User:Meeraoaldhaheri/sandbox

Amani al-Khatahtbeh

Early years
As a young Muslim girl growing up in New Jersey, she hid her Muslim identity from the people around her so as to avoid prejudice. When she was 13 years old, her family decided to move to Jordan due to concerns of increased violence against the Muslim community in the United States. Her time in Jordan was one that was life-changing because it was there that she had began to reclaim her Muslim identity. After her mother fell ill, her family moved back to New Jersey to be closer to their relatives who still lived there. Back in New Jersey, she continued to feel closer to her Muslim identity and decided to wear the hijab as an act of resistance against Islamophobia. Her experience as a Muslim American post 9/11 evoked her to speak up and fulfill a moral obligation, despite the fact that she was one of a small percentage of Arab American kids in her high school and wasn't accepted by her classmates. Because she didn't have a community of young Muslim women, she decided to make her own and founded MuslimGirl.com in 2009 when she was 17 years old and a senior in high school. 

Muslim Women's Day
On March 27, 2017, al-Khatahtbeh created Muslim Women's Day and launched the first official one on MuslimGirl.com. Muslim Women's Day strove to celebrate all Muslim women and center their voices in mainstream media. Al-Khatahtbeh wanted a safe space for diverse Muslim women to get the platform they deserved, as well as for them to share positive stories that would empower Muslim women around the world, which is why Muslim Women's Day was an important step in her career.