Heroins of Islam

My 6th-9th Grade team and I decided that since our students are all girls this year, we wanted them to get excited about girl power and inspired by the Muslim women of the past. We created this activity that lasted two days. The students were super excited!

Here is the activity. This took us two days and you will need to tweek it to fit your needs:

Women in Islamic History

House Project

6^th-9^th Grade Girls

Part 1/Overview

Content Objective: Students will be able to identify important roles of key women in Islamic history and how they impacted the world at their time and their influence on our world today.

Language Objective: Students will be able to…

-        Conduct their own research on the historical figure they have drawn out of a bowl.

-        Analyze/evaluate their sources and information for accuracy and/or biases by using a source analysis checklist.

-         Fill out their research information sheet

-        Cross reference their findings with another student.

-         Find a creative way to present and teach their findings to the class.

Purpose: The purpose of this activity is to gain and/or fine tune research skills while gaining valuable knowledge of our women from Islamic history. We want to get inspired by these women and claim one of them to represent each class, for example, if the class has voted on Khadijah to represent them, then from that point on that class will be known as “House of Khadijah”.

Part 2

Content Objective: Student will be able to identify how coats of arms were used in historical times.

Language Objectives: Students will be able to think as a class the symbols that represent their women in Islam and create a coat of arms for their class. After all is done, all upper level girls will gather together in the center hallway to present their coat of arms.

How to pace your class.

1st period: Gathering of all the upper level girls in the main hallway. Students will sit on the carpet/floor while teachers present the project to the students. 8:15-8:30am. Hook the students in by asking them to raise their hands to reply to: " Who are some famous women you know about from history?" Chances are, they might say the names we have all studied in school like Harriet Tubman and Hellen Keller. After that you can bring attention to the fact that you did not hear a lot of famous Muslim women of out past named or if you did say you just heard a few and this is why we are going to do this activity among other reasons. 

8:30am- 8:45am: Homeroom teachers will take their students to retrieve their iPads from downstairs and bring them back to their homeroom classrooms. At this time, teachers can settle the class and pass out important documents for this activity. Afterwards, teachers can have students pick out their historical figure from a bowl or something of that nature. Teachers can explain the worksheets and answer any questions students may have.

8:45am-9:15am: Students can start conducting their research using their iPads and worksheets. Students must do this on their own while teachers come around and help them when needed.

2^nd period: PLANNING

10:02-11:02am: Students are still conducting their research, using their source analysis checklist and recording them on their designated worksheets.

11:02- 11:30am: Students can gather in the main hall. We will try to group the students up with who they have researched across grade levels. The purpose of this is so that students can cross reference their information they found with other students.

11:30-12:04pm: At this time, the students have done their research, checked their sources, and cross referenced their findings with other “historians”. Students should be ready to find a creative way to present their findings to the class. This is where students become the teacher.  You can tweek this to how you want this to go. You can limit the students to a few things or leave it open.

12:40-12:50pm: This is where the real fun begins, inshaaAllah. Student will vote on which historical sister in Islam they want their class represented by. It is first come, first serve (correct?). One student from each class must rush to the main hall and post their person they are claiming on the wall with the TV. They must write down the historical figure’s name and their class grade level. If another class has gotten there first with the same name, the class that was there first gets to keep that historical figure for themselves while the class that came too late must quickly pick another name. For example, 7^th grade has chosen Khadijah as their representative, one of them rushes to the main hall only to find that 8^th grade has already claimed it. Its too bad for them, they must rush back to their class, report the news and quickly find another person they can all agree on and repeat these actions.

12:50-1:20pm: The class will create a coat of arms to represent their “House”. These should be a good size to put outside our classrooms (if you all agree).

1:20pm-1:40pm: Once again, we should gather all the students to the main hall. They should have a seat on the floor. Each grade level will be called to the front and present their new house name, their coat of arms and why they chose this person to represent them.

And that’s a wrap!

