March is Women’s History Month. The 2026 theme, selected and published by the National Women’s History Alliance is Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first proclamation designating the week of March 8 as National Women’s History Week. The observance was later established as a law, changing the week to a month. Since 1995, each president has issued an annual proclamation to recognize March as Women’s History Month.
The Islamic Resource Center (IRC) and the Muslim Women’s Coalition honor Women’s history by featuring books from the IRC library’s catalog that celebrate Muslim women, their history and their advocates.
The spotlight shines on a curated collection from the IRC library that reflects Muslim women’s stories of achievement, activism, influence and strength. IRC Librarian Jenny Wegener displays selections throughout the center, making them easy to find, but not easy to choose which one to read first!
The IRC library catolog includes fiction and non-fiction adult, children and teen books, educational magazines, cookbooks, Arabic language books, textiles, theology, DVDs, music CDs and more. There are over 4,000 items in the collection.
Visit the IRC at 5235 S. 27th St. in Greenfield, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. A library card is required to check out books and media.
A publisher’s synopsis is included with each of the following Women’s History Month book selections:
The Lucky Ones: A Memoir by Zara Chowdhary. A moving memoir by a survivor of anti-Muslim violence in contemporary India that delicately weaves political and family histories in a tribute to India’s vibrant multiethnic society and the resilience of its women and minorities, especially in the face of growing religious extremism
In The Lucky Ones , Chowdhary weaves the past and the present of her multigenerational Muslim family, juxtaposing the horrific violence of rising fascistic forces on the streets with the more mundane violence of patriarchal Indian joint families at the dinner table.
Through the stories of sisters, daughters, and mothers raising each other, Chowdhary shows how women hold this world together with their ability to forgive, find laughter, and offer grace even as the world they know, and their place in it, is falling apart.
With lyrical clarity and intimacy, The Lucky Ones is a poetic remembrance of how a country’s promise of a multi-ethnic secular democracy can so easily dissolve and descend into extremism. Chowdhary’s story is a protest against the erasure of India’s Muslims, a testimony of a lost girlhood, and a testament to her family and country’s entwined lives.
We are not here to be bystanders: a memoir of love and resistance by Linda Sarsour. Co-organizer of the Women’s March, Sarsour shares an “unforgettable memoir” (Booklist) about how growing up Palestinian Muslim American, feminist, and empowered moved her to become a globally recognized activist on behalf of marginalized communities across the country.
On a chilly spring morning in Brooklyn, nineteen-year-old Linda Sarsour stared at her reflection, dressed in a hijab for the first time. She saw in the mirror the woman she was growing to be—a young Muslim American woman unapologetic in her faith and her activism, who would discover her innate sense of justice in the aftermath of 9/11. Now heralded for her award-winning leadership of the Women’s March on Washington, Sarsour offers a “moving memoir [that] is a testament to the power of love in action” (Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow).
From the Brooklyn bodega her father owned, where Linda learned the real meaning of intersectionality, to protests in the streets of Washington, DC, Linda’s experience as a daughter of Palestinian immigrants is a moving portrayal of what it means to find one’s voice and use it for the good of others.
The Cave: a Secret Hospital and One Woman’s Story of Survival in Syria by Amani Ballour. This searing memoir tells the story of a young doctor and activist who ran an underground hospital in Damascus, humanizing the enduring crisis in Syria.
Simply put, there is no one in Syria with a story like Dr. Amani Ballour’s. The only woman to have ever run a wartime hospital, she saved her peers from the atrocities of war while contending with the patriarchal conservatism around her.
Growing up in Assad’s Syria, Ballour knew she wanted to be more than a housewife, even as her siblings were married off in their teens.
As the revolution unfolded, she volunteered at a local clinic and was thrown into the deep end of emergency medicine. Among the facets of this powerful tale: Becoming a hospital director.
Shielding children from a horrific sarin attack. Losing colleagues. Attempting to employ more women. Abandoning the hospital. Becoming a refugee. Moving forward.
Proud: My Fight for an Unlikely American Dream by Ibtihaj Muhammad, with Lori L. Tharps.
Growing up in New Jersey as the only African American Muslim at school, Ibtihaj Muhammad always had to find her own way.
When she discovered fencing, a sport traditionally reserved for the wealthy, she had to defy expectations and make a place for herself in a sport she grew to love.
