“I believe a good event is one that is well planned with a broad vision and a deep intention”: Fatima Altalib, Founder of ‘The Fajr Sisters’ speaking on ‘The Sisterhood Event’ in collaboration with ‘Revivers Sisterhood’
Arwa Khan, 3rd December 2021
Amid the prohibitive and strenuous times of the Coronavirus pandemic it comes as a pleasant surprise that connecting ourselves with our roots as a community along with the prospects of reminiscing our bond is achievable. This was made possible by the two of the most recognized societies of International Islamic University Malaysia IIUM, inaugurating the “The Sisterhood Event” on 27th November 2021 conducted on the Google Meet online platform.
In order to gain a greater insight into The Fajr Sisters community, and to learn more about event planning and execution, we go behind the scenes of ‘The Sisterhood Event’ and converse with Fatima Altalib.
- Please introduce yourself and tell us about your journey into this organisation.
Assalamu alaikum. My name is Fatima Altalib. I am a writer, a teacher, a Masters of Education student, a spoken word poet and the founder of The Fajr Sisters. I was born in South Africa and grew up in some of the poorest and richest countries of the world. Having this mixed background and diverse exposure from a young age really got me questioning who I am and where my identity lies. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that being a Muslim is the backbone of who I am. Whenever I felt lost, Islam was always there to guide me back home.
When I was 17 years old and went off on my own to Malaysia to start my undergraduate degree, I felt like there were so many possibilities for me. However, being away from my family, I also felt like I didn’t know who I was anymore. I was slowly losing the only identity I thought I had. I desired to find myself and live a more balanced, healthy and meaningful life but I knew I couldn’t do it on my own. I longed for a safe space where young Muslim women like myself could find themselves. I searched for a space of growth where I could join hands with women to discover more about our identities and strengths and learn how to deal with the different challenges we face today. I couldn’t find that space so I decided to create it. That’s how The Fajr Sisters organisation was born.
- Enlighten us with some background about ‘The Fajr Sisters’.
We are an international community of women who strive to support and bring out the best in one another. We do this by hosting fun, insightful and interactive self-development workshops and events. Through our programmes, we aim to re-energize our hearts, build our confidence, unleash our potential and strengthen our bonds of sisterhood all while finding solutions to real life issues that we face as Muslim women and as a human community.
What makes The Fajr Sisters unique, is that we’re more than just a society, community or organisation. We are a movement. We are a lifestyle choice; the choice to wake up at dawn with determination, hope and resilience. The choice to live a more balanced life. The choice to work on and develop ourselves. The choice to give back to our families, communities and humanity. The choice to forgive ourselves when we slip up, embrace our imperfections and support one another through our highs and lows. The choice to live a meaningful life that is pleasing to Allah SWT. THIS is who we are.
- Why did you decide to collaborate with ‘Revivers’ for the Sisterhood Event?
At Revivers, the goal is to connect the youth to their roots and help them grow mentally and spiritually under the shade of competent industry leaders, scholars, speakers, and trainers from multiple countries.
I am blessed to be both a Fajr Sister and Revivers member alhamdulillah. Revivers has a brilliant strategy of having a brotherhood and sisterhood division where sisters can bond with their fellow sisters and brothers can bond with their fellow brothers in a safe and halal space. Many Fajr Sisters are coincidentally also Revivers members. Revivers has trained their members really well in event organising and so it made sense to collaborate with them to make this an event that benefits both organisations.
- What made you/motivated you to want to hold this event during the pandemic and how did it affect you overall throughout the event and post event?
Before the pandemic, we would wake up at dawn, pray Fajr salah and rush to get ready for our Friday Fajr Sisters picnic. We’d chop the fruit, toast the bread, boil the eggs and recite our morning adhkar. Then we’d have a deep conversation about topics that affected us and our communities. We played games, asked questions, filled in worksheets, shared poetry and threw in a joke or two all to help us find solutions. At the end of our session, our bodies, hearts and minds felt nourished and we felt closer to one another.
