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OTTAWA CHAPTER -- ANNUAL REPORT – 2009

January ‘08

Ottawa Chapter is supporting an umbrella group called The Coordinating Council of Muslim Canadians. Ferrukh Faruqui represents CCMW and Fauzya Talib is the 2nd voting delegate. Ferrukh as the secretary, organized and did outreach to all Muslim groups in and around the Capital Region, and Fauzya as back up representative have attended all meetings and provided support to this group.

Shahla Khan-Salter led the Chapter in organizing a Vigil to commemorate the life of Aqsa Pervez, a 16-year old Muslim girl murdered by her father with the help of her brother. We had an amazing turnout and the event was graced by the late Marion Dewar a staunch defender of human rights, the famed Canadian author Heather Menzies and chapter members Farhat Rehman, Alia Mirza, Nezha Zizi and friends Feiszl Talib, Chelby Marie Daigle, Adnan Qayyum. Here is an excerpt from Shahla’s report:

It was chilly, standing outside at the imposing boulders that compose the Ottawa Women’s Monument. But it warmed all our hearts to be together, to remember this lovely girl, whose life was senselessly cut short and to resolve to end violence against women, in all communities.

We were fortunate to spread our message as well, with a news story on A-channel and CBC radio morning, featuring the vigil. Remembering the poem, read by Alia Mirza, written by Muhammed Allama Iqbal and translated by Farheen Beg, may Aqsa's life stand with knowledge and dignify her community. And remembering the prose, read by Farhat Rehman, written by her daughter,Rahat Kurd, "How to Mourn a Girl You'll Never Know ", we must "say aloud the name of the farthest mosque. Do not forget."…Aqsa”

Women’s Health Project meeting was held on January 15 at Inter Pares office. Planning is in progress to apply for funding, and plan an event raising awareness of issues among new comer/immigrant/ and native women.

February ‘08:

Chapter members met with Jill Burnett, a film maker and Director of Citoyenne Musulmane of Strasbourg to discuss issues of importance to Muslim women for her documentary.” Her email said: Dear Farhat, A word from Montreal to thank you again for your time Monday evening, not least organizing the meeting and the ride to and from. Meeting you and your dynamic group was a great launch to my Canadian research. I had an excellent meeting with Leila Bedeir on Tuesday so thank you also for this reference. I will keep you informed to our progress. For now, best regards, Jill

Afshan Khan, chapter member, held four Family Law training workshops for various groups:

South East Ottawa Community Health Centre on Feb 13th 2008

Interval House (Women’s shelter) on Feb 14th 2008

For Lawyers practicing family law March3, 2008

For Pakistani Muslim women- March 7,2008-

A Dinner to recognize Muslim Canadians’ civic involvement. Chief guest Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario. Feb 15, 2008. Some members attended on behalf of CCMW

March ‘08

Parents focus group for the Youth Project. Chapter member coordinator, Alia Mirza reports:

“I would like to provide you with a short update on the Muslim parents’ focus group meeting held on March 16, 2008. CCMW has partnered with the Ottawa Community Immigrant Service Organization (OCISO) on a project that examined the issues faced by Muslim youth at school (particularly students at the high school level).

CCMW’s involvement included two representatives on the steering committee. Humera Ibrahim as the National Board representative and I was the Ottawa chapter representative. Catalyst Research and Communications managed the project.

As most of you are aware one of the components of the Youth project is to hold focus group meetings with parents. The Ottawa Chapter of the CCMW helped to organize one of these sessions. The session was held at Ottawa City Hall and included participation from approximately 12 parents. I am happy to say we had a very diverse group of participants, mothers and fathers, Anglophones and Francophone and with ethnic diversity. The participants in the session had children that ranged in ages from elementary, high school, university and adult aged children. The session lasted approximately 2 and half hours and was facilitated by Lynne Tyler from Catalysts Research; I acted as chair of the meeting.

My overall reflections on the meeting were that parents felt comfortable to share their experiences and insights on the issues facing them as parents and their worries for Muslim youth. I also felt that the parents would be interested in participating in a similar session in the future; the discussion was open and honest.

The findings from this session along with the others will be complied by Catalyst Research as part of the report”.

