A00036 - Mariam Farhat, The Palestinian "Mother of Martyrs"

 

Maryam Mohammad Yousif Farhat, or Mariam Farahat (b. 1949, Shuja'iyya, Gaza City, Gaza Strip – d. March 17, 2013, Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories), more commonly known as Umm Nidal was a Palestinian activist popularly known by Palestinians as the "Mother of Martyrs" for her support for her sons' involvement in attacks against Israel. Three of her sons were members of Hamas killed killed by Israel after participating in terrorist activities and she was a close associate of the Hamas leadership for over 2 decades. She also was a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council for Hamas. Farhat was one of the most prominent Islamist female leaders in Palestine and became an icon of the Second Intifada. 

Farhat was born in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood in Gaza City in 1949. She had six sons and a total of ten children. Her eldest son, Nidal, was one of the first manufacturers of the Qassam rocket and helped to make rockets for Hamas and was killed in February 2003 while preparing to conduct an attack. A third son Rawad died in 2005 in an Israeli airstrike on his car carrying Qassam rocket.  Another son Wisam did time in an Israeli prison for attempting to kill Jews and was the mastermind behind various terrorist acts such as Atzmona Massacre and the Nahal Oz attack. Wisam was killed by the IDF.

In the 1990s, Farhat sheltered Hamas military leaders such as Emad Akel. 

She came to public attention in 2002 after being filmed carrying a gun and advising her 17-year-old son Muhammad Farhat before his March 2002 suicide attack against Israeli civilians. Muhammad entered the Gaza Strip former settlement of Atzmona and opened fire and threw hand grenades at Israeli students enrolled in a pre-military school where they were studying to become army officers, killing five and wounding 23 others. After the attack, he was shot dead. After Muhammad's death, Farhat said she "wished [she] had 100 boys like Muhammad."

Farhat became known as "Khansa of Palestine", a reference to Al-Khansa (one of the companions of Muhammad), all four of whose sons were killed in the Battle of Qadisiyah.  Umm Nidal got this title because of her great sacrifices - as in the Palestinian and Islamic culture - during the Second Intifada and before that, where her house was home to many prominent leaders of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, especially Emad Akel, who was assassinated in her home in 1993 by the Israel Defense Forces. 

Farhat ran as a candidate of Hamas in the 2006 Palestinian legislative election. She was successfully elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council. 

In an interview published in both the Israeli Arab weekly Kul al-Arab and the London-based Arabic-language daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Farhat (Umm Nidal) said she was proud of her sons. In her December 2005 interview, Farhat (Umm Nidal) said:

• "I protect my sons from defying Allah, or from choosing a path that would not please Allah. This is what I fear, when it comes to my sons. But as for sacrifice, Jihad for the sake of Allah, or performing the duty they were charged with - this makes me happy."
• (Referring to Israelis) "They are all occupiers. Besides, don't forget that they all serve in the army. They are all considered soldiers. They are all reserve soldiers."
• "They are all occupiers, and we must fight them by any legitimate means."
• "All means are legitimate as long as the occupation continues."
• "There is no difference. This is Islamic religious law. I don't invent anything. I follow Islamic religious law in this. A Muslim is very careful not to kill an innocent person, because he knows he would be destined to eternal Hell. So, the issue is not at all simple. We rely on Islamic religious law when we say there is no prohibition on killing these people."
• "The word 'peace' does not mean the kind of peace we are experiencing. This peace is, in fact, surrender and a shameful disgrace. Peace means the liberation of all of Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.  When this is accomplished - if they want peace, we will be ready. They may live under the banner of the Islamic state. That is the future of Palestine that we are striving towards."

Farhat died on March 17, 2013, from multiple organ failure, in Gaza City. Her death was announced by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing. Her funeral was attended by 4,000 Palestinians, including top Hamas leaders such as Ismail Haniyeh. 

A00035 - Haleh Afshar, Iranian British Muslim Feminist Activist

 Afshar, Haleh

Haleh Afshar (‎b. May 21, 1944, Tehran, Pahlavi Iran – d. May 12, 2022, Heslington, England) was a British life peer in the House of Lords. 

Haleh Afshar was born as the eldest of the four children born to Hassan Afshar and Pouran Khabir on May 21, 1944 in Tehran.  Afshar was a professor of politics and women's studies at the University of York,  England, and a visiting professor of Islamic law at the Faculté internationale de droit comparé (international faculty of comparative law) at Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg, France. Afshar served on several bodies, notably the British Council and the United Nations Association, of which she was honorary president of international services. She was appointed to the board of the Women's National Commission  in September 2008. She served as the chair for the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies.  Afshar was a founding member of the Muslim Women's Network. She served on the Home Office's working groups, on "engaging with women" and "preventing extremism together".