From winning state championships to three-time All-America selections at Duke University, Ibtihaj was poised for success, but the fencing community wasn’t ready to welcome her with open arms just yet.
As the only woman of color and the only religious minority on Team USA’s saber fencing squad, Ibtihaj had to chart her own path to success and Olympic glory.
Proud is a moving coming-of-age story from one of the nation’s most influential athletes and illustrates how she rose above it all.
The Alterations Lady: an Afghan Refugee, an American and the Stories That Define Us by Cindy Miller & Lailoma Shahwali. When the journalist Cindy Miller met Lailoma Shahwali, who was altering her daughter’s wedding dress, she assumed their interactions would be brief. But in Lailoma she found not just a seamstress, but a survivor who would open up about her remarkable experiences in her native Afghanistan.
In recollections shared over warm tea with cardamom, frozen walnuts, and mulberries, Lailoma offers both an entry into a colorful pre-Taliban Afghanistan, where, despite being a girl, she pursued an education and worked toward becoming a doctor, as well as a stark portrait of what came next, when the Taliban seized her beloved country, stripped her of her hard-won rights, terrorized her family, and brutally murdered her husband.
A breathtaking account of triumph against all odds, Lailoma’s fight to protect her young son and support her family takes them on a dangerous mountain escape into Pakistan and then to the United States in search of sanctuary and opportunity.
Builders of a Nation by Dr. Haifaa Younis. Historically, women have been an integral part of spreading our Deen. They have contributed as mothers, wives, supporters, and defenders of our religion. This book allows the reader to take a glimpse into the lives of thirty-seven amazing women.
Starting with the women from the Prophet Muhammad’s (SAW) household to female companions and pioneers of Islamic History. Women in Islamic History have had a huge impact on building nations. Many that have been through education, raising children, raising scholars or being scholars themselves.
These exceptional women have helped shape the world.In the Blink of an Eye challenges readers to examine our own lives by asking what we value, how we want to be remembered, and how we can contribute to making the world a better place.
Through evocative passages that place the reader in the heat of the moment as well as poignant portraits of the important people in his life, This book is a must-read for anyone who has faced down adversity by standing up for the integrity of their own life, path, and identity.
This is What America Looks Like: My Journey From Refugees to Congresswoman by Ilhan Omar. When war broke out in Somalia, Ilhan was only eight years old. The youngest of seven children, her mother had died while Ilhan was still a little girl. She was being raised by her father and grandfather when armed gunmen attacked their compound and the family decided to flee Mogadishu.
They ended up in a refugee camp in Kenya, where Ilhan says she came to understand the deep meaning of hunger and death. Four years later, after a painstaking vetting process, her family achieved refugee status and arrived in Arlington, Virginia.
Aged twelve, penniless, speaking only Somali and having missed out on years of schooling, Ilhan rolled up her sleeves, determined to find her American dream. In under two decades she became a grassroots organizer, graduated from college and was elected to congress with a record-breaking turnout by the people of Minnesota—ready to keep pushing boundaries and restore moral clarity in Washington D.C. A beacon of positivity in dark times, Congresswoman Omar has weathered many political storms and yet maintained her signature grace, wit and love of country—all the while speaking up for her beliefs.
Burma: Women’s Voices from the Revolution by ALTSEAN-Burma, Thanakha Team (editorial board). This is a moving collection of first person stories from women in Burma/Myanmar. Subjects include everyday life, grief, marriages, and child-raising all while coping with the effects of war.
Since the military coup in 2021, women in Myanmar have drawn on their diverse experiences and shared knowledge to resist the violence of dictatorship. Last year, the junta jailed at least 10 writers for their expression, but, for many, despite the risks, writing remains a multifaceted tool against human rights abuses.
Offering a glimpse into their many perspectives, Women’s Voices from the Revolution, an anthology published by ALTSEAN-Burma, features 40 pieces written by first-time writers who took part in their Women Writers Workshops. Embodying the diversity of women’s voices and the power of storytelling as a tool for advocacy, this anthology highlights literature’s restorative potential.
Starstruck: A Memoir of Astrophysics and Finding Light in the Dark by Sarafina El-Badry Nance. “In a beautifully written, science-packed debut memoir, Egyptian-American astrophysicist Sarafina El-Badry Nance shares her personal story of resilience and liberation by grounding herself in her lifelong love of the stars.
