Coffee Mehfil
Categories: Past Event Articles
Tuesday September 25 2018
We at Wakefield MEND held our first coffee mehfil today, 17th November 2018, a gathering for ladies in the local mosque – Jamia Masjid Swafia. We aimed to kick off IAM by making our local Muslim ladies as aware of Islamophobia as we could. We had ladies from Wakefield Stand up to Racism come in and discuss their experiences and the importance of standing up against Islamophobia and hate crimes in general. Our hope was that, with someone not-Muslim coming in – and someone who is not Asian (since all the women who attended were Asian) – would have more of an impact, so the audience could see how even people who have not suffered Islamophobia are trying to fight against it so we who are likely to suffer from it have no excuse for burying our heads and ignoring the problem.
Zenat Choudry hosted the event, and introduced Ania, who kicked things off with a recitation from the Qur’an. The SUTR ladies’ speeches were accompanied by a talk about MEND and IAM from our own Fazilat Khan and a poem from me titled Muslim Woman.
There was good turnout, nice refreshments (including quiche and chaat!) and a lot of socialising afterwards!