·       Mariyam ·       Aisha ·       Assiyah ·       Khadijah ·       Fatimah bint Muhammad (SAW) ·       Nusaybah bint Ka’ab ·       Sumayah bint Al Khayat ·       Asma bint Abi Bakr ·       Fatima Al-Fihri

·       Mariyam ·       Aisha ·       Assiyah ·       Khadijah ·       Fatimah bint Muhammad (SAW) ·       Nusaybah bint Ka’ab ·       Sumayah bint Al Khayat ·       Asma bint Abi Bakr ·       Fatima Al-Fihri

·       Mariyam ·       Aisha ·       Assiyah ·       Khadijah ·       Fatimah bint Muhammad (SAW) ·       Nusaybah bint Ka’ab ·       Sumayah bint Al Khayat ·       Asma bint Abi Bakr ·       Fatima Al-Fihri

·       Mariyam ·       Aisha ·       Assiyah ·       Khadijah ·       Fatimah bint Muhammad (SAW) ·       Nusaybah bint Ka’ab ·       Sumayah bint Al Khayat ·       Asma bint Abi Bakr ·       Fatima Al-Fihri

Source evaluation worksheet and other resources:

http://www.sbcc.edu/clrc/writing_center/wc_files/handout_masters/CARS%20Checklist%20for%20Evaluating%20Sources.pdf

http://www.kalamullah.com/Books/women_around_the_messenger.pdf

Muslimah Heroes - Middle/High School Project

1.     Heroine’s name
2.     Place of birth
3.     Date of birth
4.     Date of death
5.     Place of death
6.     Burial location
7.     Interesting facts about this heroine’s childhood (parents, siblings, people that influenced her, interests, etc.)
8.     Place(s) where this heroine lived. Include dates and explain how each place influenced them.
9.     What events happened in her life to make her who she was, e.g., education, work experiences, historical events, family life, etc.)
10.  Explain any obstacles this heroine faced, conflicts with other people or with society, prejudice, illness, etc.
11.  List the heroine’s accomplishments throughout her lifetime.
12.  Why is this heroine still well known today?
13.  Why is this heroine considered influential? (What is unique or revolutionary about her biography?)
14.  Identify five (5) characteristics of this heroine and give specific examples of when they demonstrated these characteristics.
15.  What makes this Muslimah special to you? How can you emulate her characteristics at school and within your own lives?

NoSeYintellectuals2010

Overcoming Fear

My close encounter to the RNC


A lot of people told me not to go. Many told me it would be dangerous and that I'm an obvious target because I wear the hijab.

For those reasons exactly is why we should all go, every single one of us. Whether we are black, white, Latino, Christian, Jewish, Atheist, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim- we need to send a message.

As cliche as it may sound, we are America. This is what America is. This country was not made for one type of people, we made that clear when we unfortunately stole this land from the Native Americans. Every single one of us has the right to be here and if there are people who have a problem with it, then maybe THOSE people need to leave, not the other way around.

I am not going to be bullied and made scared for doing exactly what is 100 percent lawful and in line with the very core values of our country. To be anything other than who I am because of a few would be completely un-American, but if we did not know that already, then we haven't been paying attention.

I'm not going to lie, a very small part of me wondered if I was putting myself in danger and if it was worth it.

Ultimately, I decided to go because CAIR needed some volunteers for their press conference and I was afraid their numbers would be low due to the "chilling effect" caused by hateful rhetoric and Ohio's open carry law. I didn't want my brothers and sisters to stand alone in the middle of what could have possibly been a very hostile environment.

CAIR gave their beautiful press conference and promoted their new campaign, Islamophobin- the cure to Islamophobia (take two and call a Muslim in the morning). See the full commercial, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s57kPS_gjM .

After the press conference was over, I drifted off to a rally that was going on beside us. What I witnessed was absolutely beautiful. There were people from all over the United States and the world. People coming together to send a message of love and hope. People gathering together to stand up for one another and to defend this country's core values.

There was a guy behind a table asking everyone to pick up a sign. I was so surprised and happy to see a sign with Palestinian flags at the top and bottom of it with the words "Do all lives really matter?" 

As lovely as the sign was, I decided to pick up a sign that said " Trump, Read The Constitution" and on the other side it read "Leave Our Rights Alone!". Well I guess me, wearing a hijab with peace signs on it and holding that sign up captured a lot of attention.

Everywhere I went people took photos of me and interviewed me. It was pretty nice to be able to get my voice heard. I think more Muslims should go out there and make a presence so that we combat these lies and false images of us. Otherwise, we let people speak in place of our silence and that has not been working for us.

I left downtown where the RNC was taking place feeling happy and more hopeful than I was before I went.

Hang in there America, I think we're going to be okay.



 A random guy wearing a shirt that says " I love Muslims."


NoSeYintellectuals2016