Hasnaa Mokhtar
Hasnaa Mokhtar started her tenure as the Director of the Global Village at Douglass Residential College, Rutgers University on March 15, 2022. Prior to this position, Hasnaa was the Postdoctoral Associate at Rutgers University’s Center for Women’s Global Leadership. She holds a Ph.D. from Clark University, and her dissertation is focused on narrative power and the invisible trauma of gendered violence in Kuwait. She is a scholar, researcher, and activist, with expertise in the Arabian Gulf, focusing on narratives of Muslim survivors of gender-based violence. After graduating in 2015 with a M.A. in International Development and Social Change, Hasnaa developed a passion for transdisciplinary approaches to addressing violence in Muslim communities. Hasnaa’s writings have been published in mainstream media such as Fortune and Yahoo and in academic journals such as Feminist Review and Feminist Anthropology. Previously, Hasnaa served as the executive director of the Center for Nonviolent Solutions in Worcester, MA, and more recently as the special program director at Peaceful Families Project. Hasnaa is passionate about life, personal growth, spirituality, and everything in between.
Taking Allah away from me
They told me that you created me less than because I am a woman…
They told me that my headscarf is a symbol of both my piety and my oppression…
They told me that you wanted me disciplined, shackled, and beaten…
They taught me that your words incite fear, terror, and violence…
They taught me that you are offended by my questions and my seeking…
They taught me that man is better, white is better, rich is better than what you gifted me…
They said to me that my value lies in my vagina and not the humanity of my soul…
They said to me that you ordered them to murder, to torture, and to rape in your name…
They said to me that patience, silence, and endurance are the virtues of the believers…
They said you can’t exist, you shouldn’t exist, you don’t exist…because you are not logical enough, not rational enough, not scientific enough…
They forced me to accept that Islam is peace when their morals, words, and actions waged a war against my fitra..
They stripped me away from Your essence that resides within my veins….
They destroyed my longing for your Unconditional Love and Mercy that crafted me into perfection…
They shattered my worlds and my bones into a thousand ugly pieces howling Allahu Akbar…
They preach and pray then backbite and lie…
They fast and worship then forfeit the foundations of do good, be good, and prevent harm…
They want to do Islam only when it is convenient to defend their Iblisi logic…
They tried and tried and tried until they almost succeeded in taking you away from me…
They killed my spirit, but I begged one afternoon, “If you’re there oh Allah, please show me the way…”
They failed, because you responded to my pleas, and you showed me the path, the light, and the mercy…
They failed, because I made it my life’s mission to reclaim you and your love, to redefine you and your mercy, and to relearn how to be in your presence until the day I finally meet you…