Women
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Bareera Ghaffar, Birmingham As it celebrates its 100 years, I reflect on how Lajna Ima’illah, the women’s auxiliary organisation of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community enables and encourages not only me, but many women around the globe to serve Islam Ahmadiyyat. It is like being swathed by the true and pure sense of sisterhood, like cold…
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Ayesha Naseem, Blackburn Often in life, you want to turn to someone for guidance, for advice, or simply to be heard and to be understood. After our parents, the people we often look towards are our siblings or our closest friends. They say family is your safe haven, it is your comfort place, and the…
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Munazzah Chou, Farnham As a sister recently noted; the 1922 Committee of Conservative Party backbenchers, involved in the recent rapid turnover of British Prime Ministers has one thing in common with a group of pioneering Muslim women in rural India; a date. 100 years ago, on 25th December 1922 Lajna Ima’illah was established. (The similarities…
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Rameen Masood, Leicester ‘Which, then, of the favours of your Lord will you twain deny?’[i] 1922. The year when building blocks of Muslim female empowerment were laid, to be realised with knowledge and spiritual enhancement and zeal for service and thus Lajna Ima’illah was formed by His Holiness Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad (may Allah be…
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Maariya Thakur, Luton As the Lajna Centenary is being commemorated all over the world, I’ve been pondering over what Lajna Ima’illah means to me. First established in India 1922, we are an independent group, an auxiliary organisation of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. The organisation was established as a result of His Holiness, Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad’s,…
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Rabah Nasir, Worcester Park The 1928 Equal Franchise Act finally allowed women in the UK the same voting right as men, after a long hard fight and sacrifice of the Suffragettes. By then Lajna Ima’illah, the Ahmadiyya Muslim women’s auxiliary organisation was already 6 years old, at the cost of no blood and sweat of…
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Ayesha Naseem, Blackburn Annual events of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community bring a great sense of excitement and joy for the Community members. This is extra noticeable this year as events slowly return to their normal scale after two years of Covid restrictions. As for the Ijtema or the Annual Gathering of Lajna Imaillah UK –…
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Arfa Yassir, Swindon From the corner of my eye, I was looking at the table which the stage secretary had asked me to place a flower vase and some other things on. I placed the vase in the centre, thinking it looked “best” that way, contrary to what I was told which was to place…
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Iffat Mirza, Raynes Park Recent popular feminist discourse has broadly adopted the idea of ‘women supporting women’. The idea of women being there to keep one another safe, motivated, and inspired is becoming paramount amongst women’s circles and certainly is a positive direction. So many fields of the secular world, which are still heavily dominated…
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Cemal Inam, Thornton Heath The media for many years has been quick to label Muslim women as ‘oppressed, meek, silent victims’ but if anyone attends an Ijtema, an event run exclusively by Ahmadi Muslim women and attended by Ahmadi Muslim women and girls, their assumption would quickly be contradicted. That is why for as long…