Afshar was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2005 Birthday Honours for services to equal opportunities.  On October 18, 2007, it was announced that she would be made a baroness and join the House of Lords as a cross-bench life peer.  She was formally introduced into the House of Lords on December 11, 2007, as Baroness Afshar, of Heslington in the County of North Yorkshire.

In March 2009, Afshar was named as one of the twenty most successful Muslim women in the United Kingdom on the Muslim Women Power List 2009. The list was a collaboration between the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Emel Magazine, and The Times, to celebrate the achievements of Muslim women in the United Kingdom. 

In April 2009, she was appointed an academician of the Academy of Social Sciences. 

Afshar died from kidney failure at her home in Heslington on May 12, 2022 at the age of 77.

In 2011, Afshar received an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.  

In January 2013, Afshar was nominated for the Services to Education award at the British Muslim Awards. 

In 2017, Afshar received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bradford.  

A00034 - Shireen Abu Akleh, Trailblazing Al Jazeera Journalist

 Abu Akleh, Shireen

Shireen Abu Akleh (b. January 3, 1971, Jerusalem – d. May 11, 2022, Jenin, State of Palestine) was a Palestinian-American journalist who worked as a reporter for the Arabic-language channel of Al Jazeera for 25 years, and was a household name across the Middle East for her decades of reporting in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. She was shot and killed on May 11, 2022, while covering an Israel Defense Forces raid on the West Bank city of Jenin.  Abu Akleh was one of the Arab world's leading journalists, a veteran reporter who was described (by The Times of Israel) after her death as having been "among Arab media's most prominent figures". 

Abu Akleh was born on January 3, 1971, in Jerusalem. Her family were Catholic Arab Palestinian Christians from Bethlehem.  Abu Akleh spent time in the United States, obtaining United States citizenship through members of her mother's family who lived in New Jersey. 

Abu Akleh attended secondary school in Beit Hanina, then matriculated at the Jordan University of Science and Technology to study architecture, but decided not to pursue the trade; she instead transferred to Yarmouk University in Jordan from which she graduated with a bachelor's degree in print journalism.  After graduating, Abu Akleh returned to Palestine.

Abu Akleh worked as a journalist for Radio Monte Carlo and Voice of Palestine. She additionally worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA); Amman Satellite Channel; and MIFTAH, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy. In 1997, she began working as a journalist for Al Jazeera, becoming well known as a reporter on their Arabic-language channel.  She lived and worked in East Jerusalem, reporting on major events related to Palestine including the Second Intifada, and additionally covering Israeli politics. She often reported on funerals for Palestinians killed by Israeli forces.

Abu Akleh's career inspired many other Palestinians and Arabs to become journalists. Her live television reporting and distinct signoffs were particularly well-known. Abu Akleh continued in her role with Al Jazeera until she was killed on May 11, 2022.  At the time of her death, she had been studying Hebrew in order to better understand narratives in the Israeli media, and had recently earned a diploma in digital media. 

On May 11, 2022, the Palestinian Health Ministry announced the death of Abu Akleh. According to Al-Jazeera, she had been shot and killed by the Israel Defense Forces  I (IDF) while reporting on IDF raids in the Jenin refugee camp. Al Jazeera and the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that Abu Akleh was killed by the IDF, with an Agence France-Presse photojournalist also reporting Israeli forces had shot and killed her.  

A00023 - Asma Khader, Jordanian Women's Rights Activist

 Khader, Asma 

Asma Khader (b. January 25, 1952, Zababida, West Bank under Jordanian rule – d. December 20, 2021, Amman, Jordan) was a Jordanian politician and women's rights activist. She served as Jordan's Minister of Culture from 2004 to 2005 and was a member of the Senate from 2014 to 2015. Khader died from pancreatic cancer on December 20, 2021, at the age of 69 in Amman.

Asma Hanna Khader was born on January 25, 1952, in Zababida, a town in the West Bank, which at the time was under Jordanian rule. Her father, Hanna, was a translator for the Jordanian Armed Forces. Her mother, Martha, owned a clothing shop in Amman. Asma attended school in the city and worked in her mother’s store.

