EUROPEAN MUSLIM WOMEN OF INFLUENCE LIST 2010

Celebrating Muslim women achievements, our very own proud heritage; Rabina Khan, the Labour Councillor for the Shadwell Ward of Tower Hamlets was recently short listed for European Muslim Women of Influence List. This is a tremendous achievement to be in the top 20 women. The short list attended the awards ceremony in Spain, with the highest contenders in Europe; many came from media, journalism and are successful entrepreneurs like Reedah El-Saie. As we see more awards and recognition for Muslim women showcasing their projects and skills, this initiative was across Europe aimed to spread the talent, empower other women within the annual ceremony. I was intrigued with the list of individuals, there are comparatively 23 million people of Muslim heritage in Europe.

European Muslim women are a diverse, self-motivated and significant demographic group that play a vital role in a wide range of cultural, economic, expert and public spheres across Europe. Muslims being one of the least economically advantaged groups in Europe and widely associated with aggressive and extreme violent extremism; there is a need to increase the aptitude and visibility of positively engaged and inspiring European Muslims. Often hidden under the radar, undermined and pessimistically portrayed as victims of brutal cultural practices, subject to restrictive dress codes and inadequately educated, European Muslim women’s encouraging efforts and accomplishments habitually are overlooked.

As fundamental centre of the population and part of a rising group of self-motivated, self-starter Muslim women become confident with their national, religious and ethnic heritage and identities, European Muslim women are crucial to bond and build community cohesion whilst bringing affirmative societal change transversely in Europe. It’s not always about winning the awards and recognition, the acknowledgement of being part of the selection process is an achievement; for Muslim women that derive from all walks of life shared their experiences and case studies.

Muslim women of heritage are integral to society let us share the success whilst remembering the further developments needed to enhance their skills. At the ceremony there was an opportunity to demonstrate the work of the CEDAR Network – Connecting European Dynamic Achievers & Role Models CEDAR is a pan – European network of Muslim professionals that seeks to create a culture of triumph and leadership amongst Europe’s diverse Muslim communities. The precedence is to foster expert skills and share the learning and achievements for the less fortunate and disadvantaged communities and to create a more diversified picture of European Muslims.

The objective of CEDAR is to empower European Muslim women through providing networking scheme, opportunities to share experiences and expertise, and embed versatile yet sound projects with an expanding network currently extending across ten Western European countries and consisting of professionals from diverse fields, the CEDAR network is developing model for recognising and increasing the visibility of European Muslim women’s positive efforts and achievements.

http://www.cedar-emwi.com