**Watch at https://mcceastbay.org/reimagine
As a follow-up to the last women’s retreat in November examines the images of women’s roles in society with a distinguished lineup of weekend retreat speakers: Dr. Haifaa Younis, Dr. Rania Awaad, Ustadha Babalwa Kwanele, Dr. Amina Darwish, Ustadha Maryam Amir, and Ustadha Hosai Mojaddidi.
Sunday, March 6 | 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST | MCC Prayer Hall | Women only | $25/in-person (includes lunch) or $10/person (watch live online)
Register at https://mcceastbay.org/reimagine
Girls ages 12+ are welcome to register to attend the retreat. No babysitting is provided. The program will begin promptly at 11 a.m. Please arrive at MCC by 10:45 a.m. for check-in. Park in the HP parking lot at https://mcceastbay.org/hp
In-person registration is positively capped at 300 women and closes at 10 p.m. on Friday, March 4. The online option is only offered thereafter.
Lunch is provided by Mirchi Cafe Dublin and Falafel Flame Dublin (both HFSAA certified).
The event will not be publicly live-streamed. Public release of the recordings will be at the discretion of every speaker. There are no guarantee recordings will be released on the media channels for The Jannah Institute, The Rahmah Foundation or MCC East Bay. Please try to attend the program in person or live online. The event is taking place in Pacific Standard Time.
For all attendees (in-person and online-only viewers), the private live event link will be emailed to you one hour before program the begins (10 a.m. PST on Sunday). In-person and online attendees will have access to the unlisted Livestream recording both during the live stream and indefinitely after the event is over.
Seminar speakers at “Reimagining Womanhood: Examining Women’s Roles in Society” will speak on:
- 11 a.m.
Welcome - 11:05 a.m. to 11:10 a.m.
Ustadha Nihad Hemmoudeh — Qur’an Recitation - 11:15 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Dr. Rania Awaad — “Better Hidden” Women should “just be” homemakers and stay out of men’s affairs/domain, i.e., public life, formal education or specialized training, employment, financial independence, civic engagement, etc. - 12 p.m. to 12:45 p.m.
Ustadha Hosai Mojaddidi —“Better Desired?”— Women are sexual objects and don’t offer much more to society so they should be controlled and policed. They are defined by the size and shape of their bodies, their desirability, their dress, and their behavior irrespective of their intellects or skills. - 12:45 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. – Zuhr & Lunch
- 1:45 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Ustadha Maryam Amir — “Better Equal?” Women are exact equals to men in every way and deserve everything that a man has. They should never settle for anything less, even if that means fighting and protesting everyone that gets in their way and rebelling against the status quo. - 2:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.
Dr. Amina Darwish — “Better Than” Women are better than men in every way and don’t need men at all. Men are misogynistic and just aim to suppress women in every way. Women must live to fight men. Women are only held back by systems of oppression like patriarchy and must live to dismantle them all! - 3:30 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.
Ustadha Babalwa Kwanele — “Better Invisible” African American women in the community despite facing prejudice, discrimination, and racism both within and outside of the Muslim community are often made to feel invisible or as though their contributions are not as much or as meaningful to the larger Muslim community as they actually are. - 4:15 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Dr. Haifaa Younis — “Best” Women are the creation of God, servants endowed with intellect and the capacity to know Him intimately through the pursuit of sacred knowledge & worship. They are multi-faceted and unique in disposition, temperament, interests, and talents. They are inwardly & outwardly beautiful when their virtues and characteristics reflect their love and obedience to Allah (SWT).
We will conclude with a final comments panel along with questions & answers with the five teachers before women-led congregational Maghrib prayers. The congregational Zuhr, Asr & Maghrib prayers will be led in the MCC Prayer Hall by a female scholar. MCC will provide alternative indoor congregational options for brothers and non-retreat attending sisters for Zuhr and Asr and possibly Maghrib prayers.
