Creating Space for Muslim Women to Lead

Season {2} Episode {B1}: Fatima Sadaf Saied

SEASON 2, BONUS EPISODE

Today is International Women’s Day — March 8, 2021

Today’s episode features an interview with a woman who, like the me, is someone with a strong faith and a desire to see more women in leadership roles—both secular and religious. My guest and I have had similar journeys fighting misogyny and patriarchy in our different religious traditions.

Fatima Sadaf Saied is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Muslim Women’s Organization in Orlando, Florida. She’s a wife, a mother, and a fierce advocate for the women in her community, but especially those in her faith community.

In this interview, Fatima shares how her parents immigrated to the United States from Pakistan and worked to establish a mosque for Asian Muslims who had also immigrated to the same area. We talk about everything from growing up in the nonprofit world and attending the University of Miami to getting married and being a full-time mom, and from that to starting an organization to empower Muslim women with service opportunities as well as trauma-informed training.

We talk about why some Muslim women wear a hijab, why she does, and how wearing the hijab changed her life. We also delve into what it takes to make real, tangible change in a system steeped in patriarchy, and I have to say, her approach is genius!

Fatima is the real deal. A strong woman of faith who works hard every day to elevate the voices of women in spaces where they are often silenced.

I just couldn’t be happier to bring you this interview today. Now more than ever, we need role models of strong women—especially in the faith community which can skew towards patriarchy. We need to hear their stories and see them in action. We need to be reminded that one woman CAN make a huge difference even when the approach towards making that change has to be indirect.

🎧 Click here to listen to this episode:

Season 2, Bonus Episode: Fatima Sadaf Saied

About Fatima Sadaf Saied

Fatima Sadaf Saied is the Executive Director of the Muslim Women’s Organization (MWO). As the daughter of Pakistani immigrants and a native Floridian, she witnessed her parents build and dedicate their lives to an inclusive community of faith in South Florida. After graduating from UM with a degree in Psychobiology, she started her family and dedicated her time to raising her five children.

In 2010, following in the community building footsteps of her parents, she was among the group of women who co-founded MWO, a nonprofit dedicated to harnessing the leadership of women to create meaningful change. She leads Team MWO to address the challenges Muslim women face in Central Florida through the cornerstones of training, education, and sisterhood. In 2019, the organization opened their resource center (the MWO HUB) to provide a space for Muslim women to belong, learn, receive support and grow.

Additionally, Fatima is on the Board of Directors of Eid Orlando, an organization dedicated to establishing family-friendly Muslim holiday celebrations. She is continuing her nonprofit education in the Muslim Philanthropy and Humanitarian Studies Fellowship program at the IUPUI Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. She is a breast cancer survivor that loves road trips, karaoke, and board games. Above all else, she is passionate about uplifting the lives of her daughters, her team members and her community through dignity, compassion and wisdom.