Championing Representation and Elevating Muslim Women
By Tayyaba Syed
Nov/Dec 25
Over a decade ago, Malika Dahir, 47, and her family moved from Memphis, Tenn., to Minneapolis, Minn. to be around more Muslims. When she heard about the first Muslim women’s leadership conference hosted by local nonprofit Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment (RISE), she knew she had to be there.
“I was excited to hear about this conference and wanted to attend it with my eldest daughter, who was only 9 years old at the time,” Dahir recalled.
Founded in 2015, RISE has become a movement that is reclaiming the dominant narrative around Muslim women by providing leadership and entrepreneurship development and encouraging civil engagement and advocacy.
“We were just blown away by how professionally and tactfully everything was done,” Dahir said. “My daughter was so impressed and moved by RISE’s mission and work that she donated her entire year’s allowance to the organization, $600 worth! I knew that I had to get more involved and become a regular donor too.”
Dahir, a mother of three, has since become an integral part of RISE’s team, starting as an active volunteer and working her way to becoming its current executive director. She stepped into the full-time role in 2022 and takes the work very seriously as an amanah (trust) put in her care.
“I try to marry my coalition work with the work RISE does like interconnected identities,” Dahir said. “Its mission and vision aligns with my values and mirrors my passion for advocacy. I grew up around strong Muslim women like my mother and grandmother, but stories like theirs go unknown. Through RISE, we started Black Herstory Month in February, highlighting African American women in our community doing incredible work and sharing their historical attachment to the Twin Cities.”
Storytelling and Support in RISE
Storytelling is a key program at RISE. In 2018, Storytelling Director Sarah Gruidl, 31, was hired to write stories for Sheroes, one of the organization’s projects that showcases female trailblazers who are creating change in their local communities in Minnesota. RISE defines a “shero” as a woman who takes risks, challenges misconceptions, addresses injustices, and in general, builds a better world.
“We are working on our first book based on Muslim Sheroes of Minnesota, celebrating and preserving their contributions,” Gruidl said. “It is allocated to be released in Spring 2026.”
Though RISE’s team tripled in size since Gruidl joined, founder Nausheena Hussain, 49, still remembers the very first interest gathering she held in Sept. 2015 at Daybreak Bookshop, now known as the Rabata Cultural Center.
“I invited 40 women to discuss leadership, civic engagement, and philanthropy, but only six to eight people showed up,” Hussain said. “No one really understood what I was trying to do. However, two things still came out of that meeting: recognition of a void in representation and a need for networking.”
Leadership and Visibility: For Women, By Women
When Hussain worked for the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, she noticed many of the cases coming in involved Muslim women being violated. She also noticed that every time they did a press conference, only male imams would show up.
“Why aren’t we seeing Muslim women in leadership roles?” Hussain wondered. “We are doing the work, but we’re behind the scenes. Men are just center stage. I don’t even know where to go to meet other Muslim female leaders.”
From that initial session, the small interest group decided to build a network for women, by women. They went on to do another community conversation, but this time they would each bring a friend. 20 women came to discuss philanthropy, generosity, and gift-giving, all of which Hussain described as “still kind of foreign for people.” They then held a civic engagement panel at Daybreak Bookshop with three Muslim women who were running for office at that time.
“We talked about all the different ways to get involved in the civic scene,” Hussain said. “Caucusing, social justice activism, how to become delegates, what are public policies, you name it. Then Trump wins the election in 2016, and we’re all worrying, so we hosted another session to mobilize and bring in faith and to trust in [God’s] plan.”
This is around the time RISE became more and more a reality and a need in the community. According to Hussain, they still took things slow and were testing things out in terms of projects. For the first two years, they were sponsored by the nonprofit Propel and then filed to establish their own 501c3 in 2018.
At its inception, the small team simply worked as volunteers. Once they started receiving grants and funding, they developed a staff model. Dedicated to growing the organization and establishing infrastructure and fundraising, Hussain became RISE’s first executive director and an official board was seated and staff members were hired.
Expansion and Recognition
As more grants and sponsorships came in, RISE began expanding its programming and outreach. Sheroes received exposure and recognition in different media outlets, and RISE’s current projects include a small business incubation program to support Muslim women entrepreneurs as well as facilitating conversations with elected officials to make them aware of issues pertaining to Muslim women in Minnesota. In 2023, RISE led their first ever Muslim Women’s Day at the state capitol. For election season, they provide candidate report cards to help the community see where candidates stand with issues relevant to them.
“We recently hosted a community conversation with Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Attorney General Keith Ellison in collaboration with Jewish Community Action and Gender Justice,” Dahir said. “And our Economic Empowerment Series completed its second year in helping launch new businesses. We even award seed money as a prize to the three most promising entrepreneurs from the program’s graduates. We are going further and beyond, and I pray [God] accepts this from us.”
RISE has become more than an organization; it’s a movement for change.
“Our stories have always been powerful,” Dahir said. “We’re just making sure the world hears them.”
To learn more about RISE, volunteer, donate, or attend their upcoming events, visit https://www.revivingsisterhood.org/.
Tayyaba Syed is an award-winning author, journalist, and Islamic studies teacher. She conducts literary and faith-based presentations for all ages, sits on the board of directors for a women’s non-profit called Rabata, and served four years as an elected member of her district’s board of education. She lives in Illinois with her husband and three children. Learn more at www.tayyabasyed.com.
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