• Milestones for a Spiritual Jihad: Toward an Islam of Grace; referenced in author bio of May 2011, Daily Beast article.

External links

• America at a Crossroads: The Mosque In Morgantown - PBS documentary
• Asra Nomani on The Young Turks Show.
• Asra Q. Nomani's website
• "A Pilgrim's Progress" by Leila Ahmed, The Washington Post, May 1, 2005
• Muslim women take bold steps for role in Islam by Teresa Watanabe, The Detroit News, 10 July 2005. (Photo caption: "Azmeralda Alfi unsuccessfully attempts to make Asra Nomani move to the women's area of a Los Angeles mosque.")
• Review of "Standing Alone in Mecca" on Sawnet
• La Cueva de Zaratustra Essay by Eugenio Gallego about Standing Alone in Mecca. In Spanish.
• Excommunication From the Mosque? Article by Asra Nomani's father, Zafar Nomani, on 'Beliefnet.
• Siddique, Sadaf. "With Faith in Her Heart." Hyphen 11, Spring 2007.
• Interview with Asra Nomani:'Gender Jihad' in the Service of Women's Rights.

Videos and audio

• News story on Asra Nomani
• Book TV interview with Asra Nomani
• NPR audio commentary of Asra Nomani