Khader earned her undergraduate law degree from the University of Damascus in 1977. She established her own legal office in 1984 and was one of Jordan’s few practicing female lawyers.

In Jordan, Khader experienced life under martial law, imposed by King Hussein after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The law banned political parties and large public meetings, and gave the government broad powers to restrict freedom of speech and the press and to try ordinary criminal cases in military courts.

Khader joined the male-dominated opposition movement, becoming a vocal political activist despite the risk of detention. She also represented political prisoners.

She established the Solidarity is Global Institute in Jordan in 1998 to provide women with legal services and educational programs, and to lead campaigns for legislative and policy reforms. She served as the institute’s executive director until her recent illness.

Khader, along with other female activists, organized support, did research and lobbied lawmakers in an attempt to protect human rights in Jordan by revising the country’s penal code. That work led to the repeal of a law that had allowed rapists to avoid punishment by marrying their victims. In later years, Khader's Solidarity Is Global advocated the suspension of capital punishment in Jordan.

Khader married Adel Daibes, a lawyer, in 1977. They had four children, Osama, Ruba, Hanan and Farah.

A00022 - Amina, Queen of the Hausa

 Amina

Amina (Amina Sukhera) (Aminatu) (c.1533-c.1610).  Queen of the Hausa state of Zaria (Zauzau) during a period of rapid expansion during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.  A legendary figure, Amina extended Zaria’s empire over Nupe and the Jukun kingdom of Kwararata (Kororofa), and dominated Kano and Katsina.  She is also credited with building many of the famous earthworks of the Hausa city-states.  During her reign east-west trade became an important supplement to the trans-Saharan trade through Zaria.  

Amina Sukhera (also called Aminatu) was a Muslim princess of the royal family of Zazzau (now Zaria), in what is now northeast Nigeria. She was born c. 1533 and is estimated to have died around 1610. Amina was a preeminent gimbiya (princess) but various theories exist as to the time of her reign as queen. One explanation states that she reigned from approximately 1536 to 1573, while another posits that she became queen after her brother Karama's death, in 1576.

When Amina was seven years old her mother, Bakwa Turunku, became queen. During this point in her life, she became involved in the Zazzau military, earning much admiration for her bravery. Her military achievements brought her great wealth and power.

She is credited as the architect of the earthen walls around the city of Zaria. These walls are often referred to as Ganuwar Amina. During her reign, Amina was responsible for conquering many of the cities in the area surrounding Zazzau. In her thirty-four year reign, Amina expanded the domain of Zazzau to its largest size. Some sources state that her main focus was not on the annexation of neighboring lands, but on forcing local rulers to accept vassal status and permit Hausa traders safe passage.

The introduction of kola nuts into cultivation in the area is attributed to Amina. A statue at the National Arts Theatre in Lagos State honors her, and multiple educational institutions bear her name.

Amina Sukhera see Amina
Sukhera, Amina see Amina
Aminatu see Amina

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2021 Addendum

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Aminatu (also Amina; died 1610) was a Hausa Muslim and a historical figure in the city-state Zazzau (present-day city of Zaria in Kaduna State), in what is now in the north-west region of Nigreria. 

Amina was born in the middle of the sixteenth century CC to King Nikatau, the 22nd ruler of Zazzau, and Queen Bakwa Turunku (r. 1536–c. 1566). She had a younger sister named Zaria for whom the modern city of Zaria (Kaduna State) was renamed by the British in the early twentieth century.  According to oral legends collected by anthropologist David E. Jones, Amina grew up in her grandfather's court and was favored by him. He carried her around court and instructed her carefully in political and military matters.

At age sixteen, Amina was named Magajiya (heir apparent), and was given forty female slaves (kuyanga). From an early age, Amina had a number of suitors attempt to marry her. Attempts to gain her hand included a daily offer of ten slaves from Makama and fifty male slaves and fifty female slaves as well as fifty bags of white and blue cloth from the Sarkin Kano.

After the death of her parents in or around 1566, Amina's brother became king of Zazzau. At this point, Amina had distinguished herself as a leading warrior in her brother's cavalry and gained notoriety for her military skills. She is still celebrated today in traditional Hausa praise songs as “Amina daughter of Nikatau, a woman as capable as a man that was able to lead men to war.”

After the death of her brother Karami in 1576, Amina ascended to the position of queen. Zazzau was one of the original seven Hausa States (Hausa Bakwai), the others being Daura, Kano, Gobir, Katsina, Rano, and Garun Gabas.  Before Amina assumed the throne, Zazzau was one of the largest of these states. It was also the primary source of slaves that would be sold at the slave markets of Kano and Katsina by Arab merchants.

