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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251219T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251219T210000
DTSTAMP:20260405T073902
CREATED:20250904T172706Z
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UID:10024717-1766170800-1766178000@mcceastbay.org
SUMMARY:Women's Weekly Friday Evening Halaqa | The Rahmah Foundation
DESCRIPTION:Ustadha Dr. Rania Awaad holds a weekly women’s gathering on Friday evenings to discuss navigating contemporary issues. This program runs in parallel to the Friday night girl’s halaqa. \n\n\n\n7 p.m. to 9 p.m. | Every Friday from September 19\, 2025\, to May 22\, 2026 |  MCC Conference Room | Free; no registration or RSVP required to attend in person | To join virtually\, register at https://mcceastbay.org/zoom \n\n\n\n\n\n\n– More Dr. Rania: https://mcceastbay.org/rania\n– Watch past Dr. Rania’s Friday Night Halaqa (FNH) recordings: https://mcceastbay.org/womens-halaqa\n– Join Dr. Rania’s WhatsUp group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HlHmFFnGbwvCvLl6uGD1C4\n– The Rahmah Foundation’s Holiday Calendar: https://mcceastbay.org/rahmah-calendar\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe FNH Fall session runs from Friday\, September 19\, 2025\, to May 22\, 2026\, with no halaqas on the following dates: Friday\, November 28\, December 19\, December 26\, January 2\, February 20 through March 27\, April 3\, and April 10. See calendar. \n\n\n\nFree weekly babysitting is provided in Room 23. Facility map: https://mcceastbay.org/facility-map \n\n\n\nQuestions? events@mcceastbay.org \n\n\n\n\n\nThis women’s halaqa is hosted at MCC and runs parallel to the girls & teens program in partnership with The Rahmah Foundation. \n\n\n\nUstadha Rania Awaad was raised in the U.S. and began her formal study of the traditional Islamic sciences when her parents permitted her to travel to Damascus\, Syria\, at 14. Her desire to continue studying the Deen resulted in multiple trips back to Damascus\, interspersed between her high school\, college\, and medical studies. She was honored to receive Ijazah (authorization to teach) several branches of the Shari’ah sciences at the hands of many renowned scholars\, including many female scholars. She has received Ijazah to teach Tajwid in the Hafs and Warsh recitations from the late eminent Syrian scholar Shaykh Abu Hassan al-Kurdi. In addition to completing several advanced texts of the Shafi’i madhhab\, she is licensed to teach texts of Maliki fiqh\, Adab\, and Ihsan. Currently\, Ustadha Rania teaches online and local classes for The Rahmah Foundation\, Rabata. She is on the faculty of Zaytuna College\, where she teaches courses in Shafi’i fiqh and women’s issues in fiqh and has helped develop and co-direct the Tajweed and Hifz program. \n\n\n\nUstadha Rania is also a medical doctor with a specialty in Psychiatry. She completed her Psychiatric residency and fellowship training at Stanford University\, where she is currently on the faculty as a Clinical Instructor in the Stanford Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences department. Her medical interests include addressing mental health care concerns in the Muslim community- particularly that of Muslim women and girls. She has been awarded grants from the NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) to research this topic and has presented her findings at several medical conferences. Other ongoing endeavors include compiling manuscripts addressing female-related mental health and medical issues from a fiqh-oriented perspective. She is the Director of the Rahmah Foundation\, a non-profit organization that teaches traditional Islamic knowledge to Muslim women and girls. In this capacity\, she also heads the Murbbiyah Mentoring Program\, which trains young women to teach and mentor Muslim girls and teens. Ustadha Rania is both a wife and a mother; she has been counseling and teaching women classes on Tajwid\, Shafi’i Fiqh\, Ihsan\, marriage\, and raising children since 1999. \n\n\n\nLearn more about Dr. Rania and her work at http://med.stanford.edu/psychiatry/research/MuslimMHLab.html \n\n\n\nEvery Friday evening\, the MCC bustles with activity. MCC hosts four halaqas to increase God-consciousness for youth\, women\, and men. \n\n\n\nJoin Dr. Rania Awaad‘s women’s gathering on navigating contemporary issues from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. This wide-ranging Muslimah halaqa is in the MCC Conference Room\, and the first hour is live-streamed here (watch past sessions at https://mcceastbay.org/halaqa). This halaqa is organized in partnership with The Rahmah Foundation. Questions? events@mcceastbay.org
URL:https://mcceastbay.org/event/womens-weekly-halaqa/2025-12-19/
LOCATION:MCC East Bay\, 5724 W Las Positas Blvd #300\, Pleasanton\, CA\, 94588\, United States
CATEGORIES:Sisters Program
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://mcceastbay.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Dr.-Rania-Awaads-Weekly-Friday-Evening-Halaqa.png
ORGANIZER;CN="Muslim Community Center - East Bay":MAILTO:events@mcceastbay.org
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251220T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251220T150000
DTSTAMP:20260405T073902
CREATED:20251210T032805Z
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SUMMARY:"Born Far From Home: A Midwife’s Search for Meaning" | Shannon Staloch
DESCRIPTION:For Sisters: Join us for a special gathering with Shannon Staloch\, a licensed midwife and longtime community advocate\, as she shares heartfelt reflections on support\, belonging\, and the unique experiences of New Muslims. Shannon will speak about the importance of midwifery and the role it has played in her own spiritual journey as a convert of over 20 years. \nShe will also read from her beautifully written new memoir\, Born Far From Home: A Midwife’s Search for Meaning\, a moving exploration of faith\, service\, and identity. \nThis event is perfect for all women\, and especially meaningful for converts seeking connection\, inspiration\, and shared experience. \nSaturday\, Dec. 20 | 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. | MCC Conference Room | Sisters Only | Join us in-person or virtually at mcceastbay.org/live | Register at mcceastbay.org/meaning \nCo-sponsored by The Rahmah Foundation \nQuestions? events@mcceastbay.org \nAbout the Speaker\nShannon Staloch became a licensed midwife in 2008. Since then\, she has attended over 800 births and established the popular home birth practice\, Midwives Bay Area. Born Far From Home is her first book. Shannon resides in Berkeley\, California\, and still takes daily walks or runs in its beautiful hills.\n \nAbout The Book\, Born Far From Home\nA new Muslim\, Shannon Staloch\, moves to California to live near a community studying traditional Islam and finds herself learning another venerable tradition\, midwifery. In this intricately woven memoir\, Shannon braids the intimate moments from the birth stories of a diverse cast of women with the reflections of great thinkers from the Islamic and Western traditions—from the spiritual master Imam al-Ghazali to the British obstetrician Grantly Dick Read\, from Plato to Malcolm X—as she traces her journey of finding belonging and an enduring path to truth in her new faith. Birth by birth\, Shannon approaches a deeper understanding of her craft and herself\, aiming for a place that transcends identity\, buoyed by the belief that dedication to a craft can shape not just the hands of a craftswoman but also her soul. \n“Shannon Staloch effortlessly weaves ancient childbirth lore with the stories of births she attends\, and relates them to her deepening faith in an equally ancient religion…beautiful\, elegiac\, transformative.” Peggy Vincent\, bestselling author of Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife
URL:https://mcceastbay.org/event/born-far-from-home/
LOCATION:California
CATEGORIES:Sisters Program
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://mcceastbay.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Born-Far-From-Home.jpg
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