Fauzya Talib and Chapter members, with the help of some OMWO members held a meeting with Catalyst Research for the Family Law Education for Women (FLEW). The objective was to review the content of the brochures with information on Family Law and Muslim Laws. Valuable input was received and implemented.

Muslim Presence invited Fauzya to attend an afternoon seminar with Malika Hamidi, a respected academic and coordinator of the European Muslim network. The theme was Canadian Muslim Women: Challenges and gender justice in Contemporary Western Society

April ‘08

The fifth “Books & Biryani” book club was held on April 6. The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886), novella by Leo Tolstoy –Reviewed by Dr. Ferrukh Faruqui. The Kite Runner, a novel by Khaled Hosseini – Reviewed by Fauzya Talib. People were asked to bring items to donate, and a donation of much needed toiletry items was made to a downtown women’s shelter.

Two information workshops on Family law and Muslim laws took place this month and were presented by Shahla Khan-Salter assisted by Noreen Majeed. The session for Muslim women took place at the main mosque, on Sunday, April 20th, 2008 in the morning from 9:30 am to 11:30 am. The atmosphere was relaxed and the discussion peaceful. The focus group was sisters only.

The session for service providers took place on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at City Hall in the Billings Room. Attendance was restricted to professionals working with the Muslim community including the social service, medical, counseling and legal professions.

We participated in an inter-faith discussion and social evening. Topic: What roles do seniors play in our families and how do these roles impact on the family. Sr Safaa Fouda organized this enjoyable and entertaining event in collaboration with the Unitarian Church. Songs were sung and instruments played and refreshments served.

May ’08

May 14 saw a large number of Muslim Organizations in the National Capital Region congregate in the Main Mosque and share common concerns and pledges of mutual cooperation as the newly formed The Coordinating Council of Muslim Canadians.

The 2007 Youth Project culminated in a Muslim Youth Conference hosted by CCMW in collaboration with Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization (OCISO) on May 25, 2008. Humera Ibrahim presented at the Forum.

July ‘08

Fauzya , Farhat and Ferrukh met briefly then attended a CCMC meeting on July 29.

We had earlier provided a letter of support to IWSO for submission of a proposal for funding. This project is focused on crime prevention, and CCMW Ottawa Chapter would be one of the partners in focusing on the Muslim Community. We met to review the project details and to begin the work of hiring the coordinator and job descriptions.

This project, known as the Neighbours, Friends and Family project is currently under way. Three members have been trained as Champions and are to hold two workshops each for the Muslim Community with a focus of reducing domestic violence against women. The challenge will be to approach the subject and navigate through information and solutions in a mixed gender workshop.

November ‘08

Our chapter member, Sr Khadija Haffajee informed us that she, with the help of others organized an evening for women entitled, “Expressions of Muslim Women” This was a focus for primarily young women in Ottawa with a wealth of talent. All forms of art, visual, spoken word, poetry & prose, fashion, drama, song and dance was included in this sold-out event. The next eagerly awaited event will be held on November 7, 2009.

Key Concerns:

Our effort is to engage younger women to be more active and participate in Chapter events. Human resources are needed. Members with more flexibility are needed to attend community events/meetings on behalf of the Chapter when called upon by media or others and to organize and plan chapter activities.

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Chapter meeting 2004

November 28th, 2004
Meeting at Farhat’s House
Noon-2:30 pm

**Present: Chelby, Amena, Rohma, Afshan, Khaddouj, Nezha, Manal, Zohra, Fauzya and Farhat. Regrets: Aziza, Humera and Guljoya.

As the Chapter last met on October 13th, a number of issues were mentioned as an update for the Group, as outlined below. The Group also discussed issues to further the Chapter’s work plan.

Update on past events and follow-up issues from the last meeting (held on October 13th): 

• Members were asked to visit www.ccmw.com for further documentation related to the Canadian implementation of Sharia. The Marion Boyd report is not been made public yet. However, there are other reports available on the website (e.g. Terms of Reference for the Marion Boyd report and NAWL report).

• There was no update to the recommendations sent by the Chapter to the National Board for comment (please see Oct. 13th Minutes for background info.).

Media training workshop:

• The CCMW Newsletter indicates that the Media Handbook is currently being updated.

