Share your story: Voices of ExMuslim Women: Solidarity on International Women’s Day

EDIT: Happy International Women’s Day! The project is up. Choice excerpts here and the whole 7-part compilation here.

The voices of women are underrepresented in the secular community as a whole, and especially among representations of ExMuslims. In an effort to make our voices and stories heard, here is an exciting new project:

The Ex-Muslims of North America is compiling testimonies from women who have left Islam for International Women’s Day on March 8.

For this, Kiran over at EXMNA would like to compile a list of testimonies that are uniquely from the POV of Ex-Muslim women. The post will go up on ExMuslimBlogs.com as a collective effort. It will be called “Voices of Ex-Muslim Women: Solidarity on International Women’s Day” and it will be about connecting our stories and our lessons with the experiences of other women from Muslim backgrounds who are victims of Islam or Islamist cultural norms. It will be about sharing what you have learned as an Ex-Muslim woman with others who are either still questioning or are deep in the closet about their doubts and apostasy.

Anonymity will be protected if so desired. If you’d like to be part of this, please email your entries to [email protected]

Here are some questions you can choose to use as inspiration (or just post your own thing if you’d like):

– What do you know now about your self worth or self image as a woman that you didn’t know when you followed/believed in Islam?

– What are some parts of Islam (scripture or practices) that made you feel inferior as a woman?

– What do you wish you could tell your former Muslim self?

– What do you wish women who have never been Muslim would understand about your experiences of being Exmuslim?

– What are the privileges you do NOT have as an Exmuslim woman that you did have as a Muslim woman? (e.g. speaking openly about your beliefs, etc.)

– What are the privileges you DO have as an Exmuslim woman that you did not have as a Muslim woman?

I’ve already read many of the submissions and they are resonant, articulate, heartbreaking, beautiful, and need to be heard. Consider adding your voice. This will be posted on March 7 so keep the deadline in mind. Again, entries should be sent to [email protected]

Thank you!

-Marwa