Today is International Women’s Day — March 8, 2021

Today's episode features an interview with a woman who, like the me, is someone with a strong faith and a desire to see more women in leadership roles—both secular and religious. My guest and I have had similar journeys fighting misogyny and patriarchy in our different religious traditions.

Fatima Sadaf Saied is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Muslim Women’s Organization in Orlando, Florida. She’s a wife, a mother, and a fierce advocate for the women in her community, but especially those in her faith community.

In this interview, Fatima shares how her parents immigrated to the United States from Pakistan and worked to establish a mosque for Asian Muslims who had also immigrated to the same area. We talk about everything from growing up in the nonprofit world and attending the University of Miami to getting married and being a full-time mom, and from that to starting an organization to empower Muslim women with service opportunities as well as trauma-informed training.

We talk about why some Muslim women wear a hijab, why she does, and how wearing the hijab changed her life. We also delve into what it takes to make real, tangible change in a system steeped in patriarchy, and I have to say, her approach is genius!

Fatima is the real deal. A strong woman of faith who works hard every day to elevate the voices of women in spaces where they are often silenced.

I just couldn’t be happier to bring you this interview today. Now more than ever, we need role models of strong women—especially in the faith community which can skew towards patriarchy. We need to hear their stories and see them in action. We need to be reminded that one woman CAN make a huge difference even when the approach towards making that change has to be indirect.

https://yournonprofitlife.com/s2eb1-fatima-sadaf-saied