An informal event to meet the writers who are on a visit from America and a chance for them to meet you before they leave UK.

Come along to meet these extradordinary American muslim women who are "Living Islam Out Loud" who are willing to share honestly their experiences that have shaped their lives. These women have always identified themselves as both American and Muslim. These women are forging their own paths and in the aggregate are creating an American Muslim identity.

"Living Islam Out Loud" is an inspiring series of stories by American Muslim women writing about identity, spirituality, relationships, activism, sex and sexuality, hijab and more. While they disagree on much, they share the desire for authentic sisterhood and self-determination for themselves and for all Muslim women.

Each woman, in a first person, intimate account, reveals her passage to becoming an American Muslim woman. The contributors are sisters, mothers, wives and daughters. Some are professionals and others are students. Some trace their ancestry to distant Africa, others to India, one to Palestine -by way of Brooklyn and another to Panama- but all claim American roots. These women live on the West Coast, the Northeast, Middle America and the Mid Atlantic and even the deep South. They claim the complete spectrum of Islam including the Sunni and Shia traditions and the legacy of the Nation of Islam.

When: Saturday 12th April 2008 at 5.30pm - 7.30pm
Where: St Ethelburga's, 78 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AG

Refreshments will be provided.

Directions: 5 minutes walk from Bank and Liverpool Street stations.
Streetmap link

Everyone is welcome to join. No need to RSPV just come along!

Any enquiries / to confirm: britbangla@britbangla.net

Check out their website for more information: www.livingislamoutloud.com

Faith Matters provides innovative and practical projects within the interfaith field and consultancy services on project development / management to organisations. It is a not-for-profit organisation that specialises within faith communities, interfaith relations and finance (i.e. business lending solutions tailored to different faith communities).
www.faith-matters.co.uk

LIVING ISLAM OUT LOUD: BIOGRAPHIES

Sham-e-Ali Al-Jamil is a poet and writer. Her work has appeared in SALT Journal SAMAR, Roots & Culture Magazine, and Mizna and can be found in anthologies such as Shattering the Stereotypes: Muslim Women Speak Out. and "Shout Out: Women of Color respond to Violence. She is also a lawyer who has worked on the welfare rights of survivors of intimate-partner violence.

Saleemah Abdul Ghafur is the editor and originator of Living Islam Out Loud, and a leader in the national movement to end gender discrimination in the American Muslim community. Currently consulting for Malaria No More, she also consults on a variety of interfaith and volunteer initiatives, as well as writing for Azizah magazine (the first lifestyle magazine for Muslim women in North America). She is on the board of the Progressive Muslim Union and is affiliated with Atlanta Habitat for Humanity and also serves on the Atlanta Women's Foundation's Faith, Feminism and Philanthropy steering committee.

Samina Ali is a write whose debut novel, Madras On Rainy Days was awarded the Prix Premier Roman Etranger 2005 Award (Best First Novel in Translation of the Year) by France and was also chosen as the finalist for both the PEN/Hemingway Award in Fiction as well as the California Book Reviewers Award. She is the recipient of the Rona Jaffe Foundation award for fiction and has written for such publications as Self, Child, the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Aroosha Roq Zana works for the US Foreign Service, and has worked in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Pakistan and India and speaks Spanish, Urdu, and Hindi. Besides her passion for international work, Aroosha has lived and worked in Brooklyn, New York as a holistic educator with El Puente, a community-based arts and activism organization, and a performer with We Got Issues, a women's arts collective.

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