Muslim Women's Fund

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About Us:

Islam and women are in the news constantly -- but there are many stories you aren't hearing:

• In Egypt, midwives who practiced female genital mutiliation are now advocating against it.
• In Pakistan, a gang-raped woman uses her court settlement to establish a school open to all -- even to her attacker's children -- because she believes education is the key to a society's advancement.
• In the U.S., President Obama appoints an orthodox Muslim-American woman as an adviser.

All these situations have one thing in common: women who bravely embraced their Islamic rights and responsibilities to fight back against cultural, patriarchal and misogynistic practices stemming from ignorance about true Islam.

Muslim Women's Fund supports women who are empowered to live with dignity and security who are helping to create peace as they engage with their Muslim and non-Muslim neighbors.

What Is Our Challenge?

There are 800 million Muslim women in the world – 1/12th of humanity – and many are marginalized. Yet there is not a single foundation focused solely on their development. The mission of the Muslim Women’s Fund (MWF) is to enable women to reclaim their faith based human rights in Islam, get educated and become economically empowered.

Who Inspires Us?

A consensus emerged from 136 Muslim women – scholars, NGO leaders, writers, politicians, filmmakers, and musicians from 26 countries that the single greatest barrier facing progressive Muslim women was a lack of funding from an entity that understood the local religious and cultural context for their innovative endeavors and organizations.

In July 2009, MWF launched globally to let Muslim women know that their dreams have inspired a new organization responding to their needs. The Founders of MWF looked, listened and learned from these women and to date are working towards convening local advisory councils in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, India, Pakistan and Nigeria to better understand women’s realities in their communities.

MWF is set to fund two of proof of concept projects in 2010.

How Does MWF Work?

MWF’s invests in strategic, replicable, innovative grass-roots NGO’s in countries with Muslim populations. It supports scalable NGO’s and social entrepreneurs working at the nexus between economic empowerment and progressive religious and secular education.

In Phase 1: MWF will launch its first grant making cycle in the US, Egypt and Pakistan. The three initial projects MWF will support are:

• An Egyptian NGO with a dual-pronged strategy: education of midwives to eradicate the cultural support for female genital mutilation (FGM), which is contrary to Islam, and financial support for an alternative livelihood for midwives who cease performing FGM.
• An NGO providing a transformative human rights curriculum for teachers at girls’ madrasas (schools), providing both education in egalitarian, peaceful, and tolerant Islam, and the secular and scientific skills needed to be economically independent in the modern world.
• A US- based nonprofit providing immigrant and refugee Muslim women with skills to start their own micro-enterprises, using cutting-edge visual business training that crosses language barriers and promotes integration.

In Phase 2:

• MWF, in partnership with Ashoka, will co-select and co-fund an MWF/Ashoka Fellow – a female social entrepreneur who we recognize to have innovative solutions to social problems and the potential to change patterns across society. They demonstrate unrivaled commitment to bold new ideas and prove that compassion, creativity, and collaboration are tremendous forces for change.