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Honoring
Women in the Media
The Muslim Women’s League held a luncheon entitled,
"Honoring Women in the Media," on Saturday, April 26, 2003 in San Pedro.
There were over 140 attendees from various parts of Southern
California. Organizations
such as the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Minaret, the Islamic
Board of Southern California and New Horizon of Pasadena were among
the attendees.
It was acknowledged that September 11 brought to bear quite
a turn of events for Muslims and the negative impact the media had
created an environment of anger and disillusionment towards Islam.
The Iraqi crisis had also brought much to bear and as
American Muslims, we had witnessed first hand the effects of the
American media portrayal of the war versus other networks including
Al-Jazeera and the effects it had on the Arab world…..
This was the forum the Muslim Women’s League wanted to
recognize women who had been active, outspoken and had successfully
helped define our struggle and/or identify as Muslims.
Tayyibah Taylor gave her keynote speech and addressed the
importance of words in the field of journalism and how their
connotation may redefine a situation.
She spoke about the fact that many of us do not use our
critical thinking abilities in times of crisis to discern truth from
propaganda.
Read
the text of her
speech.
The first honoree, Tahara Kariem (Co-host of American
Muslim Hour) received her award and thanked the Muslim Women’s
League and her family as well as stressed the importance of work that
still lay ahead. She
acknowledged her late father’s advice that giving your targeted
audience a little information at a time is wiser than overwhelming
them with too much.
The second honoree, Nagwa Ibrahim (Documentary producer)
received her award and spoke passionately about wanting to document
for herself the daily (non violent) struggle of the Palestinian
people. She at one point
became emotional and told the story of the tragedy of a Palestinian
mother who lost her disabled son when a bulldozer destroyed her home
and how she was unable to rescue him.
The third honoree, Sandy Banks was unable to attend but had
sent her acceptance speech to be read by Semeen Issa (Past MWL
president). She
apologized for not being able to attend secondary to her children’s
prior commitments and understood the Muslim community’s struggle as
being part of a minority community.
She herself an African American journalist (and single mother)
understood what it meant to not be included and marginalized and
continues to work toward uncovering the truth.
The closing remarks were given by Laila Al-Marayati (MWL
spokesperson) who reiterated the need for Muslim men and women to work
together to speak up and define themselves.
She concluded with the following Quranic verse:
And the believers men and women are protecting friends of one
of another They enjoin
the right and forbid the wrong and they establish worship and they pay
the poor due and they obey Allah and His messenger. As for these Allah
will have mercy on them. Lo! Allah is Mighty, Wise. (9:71)
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