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When Mena and Zena Nasiri were in elementary school, they wanted to do a class project on Muslim women in history, but they soon ran into an obstacle.
“We went to our local library and couldn’t find any books on Muslim women,” Zena said. “That was the first time we realized that there was a lack of diversity and representation in the books of our community.”
The two sisters, who are now in their juniors and seniors respectively, approached their school’s Parents’ Association and asked for funds to purchase books on Muslim women for all libraries in their school district in Michigan.
The association accepted, and with their help Mena and Zena donated 200 books to each of the 21 schools.
With that success, they created a non-governmental organization, Girls of the Crescent, (Crescent Girls) to search for books on strong Muslim women and donate them to public schools in the area.
The sisters discovered that these books were not only desired in their community, but throughout the United States and the world. To date, the organization has donated more than 1,000 books to 66 schools, public libraries and mosques in the United States and to seven international destinations, including France, Hong Kong, Morocco, Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
Mena and Zena have researched the internet to put together a list of around 300 books portraying influential Muslim women to donate or recommend to those interested.
Zena discovered her favorite novel, “The Lines We Cross”(The Lines We Cross), by Randa Abdel-Fattah, thanks to her research. The book explores the experiences of a young Muslim woman who has immigrated to the United States from Afghanistan.
Mena read it quickly too. “It was an incredible experience to see a character like us in a book,” Mena said. “It took us back to that time in fourth grade where we couldn’t find any books on Muslim women and we felt it was a ubiquitous topic.”
The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Mena and Zena say they are working with American public schools to develop English curriculum reading lists that include many of the books they have found, and they hope the movement will spread beyond the American Muslim community.
Mena says the lack of representation is not just a problem for Muslim women, but also for indigenous people in North America, people with disabilities, and other groups.
“We want the whole world to be seen in the books. But as Muslim women, we don’t feel empowered to speak on behalf of other people, so we want to guide and teach other young people to start similar projects, ”she said.
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