Wahida Valiante is a founding member and former national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC). She is the Chair of Islamic History Month Canada. She is a Canadian trained social worker and therapist who specializes in couple and family therapy, family mediation, domestic violence, and post traumatic stress disorder.
She has made numerous presentations and training to academic institutions and professionals, both nationally and internationally, on the development of human personality and the role of religion and family.
She has presented several major papers on contemporary theories of family therapy and towards the development of an alternative model of treatment based on the Qur’anic concept of human personality and human relationships. She is a pioneer in the field of developing therapeutic interventions for treating family conflict and intergenerational issues, from an Islamic concept integrating both the contemporary and the Muslim traditions in psychotherapy.
She is a published author on South Asian family, South Asian Women, Domestic Violence and Social Work interventions. She has also published several papers on the methodology of providing culturally, racially and religiously appropriate social work intervention to families who have experienced domestic violence, child abuse, intergenerational conflict and sexual abuse. In 1999 she was the recipient of an award for her outstanding work in the field of violence against women and children.
Wahida Valiante has demonstrated a long outstanding commitment on many levels to health, social and community issues and has initiated many health related counseling programs for women and children since 1993 as a well as a Social Club for Muslim Women and the Ontario School of Islamic Studies. She sits on several organizational committees whose focus includes the alleviation of child poverty and implementation of social reform.
In 2010 she was identified as one of The 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World. The document states that "The individuals in this publication have been nominated and selected because they are influential as Muslims, deriving their influence from their religious identity. They are considered influential because their work impacts all fields of work and particularly, the religious endeavors of the Muslim world."[1]
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Wahida Valiante the youngest of four children, was born in Mirpur, formerly part of Kashmir before the 1947 Partition. She is a direct descendant of Mu'īnuddīn Chishtī. While still an infant, her father died in a hunting accident in Kashmir, and only a decade later her mother died from the rupture of a cerebral aneurysm. After the passing of both her parents there was little to tie her and her siblings to their native land and they eagerly accepted the opportunity to move to England. There she obtained her A levels only to be intrigued by the prospects of studying in Canada. In 1961 she arrived in Canada and began studying towards a degree in Chartered Accounting. She married in 1963 and has two children.
As a dedicated mother and working parent, she returned to university later in life while still balancing the many obligations of home and family, making the University of Toronto Dean's List of Scholars in both 1990 and 1991.
She holds a BSW from York University and an MSW from the University of Toronto, as well as a diploma in Family Mediation. She is trained in Brief Solution Focused Therapy; trauma, loss, grief and Post Traumatic Stress Disorders; and race relations leadership.
She received her Clinical and Counseling training from two Toronto hospitals specializing in Psychosocial Assessment and Family Interventions from Multi-theoretical and Multi-Model approaches with Psychiatric Patients, Families and Groups. She has extensive experience in working with refugees from war torn countries: especially with women and children, who were victim of rape, trauma, and psychological violence.
In a 2003 opinion piece for the CIC, The Slave Named Bilal: a Forgotten Page in the History of Islam, Valiante wrote:
Unfortunately, the Jewish idea of being "chosen" not only institutionalized racism, but also set a terrible precedent for human history in general, where racial superiority claims became the norm, the divisive standard by which all others, those not like us were to be judged and treated.[2]
Rachael Turkienicz, a professor of Jewish studies and education and an officer of Canadian Jewish Congress’ Ontario region, wrote, in a letter to Valiante, that she had "badly misinterpreted the concept of ‘the chosen people,’ which in fact refers to the relationship between Jews and God and that "It certainly does not connote ‘racial superiority,’" Turkienicz said. The article was guilty of deploying "a purportedly anti-racist message in the cause of its own prejudice."[3]
After the Canadian Jewish Congress complained, Valiente sent the organization a letter acknowledging that her interpretation of the term "chosen people" was "inconsistent with its meaning in the scriptures of the Old Testament."[4]