The year 2021 has been a year of growth, lessons and blessings for Muslim Women Connect, Alhamdulillah.
Expanding the MWC Mentoring Programme
Like many services, our Mentoring Programme was driven online due to the pandemic. We took this as an opportunity and for the first time ever, we expanded our services beyond London and opened our flagship mentoring programme to applicants across the United Kingdom! This expansion of services was met with a huge response from our community and we received record numbers of applications from women across the UK. MWS rose to meet this demand and delivered our largest mentoring cohorts to date; 30 mentees joined Cohort 5 in January 2021 and a further 50 mentees began the programme as part of our 6th cohort in July. We were absolutely delighted to be able to provide this service for a record number of women and will continue serving our community through the programme when we re-launch in August 2022, i’A.
International Women’s Day & Women’s History Month
During March, we celebrated International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month by partnering with Rizq Comms. Rizq Comms seek to empower Muslim women in increasing their financial literacy, as well as providing communications strategies to ethical brands. MWC were honoured to host a two-part series on empowering Muslim women in the workplace, delivered by Uneesa Zaman, Director and Founder of Rizq Comms. There were a lot of excellent takeaways from the workshop and we couldn’t have been more pleased with the turn out!
Islamophobia Awareness Month
UK Parliament
To mark Islamophobia Awareness Month, UK Parliament’s Equality Network for Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage (ParliREACH) invited MWC to deliver a workshop on ‘Tackling Islamophobia in the Workplace’ to the Parliamentary community. We discussed an overview of Islamophobia, how Muslim women are uniquely affected by Islamophobia and how to prevent Islamophobia in the workplace and be an ally.
Engagement during and after the event was overwhelmingly positive, with lots of honest discussion, sharing, listening and learning taking place. Feedback received highlighted an appetite for sincere learning and informed actions to make Parliament a more inclusive workplace for Muslims. Moreover, Muslim colleagues shared experiences and tips as to how they navigate Ramadan, prayer spaces, being a hijabi, working remotely and much more!
Social Investment Diversity Forum
Also during Islamophobia Awareness Month, MWC were invited to speak at a panel event for Diversity Forum, a collective that works to improve diversity and inclusion in social investment. We presented an insight into the impact of Islamophobia in the UK, what this means in the professional space and the tangible steps everyone can take to make a difference in our workplaces. The audience came with great questions and engagement.
To read more about the event, please visit the Diversity Forum website.
MWC team expands!
And finally, the MWC growth this year would not have been possible without the amazing individuals behind the scenes. We’re excited to share that this year MWC expanded from a team of a humble but mighty 4, to a powerhouse of 11 team members! We could not be prouder of what we have achieved together as the MWC Dream Team. MWC is entirely volunteer led and run, from our team to our mentors and guest speakers. The tireless efforts of everyone involved along with our mentees and wider community ensure we are able to continue operating and delivering the much needed work. A major thank you to all those involved!
We look forward to welcoming 2022 with exciting goals and objectives to continue supporting our community in new and innovative ways, i’A✨
Love and Duas,
MWC Team x
Muslim Women Connect 