Interview with UmmHend (Editor in Chief)

Author: Umm Hend. This article has 12 Comments

What do you want to know about Muslimas Oasis? About Me? Now is your chance to ask! These are the questions I have so far, and I’ll be answering your questions in the comments as well, so if you didn’t get a chance to ask in the last few days, now is your chance!

How long have you been Muslim?

I plan to write my reversion story here sometime soon inshaAllah but I became Muslim in mid 2001 right around my 17th birthday. So that will be 9 years this June.

What is your inspiration behind Muslimas Oasis?

I’m not sure if you meant behind creating the Blog or when Writing so I’ll answer both: Inspiration behind creating Muslimas Oasis: Originally (not going way back here, we’ll start in 2006 for this answer) it was to raise awareness in the Muslim Womens Community and to encourage my muslim sisters to use their energy for a positive means and to work for a positive affect in the wider community. That’s still it’s purpose but now it is more of a platform for Muslim Womens voices to get out there, to address stereotypes, stigmas and taboo’s and to offer advice and perspectives. To raise awareness among us and about us.

There is still so much I want to do through Muslimas Oasis but it’s difficult for me to do it all so inshaAllah there will be more and more voices added with time.

Inspiration when writing: Anything and everything! The world fascinates me and I tend to have strong opinions on things, so it’s not so much hard to find inspiration as it is hard to find time to write it all down and sometimes hard to find the words that will get across what exactly I want to say.

Do you prefer square, shayla hijabs or both?

Both! It depends on what I’m wearing them with. Shayla (or oblong style) hijabs are good for with a simple abaya or tunic and skirt/jeans and square is good for if I’m wearing a big jacket in winter that will cover my chest so I can just tuck the hijab in the front, square is also great for quick and easy and with little ones who like to pull on m scarf!

I also love Khimaar (Amira style) hijabs as well but most don’t cover the chest so I don’t wear them. I’m also partial to tube style underscarves  (and would love to try the bonnet style but haven’t) I like the layered look.

As a Muslim Woman, what can I do for Islam?

This is a really big question that could get a really long answer. I’ll try to keep it short (not my strong point). As a Muslim Woman the first thing you can do for Islam is learn it and practice it, be a living example, teach others by example. The people who taught me the most about Islam and who softened my heart the most to it as I grew into being a Muslim, were the ones that showed me the Sunnah in the way they lived and behaved. Be kind and gentle with everyone as was the Prophets (peace be upon him) example. The next thing you can do is talk about it, correct any misconceptions you hear, answer questions honestly but in an open and gentle way, ask people questions about what THEY know and think about Islam, start a discussion. Write about it, the biggest purpose of Muslimas Oasis is a safe and open place for sisters to be heard, this is a great place for speaking up and speaking out.

We all go through times when we struggle with our practice or our faith, try to learn from these times and focus on yourself until you feel stronger in your faith, at those low points, it’s time to go back to basics.

How in the world did you conjure up the idea (a great one, masha’allah) to start your website?

Thanks so much sis! Well if we go way back it was when I was a new muslim and just wanted to share what I was learning about Islam, it evolved into something more political and as I learned more and went back to my peace loving roots *smiles* it evolved again into an Awareness project and then finally into the Muslimas Oasis you see before you.

Why the concept and why the name?

The concept, as I explained above, was originally to share what I was learning as a new Muslim, that was back in early 2002. Then to speak out about political injustice, mostly in Palestine. Then back to educating, this is when the name Muslimas Oasis came up (it was my husbands idea mashaAllah) and at that point I took a break from the whole website idea and became active in a Muslim sisters community called Muslim Sisters Unite, it was renamed Muslimas Oasis after my website at the time and last year it was again renamed back to Muslim Sisters Unite.

