Asra Q. Nomani
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Asra Q. Nomani is an Indian-American Muslim journalist, author, and feminist, known as an activist in the Muslim reform and Islamic feminist movements.
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 the 99 Precepts for Opening Hearts, Minds and Doors in the Muslim World photo.
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, defying the centuries-old gender barriers of Islamic tradition. Later, she organized the first public woman-led prayer of a mixed-gender congregation in the modern day. 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" [1][2].
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 Islamists in January 2002.
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[edit] 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 PhD at Rutgers University. At ten, she moved with her family to Morgantown, West Virginia. According to a web based news service, "Pakistan Times", she is the granddaughter of the Indian Muslim scholar Mowlana Shibli Nomani, known for writing a biography of Muhammad[3]. In her books Tantrika and Standing Alone in Mecca, she identifies Shibli Nomani as a "paternal ancestor." Her family lineage to Shibli Nomani is contested by an unverified email from a reader claiming to be his direct descendent.
Nomani received her BA from West Virginia University in 1986 and MA from American University in International Communications in 1990.
[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.
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, [4] and was a lead organizer of the woman-led Muslim prayer in New York City on March 18, 2005, which she described as "the first mixed-gender prayer on record led by a Muslim woman in 1,400 years." [5]
In Standing Alone in Mecca, she describes giving birth to her son as an unwed mother after his father abandoned them 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. [6]
[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
- 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] See also
[edit] References
- Asra Q. Nomani's website
- "A Pilgrim's Progress" by Leila Ahmed, Washington Post, May 1, 2005
- Detroit News Muslim women take bold steps for role in Islam Photo of Asra defying orders to move to women's section of Mosque
- Asra Q. Nomani. La Cueva de Zaratustra
- Article by Asra's father Excommunication From the Mosque?
