On this week’s 51%, we wrap our series speaking with women religious leaders and scholars. Dr. Sh. Haifaa Younis discusses her work at the Jannah Institute, an Islamic school for women. Uzma Popal, director of the Capital Region’s Muslim Soup Kitchen Project, shares how charity is a pillar of her faith. And Stanford University’s Dr. Amina Darwish challenges the perception of Muslim women in the U.S.

Guests: Dr. Sh. Haifaa Younis, founder of the Jannah Institute; Uzma Popal, director of the Muslim Soup Kitchen Project; Dr. Amina Darwish, Associate Dean for Religious & Spiritual Life at Stanford University

51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's produced by Jesse King, our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is "Lolita" by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue.

Follow Along

You’re listening to 51%, a WAMC production dedicated to women’s issues and experiences. Thanks for joining us, I’m Jesse King. This week, we’re wrapping our series speaking with women religious leaders and scholars. By now, at part four, we’ve spoken to women from various backgrounds about their beliefs. My hope in doing this, as someone who doesn’t know much about religion, was to hear directly from women about how they worship, why they do it, and what they see as the greatest challenges in their faiths - because while a lot of today’s mainstream religions are traditionally male-led, women are increasingly stepping up to the plate. 

Today, we’re wrapping the series by speaking with three well-versed Muslim women. Our first guest is Dr. Sh. Haifaa Younis, the founder and chairman of the Jannah Institute in St. Louis, Missouri. Haifaa Younis is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist with roots in Iraq, and she says she started the Jannah Institute in 2013 to offer an Islamic education for women, by women. Haifaa Younis always wanted to dive deeper into her faith, and before starting the Institute, she went on her own journey in search of knowledge — a mission that proved somewhat difficult in the U.S. at the time. After trying various remote learning methods, she packed up her life and moved to Saudi Arabia, where she graduated from the Mecca Institute of Islamic Studies. 

"There, actually, is where I met the woman scholars. Before that I have not – maybe I've read about them before, but there I definitely met [them]. I learned 90% from woman scholars, with really deep knowledge," says Younis. "And the beauty when you learn from a woman – and this is not because of gender – is just because, as a woman, you know she goes through what you are going through. It's closer. So it doesn't mean the man doesn't do it, but it's just something a little bit [closer]. I didn't know this ‘till I felt it, ‘till I tried it.

What kinds of classes are you teaching at the Jannah Institute?

At the Jannah Institute, what we offer, there is a broad spectrum, because there's so many things you can learn about Islam. So we divided it into the main two things: the holy book itself, and then what we call Islamic study. So the holy book [courses are] if people want to learn how to read. Remember, the holy book, the Quran, is in Arabic, and the majority of the women that live in the west don't speak Arabic, and they don't know how to read. So we offer them courses from the basics, from literally the alphabet, to becoming an expert in reading. Then, if someone knows how to read, but they want to memorize – it’s a huge virtue to memorize – we offer that too. Then we offer, if you want to read but you want to read perfect – how you study academically. How do you read it? It's a whole subject. That's one. And then the other, which is much more needed, is basically, “What does Islam say? What does Islam teach? How can I practice my religion living in the west, in 2022, as a professional woman, as a mother, as both?” And this is what we offer. We started in 2017, giving six-to-eight