At that point I had developed another website called Emagine to raise awareness about issues affecting Muslims and non Muslims around the world (like Health and Social causes eg. Breast Cancer and Domestic Violence) and was in a constant state of brainstorming how to make it successful, it didn’t have nearly the involvement I had hoped for and the idea seemed to be at a dead end.

I went back to the roots, a website to raise awareness and to educate, a place for sisters to speak up and speak out about things that are important to them. I thought the name Muslimas Oasis fit the site perfectly and reclaimed it for the blog. The rest is history! Alhamdolillah it has taken years of patience and work and evolution to get here but it is slowly building and reaching people all over the world Alhamdolillah.

What was the biggest challenge/obstacle that you’ve faced so far?

I’m going to say not giving up. Heba AlShareef of IamSheba.com actually had a chat with me in the early days of Emagine (see above) about projects like this and her advice and exchanging of ideas with me has been a huge part of my not giving up. I can’t say what it was exactly that she said. So many times I have felt like what I’m trying to do is not being received how I’d intended or hoped it would be. I’ve felt disheartened at times but as I talked about in my recent ‘Today with UmmHend‘ column, I remind myself that if I am to affect even one heart, and even if it’s only my own, then it is all worth it and I’ll keep going with the hopes that the evolution of Muslimas Oasis continues and eventually it will have a positive affect on our community and those interested in Muslim Women and what we have to say.

How do you balance the site, your work and being a mom?!

Balance? *laughs* That’s something I’m slowly learning how to do, it is not easy at all! As many of you know I work from home as a Web Designer and am a mother of 2 young kids (4 and 2). It’s certainly not easy and I do fall behind in every part of it at times, often Muslimas Oasis is the one that has to wait. I’m learning to use a Schedule and I try to practice some self control and get something done on everything each day. I do often feel like I’m chasing my tail though, Alhamdolillah, I’ve made a conscious decision not to complain about any of it because it is all a labor of love and I am truly blessed and thankful for everything that I have and am able to do. I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Any regrets?

Good question. No, I can’t think of any. I tend to live in the now and while we all have regrets and things that haunt us from the past, I’m a pretty content person Alhamdolillah and see the things I’ve done wrong as a process and a lesson. I know I have a long way to go and I also know that I’ve come a long way. Not trying to be flowery or anything, that really is the way I feel about life in general, there are a lot of people who can vouch for that *laughs*

What advice do you have for a Muslimah who also wants to make a difference but doesn’t know where to start?

As I said before, the best place to start is within yourself. Know your purpose, your aim, what the difference is that you want to make, if you don’t know, find it! Know what your limits are, what means are available to you. And act on that. Do a lot of thinking and soul searching first. Also don’t be afraid to fail and don’t be afraid to do it alone, don’t expect too much from anyone, if you want to make a difference, YOU have to make the difference “be the change” as Ghandi so wisely said.

I burned bridges and failed miserably for years before Muslimas Oasis finally found it’s place, I gave up a couple of times but always came back with a new idea and a new approach. The thing that helped me the most was to keep a clear purpose of what I wanted to achieve.

What do you think makes your blog different?

Me? *laughs* I honestly don’t know. I look around at the other blogs that sisters have and they are amazing mashaAllah, I wonder myself what’s different about MO and also, what I can do that is different, what I can offer that’s unique for sisters. Perhaps it’s the honesty? I want to break down taboos and stereotypes and stigmas. The middle ground? I want to enjoin good and forbid evil without apologizing for it, but I don’t want to burn any bridges. Maybe we have new ideas here that you don’t usually see/hear/read? You tell me!

You have 200+ fans…What do you think makes yours so successful?

Hmm, another hard question. It’s hard to say. Most of our readers come from North America, UK, Scandinavia and across the Muslim world (North Africa, Middle East and South Asia) with several others scattered all over the world, so I don’t think it’s one single thing that appeals to everyone, perhaps it’s the diversity of the topics, the honesty, the humble approach? Hopefully it’s that, hopefully people are learning something and taking something positive away. InshaAllah (God Willing)

What is your most favorite thing about the site?