As a child, Sarafina El-Badry Nance spent nearly every evening with her father gazing up at the flickering stars and pondering what secrets the night sky held. She dreamt of becoming an astronomer from the age of five, but it wasn’t long before she was told, both explicitly and implicitly, that girls just weren’t cut out for math and science.
In Starstruck, Sarafina captures the wonders of the universe and traces more earthbound obstacles-of misogyny and racism, abuse and intergenerational trauma, anxiety and self-doubt, cancer diagnoses and recovery-she faced along the way. The strategies and mindset Sarafina developed to thrive in a space that is, by design, not for women and especially not for women of color, are not only applicable to her career in astrophysics but directly carry over into other areas of life.
Honest and empowering, Starstruck sits at the intersection of the study of our cosmos-itself constantly changing-and the messy and transformative experience of pursuing one’s passion through life’s inevitable challenges.”
Al-Muhaddithat: the Women Scholars in Islam by Muhammad Akram Nadwi. This book is an adaptation in English of the prefatory volume of a 40-volume biographical dictionary (in Arabic) of women scholars of the Prophet’s hadith.
Learned women enjoyed high public standing and authority in the formative years of Islam.
For centuries thereafter, women travelled intensively for religious knowledge and routinely attended the most prestigious mosques and madrasas across the Islamic world.
Typical documents (like class registers and ijazahs from women authorizing men to teach) and the glowing testimonies about their women teachers from the most revered ulema are cited in detail.
An overview chapter, with accompanying maps, traces the spread of centres of hadith learning for women, and their eventual decline. The information summarized here is essential to a balanced appreciation of the role of women in Islamic society.
Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure: Writings and Stories of Mystic Poets, Scholars & Saints selected & introduced by Camille Adams Helminski. The luminous presence of women who follow the Sufi Way—the mystical path of Islam—is brought to life here through their sacred songs and poetry, their dreams and visions, and stories of their efforts as they witness the Truth in many realms.
These writings reflect the honor and respect for the feminine in the Sufi worldview, and they are shared in the spirit of inspiration and hope for the flourishing contributions of women to the spiritual development of humanity.
Spanning the centuries, from the time of the Prophet Muhammad to the present day, the selections are by or about an array of Sufi traditions in different parts of the world, from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East to Europe and America—from beloved members of the Prophet’s family to the mystic Rabi’a al-Adawiyya to the modern scholar Annemarie Schimmel.
Biographical anecdotes and personal memoirs provide a glimpse into the experience of great saints and contemporary practitioners alike, while providing an introduction to the principles and practices of Sufism.
Rethinking Muslim Women and the Veil: Challenging Historical & Modern Stereotypes by Katherine Bullock. Until now the bulk of the literature about the veil has been written by outsiders who do not themselves veil. This literature often assumes a condescending tone about veiled women, assuming that they are making uninformed decisions about veiling makes them subservient to a patriarchal culture and religion.
Rethinking Muslim Women and the Veil offers an alternative viewpoint, based on the thoughts and experiences of Muslim women themselves. This is the first time a clear and concise book-length argument has been made for the compatibility between veiling and modernity.
Katherine Bullock uncovers positive aspects of the veil that are frequently not perceived by outsiders. Rethinking Muslim Women and the Veil looks at the colonial roots of the negative Western stereotype of the veil. It presents interviews with Muslim women to discover their thoughts and experiences with the veil in Canada. The book also offers a positive theory of veiling.
Aisha: the Wife, the Companion, the Scholar by Resit Haylamaz. This book portrays one of the most significant personalities in the history of Islam.
Taking the misunderstandings and defamation about her into consideration, Aisha needs to be understood correctly.
This study by Dr Resit Haylamaz, an expert on the life of the Prophet and his leading Companions, reflects her life in various aspects based on reliable reports.
The book clarifies her critical role at establishing the Islamic teaching, with particular reference to her role in the transmission of private matters concerning women and marital relations, as well as recording the authentic sayings of the Prophet.
As her sensitivity at practicing religion is related in a rich variety of examples, much disputed issues like her marriage age and her stance about Ali ibn Abi Talib are covered as separate topics.
