Asra Nomani
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| 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 Q Nomani (b. 1965) is an Indian-American Muslim journalist, author, and feminist, known as an activist in the Muslim reform and Islamic feminist movements. She teaches journalism at Georgetown University and is co-director of the Pearl Project,[1][2] 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, and of the "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.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Personal life
Nomani was born in Bombay, India and when she was four years old moved to the United States with her older brother to join their parents in New Jersey, where her father was earning a Ph.D. at Rutgers University. At ten, she moved with her family to Morgantown, West Virginia. In her books Tantrika and Standing Alone in Mecca, she identifies Indian Muslim scholar Mawlana Shibli Nomani, known for writing a biography of Muhammad, as a "paternal ancestor," in her extended family tree. 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. She has one son, Shibli Daneel Nomani.
[edit] 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."[3][1] 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.[4] Nomani has said the prayer was the first publicly led Friday prayer in modern day history.
In Standing Alone in Mecca, she describes giving birth to her son as an unwed mother after his father abandoned her in Pakistan, then going to Mecca to perform the Hajj in order to investigate and rediscover her religion. The Washington Post writes that the title echoes Standing Again at Sinai (1990), in which the author, Judith Plaskow, an American Jewish feminist, explored what she saw as the patriarchal origins of Judaism. [2]
[edit] 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 "Muslim Women Seeking a Place in the Mosque". The article chronicled Nomani's "Rosa Parks-style activism."
Later, she organized the first public woman-led prayer of a mixed-gender congregation in the United States. 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"[3].
Following the public attention Nomani drew to the issue, 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.[5][6]
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.[7] 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".[8] Nomani argued "...that Danny himself had been cut from his own story."
Nomani has been a regular guest on NPR's Tell Me More with Michel Martin on the Mocha Moms segments.[citation needed]
[edit] Views
The Pakistani-American lawyer Asma Gull Hasan, author of Why I Am a Muslim: An American Odyssey, admires Asra Nomani:[9]
Nomani broke the news regarding Random House's decision not to publish The Jewel of Medina, a historical novel about Aisha, wife of the Prophet Muhammad.[10] She expressed disappointment in Random House's decision.
[edit] Works
[edit] 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
[edit] 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
- Salon Magazine: Who really killed Daniel Pearl?
- New York Times: Hate at the local mosque
- Washington Post: Rebel in the mosque
- Brandeis University Article on Asra Nomani Includes Photos
[edit] Anthologies
- Living Islam Out Loud
- Because I Said So, ISBN: 0060598786
[edit] References
- ^ "GU Class to Investigate Murder of WSJ Reporter". Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies. http://www12.georgetown.edu/scs/event_pages/event_pearl_project.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-12.
- ^ "Project Pearl: The Bravest Class in Town". Marie Claire. http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news/latest/terrorism-daniel-pearl-fbi. Retrieved on 2009-03-02.
- ^ Teresa Watanabe (2005). "Muslim women take bold steps for role in Islam: Not content with being pushed aside in mosques, some defy the religion's age-old traditions". Los Angeles Times. http://www.detnews.com/2005/religion/0507/20/A14-242112.htm. Retrieved on 2007-06-25.
- ^ Shamima Shaikh (1998). "Death of a Muslim Joan of Arc". Mail & Guardian. http://shams.za.org/20jan-shamima.htm. Retrieved on 2007-06-25.
- ^ Laurie Goodstein (2004). "Muslim Women Seeking a Place in the Mosque". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0DE5DF1F3AF931A15754C0A9629C8B63&n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FSubjects%2FW%2FWomen. Retrieved on 2007-06-25.
- ^ "Women Friendly Mosques and Community Centers: Working Together to Reclaim Our Heritage". Women In Islam, Inc.. http://www.ildc.net/womens-involvement/WomenAndMosquesBooklet.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-06-25.
- ^ Timothy J. Burger; Adam Zagorin (2006). "Fingering Danny Pearl's Killer". Time (magazine). http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1545441,00.html?cnn=yes. Retrieved on 2007-06-25.
- ^ Asra Q. Nomani (2007). "A Mighty Shame: It's the Story of Our Search for Danny Pearl. But in This Movie, He's Nowhere to Be Found". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201673_2.html?hpid=opinionsbox2. Retrieved on 2009-01-13.
- ^ Teresa Wiltz (2005). "The Woman Who Went To the Front of the Mosque". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/04/AR2005060401646.html. Retrieved on 200804-20.
- ^ Asra Q. Nomani (2008). "You Still Can't Write About Mohammad". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121797979078815073.html. Retrieved on 2008-08-09.
[edit] 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.")
- [4] 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.