The people! I’ve met (online and by phone, inshaAllah soon in person) so many amazing women through Muslimas Oasis, and gained a lot of social confidence myself. I’ve been able to allow people to open up, support each other, offer a new perspective and gain a new perspective.

That’s what I love the most, not the site itself but the affect and those who get involved and say “Hey, I’m reading and this is what I’m taking away”. I’m an Artist by nature and thus never happy with things I design/create (although it helps to remember only Allah can create something perfect) so I only half believe people when they compliment me on the site, I have put countless hours of work into it though so the compliments are rewarding and humbling.

Where do you see MO in two more years?

Bigger, better, reaching more people, offering more to take away, more established inshaAllah! I don’t know, I’m not one to plan ahead too far, as I said earlier, I’m more of a live in the now sort of a person. But I see it growing and offering more, I hope so anyway, inshaAllah! I definitely hope to be hearing more from all of you by then ;)

What have YOU learned about yourself from MO?

Wow, so much. I never in a million years would have thought I’d be more known for my writing than my Art. I’m not the writer in the family, my sister is, yet it has somehow become what I’m most known for and the way I’ve been able to reach the most people, with what I have to say (and I’ve never had a problem there, my picture is in the dictionary next to ‘Soap Box’) so I’ve learned that about myself, that what I have to say is worth saying (or writing since my grasp on spoken human language of any sort is not as good as written)

I’ve learned that I have more confidence than I thought with other people. I continue to learn. It’s been very interesting to learn more about how others see me actually.

How did you learn to make an interesting website like this? did it take long? cost much?

I’ll try to squeeze this into a nutshell (as we’ve noticed, not my strong point) but I warn, it may make no sense to some people.

Originally when I started making (terrible) websites to share the information I was learning about Islam I was using Angelfire which is a free and almost automatic website creation tool. This was 2002. I started getting interested in the code behind the website and so started playing around with it, changing things and then look at what had changed in the code. Along the way I started looking at the code behind other peoples websites and slowly but surely learned HTML. As the years went on I got better at design and better at code and updated my knowledge to include HTML4, XHTML1 and CSS and eventually taught myself to create Wordpress themes. All this happened between 2002 and 2008 and only costed an internet connection and a single book along the way about HTML, XHTML and CSS.

This layout took a lot of trial and error, months upon months of brainstorming and designing and re-designing before I managed to find a sort of balance of what was important, less important and altogether unnecessary.

The cost of the site as it is now consists of hosting and a domain name. This cost varies and I prefer not to share it exactly.

Where do your ideas come from?

Well, here’s where I think they come from.

The world doesn’t make a whole lot of sense unless you look at it really, really close up. Nature is just nature if you look at it from far away, it’s a mess of trees and leaves and flowers all scattered randomly around, no order, no pattern. But if you look close enough, and for long enough, there is order, there are patterns, it does make sense, it’s not random at all.

Trying to explain and make sense of the world around me through philosophy and observation and thought, is just me. As a 5 year old I would play with my dolls in the bathroom sink and compare it to the world. What if there is a giant controlling us, just like I do my dolls, what if the ocean is the giants bathroom sink, what if, I once told my mother, “this big, huge world, is in a giants pocket” at night time, that’s why it goes dark, when he is finished playing with us, we go in his pocket.

It’s hard to explain. I think I’m just a thinker *laughs*

How do you manage to keep up with it when you have 2 wee people at home?

As I said earlier, it is not easy by any means. Everything suffers now and again and I have to keep my priorities in clear sight. This is why there is often breaks between when I write and when I don’t, sometimes I can write everyday without anything else going by the way side, and sometimes I can’t so unfortunately, for now, it is MO that has to wait. I am attempting to learn to organize my time better, I have some way to go with that, but I’m getting there.

Got a question you didn’t see answered here? Ask in the comments below!