Come Together: We’re distanced, but not disconnected. We spoke to our
Holiday 2020 LookBook cast about what togetherness means right now.

At the heart of creative collective Muslim Sisterhood is the mission of co-founders Zeinab Saleh, Lamisa Khan and Sara Gulamali: to redefine and make visible what being a Muslim woman means to them. That means changing the perception both within their own community and in the mainstream.

“[Growing up], if I’d seen images of Muslim women like the ones that we create, I don’t think I would have struggled as much with my faith as I did,” says Lamisa, 25, a writer and stylist. “We’ve created a space for Muslim women to claim their faith without feeling that they have to be a certain kind of person to be accepted.”

The trio found each other through social media after being inspired by each other’s work to progress the identity of Muslim women. They connected through what Sara calls “a mixture of that passion and pain” of struggling to be accepted and seen both in the creative industry and within their own faith and culture. Muslim Sisterhood was formed in 2017, first with a photography series shot by artist and photographer Sara, 23, that pushed back against the traditional depictions they saw and instead celebrated the depth and energy of the Muslim women they knew who love streetwear and have edge.

“We all have this innate drive to create spaces that center Muslim women, to make things more livable not only for us, but also for those who come after us,” explains Zeinab, a 24-year-old artist. “It’s about celebrating ourselves, promoting sisterhood, and just pushing voices who are usually marginalized to the front, but not in a way that is victimizing any of our communities.”

“We all have this innate drive to create spaces that center Muslim women.”

Zeinab

Their passion project has evolved into a thriving international community spanning inclusive events, work with brands, empowering workshops on self-defense, a published zine, and many more photo shoots that champion Islam creatively.

The women say their online founding has strengthened their ability to continue to collaborate in recent months, and even more so after Sara moved from London to Vancouver. Here, they discuss how they’ve cemented their own sisterhood alongside their public-facing initiatives, and how they hope to redefine what it means to be a Muslim woman today.