| Asra Nomani | |
|---|---|
| Born | Bombay (now Mumbai), India |
| Alma mater | West Virginia University (BA), American University (MA) |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Home town | Morgantown, West Virginia |
| Children | Shibli Daneel Nomani |
Asra Quratulain Nomani (born 1965) is an Indian-American journalist, author, and feminist, known as an activist involved in the Muslim reform and Islamic feminist movements. She teaches journalism at Georgetown University and is co-director of the Pearl Project,[1][2] a faculty-student, investigative-reporting project into the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The project is based at the Center for Public Integrity.
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. She is also the author of numerous articles including "Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Bedroom", the "Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Mosque", and "99 Precepts for Opening Hearts, Minds and Doors in the Muslim World".
Her work is the subject of a documentary, The Mosque in Morgantown, aired nationwide on PBS as part of the series America at a Crossroads.
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Nomani was born in Bombay, India, and when she was 4 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. When she was 10, her family moved to Morgantown, West Virginia. In her books Tantrika and Standing Alone in Mecca, she states she is descended from Indian Muslim scholar Mawlana Shibli Nomani, known for writing a biography of Muhammad. 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.
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."[3] Various mixed-gender prayers have been led privately by a Muslim woman, including a 1997 funeral prayer led by a South African Muslim feminist Shamima Shaikh.[4] Nomani has said the prayer was the first publicly led Friday prayer in modern day history.
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. Her effort brought front-page attention in a New York Times article entitled Muslim Women Seeking a Place in the Mosque.[5] The article chronicled Nomani's "Rosa Parks-style activism."
Inspired by Michael Muhammad Knight's punk novel The Taqwacores,[6] she organized the first public woman-led prayer of a mixed-gender congregation in the United States, with Amina Wadud leading the prayer. On that day, March 18, 2005, she stated:
In his book Blue-Eyed Devil (p. 209), Knight recalls the event as follows:
In separate 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.[8][9] 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.[10]
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.[11] Nomani argued "...that Danny himself had been cut from his own story."
The Pakistani-American lawyer Asma Gull Hasan, author of Why I Am a Muslim: An American Odyssey, admires Asra Nomani:[12]
Other critics similarly maintain that although they do not object to Nomani's views, they do have a problem with Nomani herself.[12] 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 describes Nomani as a "loner" who "doesn't have the experience of engaging the community, negotiating and trying to change things gradually."[12]
Some critics charged that the prayer events were being staged to promote her book.[13]
Nomani broke the news regarding Random House's decision not to publish The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones, a historical novel about Aisha, wife of the Prophet Muhammad.[14] She expressed disappointment in Random House's decision.