Muslim Women’s Coalition’s inaugural conference connects faith and leadership

Registration for Wisconsin’s first ever Muslim Women’s Leadership Conference is open until April 16. 

The Muslim Women’s Coalition’s inaugural leadership conference, the first leadership conference in Wisconsin tailored for Muslim women, will be held Sunday, April 19, from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., at Alverno College Conference Center, 3400 S. 43rd St., Milwaukee. 

“Its title— Rooted in Faith, Rising in Leadership, Muslim Women Driving Change—says it all,” conference organizer Hadiyyah Clark, MWC’s director of strategy and community affairs, told Wisconsin Muslim Journal in an interview last week. “Everything we do as Muslim women should be grounded and rooted in our way of growing and evolving. This is how true success happens.”

“MWC is an organization all about helping Muslim women reach their potential,” said MWC founder and executive director Janan Najeeb. “This conference aims to inspire Muslim women with courage and provide them with tools they need to be leaders, whether that means running for public office, engaging in activism or starting a business or organization,” she said.

Keynote speaker Shaykha Ieasha Prime, an internationally acclaimed, Islamically trained educator and activist will speak about faith as a catalyst for action.  

In addition to “an awesome keynote speaker, we will have panels that include women who have built civic organizations and businesses, and started new initiatives,” Najeeb said.

“We’ll learn how they did it and what motivated them. We want the conference to encourage and enable women who have that interest to go to the next level.”

Registration for the day-long conference is open through April 16. It includes a halal breakfast and lunch, and entertainment. There will also be a marketplace, featuring local vendors from women-owned businesses. 

General admission is $50. VIP admission is $120. Tables of eight are also available in both general and VIP levels. Register here.

Why Muslim women’s leadership matters

“We’re living in a time with rampant anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab sentiment and policies coming from the (Trump) administration,” Najeeb noted. “At the end of the day, we need to be the ones to promote our voices and take our place in society. 

“It’s incredibly important for Muslim women, and Muslims in general, to engage in policy-making and community leadership of all kinds. Political engagement and activism are not just civic duties; it’s a religious duty to work for justice and human rights,” Najeeb said.

“What I love about this conference is its aim to help Muslim women turn their skills, passions and gifts into impact,” Clark added. “Whether they are young adults, professionals, emerging or established community leaders, or stay-at-home moms, this conference will help them increase their impact.”

Clark is also looking forward to celebrating successful Muslim women in Greater Milwaukee. “The leadership panels will showcase and shine a light on amazing women who are change makers,” she said. “We have been very intentional in creating leadership panels that include representation from the different communities in Greater Milwaukee, panels that represent the beauty, diversity and greatness we have here. I’m looking forward to that bridging aspect of the conference and creating impact from our collective gifts.”

An exceptional keynote

Keynote speaker Ieasha Prime will be making her first appearance in Milwaukee, Clark said. “The international female scholar, activist for social justice, humanitarian, educator, wife, mother and all-round powerful woman is the epitome of what it looks like to be a strong Muslim woman. We are so honored she will serve as our keynote speaker.”

Prime is an African American revert who is currently living in The Gambia, West Africa, Clark said.

Prime converted to Islam more than 20 years ago after being a youth ambassador to Morocco and Senegal. She studied Arabic and Quran at the Fajr Institute in Naperville, Illinois, and general Islamic studies in Cairo, Egypt.

Then she moved to Hadramaut, Yemen and enrolled in Dar al Zahra, an Islamic University for Women, where she studied Aqeedah (Islamic theology), Quran, hadith (the teachings and example of Prophet Mohammad), Arabic, Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), Islamic law, purification of the heart and other religious studies. 

She is the executive director of Yan Taro Project. a charitable organization that works to provide education, orphan care and solar powered water systems to communities in The Gambia.

And Prime is “a proud wife and mother of three children,” her website says.

Just the beginning

Conference organizers are eager to establish an annual conference that uniquely addresses the needs of Muslim women leaders, they said.

“This will be our first annual women’s leadership conference,” said Najeeb. “I am really excited about having a very engaged audience and learning from them about the needs of Muslim women leaders. They will inform us so our conference will grow and be better every year.”