• Farhat will send a reminder to the National Board about training for the Ottawa and Montreal chapters (please see Oct. 13th Minutes for further details).    

• The Chapter may find own resources in Ottawa for media workshop, then follow up with the Board. Anu Bose has offered to train. We will contact her and get her availability for training Chapter members.

• The media training should be held on a weekend, possibly  from 10 am to 1 pm.

• Training video and manual: “In My Own Skin”—Iman Zebian will be asked if she can train Afshan and Chelby to present these videos at workshops connected to their work. (settlement, anti-racism). Date and time  to be determined.

Post-Meeting Action Items:

• Farhat will send information received from CCMW Board to the Chapter members regarding the recently released CCMW report entitled: “Muslim Women in Canada: Overeducated and Underemployed”.

• The Progressive Muslim meet-up is tentatively scheduled for December 18th at 2 pm at the Bridgehead café in Nepean. Amena will send a follow-up e-mail to the Group for additional details once the arrangements are finalized.

Closer link with National Board:

• Concern was voiced that there be more communication between the National Board and Chapters in order for the Board to be aware of developments and issues at the Chapter level. Therefore, the need for greater contact and liaising with the National Board was seen as imperative for effective representation. The participation of the two local Board members to be clarified. Iman and Humera  participate at meetings and give feed back to and from National Board. Information about Nat. Brd. Meetings could be shared

• Suggestion to be made to encourage regional representation on the Board

• A question was asked how  CCMW can better communicate, and keep abreast of, developments with other Muslim groups and filter down information about the organization to the broader Muslim community.

• A question was asked about CCMW’s relationship with CAIR_CAN and the Winnipeg based Social Service Org. (Shahina Siddiqui’s group. As our work is touching their work, so we should define ours.)

• Khaddouj has done her research paper on the effect of 9/11 on Muslims- men and women. She asked if CCMW would find a slot in the symposium, or some future venue that touches on this theme.

Upcoming events:

• January 23rd, 2005: 2nd “Books and Biryani” event—Discussions/reviews of 2 books to be selected. Fauzya will circulate an updated list of books for interested members. (Some members provided names of books that were added to the original CCMW reading list)

• January 26th, 2005: The ZONTA group will be holding an event where Alia Hogben will be speaking on Muslim women and “Sharia” law. Farhat and Fauzya will be meeting with Kathy Bose on December 3.

• March 2005: Symposium on “Role of the Religion in the State” (topic     concerns the bounds of secularism and democratic rights). Ask if this is the same event originally planned for Dec.3/04.

The meeting adjourned at around 2:45 pm.

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Annual Report 2003

On behalf of the Ottawa Chapter of CCMW, called the local morning radio show to declare admiration for Dr. Monia Mazigh who displayed extraordinary courage and strength in the face extreme hardships of her husband’s imprisonment and torture. By her struggle for justice she was able to bring about change and helped to shatter the stereotype of Muslim Women.

Fauzya Talib works at Health Canada. She got a group of colleagues together and organized a Fast and Feast event at her work.

Co-workers we invited to fast and then attend the evening program of Information session with presentations by invited guests. Lyne Naguib spoke on “The Growth of the Ottawa Muslim Community”, and Abu Nazir spoke on “Ramadan- The way to Self-improvement”. There was a panel discussion and a question and answer session. At Iftar time the breaking of fast was followed by call to prayer, and Maghrib prayers. The evening ended with a feast of dinner and delicacies. People mingled at the dinner table and expressed interest and asked questions. Handouts were distributed containing the description of the content of the Call to prayer and other pertinent information. The guests appreciated the opportunity to learn more about Muslims.

Farhat represented NOIVMWC and CCMW at the National Women’s Reference Group on Labour Market Issues (NWRG/GRNF) Forum in Winnipeg. This is a not-for-profit voluntary organization, established in 1991 to advance women’s labour market status in Canada. They represent the diversity of women in Canada. Their website is (www.nwrg-grnf.ca). CCMW’s name was put forward for them to contact and invite membership.

The Ottawa Chapter is meeting on December 13 to meet and go over the CCMW work plan for 2003-2004 activities and formulate a Chapter plan, Insha’Allah.

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Annual Report 2003

Archived Ottawa chapter material