Muslim Women In The Workforce
For this project, I took photos of Muslim women in the work force to display an often overlooked side to them. There has always been this stigma around how Muslim women are oppressed and forced to stay at home, which is not the case, especially in the time we are living in now. In our religion, for a Muslim woman her home comes first and her career comes second. I found that the more I worked on this project the more amazed I was by these women. It was inspiring to see how many had full careers and were still managing families at home, or had figured out side businesses that allowed for them to be flexible with their career and family time. In addition, I took photos of women of different backgrounds as well as in a wide variety of jobs, portraying the many layers there are to Muslim women in the workforce. When taking pictures of these women, I had asked them about their jobs and how they had gotten to the point in their careers that they were at now. In addition, since this project surrounded not just working women, but Muslim women, I posed a question to each of them: “Does your faith inspire or impact your work in any way, and if so, how?”
Dentist
“The concept of Ihsaan (to do things with excellence) plays a huge role in my work. Patients are vulnerable when I’m working with them since they can’t see what I’m doing in their mouths.”
Hairdresser
“I opened up my own salon because I wanted to be able to give a safe space for Muslim women, specifically hijabi women, to let their hair down freely and to feel comfortable while getting their hair done.”
Henna Business
“When I was originally introduced to henna I wasn’t Muslim yet. Further down the road when I became Muslim and had found more Muslim friends it became a push for me to actually start a side business. By starting my business, it helped me to connect with my community and allowed for me to build more relationships.”
Physician
“Sometimes when I feel I want to quit what I’m doing, I think about where I am. I work in an inner city area, a legacy my father had started. He had always told me to help those who need it, to help your elders, something I found to be a very Prophetic trait. Sometimes when I teach my kids about Islamic traits I infuse them when helping my patients through difficult times.”
Vice President of Zaytuna College
“Faith is the backbone of work, because it gives the framework of how to respond and behave. The virtues we learn from our faith inform our everyday actions, especially our work. We want to carry ourselves with integrity and dignity, and so the work I do should reflect that.”
Cookie Decorater
“I try to work with Ihsaan (excellence in one’s work). I try to create beauty in my work. It may not always turn out the way I want it to, but I know that I’ve given it my best effort and I believes that God finds beauty in what we perceive as imperfections.”
Social Worker
“My faith definitely impacts my work as it’s what keeps me balanced. Hearing traumatic stories or experiences my clients and students go through causes me to rely on my faith in order to help me navigate and balance my own emotions.”
Pharmacist
“My faith guides me in everything I do, it’s a daily reminder that I am here to serve others, which in the case of my work, is to hopefully have a positive impact on patients with cancer.”
Food Truck Owner
“One of the reasons I decided to start my business was because I enjoyed feeding people nicely prepared food and because my faith stresses hospitality and care and food is just one of the ways to do that. My faith has also inspired my work because of my diet, it’s incumbent of me to serve food that I can eat. It’s satisfying knowing that I have expanded the options of halal choices with my childhood foods.”
Personal Trainer
“Our bodies are gifts from God and it’s our duty to take care of them. This also goes hand in hand with what we put into our bodies by the food we choose to eat. It’s our responsibility to preserve and protect our bodies to the full extent as it shows gratitude to God.”
Airline Worker
“I always think of an ayah (verse) from the Quran that says to travel the world and reflect. I take that as something to use for reflection. While at work I have to find the flexibility to pray throughout the day, and during Ramadan my colleagues will schedule lunch breaks around iftar (the time for breaking fast), so my faith plays a role in that aspect as well.”
Mother / Lawyer
I felt it was important to include mothers into this project. What they do every day is often overlooked or not seen as a job, it’s just what they “have” to do. I wanted to make sure that they were included in order to show that it is in fact a full time job, and that’s for just stay at home moms. There are so many women like her, who have careers along with being a mother. Some have the luxury of being able to work from home while some struggle to keep that work life balance.
