SISTERS Magazine

SISTERS Magazine is a UK-based international monthly magazine produced by, for and about Muslim women, “with uplifting, inspiring and enlightening material to help you become the best Muslimah you can be, from the inside out.” ^[1]

Overview

SISTERS Magazine was founded by award-winning author Na'ima B Robert as an online magazine in 2007 and began quarterly printing that same year.^[2] In 2010 SISTERS Magazine became a monthly publication and currently reaches an audience of 100,000 people via print, e-copies, and various social media including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Islamic ethos

Author Na'ima B Robert founded SISTERS Magazine as a venue, “to continue the inspiration and connections between [her] sisters in Islam” that were presented in her best-selling book From My Sisters’ Lips, and she “wanted to publish a magazine that reflected a confident Islamic ethos and one that I would be proud to represent.” ^[3] Robert recognized that aside from Islamic books, there was a void in Islamic media, especially “in glossy magazines.” ^[4] The content of SISTERS adheres to the genre of lifestyle magazine with features focused on topics such as health, family, food, and reviews while assuming that Islam is the basis of readers’ lifestyles and therefore reflecting in an Islamic ethos in all content.^[5] As part of its Islam-based policies SISTERS manages to maintain a high-quality look while avoiding imagery of animate beings, such as revealing models’ faces or graphically depicting living beings.^[6][7]

Notable contributors

SISTERS purposefully chooses writers and content “that can apply to sisters all over the world,” as the magazine “prioritizes spiritual self-development over allegiances to community norms in a product committed to the international sisterhood of Muslimas.” ^[8] The magazine boasts of being “an eclectic team of sister-writers, journalists, artists and readers who are based all over the world, from London to Khartoum, from New York to Johannesburg” and many of the contributors have been recognized for their work in various fields.^[9]

• Fatima Asmal is a radio journalist and the founding-director of the socio-economic development group Institute for Learning and Motivation, SA.

• Fatima Barkatullah has contributed to numerous documentaries and live broadcasts, such as BBC Radio 4, the BBC World Service, BBC Television and the Islam Channel. Barkatullah is the presenter of the ‘”Ask About Islam” show on Ramadan Radio.

• Faaiza Bashir is the Campaigns Officer at The Fairtrade Foundation.

• Jenna Evans is an award winning writer and has been featured as a model for Muslim Girl magazine.

• Sadaf Farooqi is a book author and winner of the 2010/1431 Brass Crescent award for “Best Writer.”

• Sayeda Habib is an international life coach and presenter on the Islam Channel show “City Sisters.”

• J. Samia Mair has written several children’s books, writes for The Baltimore Examiner and is Co-Recipient of the 2004 Community Service Award from the D.C. Prisoners’ Legal Services Project for research on healthcare access for women in D.C. jails.

• Na'ima B Robert has received several awards for her multicultural children’ s books, is the author of the best-selling memoir From My Sisters’ Lips and regularly contributes to numerous mainstream news publications, including The Times Online, The Times newspaper, and The Observer.

• Umm Zakiyyah is an author, educator, and TEDex speaker.

Community Activism

Founder and editor Na'ima B Robert and the SISTERS team of writers and contributors have been instrumental in addressing previously taboo topics within the Muslim community, such as child abuse, miscarriage, domestic violence, and self-esteem issues among Muslim women. SISTERS is aligned with and supports many community organizations, such as Mercy Mission, SOLACE (revert outreach), Nour DV (advocating against domestic violence in the Muslim community), the Muslim Youth Helpline, HalfDate, MADE and many more.

References

External links

• Official site