The Story of Muslim Women For: Reimagining Community-Based Systems of Care in Muslim Communities

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Lela Ali

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Muslim women organizers, survivors, and practitioners across the United States are at the forefront of combating sexual and gender-based violence in Muslim communities, developing pipelines of survivor-centered leadership and organized power, and building transformative, community-based systems of care. As a founding director of Muslim Women For, a Muslim women-led grassroots organization in North Carolina, my work centers on transformative justice frameworks, advocacy, and community organizing. This chapter draws from my experiences as an organizer, reflecting on my personal journey of starting Muslim Women For and building community-based systems of care in Muslim communities as a framework for addressing sexual and gender-based violence. At the heart of our approach is the pursuit of transformative justice—a process rooted in restorative and liberatory frameworks instead of the traditional carceral and punitive structures we have in place. This is demonstrated through initiatives such as storytelling and healing spaces, political advocacy centered on reproductive justice and bodily autonomy, and the development of responsive support systems. Muslim Women For is presented here as a local, grassroots effort that works to reclaim the transformative potential of community to develop visions, models, and strategies grounded in collective action to effectively address sexual and gender-based violence in Muslim communities.