Asra Q. Nomani is an Indian-American Muslim journalist, author, and feminist, known as an activist in the Muslim reform and Islamic feminist movements.
She is the author of two books Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam and Tantrika: Traveling the Road of Divine Love, and of the Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Bedroom and the 99 Precepts for Opening Hearts, Minds and Doors in the Muslim World.
Nomani became the first woman in her mosque in West Virginia to insist on the right to pray in the male-only main hall, defying the centuries-old gender barriers of Islamic tradition.
She was a friend and colleague of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was staying with her in Karachi when he was abducted and later murdered by Islamists in January 2002.
Life
Nomani was born in Bombay, India and when she was four years old moved with her parents to the United States, where she grew up in West Virginia. She says she is the granddaughter of the Indian Muslim scholar Mowlana Shibli Nomani, known for writing a biography of Muhammad, however her descent from Shibli Nomani is contested by members of his family (see references below).
Career
Nomani is a former Wall Street Journal correspondent and has written for the Washington Post, New York Times, and Time magazine. She was a war correspondent in Afghanistan for Salon Magazine, and her work appears in numerous other publications. She has also worked as a correspondent for National Public Radio.
She is a visiting scholar at the Center for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University.
She is the founder and creator of the Muslim Women's Freedom Tour. She has also defied literalist interpretations of Islam that segregate women from men in prayers at Mosques, [1] and was a lead organizer of the woman-led Muslim prayer in New York City on March 18, 2005, which she described as "the first mixed-gender prayer on record led by a Muslim woman in 1,400 years." [2]
In Standing Alone in Mecca, she describes giving birth to her son after his father abandoned them in Pakistan, then going to Mecca to perform the hajj in order to investigate and rediscover her religion. The Washington Post writes that the title echoes Standing Again at Sinai (1990), in which the author, Judith Plaskow, an American Jewish feminist, explored what she saw as the patriarchal origins of Judaism. [3]
Books
Articles
- Washington Post: A Gender Jihad For Islam's Future
- Sojourner magazine: The Islamic Reformation has begun
- Slate magazine: How retailers are marketing to fashion-conscious Muslim women
- Daily News: My answered prayers
- American Prospect Magazine: Pulpit Bullies
- Sojourner magazine: Struggle for the soul of Islam
- Salon Magazine: Who really killed Daniel Pearl?
- New York Times: Hate at the local mosque
- Washington Post: Rebel in the mosque
See also
References
- Asra Q. Nomani's website
- "A Pilgrim's Progress" by Leila Ahmed, Washington Post, May 1, 2005
- Detroit News Muslim women take bold steps for role in Islam Photo of Asra defying orders to move to women's section of Mosque
- Asra Q. Nomani. La Cueva de Zaratustra
- Article by Asra's father Excommunication From the Mosque?
- Asra Nomani no kin of Allama Shibli