MCC has a standing policy that financial need should never hold a person back from attaining spiritual knowledge. For a financial-based scholarship discount code, please email scholarship@mcceastbay.org
Sponsored by the Jannah Institute, The Rahmah Foundation & MCC East Bay
- – More talks in partnership with The Rahmah Foundation: https://mcceastbay.org/rahmah-foundation
- – More Dr. Haifa: https://mcceastbay.org/haifaa
- – More Dr. Rania: https://mcceastbay.org/rania
- – More Ustadha Maryam: https://mcceastbay.org/maryam
- – More Ustadha Amina: https://mcceastbay.org/amina
- – More Ustadha Hosai: https://mcceastbay.org/hosai
- – More sessions for Muslimahs: https://mcceastbay.org/women
Questions? events@mcceastbay.org
About the Speakers:
Dr. Haifaa Younis is an American Board Certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist with roots in Iraq. Her pursuit of Islamic knowledge initiated when she began to study with various Islamic scholars from across the United States while she simultaneously attended individual courses and lectures on subjects including Aqeeda, Fiqh, usual Fiqh, Hadeeth, and Tazkiyah (purification of the soul). From the United States, she moved to Saudi Arabia where she graduated from the Mecca Institute of Islamic Studies (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) and Al-Huda Qur’an Memorization School (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) where she completed the memorization of the Qur’an. She is the founder and Chairman of Jannah Institute and currently teaches seminars on the thematic commentary of various chapters of the Holy Qur’an and their practical relevance in our day-to-day living. Additionally, she offers retreats on key topics that inspire hearts, combining the inner essence of Islam with an outward expression of practice. Dr. Haifaa is passionate about spreading the word of Allah (SBW) and igniting the love of Islam and the Qur’an through her teachings. Learn more about her at https://www.jannahinstitute.com
Ustadha Dr. Rania Awaad, M.D. is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine where she is the Director of the Muslim Mental Health Lab and Wellness Program and Director of the Diversity Clinic. She pursued her psychiatric residency training at Stanford where she also completed a postdoctoral clinical research fellowship with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Her research and clinical work are focused on the mental health needs of Muslims. Her courses at Stanford range from teaching a pioneering course on Islamic Psychology, instructing medical students and residents on implicit bias, and integrating culture and religion into medical care to teaching undergraduate and graduate students the psychology of xenophobia. Her most recent academic publications include an edited volume on “Islamophobia and Psychiatry” (Springer, 2019), Islamic Psychology (Routledge, 2020), and an upcoming text on Muslim Mental Health. She has also produced a toolkit, fact sheet, and CME course, and is now editing a clinical textbook on Muslim mental health for the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Awaad is particularly passionate about uncovering the historical roots of mental health care in the Islamic intellectual heritage. Through her outreach work at Stanford, she is also the Clinical Director of the San Francisco Bay Area branches of the Khalil Center, a spiritual wellness center pioneering the application of traditional Islamic spiritual healing methods to modern clinical psychology. She has been the recipient of several awards and grants for her work. Prior to studying medicine, she pursued classical Islamic studies in Damascus, Syria, and holds certifications (ijaza) in the Qur’an, Islamic Law, and other branches of the Islamic Sciences. Dr. Awaad has also served as the first female Professor of Islamic Law at Zaytuna College, a Muslim Liberal Arts College in Berkeley, CA where she taught courses on Shafi’i Fiqh and Women’s Fiqh and Qur’anic sciences for nearly a decade. In addition, she serves as the Director of The Rahmah Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating Muslim women and girls. At Rahmah, she oversees the Murbiyyah spiritual mentoring program for girls. Dr. Awaad is a nationally recognized speaker, award-winning teacher, researcher, and author in both the Islamic and medical sciences. Follow her on I/T: Dr.RaniaAwaad
Dr. Amina Darwish “Imamina” started as the Associate Dean for Religious and Spiritual Life and Advisor for Muslim Life in February 2021. She previously served as the first full-time Muslim Life Coordinator at Columbia University. Dr. Darwish has a decade of professional experience working with the Muslim community. She also brings years of experience building and serving in nonprofit organizations. Dr. Darwish brings a unique blend of understanding of the different cultures within the Muslim community while staying grounded in traditional Islamic scholarship.
She earned a Ph.D. in Chemical engineering before switching careers to follow her true passion for community building. She remains passionate about including ethics, meaning, and service in STEM disciplines. Dr. Darwish strives to always create a culture or openness and consistent kindness in the communities she serves. She earned ijazas, traditional Islamic studies certifications, from the Qalam and Critical Loyalty seminaries including an ijaza in the ten Qira’at. Dr. Darwish has studied individually under different scholars from different parts of the world and has taught college-level coursework on Islam and Muslims.
Ustadha Maryam Amir received her master’s degree in Education from UCLA. She holds a second bachelor’s degree in Islamic Studies through Al-Azhar University. Maryam has studied in Egypt, memorized the Quran, and researched a variety of religious sciences, ranging from Quranic exegesis, Islamic jurisprudence, Prophetic narrations and commentary, women’s rights within Islamic law, and more for the past 15 years. She’s featured in a video series on faith produced by goodcast.net called The Maryam Amir Show. She actively hosts women who have memorized Quran from around the world to share their journeys through the #FOREMOTHERS campaign. She is an instructor with SWISS and Hikmah Institutes and has served as a bonus lecturer with AlMaghrib, DiscoverU, and more. She has been interviewed for her work by major news outlets including BBC, NPR, and CBS. Maryam’s focus in the fields of spiritual connections, identity actualization, social justice, and women’s studies has humbled her the opportunity to lecture throughout the United States and the world, including Jerusalem, Mecca, Medina, Stockholm, London, Toronto, and more. She holds a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and speaks multiple languages.
Ustadha Hosai Mojaddidi is the co-founder of MH4M (www.mentalhealth4muslims.com), a site dedicated to providing mental health-related content tailored to the Muslim community. She has served the American-Muslim community for over 20 years as a spiritual advisor, mental health advocate, writer/editor, mediator, interfaith organizer, and public speaker, covering a variety of topics including women’s issues, marriage/family, youth/teen issues, education, self-development, interfaith bridge building, spirituality, etc. She currently offers monthly self-development and spiritual wellness classes with MCC East Bay Masjid and she offers regular educational workshops for students and teachers at local Islamic schools. She also offers periodic talks throughout California and nationally for the Muslim community at large on a variety of topics. In her spare time she enjoys reading, writing, blogging via social media, doing arts and crafts, visiting gourmet coffee shops, and exploring the countless beautiful beaches and state parks throughout California where she lives with her husband and two sons.
Learn more about her at http://hosaimojaddidi.com
Babalwa Kwanele is a licensed mental health therapist (LMFT). As a consultant, she provides culturally responsive trauma-informed training and workshops.
