“A Mother’s Prayer”

A Radical Revolution of Values to Restructure Society

Era of Woman launches its first “A Mother’s Prayer Rally

By Tiffany Green-Abdullah, M.Ed, Co-Chair of Era of Woman

(Published in Muslim Journal, Volume 47, Number 10, November 19, 2021)

ATLANTA, Ga. – “A time comes when silence is betrayal…. The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper [disease] within the American spirit…; I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values … [and] profound change in American life and policy….” ~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was held down and suffocated to death by the pressure of the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Everything that occurred afterward, the protests and the conviction, would not have happened if not for the courageous action of Darnella Frazier, a then 17-year-old African American young woman who was just taking her little cousin to the store for snacks. 

Frazier’s cell phone video became the crucial evidence that convicted Officer Derek Chauvin of Floyd’s murder. Frazier heard Mr. Floyd call out for his mother, as she stood a few feet away; she answered the dying Floyd’s call when she released her video the next day. His call for his mother became a rallying cry for other mothers. From that cry of a son for his mother was born the Era of Woman (EOW). Okolo Rashid, the co-founder of the International Museum of Muslim Cultures and co-founder of EOW, explained: “His cry and the cry of many others killed senselessly have sparked this movement of motherhood leadership, which is defined in Islam as the sentiments, sensitivities, and values of ‘mother’ to lead.”

Era of Woman was developed organically during the Fall of 2020 when Sis. Aseelah Rashid sought advice from her mother, Sis. Okolo, about what had taken place and was beginning to transpire in the country shortly after Floyd’s murder. 

Aseelah and I have been friends for years and leaned on one another to also process what was occurring. We were all unsettled and struggling with what to do. Aseelah invited me to an interfaith dialogue with Jewish women. And during the meeting, we were asked what is our need as a community? 

At that time, we did not have a clear answer. We saw the protests, but we did not see ourselves represented as African American Muslim women. At this very moment, Aseelah’s mother was working on a concept paper in response to “George Floyd’s horrendous murder.”  

In it, she states: “Specifically, [Floyd’s] primal scream or outcry for his mother — at the sudden anticipation of death under extreme abuse, agony, and physical and mental suffering, where he was out of his depth —signaled something deep within the human soul and stirred the human spirit. 

“I also see this as a call for motherhood leadership — for those sentiments, sensitivities, and values of mother to lead. I know I felt that, and others have expressed a similar feeling. Also, in my opinion, this is what has catalyzed the protest and the Movement for Dignity and Justice across this country and the globe.” 

Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, transformative leader of the African American Muslim Movement and reformer, introduced the concept of “Motherhood Leadership”: “To be a mother is to be a leader over the life when it first comes. The woman is the first shaper of the human life or the human society.” 

He said in 1977, “Society is suffering right now, not because we don’t have male leadership, but because we don’t have mother leadership…we need a mother’s voice to be heard in the society today…; we want to hear … mother sentiments, some mother-concern. Then we want to see the strength of that strong sentiment that G-d formed in mothers by paying labor pains, manifest in society.” 

Sis. Okolo shared her concept paper with Aseelah, who shared it with me and other women, which reintroduced the Imam’s concept of “motherhood leadership, to us, a new generation. Her writing and analysis of the moment she coined the “George Floyd phenomenon” was powerful and spoke the words that we had been feeling but had been unable to articulate. 

We decided to convene a group of women in July 2020 to see if other women were feeling what we felt with her words of motherhood leadership as a foundation. 

The core of the original group, along with myself, included COO of Tarchitects, my family’s architecture firm and author of The Bean Pie-A Remembering of Our Family’s Faith, Fortitude, and Forgiveness; 

Sis. Aseelah Rashid, Co-Founder of The Muslim Mix and Director of Programs for IMAN Atlanta; and

Sis. Savannah Willis, Poet and Associate Site Manager at the International Museum of Muslim Cultures (IMMC).

We sat at the feet of our Mother Advisors, Okolo Rashid, President and Co-founder of the International Museum of Muslim Cultures (IMMC) – America’s first Muslim Museum located in Jackson, Miss.; Ayesha K. Mustafa, Editor of Muslim Journal, national weekly newspaper; and Aisha Waheed, Educator/Human Rights Activist and Co-founder of Muslim Women Home — the sister of Okolo Rashid. 

We asked one another: What is our agenda? What can we do to restore our community? How do we do it?

Thereafter, we decided NOT to create a new organization but to become a network to plug into. We determined that our greatest need is a platform for African American Muslim Women and African American Women’s voices and for them to work together for the Advancement, Preparation, Protection and Preservation of the African American community through broad-based engagement.

Era of Women has been meeting practically every Sunday since July 2020, and our network has expanded to include sisters across the country from within the interfaith and broad-based communities. We talk, we share, we laugh, we love, and learn from one another, and over time. Era of Woman was born. 

We are a leadership network. We invite woman leaders, mother leaders, formal or informal, to join us, come as you are, bring what you have. You are already enough!

We formed in the example of Khadijah, the mother of believers for Muslims. Like her, we are businesswomen, nurturers, and the cultivators of society. 

What makes Era of Woman different and timely is our values. We saw the movement for social justice lacking — it did not represent basic universal religious values. These include the values and beliefs in marriage and family as foundational to the reconstruction of the human family.  

