Media Releases

Canadian Muslim women commemorate International Human Rights Day with conference for Indigenous women

December 9, 2015

Toron­to, ON — To com­mem­o­rate Inter­na­tion­al Human Rights Day and raise aware­ness about gen­dered vio­lence against Indige­nous women, as well as against Mus­lim women who wear the Hijab, the Ahmadiyya Mus­lim Jama‘at has part­nered with the Cen­tre for Women’s Stud­ies in Edu­ca­tion and the Indige­nous Edu­ca­tion Net­work at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to to hold a con­fer­ence titled “Indige­nous Spir­i­tu­al­i­ty and Islam: A Dia­logue Between Two Sis­ters.”

This event explores the sim­i­lar­i­ties between the teach­ings of Islam and Indige­nous spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, and how these two faith tra­di­tions inspire heal­ing and uni­ty. It explores how Mus­lims, based on the teach­ings of the Holy Qur’an, can stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Indige­nous peo­ples in their strug­gle for jus­tice, espe­cial­ly per­tain­ing to the case of the Miss­ing and Mur­dered Indige­nous Women (#MMIW) in Cana­da.

As part of the nation­al #JeSu­isHi­jabi cam­paign, this event invites Cana­di­ans to join and hear the voic­es of Indige­nous women and Mus­lim women to under­stand what their nation­al iden­ti­ty means to them.

When: Thurs­day, Decem­ber 10, 2015 at 11:00am
Where: OISE Build­ing – Room OI 2–296 (2nd floor) – 252 Bloor St W, Toron­to, ON M5S 1V6

Media Oppor­tu­ni­ty:
Inter­views with Indige­nous women and Mus­lim women. Exhi­bi­tion of #JeSu­isHi­jabi nation­al cam­paign. Pre­sen­ta­tion by Elder Ojib­we Kokomis Jacqui Laval­ley.

About the Ahmadiyya Mus­lim Jama‘at: The Ahmadiyya Mus­lim Jama‘at is a dynam­ic, fast-grow­ing inter­na­tion­al revival move­ment with­in Islam. Found­ed in 1889, the Ahmadiyya Mus­lim Com­mu­ni­ty spans over 200 coun­tries with mem­ber­ship exceed­ing tens of mil­lions. The Ahmadiyya Mus­lim Jama‘at is the only Islam­ic orga­ni­za­tion to believe that the long-await­ed mes­si­ah has come in the per­son of Mirza Ghu­lam Ahmad (1835–1908) of Qadi­an, India. The Com­mu­ni­ty believes that God sent Ahmad, like Jesus, to end reli­gious wars, con­demn blood­shed and rein­sti­tute moral­i­ty, jus­tice and peace.

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For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact:

Tam­mara Soma (Ph.D Can­di­date), Dept. Geog­ra­phy and Plan­ning
Ahmadiyya Mus­lim Stu­dent Asso­ci­a­tion UofT, Native Desk
Phone: 647–607-5434