“My faith inspires every corner of how I raise my kids, from teaching them Prophetic traits (since we believe the Prophet Muhammad was the best of mankind) to relaying hadith (narrations of the Prophet) on how to treat people.”
Cook
“I was blessed to be born Muslim, and my belief in Allah (God) inspires my work. I do my work with honesty, faith, and love which puts barakah (blessing) in my touch, and in my food. I feel so much love and motivation when I work. I also say salawat (salutations on the Prophet Muhammad) when I cook which as Muslims we believe blesses the food.”
Teacher
“My faith helps me stay focused and reminds me of my purpose. It influences how I interact with students, colleagues, superiors, etc. It also reminds me to stay ethical and moral in my position and in how I teach.”
Entrepreneur - Sells Clothes and Jewelry
“My faith definitely inspires me to do well in my business and has a big impact on my day to day dealings with clients and the decisions that are made. Through my business I am able to provide modest, Islamic friendly clothes for Muslim women in my community. By working from home I have the freedom to practice my faith freely as well as spend the time that I want on my worship and in strengthening my connection with Allah (God).
I feels that as a Muslim I represent Islam and when I serve my clients with honesty, trustworthiness, willingness to serve, and a positive attitude, it gives an opportunity to build bridges of understanding and connections with people. Most of my clients are Muslim but sometimes you never know if all it took to change someone’s mind about Islam was a positive interaction, or a smile, or the benefit from my business or product.”
Barista
“My religion somewhat impacts my work since I am visibly Muslim as a hijabi. I feel like customers/coworkers who see me on a regular basis may look at me and make assumptions about Muslims as a whole. And although that happens everywhere, it feels different at work because you’re in a professional setting and as a barista I’m talking to people every day. There’s an old man that comes in often and I’m not certain, but I don’t think he’s Muslim and yet he always says Salaam to me every time he comes in, so I definitely think that my faith inspires my work in that sense.”
Judge
“The families and the children I serve are often the most vulnerable in my community, and my faith requires I treat them with dignity and respect and that I be fair and just with all people, regardless of their backgrounds. Working with vulnerable people also reminds me of what God has given me, especially when it comes to my family, parents, and Deen (religion). I am also constantly reminded that only God can judge people because you never know what someone has been through or is still going through.”
Student at Zaman International
She is apart of the B.O.O.S.T program (Building Ongoing Opportunities through Skills Training) at Zaman International. The program offsets tuition-free literacy, culinary, and searing classes to help women secure skills needed to enter the job market or start a small business.
Artist
She quoted a verse from the Quran: (3:92) “You shall not attain righteousness until you spend out of what you love (in the way of Allah). Allah knows whatever you spend.” “This verse is what began my art business. I wanted to give from my own earnings and all I knew was art. I was never one who wanted to share my work or put it on display, but my drive to give from my own income is what pushed me. I’m happy to say that I give a percentage from all my sales, and those donations are what fuel my work and blesses my time.”
Reflection
Something I found to be really interesting while working on this project was how creative some of these women are. I was expecting to take pictures of more “traditional” jobs, so to speak, which I did get many photos of, but I also took photos of artists, craftswomen, and people who were doing something creative with their jobs in general. I thought it was so cool to see such variety, and to see jobs being done by these women that were more out of the traditional realm.
It was also interesting working on this project because I’m surrounded by some of these women on a weekly basis and I’ve always been aware that they all work, but near the end of the process as I was editing and looking back on all the photos it really hit me how impactful this was. I felt really inspired and really grateful that I’ve been able to grow up in a community and environment with such successful, hard-working, Muslim women as role models. I hope these photos have the same impact on others as they did on me, and that they hopefully inspire not just young Muslim women and girls but adults as well. Lastly, it was really inspiring to see the hard work that was put in and how some of these women had to work their way up, as well as the risks some of them took to get to the point in their careers that they are at now.