Challenging Gendered Islamophobia: Hypervisibility as Resistance

As the Executive Director and founder of Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment, Nausheena Hussain is a social justice activist here to amplify the voice and power of Muslim sisters. She is creating gender equity through sisterhood, storytelling and public policy. Nausheena graduated from the University of Minnesota cum laude in 2003 with her MBA in Marketing and Healthcare Administration. She holds certificates in Executive Leadership from Stanford and Harvard Universities. She is a fellow graduate from the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute, Studio/E entrepreneurial program, Rockwood Institute Fellow and is a 2016 Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow. Because of her hard work and dedication, Nausheena has been recognized for her achievements. She was named the 2012 Catalytic Leader by the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. In 2016, the Minnesota Women’s Press named her “Changemaker of the Year," and in 2019 was recognized as one of the Top 100 MBAs in Diversity.

Asma Mohammed is responsible for facilitating the systemic inclusion of Muslim women in political spaces across Minnesota. Her work as Advocacy Director at Reviving Sisterhood includes building culturally relevant civic engagement trainings, connecting Muslim women to their representatives, and fostering grassroots legislative advocacy at the local, state and federal levels. Asma began her career at RISE in 2017 as a Program Manager for Civic Engagement, and focused on countering gendered Islamophobia through action and by providing intersectionality trainings to employers and schools all over the state. During her first year at RISE, Asma worked to address barriers to engagement, which led her to pursuing sexual violence awareness and prevention work. Since then, she has led healing circles for Muslim survivors, developed accountability trainings for Muslim men, and is currently serving on three county and state task forces around sexual violence prevention.

Prior to RISE, Asma worked on a successful senatorial reelection campaign in Minneapolis, serving as a lead in the campaign’s persuasion program. Asma has also worked for 8 years in education, supporting hundreds of Minneapolis students and families as an educator and student services director. She is a fellow at the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute, and serves on the Board of Directors for Break the Silence. She was named a 2018 Changemaker by the Minnesota Women’s Press, a 2019 AWARE: Demanding Justice award recipient by MNCASA, and most recently was awarded for her work in advocating to eliminate the statute of limitations for reporting sexual assault.