i knew most of you wouldn’t click on this topic if i had a less ‘appealing’ title like, Women and Islam. 
Anyhow, i guess there are lots of threads re: women and Islam, but i want more discussions on this issue. Here we have young Muslim women, who will be (whether or not they choose this role consciously) tomorrow’s unofficial “ambassadors” for Islam. NonMuslims (will) look at them to gain a deeper ‘understanding’ of Islam and its principles. One quote in the article is the best, i thought - Earlier I was born a Muslim. Now I would say I am a Muslim. Whether we are Indonesian, Arab, or Pakistani, many of our cultural practices (ingrained at birth) rub against, or indeed are in discord with Islam… including the Pakistani emphasis upon forms of ethnicity…are you Sindhi, Mohajir, Punjabi, Kashmiri, etc etc.
Anyways this article is a fairly worthwhile read…although perhaps a little lacking in details, unfortunately.
Women of Islam choose God, peace, Nathaniel West, 15 September 2003
CHARLESTON – When intolerant people call her “Osama’s girlfriend,” Eastern Illinois University student Amna Latif bears it with grace.
After all, she said, those jeers pale next to her devotion to God. That’s why she still wears a “hijab.”
“The best way to preach is to set our own example,” said Latif, with only her large, brown eyes visible through the green and white checkered veil and head covering.
She also has the admiration of her peers and elders, who feared wearing the traditional Muslim garb ever since Sept. 11, 2001. Some would like to do so again, for practical and spiritual reasons.
And that contrasts to the popular notion that Islamic women are forced to dress as such, they said. These and other myths were dispelled Saturday during a forum at Eastern Illinois University, as four panelists discussed their past, present and future as women of Islam.
The program was sponsored by the Charleston-Mattoon Branch of the American Association of University Women. For Palestine native Nida Elmuti, an EIU biology professor, her religion was only a peripheral part of her life until the terrorist attack two years ago. Afterward, she and her children began attending a mosque in Champaign.
“I grew up in a liberal home,” she said. “Islam in our home was more of a tradition.”
It was much the same for Sehr Saghir, who was born in Pakistan but moved to England at age 11. Five years later, her family came to America. She now works at Eastern’s accounting office.
She studies Arabic so she can read the Quran, the holy book of Islam. “I’m still trying to understand it more,” she said. “Earlier I was born a Muslim. Now I would say I am a Muslim.”
Latif, of Pakistan, did not choose to wear a hijab until 1996, and then only after reading the Quran. She now can have conversations with men and be assured they will look her in the eyes, she said.
Eastern student Sarah Zaman is also from Pakistan, where she was raised in a “very dynamic home,” she said. Religion was not forced on anyone in her family, but most chose Islam as a way of life. That may not be the case for all Muslim women today, she said, but that is due to the practices of a particular culture, not the religion.
“This is definitely not the fault of Islam,” she said. “If they are not practicing it correctly, it’s their fault.”
Indeed, Muslims are called to peace, she added. And if the people of such countries practiced even half of what the Quran calls for, said Zaman, they “would lead a very normal, very peaceful, very progressive life.”
If non-Muslims would be more tolerant, “We could have much more peaceful existence with each other,” she said.
Elmuti equated intolerance with ignorance. She said the U.S. government’s treatment of so-called Muslim “extremists” reflects that parallel, which is only made worse by America’s support of “corrupt regimes” like the governments of Egypt and Pakistan.
Saghir commented that extremists who do nothing, but shed blood are really not even real Muslims.
“Your big responsibility is to each other, and not just to God,” she said.