Only three months after being crowned queen, Amina began a 34-year campaign against her neighbors, to expand Zazzau territory.  Her army, consisting of 20,000 foot soldiers and 1,000 cavalry troops, was well trained and fearsome. In fact, one of her first announcements to her people was a call for them to “resharpen their weapons.” She conquered large tracts of land as far as Kwararafa and Nupe.

Legends cited by Sidney John Hogben say that she took a new lover in every town she went through, each of whom was said to meet the same unfortunate fate in the morning when her brief bridegroom was beheaded so that none should live to tell the tale. Under Amina, Zazzau controlled more territory than ever before. To mark and protect her new lands, Amina had her cities surrounded by earthen walls. These walls became commonplace across the nation until the British conquest of Zazzau in 1904, and many of them survive today, known as ganuwar Amina (Amina's walls).

Beyond her expansion of Zazzau territory, Amina created trade routes throughout Northern Africa.  Additionally, Amina has been credited with ordering the construction of a distinctive series of ancient Hausa fortifications, known as ‘Amina’s walls’, and with introducing kola nut cultivation in the area.

A00021 - Amina bint Wahb, The Mother of the Prophet Muhammad

 Amina bint Wahb 

Amina bint Wahb (b. 549 CC [66 BH], Mecca, Arabia - d. 577 CC [36 BH], Al-Abwa, Arabia), was a noble woman of the Banu Zuhrah clan, and the mother of the Prophet Muhammad. 

Amina was born to Wahb ibn Abd Manaf and Barrah bint 'Abd al 'Uzza ibn 'Uthman ibn 'Abd al-Dar in Mecca.  She was a member of the Banu Zuhrah clan in the tribe of Quraysh who claimed descent from Abraham through his son Ishmael.  Her ancestor Zuhrah was the elder brother of Qusayy ibn Kilab, who was also an ancestor of Abdullah ibn Abdul-Muttalib.  Qusayy ibn Kilab became the first Quraysh custodian of the Ka'ba. 

Abdul Muttallib proposed the marriage of Abdullah, his youngest son, and Amina. Some sources state that Aminah's father accepted the match, while others say that it was Aminah's uncle Wuhaib, who was serving as her guardian. The two were married soon after.

Abdullah spent much of Amina's pregnancy away from home as part of a merchant caravan, and died of disease before the birth of his son.

Three months after Abdullah's death, in 570 CC, Muhammad was born. As was tradition among all the great families at the time, Amina sent Muhammad to live with a milk mother in the desert as a baby. The belief was that in the desert, one would learn self-discipline, nobility, and freedom. During this time, Muhammad was nursed by Halimah bint Abi Dhuayb, a poor Bedouin woman from the tribe of Banu Sa'ad, a branch of the Hawazin.  

When Muhammad was six years old, he was reunited with Amina, who took him to visit her relatives in Yathrib (later Medina). Upon their return to Mecca a month later, accompanied by her slave Umm Ayman,  Amina fell ill.

She died around the year 577 CC and was buried in the village of Al-Abwa'. The young Muhammad was taken in first by his paternal grandfather Abd al-Muttalib in 577 CC and later by his paternal uncle  Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib. 

A00020 - Shirin Aliabadi, Iranian Artist Who Focused on Modern Iranian Women

Aliabadi, Shirin

Shirin Aliabadi (b. March 10, 1973, Tehran, Iran – d. October 1, 2018, Tehran, Iran) was an Iranian contemporary visual artist.

Aliabadi was born in Tehran, Iran in 1973. She studied art history and archaeology at the University of Paris. 

Aliabadi was married to the artist Farhad Moshiri.  She was represented by The Third Line gallery in Dubai.

Aliabadi died on October 1, 2018, from cancer, in Tehran, Iran.

Aliabadi's art, which includes photographs and drawings, explores the competing effects on young urban Iranian women of traditional values, religious restrictions and globalized western culture. Her work appeared in solo exhibitions in Dubai, Tehran, London, Switzerland and Denmark and in group exhibitions at the Institut des cultures d'Islam in Paris, the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, at Frieze New York, at the Chelsea Art Museum, and in Monaco, Rio de Janeiro, Copenhagen, Italy, Norway, Estonia, Germany, Switzerland and Spain.

Her work is held in the collections of Deutsche Bank AG in Gerrnany, the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery and the Farjam Collection in Dubai.