During Islam Appreciation Month, students gathered in the Reitz Union to hear a Muslim activist speak about empowering Muslim women.
Tope Fajingbesi, a financial accountant from Maryland who recently worked on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, told about 50 UF students Monday about Muslim women’s role in politics. During the event, hosted by Islam on Campus, Fajingbesi said she wanted to help Muslim women find their purpose in life and grow closer to Allah.
Muslim women shouldn’t define their lives based on other’s perceptions, she said.
“They have to define it by the promise Allah has made to them,” she said. “We have to understand there’s more to our lives then just sitting in the background.”
Fajingbesi spoke about famous Muslim women including major figures from the Quran and the female founder of the world’s first university in Morocco.
“This is who we are,” she said. “This is our history. This is something that we need to be proud of.”
While campaigning for Clinton in Michigan, she said other Muslims told her that getting involved with politics was “haram,” or forbidden. But Fajingbesi said Muslim women should be political instead of passive, especially after the results of the presidential election.
“Our faith does not tell us to be passive and just to roll over when something needs to be done. We need to get up and do it,” she said. “We’re going to have to engage this new America.”
Samon Imtiaz, a UF biology junior, said she liked hearing Fajinbesi describe finding the purpose in life by listening to Allah and spending time thinking without distractions and noise.
“She really emphasized thinking on your own,” the 20-year-old said.