Excellent Daughters: the Secret Lives of Young Women Who Are Transforming the Arab World by Katherine Zoepf. For more than a decade, Katherine Zoepf has lived in or traveled throughout the Arab world, reporting on the lives of women, whose role in the region has never been more in flux. Only a generation ago, female adolescence as we know it in the West did not exist in the Middle East. There were only children and married women.
Today, young Arab women outnumber men in universities, and a few are beginning to face down religious and social tradition in order to live independently, to delay marriage, and to pursue professional goals. Hundreds of thousands of devout girls and women are attending Qur’anic schools—and using the training to argue for greater rights and freedoms from an Islamic perspective. And, in 2011, young women helped to lead antigovernment protests in the Arab Spring. But their voices have not been heard. Their stories have not been told.
Deeply informed, heartfelt, and urgent, Excellent Daughters brings us a new understanding of the changing Arab societies—from 9/11 to Tahrir Square to the rise of ISIS—and gives voice to the remarkable women at the forefront of this change.
Born With Wings: the Spiritual Journey of a Modern Muslim Woman by Daisy Khan.
Raised in a progressive Muslim family in the shadows of the Himalayan mountains, where she attended a Catholic girls’ school, Daisy experienced culture shock when her family sent her to the States to attend high school in a mostly Jewish Long Island suburb.
Ambitious and talented, she quickly climbed the corporate ladder after college as an architectural designer in New York City. Though she loved the freedom that came with being a career woman, she felt that something was missing from her life.
One day a friend suggested that she visit a Sufi mosque in Tribeca. To her surprise, she discovered a home there, eventually marrying the mosque’s imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, and finding herself, as his wife, at the center of a community in which women turned to her for advice.
Guided by her faith, she embraced her role as a women’s advocate and has devised innovative ways to help end child marriage, fight against genital mutilation, and, most recently, educate young Muslims to resist the false promises of ISIS recruiters.
Educating Muslim Women: the West African Legacy of Nana Asma’u 1793 – 1864 by Jean Boyd and Beverly Mack. Nana Asma’u was a devout, learned Muslim who was able to observe, record, interpret, and influence the major public events that happened around her.
Daughters are still named after her, her poems still move people profoundly, and the memory of her remains a vital source of inspiration and hope. Her example as an educator is still followed: the system she set up in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, for the education of rural women, has not only survived in its homeland through the traumas of the colonization of West Africa and the establishment of the modern state of Nigeriabut is also being revived and adapted elsewhere, notably among Muslim women in the United States.
This book, richly illustrated with maps and photographs, recounts Asma’u’s upbringing and critical junctures in her life from several sources, mostly unpublished: her own firsthand experiences presented in her writings, the accounts of contemporaries who witnessed her endeavors, and the memoirs of European travelers.
Let Me Stand Alone: the Journals of Rachel Corrie edited and with an introduction by the Corrie family. Documents the story of a twenty-three-year-old American activist who was killed in 2003 in the Gaza Strip, in an account based on her personal writings that offers insight into the origins of her beliefs
Rachel Corrie was a young American activist killed on March 16th 2003, as she tried to block the demolition of a Palestinian family’s home in the Gaza strip.
She was twenty-three years old. “Let Me Stand Alone” reveals Corrie’s striking gifts as a poet and writer, and tells Corrie’s story in her own words, from her earliest reflections as a precociously creative and assured young child, to her final eloquent emails from Gaza.Corrie wrote movingly of her relationships with family and friends and of the defining love affair of her life.
She wrote with insight and intensity about her creative life, her desire to write and draw. Above all, the book describes her growing political conscience – her desire to break out of a blinkered American perspective and make a difference in the world. Throughout, Corrie’s writing displays an extraordinary level of eloquence and self-awareness, humour and compassion.
Great Women in Islam by Tareq Al-Suwaidan.
This is the second English book by Dr. Tareq Al-Suwaidan. This book provides a foundation of understanding on the role of women in Islam and tackles common misconceptions on the subject.
Not only does it discuss the roles of women in marriage and among their families– but also their roles as warriors, worshipers, scholars and callers to Islam.
It gives its readers a guided explanation as each role is accompanied with stories of great women as told in the Quran and Hadith.
We narrate the stories of more than fifty great women whose names and exemplary behavior are enshrined in the history of Islam.