Era of Woman is a Movement to restore humanity through cultivating these values, beginning with the African American community at the center.

What is our Vision? A restored, thriving, self-actualized, and self-determined African American community empowered and uplifted by African American women’s leadership, in partnership with African American men.

Malcolm X said in a 1963 Berkeley, California, Interview, “… When you put a seed in the soil, it remains beneath the soil until the atmospheric changes make the crop grow in the appointed time.” Allah has brought about this appointed time for Black people, and specifically, Black women, to stand up and hear the call of Imam Mohammed, Dr. King, Mr. Floyd, and Allah for all mothers to bring our unique form of leadership to bear.

The mission of Era of Woman is to amplify the voices and leadership of African American Muslim women, working in partnership with other African American women, for the Advancement, preparation, protection, and preservation of the African American Community through broad-based community engagement.

Sis. Aisha Waheed encouraged us to bring prayer back to the community. This inspired the idea for a prayer rally, which morphed into A Mother’s Prayer Rally because we knew there was no prayer stronger than a mother’s prayer. Without our mother’s prayers through the generations, we would not be here. 

We held our first public event, A Mother’s Pray Rally, on Sat., Oct. 30, 2021, at the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN)-Atlanta’s Green Re-entry Village in the heart of Southwest Atlanta.  This launched the start of our broad-based community engagement to provide a platform for the voices of women leadership and action.

We sought to utilize the powerful action of a mother’s prayer, in interfaith communion, to drive a radical revolution of values and the restructuring of society.  Our goal is to Advance, Prepare, Preserve and Protect the human family while centering the African American Community in this pivotal Moment! 

The Atlanta “A Mother’s Prayer Rally” was a partnership between Era of Woman (EOW), The Muslim Mix and IMAN Atlanta (Inner City Muslim Action Network), Elevate ATL Art (City of Atlanta’s Art Festival) and the International Museum of Muslim Cultures (IMMC).

Here are the program highlights for the first “A Mother’s Prayer Rally”:

Interfaith Opening Prayers: Shahidah Sharif, President of Sisters United in Human Services, Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam; Rabbi Lydia Medwin, The Temple; and Carole Maddox, Archdeacon of the Atlanta Archdiocese for the Episcopal Church, Executive Director of Interfaith Public Policy Center

The program had a break for Dhuhr Salat (midday prayer) – led by Imam Mansoor Sabree, followed by a WELCOME from Councilwoman Andrea Boone, City of Atlanta District 10, and a Poem, The Power of A Mother’s Prayer, by Ameedah Abdullah

The program was divided into three sections: Our History, Our Past, The Story of Now, and The Future.

Our History, Our Past: 

• Woman, “Womb of Mind” and the Role of the Family, from a religious perspective – Shahidah Sharif

• History of the Freedom Movement, Elevating Women’s Leadership – Ayesha K. Mustafaa, Editor, Muslim Journal, Jackson, Miss./Chicago, Ill.

• Rethinking the Civil Rights and African American Muslim Movements as Parallel Movements to One Freedom Struggle in America, Okolo Rashid, President/Co-founder of the International Museum of Muslim Cultures (IMMC), Jackson, MS

THE POWERPACKED Poem, “I have a Son,” Mrs. Latifah Ali

The Story of Now

• Era of Woman — Sparked by George Floyd’s Tragedy and Phenomena – Tiffany Green-Abdullah, Co-Chair, Era of Woman

• Kareema Hanifa – Ending Mass Incarceration – Slavery did not end, it Evolved!

• Khadijah Abdur-Rahman, Fulton County Commissioner, District 6 (1st African American Muslim Woman Elected Official in Georgia)

The Future

• Kim Scott, Candidate for Atlanta City Council District 4

• Jayda Ahmad, Community Organizer

• Sabbath Muhammad, Mosque No. 15, Nation of Islam

• Fajr Dulane, Young Entrepreneur

Affirmation: Imam Plemon El-Amin, Imam Emeritus, Atlanta Masjid/World Pilgrims of Atlanta

Call to Action: Join Era of Woman by Aseelah Rashid, EOW Co-Chair, Director of Programs, IMAN Atlanta

Performance – Taylor Nixon, Blue Skies, Sunny Days

Concluding Session: Spiritual Healing and Grounding with Sound Bowls, Najla Sharrief and Neo Raphoto

But what do Advancement, Preparation, Protection, and Preservation mean for African American people? Advancement is defined as the process of promoting a cause or plan, or the promotion of a person in rank or status. 

We must organize to operationalize this movement and prevent Women’s erasure and marginalization this time as we move our agenda forward into the future to preserve and restore the African American community. 

A Mother’s Prayer Rally is being planned in other cities in partnership with Era of Woman. We invite women across the nation and world to partner with Era of Woman in our broad-based community engagement to restore our communities. 

Learn more at http://eraofwoman.com. You can join:  Email us at eraofwoman@gmail.com if you would like to bring “A Mother’s Prayer Rally” to your local community. We will be launching more events and platforms to elevate motherhood leadership in our midst. Everything we do, we do for the pleasure of God (Allah).

“The power and presence of Muslim women are needed to combat the evil forces in society and to reset our morality,” ~ Kenya McKnight, Minneapolis, Minnesota, EOW Member.