Muslim Women Retake Your Place

There is a great deal of dialouge taking place both locally, nationally, and globally about the role that female Muslims are playing within our communities. I personally believe that the dialouge is good and should foster a change within our communities. The change that I speak of are the ones that remove the barriers that are cultural in origin and imposed as if they were shariah.
I had the opportunity to see an interview by the new head of ISNA, and was profoundly impressed. I wasn't impressed becasue she is a convert, I wasn't impressed because she is a woman; I was impressed because she appeared firm in her convictions, but not to the point of beligerently imposing it on others. She taught others about the deen in her answer to questions without sounding like a college professor or a prostylizer. I think that women should play a prominent role on the boards and committees within our local ummahs. We should want no less than to provide our sisters, mothers, daughters, aunts, and nieces with all of the social mobility and influence held by standards for Muslim women, the wives of the Prophet. This means that we should expect them to be business leaders as well as leaders within our community.