Asra Nomani

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Asra Q Nomani is a Indian-American Muslim journalist, author, and feminist, known as an activist in the Muslim reform and Islamic feminist movements. She is a professor in the practice of journalism at Georgetown University's School of Continuing Studies, leading the Pearl Project, a faculty-student investigative reporting project into the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

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).

Contents

[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

Daniel Pearl and Asra Nomani in Karachi in 2002, shortly before Pearl was kidnapped and murdered.
Daniel Pearl and Asra Nomani in Karachi in 2002, shortly before Pearl was kidnapped and murdered.

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."[1][1] However, recognizing that various mixed-gender prayers have been led by a Muslim woman, including a 1997 funeral prayer led by a South African Muslim feminist Shamima Shaikh.[2], 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. 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].

Her efforts to allow women to lead mixed-gender prayer (Muslim women have always been able to lead single-gender prayers) have been rebuffed by the mainstream Muslim community-- no mosques or traditional Muslim women's organizations have participated in her mixed-gender prayers; her first prayer event was held at New York's Episcopal Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and the second (at Brandeis University) consisted of six individuals including herself.[3]

In other developments, 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.[4][5]

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.[6] 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".[7] Nomani argued "...that Danny himself had been cut from his own story."

Asra is leading the Pearl Project at Georgetown University and has been a guest on NPR's Tell Me More with Michel Martin on the Mocha Moms segments.

[edit] Views

Pakistani American lawyer, Asma Gull Hasan, and the author of "Why I Am a Muslim: An American Odyssey" admires Asra Nomani.[8]

Asra Nomani has been involved in many controversies. Her critics maintain that although they don't object to Nomani's views, they do have a problem Nomani herself.[8]

One such view is held by Louay Safi, executive director of the Islamic Society of North America's Leadership Development Center in Plainfield, Ind. He points out that many women were unhappy with the Morgantown mosque, not just Nomani. Unlike other women, however, Nomani wanted things to change overnight, says Safi. He also says that Asra Nomani doesn't have the "experience of engaging the community, negotiating and trying to change things gradually."[8]

Others maintain her for inviting TV cameras into the mosque at the "slightest provocation". Sohail Choudhury, the mosque's coordinator, said that people come to the mosque to worship, not to face camera.[8]

Some critics charged that the prayer events were being staged to promote her book.[3] Traditional Muslims often note her lack of involvement with Islamic practice or the Muslim community prior to 2002. [4] Her critics also find her child out of wedlock to be objectionable behavior.[8]

[edit] Works

[edit] Books

[edit] Articles

[edit] References

  1. ^ Teresa Watanabe. "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, Sunday, July 10, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-06-25. 
  2. ^ "Death of a Muslim Joan of Arc", January 20, 1998. Retrieved on 2007-06-25. 
  3. ^ a b Jane Lampman. "Muslims split over gender role: American Muslim women challenge the tradition that only men can lead ritual prayers.", Christian Science Monitor, March 28, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-06-25. 
  4. ^ Laurie Goodstein. "Muslim Women Seeking a Place in the Mosque", New York Times, July 22, 2004. Retrieved on 2007-06-25. 
  5. ^ Women Friendly Mosques and Community Centers: Working Together to Reclaim Our Heritage. Retrieved on 2007-06-25.
  6. ^ Timothy J. Burger, Adam Zagorin. "Fingering Danny Pearl's Killer", Thursday, October 12, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-06-25. 
  7. ^ Asra Q. Nomani. "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, June 24, 2007. 
  8. ^ a b c d e Wiltz, Teresa. "The Woman Who Went To the Front of the Mosque", Washington Post, June 5, 2005. Accessed April 20, 2008.

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