News

Women's organizations provide essential services to our communities, supporting women and girls to be financially secure, free from violence, and able to fully participate in all aspects of our economy and society. Yet for far too long they have been chronically underfunded, underestimated and undermined.

Yazidi Canadian Nafiya Naso has initiated a Parliamentary Petition to the House of Commons requesting that "the Government of Canada to expand the definition of family to include extended family members for Yazidi refugees given that they are genocide survivors and given that many of their immediate family members are deceased or missing in action and to immediately clear the backlog in the existing sponsorship cases under the One Year Window provision for children."

Pakistani Canadian Meena Waseem, a student at Cameron Heights Collegiate in Kitchener, Ontario, is one of 35 Canadian students who won the prestigious Loran scholarship.

Empowerem, an organization aimed at building and empower Women of Colour in Ottawa to progress personally and professionally through safer spaces, skill-building, and networking.

Carleton University is happy to announce its second Somali Studies in Canada Colloquium, taking place on October 18 and 19, 2019.

When legendary Canadian marathon runner, Martin Parnell, had a life threatening blood clot he was inspired to recover and run again when he read about the first courageous Afghan woman to participate in a marathon in her own country, Zainab. He invited young filmmaker and Ryerson University graduate, Kate McKenzie, to join him in documenting the journey and trained her to run her first marathon. The result of this journey is the documentary "The Secret Marathon" which will be released this year.

The Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies has been established at Simon Fraser University to encourage the academic discussion and public understanding of the cultures and societies of Muslim peoples in the past and present. The Centre works through a variety of programs to broaden the discussion of this important subject and to introduce more complexity and comparison in the analysis.

The Hoyo Working Group, also known as the Hoyo Collective, is an Edmonton based Somali mothers group who came together with the intention to create a collective support group for mothers with common barriers and diverse talents to address their barriers through education, innovation, and capacity building.

"Fatal Silence" is a documentary by Alan Powell that reflects on the 2012 murder of Lebanese Canadian Sonia El Birani by her husband Chawki El Birani in London, Ontario.

Join the Muslim Youth Fellowship on Thursday, February 28 at Toronto City Hall as they introduce their 2019 Fellows and explore the theme of women's leadership in political spaces with political strategist Ruby Latif, and past TDSB trustee Ausma Malik. Mayor John Tory will also be a special guest.

Alberta’s first council dedicated to combating racism will bring expertise and experience to assist in government’s commitment to end racism.

The family of Egyptian Canadian Yasser Albaz, 51, is calling on the Canadian government to intervene and demand his release from the infamous Tora Prison in Egypt.

Lebanese Canadian Leilani Farha, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, will be giving a talk at Carleton University this Tuesday, February 26 from 6:00-8:00 pm.

Dear Friends,

Many of you have been asking for an update on the trial and how you can support the Justice for Abdirahman Coalition.

Please read on to find out.

Please note that there is also a community meeting organized by the Coalition on Friday, February 22, click here for details.

Sidrah Ahmad is a writer and researcher based in Toronto, Ontario. She co-founded the Rivers of Hope Toolkit for survivors of Islamophobic violence. Her writing for mainstream media and academic research has helped to bring the reality of gendered Islamophobic violence into public discourse in Canada.

Her research on this subject has now been published in the Journal of Gender-Based Violence.

You can follow Sidrah on Twitter here.

Two Muslim Canadian organizations have received funding from the Inspirit Foundation to help address Islamophobia.

Zainab Merchant is a Muslim-American Harvard graduate student from Florida who also is the CEO of the digital media and animation company Chipakly.

Over the course of the film Walaa shines as an eloquent and brave young woman, determined to fight for her ideals. It is incredible to watch her grow and evolve, which the film conveys beautifully in contemplative close-ups ....it is refreshing to see a film that portrays such a proud, resilient, young Palestinian woman. You will remember Walaa.
- Amy Siegel, POV

In the 2018 Municipal Elections in British Columbia, Pakistani Canadian podcaster Abubakar Khan ran as an independent to join the Vancouver City Council.

Check out the Let the Quran Speak Family Day Weekend Fundraising Dinner this Sunday, February 17th, in Scarborough, Ontario.