December 4th, 2002
Bismillah al-rahman al-raheem. Asslamu ‘alaykum wa
rahmatullahi wa barackatuh.
My name is Irfana Anwer. On behalf of the KARAMAH family
and my self, I’d like to welcome you all to KARAMAH:
MUSLIM WOMEN LAWYERS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS. We are honored that
all of you were able to join us today in breaking fast in
the special month of Ramadhan and we are looking forward
to spending the rest of the evening getting to know you.
Some of us were just led in Maghreb prayers, the evening
prayers by our Imama, Sanaa’ Affandi who also happens
to be on KARAMAH’s board of directors. Sanaa’
graduated from the University of Beirut with a degree is
Arabic and Islamic Literature.
This evening promises to be an enjoyable and memorable one,
dinner will now be served, and then Dr. Rice will join us
for coffee and dessert later on in the evening. At that
point we will all hear from Dr. al-Hibri and Dr. Rice.
We invited Dr. Rice to join us in the final days of Ramadhan
to experience it’s warm and peaceful atmosphere as
well as to meet a representation of socially conscious Muslim
women and other distinguished members of our society, from
different walks of life. We intend this evening to be one
where we can enjoy each others company and build bridges
between various communities through their women.
I would now like to briefly give you an inside glimpse,
an example of what we at KARAMAH have been investing our
efforts in.
A key goal of KARAMAH is the mentoring and training of the
next generation of Muslim women leaders and to implement
this we are in the process of organizing a unique and intensive
leadership training program for women. The purpose of this
program will be to encourage young Muslim women law students
to take leadership roles in their communities.
We also firmly believe in being inclusive and have had many
opportunities to engage in inter-faith dialogue with various
organizations. This is a very important philosophy of ours
and has resulted in our partnering with other faith based
and secular organizations to plan educational outreach,
media campaigns and a public demonstration of solidarity,
collaboration and inclusiveness across lines of difference.
The main goal of our partnering with such organizations
recently has been to fight bias, bigotry and racism post
9/11.
KARAMAH also receives countless, unsolicited requests for
legal help from members of the Muslim community. We are
currently expanding our existing list of pro-bono attorneys
to meet the legal needs of indigent people who contact us.
Additionally, we are active in forming ties with students
on various campuses nationally and through our representatives,
liaise with the Muslim students and plan outreach activities
with them. In fact, KARAMAH in my opinion, owes it's success
and existence to the numerous ethnically diverse volunteers
and interns that freely donate their time and who are an
integral part of the KARAMAH structure. And on this note
I would like to thank them all for their time and effort
in putting together this event, without their input tonight
would not have been possible. Could all the interns and
volunteers please stand up and identify yourselves. And
if any of the guests have question for or comments about
KARAMAH, please feel free to discuss it with the interns.
I hope that you all have a wonderful evening and would like
to thank you for your time and patience. As I said earlier,
it is an honor to have you all here today and I hope to
carry on meeting you at events that we organize in the future.
