This panel is the first part in a Queer Muslim Relationship series HAQ is holding. This series will be focusing on different aspects we, as Queer Muslims, face while forming and maintaining relationships. There will be themes for each discussion. For our Mother's Day panel, we will be focusing on Queer Muslim families, and what it looks like to raise a child as a Queer Muslim in different types of relationships, including interfaith ones. Please register for the event here.
PANELISTS:
ASSATA DE LA CRUZ (SHE/HER): is a Black and Indigiqueer mama still proudly living on her ancestral lands just outside of Africatown, Alabama. She is the Founding Executive Director of Savage Daughters, a sacred space united in opposition to historical labels of savagery that sought to silence us, forging a path towards a future where we are free to make our own informed wellness choices. She also serves as the Community Outreach Director of Soulforce where she works to end the religious and political oppression of Queer people by breaking open the ideologies of white Christian Supremacy and healing our communities’ spirits from Spiritual Violence. Most recently, she joined the Board of Directors for HEART, an organization creating a world where all Muslims are safe and exercise self determination over their reproductive lives in the communities we live, work, and pray.
She studied Journalism and Communication with a minor in Theology at Springhill College in Mobile, AL and today is a continuous student of Herbalism, Curanderismo and Yoga.
Her unwavering passion for social justice is reflected in her 20+ years of organizing experience with various organizations including Dream Defenders, Muslims For Just Futures and as featured in Teen Vogue.
Living in an interfaith family, she describes herself as an offering of alhamdulillah and hallelujah while still being firmly rooted in her traditional Yoruba and Indigenous spiritual practices.
SAHAR SHAFQAT (SHE/THEY): helped to co-found the Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity (MASGD) in 2011, and remained on the MASGD board until 2020. Sahar is an academic who teaches political science and also serves as an associate dean of faculty. The biggest honor of Sahar's life is to be a parent to Saira Kiran, aged 5 and 3/4 (this is an important detail), who Sahar is raising with her wife, Sapna, in a multifaith Muslim-Hindu home. Sahar is excited and terrified about the new frontiers of parenting in a world which wasn't created for families like theirs but which is going to have to make space for all of us no matter what.
SAPNA PANDYA (SHE/HER): is a former board member for KhushDC and continues to consult with Desi Rainbow Parents and Allies. She has also been serving as a pandita (scholar), officiating feminist and progressive weddings rooted in Hindu ritual primarily for same-sex couples for the past decade or so. Sapna recently joined the Meyer Foundation as the DC Director for Community Partnerships & Strategy at the Meyer Foundation, leading grantmaking for organizations in the District engaging in systems change work led by BIPOC communities. In 2018, Sapna became a mother to Saira Kiran, an incredible kindergartner being raised as Muslim-Hindu, and a self-identified 'Earth Ranger' or steward of this planet and its living creatures. Sapna and her wife Sahar have been working to intentionally create a space for Saira Kiran to appreciate and experience her Muslim-Hindu culture with peers as well as their grown-ups, to expand our communities' definitions of what these identities can mean.
COVID SAFETY: Masks are required for this event (K/N95 or better). Masks (KN95) will be available for attendees, but we encourage you to bring your own! We will have rapid tests available on-site for individuals to utilise if they would like to be certain of their status. Children under the age of 12 will be present. Please practice social distancing when possible. If you are wanting to join virtually, this option will be available.
A Zoom link will be shared an hour before the gathering to those who indicated they do not wish to join in person, but want to join virtually.