Stories

In this installment of my column, I interview just one local convert about her experiences raising her children as Muslim while having non-Muslim parents. Dr. Aisha Sherazi was born and raised in the UK, and migrated to Canada in 2000. She hails from a Hindu family, and is of Indian origin. She writes freelance editorials in various newspapers and resides in Ottawa, Canada. She now works as a spiritual counsellor for teenagers and teachers at Merivale High School, and conducts workshops across the city on the dangers of stereotyping. She helps represent the Muslim Community of Ottawa on COMPAC for the Ottawa Police Service and sits on the board of the Islamic Social Services Association of Canada. Happily married with two busy children, she also writes poetry and fiction in her spare time

Muslim Link interviewed Zainab Hussain about choosing her non-traditional major, unveiling her show Unseen/Seen, and the challenges and joys of being a Muslim Fine Arts student and artist.

Rehab Nazzal recently returned to Ottawa to install her latest multimedia exhibition Invisible at the Karsh-Masson Gallery as part of the City of Ottawa's Public Art Program. She left Ottawa a few years ago to pursue her Masters of Fine Arts at Ryerson University in Documentary Media and is now pursuing a PhD in Fine Arts at the University of Western Ontario.

Recently, amid security concerns and alleged electoral fraud, Afghan men and women stood under pouring rain to cast their ballot in the 2014 presidential elections in Afghanistan.

Many young people were discouraged from voting by family members because of the danger around many polling stations. But regardless, images show long lines winding their way around those areas.

Here in Canada, there are few security concerns or fear of attacks and yet many young people are not turning up at voting stations.  According to Elections Canada, 38.8% of youth between ages 18-24 participated in the federal elections in 2011.

Like many of her peers, at 22, Nafeesa Salar had her hands full with her full-time university and a part-time job. But her love and passion for art and design inspired her to take a bold move two years ago and launch her own business, Salar Event Planning, a Montreal-based event planning company.

Shelina Merani has many accomplishments to speak of.

She once spearheaded an award-winning photography project that was praised for giving a human face to public service workers.  

She is a founder of Muslim Presence, a network which she says aims to promote universal values and active citizenship.

And lately, she's been performing standup comedy in Ottawa and Quebec.

As rare as it is to find a practicing Muslimah who is also an entrepreneur, it is rarer still to find a Muslim man who supports his wife in starting and running a home based business.

Sana Khan began shadowing experienced henna artists at age 21. Within a few years, she had co-founded a business. Now, at 24, she's launched her solo career and is hoping to profit from increasing demand.

Traditionally henna tattoos are worn by women from South Asian, Arab, and African backgrounds for celebrations such as Eid (Islamic festivals). Elaborate henna ceremonies often form part of wedding celebrations as well.

On Friday, Febraury 28th, a memorial service took place at Ridgemont High School to remember and celebrate the life of Mohamoud Hersi Abdulle. The service was attended by Ottawa Chief of Police Charles Bordeleau, who also spoke, along with Mr. Abdulle's family, friends, and colleagues. He was killed in a terrorist attack on the presidential palace in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Friday, February 21, just a few days before he was about to return to Ottawa. He is survived by a wife and six children. Muslim Link invited Somali community members who worked closely with Mr. Abdulle to reflect on the impact of his life and work in Ottawa.

Ayan Yusuf is coping with paranoid schizophrenia and depression and she wants you to know all about it. The 26 year-old spoke at the 3rdAnnual Awakening: Reviving the Spirit of Somali Youth event in January about her struggle and why it is important for the community to challenge the stigma faced by those living with mental illness. She hopes that by sharing her story, other Muslims living with mental illness will feel less alone in their struggle.

In 2012 alone, more than 6.6 million children globally under the age of 5 died from preventable diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, HIV, and measles. 1.7 million children die annually because of Severe Acute Malnutrition and 3.6 million die because of Moderate Acute Malnutrition. To put it simply, they die because they don't have access to food. Globally, 67 million children do not have access to basic education. That means they will never graduate from grade 8 and go on to high school.

“I had been calling myself Muslim since 1968 because it was cool. You know, Malcolm X, Black awareness in the United States..”

Michelle Walrond's tale about being Muslim in a different era and place is part of this great-grandmother's remarkable life story.

It's a story that Walrond, aka Um Nur, was happy to share with library borrowers at the CBC's third annual Human Library, in partnership with the Ottawa Public Library on January 25, 2014.

Muslims in Canada are blessed to be part of a society that encourages health by providing various services we can take advantage of. Whether we use these services is a point of concern for Dr. Maryam Hassanzadeh, a member of the Canadian Chiropractic Association with a practice in Ottawa.

Grade 12 student Samiyah Khan first came to Muslim Link's attention when she made second place in our 2013 Ramadan Photo Contest. She was invited to work with the paper, creating conceptual photos for articles in our Heart & Soul Section. She recently had the opportunity to showcase her work in public at the 2013 Expressions of Muslim Women event. Muslim Link had a chance to interview Samiyah about her journey as a conceptual photographer.

When news of Nelson Mandela passing spread, the world was shaken. From the people of South Africa who felt the direct impact of his actions, to those who benefited from his AIDS campaign; everyone was saddened.

For me, Mandela's death really hit home. As a Palestinian, I looked up to Mandela. I remember one night, years ago, doing a google search to find out who he was. I quickly learned that he was an anti-apartheid advocate and a hero to the South Africans. I soon stumbled on one of his quotes that I would never forget: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” 

As World Hijab Day is wrapping up, many of us who are advocates of religious freedom in Canada are grappling with outrage at how the tragic death of Naima Rharouity has been covered in some media.

Certainly, the hijab has come under increased scrutiny, thanks to the highly controversial values charter, proposed by the PQ government. The charter, which aims to enforce a rigid form of secularism within the province, has already been blamed for mounting abuse and harassment of Muslim women. Whether or not this law is passed, the coverage and subsequent reactions to Naima Rharouity's death further indicate that the floodgates of hatred towards Muslim women have already been opened. Every Muslim woman in the province, and possibly beyond, will be affected negatively by the racist and patriarchal discourses playing out during hearings on the charter at Quebec's national assembly.

As Muslims, we are obliged to abide by the laws of the land and the country that we live in. Because there seems to be general misconceptions that the legalities of running a home based business (HBB) are complicated and unnecessary, this article will address some of those misconceptions and show how simple the legalities really are.

In last month's issue, Muslim Link interviewed Shahzad Khan, co-founder of Gnowit, who had recently been made a 2013 Rising Star by Invest Ottawa. Mohammad Al-Azzouni is also a co-founder of Gnowit and works as the company's VP of Business Development & Marketing. Both men met in 2010 at the Legacy Conference which Al-Azzouni founded while studying Economics and Marketing at the University of Ottawa.

In the past decade or so, a new generation of entrepreneurs has come into being: the Mompreneurs. Women business owners who balance being mothers and entrepreneurs are on the rise. Commerce and women is not a new idea for Muslims. Khadija (RA), the first woman to accept Islam, was a successful business woman in her own right.

The first in this series of columns will begin by looking at how you start your home-based business.

Shahzad Khan was recently named one of 2013's Rising Stars by Invest Ottawa, an organization that aims to support entrepreneurs and local start-ups. Gnowit Inc., an online brand-monitoring company which Shahzad co-founded with Mohammad Al Azzouni, launched this year, gaining international clients and government contracts. Muslim Link met with the Pakistan-born entrepreneur to discuss what it takes to survive as an entrepreneur.