The first memory I have of being in a space dominated by other young girls was at my local mosque in Toronto, Canada. It was a random weekday after school. There was a special one-off question-and-answer session with a visiting Islamic scholar from the United States.
I remember the room being filled with young women passionately asking questions about their daily lives and issues, looking for answers not only from the visiting scholar, but in the whispers they shared with their friends sitting next to them. There was a genuine sense of belonging and togetherness felt in that room. It felt like a space that was our own.
Eventually the energy and enthusiasm I felt in that room translated into my local mosque supporting the creation of a weekend program called ‘Her Story. It was ran by young women of Somali descent in Toronto who wished to engage in learning, discussing and growing with their belief in Islam alongside other girls just like them.
As the girls in my community aged into young women, the program rebranded into ‘Together Sisters’ and today is one of the longest running local faith-based youth program for young Muslim women in Toronto. It was in this environment that the inspiration for The Digital Sisterhood platform was born. It was also the place where I met Cadar Mohamud, the Founder and CEO of The Digital Sisterhood, who would eventually recruit me into becoming a founding member of the platform.
The Digital Sisterhood is a start-up that aims to unite Muslim women globally by highlighting the importance of cultivating their own spaces, creating their own content and being the author of their own stories. Our goal is to counter the preexisting narrative on what it means to be a Muslim woman in the world today.
Through digital storytelling, we hope to empower a generation of women to unapologetically be themselves, as well as inspire them to foster a strong and unwavering relationship with Islam. Two seasons into our self-titled podcast, and we’ve topped the podcast charts. As of November 2022, we’ve surpassed more than 6 million listens in over 147+ countries worldwide.
Through our podcast and in-person events we have not only been able to create connections that matter, but also prove a universal truth about ourselves and the world: that telling a good story can be an influential tool for social change.
In the nearly two years since our podcast first launched, we’ve learned a lot about the needs of Muslim women through our community of listeners.
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A common sentiment shared with us by Muslim women around the world is that The Digital Sisterhood became a key space for connecting them to faith, but that they also struggle to find a space of belonging in real life.
Our community shares feelings of mosques being unable to fully support their needs, the difficulty of building a sense of community and sisterhood in real life, and the need for more educational supports to deepen their understanding of Islam.
In June 2022, Muslim Census, a UK focused research organisation whose purpose is to empower the UK Muslim population with data, launched a community study focusing on Muslim women and their faith experiences.
They teamed up with another online platform, My Mosque Story, and released a survey where 1,200 Muslim women shared their experiences within their religious community, including access to mosque facilities, Islamic guidance, and other factors that affect overall connectedness to Islam.
The findings revealed that although an overwhelming majority of women felt connected to Islam, they expressed disconnect to the community. What’s, more, 2 in 5 women did not feel that their experience was representative of teachings and values of Islam. Crucially, less than
10% of women sought support from their local mosque, instead seeking advice and or knowledge from their family and friends as opposed to a trusted scholar, teacher, or community centre.
Perhaps it’s unsurprising then that the data further revealed that 1 in 5 Muslim women have been denied entry to a mosque. It was clear that Muslim women wanted more community support and expressed they wanted mosques to provide more access to female scholars.
Via Instagram @thedigitalsisterhood
Muslim Census will be publishing a report to showcase findings early 2023 with the aim to share insights around the topic to help influence change within the community with a call to action for organisations, mosques and charities to focus efforts on improving faith support available to Muslim women.
“Sharing our stories has changed our lives and has deeply impacted our listeners. The longer we do this work, the greater we recognise the importance of Muslim women accessing safe faith-based spaces, both digital and in real life.”
For us working on The Digital Sisterhood, doing the work of providing space and creating a platform for Muslim women is our full-time mission. Sharing stories has changed our lives and has deeply impacted our listeners. The longer we do this work, the greater we recognise the importance of Muslim women accessing safe faith-based spaces, both digitally and in real life. But inspiration is only one half of the equation, service has to follow from it.
This summer we were able to bridge the digital-to-real-life divide when we visited Edmonton, Canada. We hosted a one-day conference with over 400 people to share our personal experiences in building community, through both Together Sisters and The Digital Sisterhood. We were fortunate enough to leave a lasting impact, supporting the creation of Unbreakable Sisterhood, which today runs faith-based programming similar to what we grew up with in Toronto.
As I reflect on our work, I echo what many Muslim women have shared with us consistently. We have to care to build spaces that uplifts Muslim women and provides them with critical social, emotional and faith-based support. We recognize the importance of women being given a space to lead through stewardship of faith-based spaces, be it in the mosque or in the wider community.
We know that empowering women to care for other women is a common sense solution. It’s these kinds of spaces grounded in expertise, knowledge and genuine goodwill for each other that allows for a holistic conception of faith and identity for Muslim women to flourish.
If there’s one thing the experience of building The Digital Sisterhood has deeply reinforced in me, it’s that we are strengthened by our connections to one another, being able to confide in each other, find support during the difficulties of life, sharing knowledge and advice – even just telling a good story. Those things matter.
Beyond individual relationships, developing genuine community is how any collective advances. And in building up The Digital Sisterhood platform, I am grateful to have found a space that uplifts me and shows me that I belong. thedigitalsisterhood.com
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