Several dozen active women from Ukraine and abroad took part in the International Women's Forum "Harmony and Development". The event took place this weekend in Kyiv and was organized by Ukrainian Muslimahs' League. The event was attended by active followers of Islam from all corners of the country, representatives of accredited diplomatic institutions, as well as many foreign sisters took part in the event online.
According Niyara Mamutova, to the head of the League of Muslimahs of Ukraine, the organizers set themselves several tasks:
- Firstly, we wanted to gather active Muslim women from all Ukrainian cities, where there are our women's public organizations, in order to inspire them, motivate and share the experience. Secondly, we wanted to break the stereotype that a woman should always choose one way, either family and raising children or self-development and career. We wanted to show that you can combine and do both.
This, in particular, was the focus of the first section of the forum "Harmony with Yourself". The speakers spoke about the woman's life mission. The former head of the Forum of Muslim Women in Europe Iman (Sandra) Petrek spoke about the need for a woman to understand her destiny, the purpose for which she was created by God. Anastasia Radovelyuk, a specialist in Islamic law, devoted her speech to understanding harmony from the Sharia point of view.
Erna Herlina, Counselor of the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Ukraine, who also spoke in this section, presented the report "The Role of Women in the Development of the Nation and Economic Development: An Indonesian Example". It referred to historical and modern figures of Indonesian Muslim women, who greatly influenced the social and political processes and largely determined the vectors of the country's development.
Manal Al Musallam, head of the Dana Volunteer Association from Kuwait, joined the forum online, as did other foreign speakers.
“We invited the guests to perform live,” says Niyara Mamutova, “but the pandemic has made its own adjustments. Within days, we had to change the format of the forum and make it mixed, that is, some of the speakers spoke online.
Manal's speech was dedicated to volunteering: how not to burn out, take care of yourself and balance between family and social activities.
“The second part of the forum was more practical,” says Olha Fryndak, one of the forum organizers. “We called it“ The Art of Possessing a Dream” and invited Muslimahs who focused not only on their families or worship, but also actively participated in social projects. All of them were able to make their dreams come true.
The speakers of this part of the forum were, in particular, the famous designer Ekaterina Evdokimova (Katrin Kim), the head of the public organization "Crimean Family" Anife Kurtseitova, the founder of the famous educational and networking platform AMANAT.info Asya Mokra-Omer.
The participants listened with great interest to the speech of the President of the Muslim Association of Great Britain, Ragad Altikriti. She talked about effective Muslim women and gave many pieces of advice on how to head towards realizing your dreams. Oksana Arkhipchuk, co-founder of the experimental microschool KAIZEN, talked about how her own children helped her with the development of the idea for the school.
During the forum, thirteen Muslim women received the award of the Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine “Ummah” - the medal “For Service to Islam and Ukraine”.
The medals and certificates were presented to the activists by the mufti of RAMU "Ummah" Said Ismagilov, who noted that these awards are given to the most active Muslimahs who have shown themselves on the field of the Muslim revival.
Before the awarding ceremony, sheikh Said greeted the participants:
- I hope that these important issues will be discussed at today's forum, that, based on the results of the forum, certain proposals will be drawn up to the Ukrainian state bodies, where on behalf of Muslim women and the Muslim community of Ukraine, one should address and point out the problems that Muslim women face. On our part, on the part of the Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine "Ummah", we will do our best to help resolve those issues that concern both the Ukrainian Muslim community and the Ukrainian Muslim women's community.
The guests of honor were representatives of the state, public organizations and embassies of some countries: the chief specialists of the department of cooperation with religious communities of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience Vyacheslav Gorshkov and Victoria Kochubei; a member of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Gayana Yuksel, a head of the Ukrainian Women's Union and others.
Also as part of the event, a photo exhibition "Father in the Family" and a charity fair of hand-made products of Ukrainian craftswomen took place.
