Aysha Ingar is a Junior Doctor and the Founder & CEO of Muslimah, the first Islamic app dedicated for Muslim women. Since creating the app, Aysha has won the idea factory competition, shortlisted for the Islam Channel technology award and even presented Muslimah to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Last month, she also won ‘Young Businesswoman of the Year’ at the Saverah Women in Business Awards.
We reached out to Aysha to delve deep into her experiences as a Muslim woman and entrepreneur and discussed how she has overcome workplace barriers in her professional life.
Aysha, what inspired you to create Muslimah?
The idea behind Muslimah stemmed from personal experiences. Practising Islam for British Muslim women possesses its own unique set of challenges. This was first evident to me when I was looking for a space to pray while I was out shopping. Despite being familiar with the local area, I couldn’t recall a place, and a search on the web provided inadequate information about local prayer spaces/mosques, in addition to the lack of clarity as to whether there was a designated area for women.
Have you experienced any workplace bias in your industry?
Growing up at school/college where the community was majority Muslim/multicultural, this was never an issue. However attending medical school and the world of start-up I often found myself to be the only hijabi (and sometimes only female) in the room.
How did you navigate this?
The best way I was able to navigate this was to seek out who my allies are. If you have boundaries or needs because of religion/culture differences, many people are understanding and will be happy to accommodate you.
What is the best career advice you have been given?
As a beginner first starting out, the best advice I was given was to think small and not to worry about scaling up. Focus on one user at a time and learn about what they want in a product and what they’re struggling with. Meeting my target audience and having conversations seemed time-consuming at first, but the insight I received was incredibly valuable.
It was an absolute pleasure to learn about Aysha’s career journey and the story behind the Muslimah app. Find out more about the Muslimah app on her website https://www.muslimahapp.com.
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