I wanted to bring back that special Fajr Sisters’ feeling on a bigger scale. I wanted to remind everyone that we might be far apart physically, but our hearts are near and we will always have each other’s back. I wanted to bring out our smiles, laughter and energy.
Our vision for this event was to convey the warmth that our sisterhood shares and to spread hope to sisters around the world that together, we will prosper.
This vision motivated me when the planning for the event got tough and time consuming. It also helped to motivate the team as I could share with them a deeper purpose for hosting this event. After the event, we received positive feedback. Sisters were reminded of the precious bond and the pure feelings of sisterhood that we share and felt a sense of relief from their life burdens alhamdulillah.
- As this is your first time organising such an event, what are the first steps you took in its execution?
While this is the first time we host an online event of this nature, we did have some experience from our Quran Night event that we hosted in October 2021. I was the programme manager (PM) of Quran Night and so for the Sisterhood Event, I wanted to pass on the torch to someone else so that they too can gain experience and leadership skills in that area. Thankfully, my fellow Fajr Sister Amna Yaqoob who also happens to be the head of Revivers Sisterhood agreed to take on the role. Amna turned out to be a brilliant PM and I took on the role of the Consultant who guided Amna and the team whenever necessary.
The first thing we did was take into consideration all the lessons we learnt from our previous event. We then identified all the roles we would need to bring this event to life. From there, we found our team, shared with them our vision and received their feedback and suggestions before creating a detailed action plan.
- What was your promotional strategy for the event?
Amna and I created two WhatsApp broadcast lists containing the contacts of all the sisters we knew. Our design team worked on several different poster designs until we selected and modified the one we felt suited the event best. We then sent out messages to the broadcast lists asking everyone to invite all their female friends and family. We also promoted our event on Instagram and WhatsApp story and sent regular reminders to our broadcast groups to RSVP before the event. During the event, we sent updates to the broadcast list of the next game/ performance to encourage those who didn’t join at the beginning to still get a taste of the event.
Alhamdulillah because of our persistent promotions, we managed to attract a good number of participants. However, I believe if we had created a pub and pro team, promotion might have happened on a wider scale and attracted even more participants.
- Describe your event planning experience. What did you do that made it so successful?
The first step to our event planning strategy was to identify leaders and teams. For example, the graphics design team and the leader of the graphics design team, the team of technicians and the leading technician, etc. Then we identified other individual roles such as the assistant programme manager (APM), the timer, etc. After that, it was all about communicating with the team and following up until the event day.
I think the most successful ingredient is to constantly renew our intentions and seek for the success from Allah for He is the only one who can grant us success. From our side, we put a lot of thought into every element of the event, from the poster to the invite and promotional messages to the games, to the hosts’ script to the thank you message. Thanks to Allah’s generosity, Allah helped our efforts to pay off alhamdulillah.
- Were there any drawbacks you would like to share with us?
There will always be drawbacks in an event and it is for us to learn from them. The biggest drawback was the fact that we struggled to find writers to take down notes during the event. We plan on overcoming this by establishing a permanent writers team for The Fajr Sisters and also addressing any major issues such as this one with the whole organising committee early on in the event planning so that we work together to find a solution and avoid any such drawbacks.
- What do you think makes a good event? How do you measure the success of an event?
To measure the success of an event in terms of the number of participants alone is quite superficial in my opinion. I believe a good event is one that is well planned with a broad vision and a deep intention.
The success of the event starts with what goes on behind the scenes. Are the committee members working together effectively in a team? Are the committee members growing, learning and developing their skills? Are we developing a long-term system and strategy that can be used in future events? Are we adapting the system and improving it when necessary? Are we documenting our progress? Are we using this event as an investment for future events and projects? Did the team feel fulfilled and satisfied after the event?
Once the behind the scenes have been evaluated, we can then evaluate the actual event. Did we stick to the programme flow? Were the audience engaged? What was the feedback from participants? Did we learn from our past mistakes and apply our lessons? Did we adapt to any unforeseen circumstances? Are participants interested in attending future events? Moreover, do participants feel a part of a broader community and sisterhood? Do participants feel closer to this Muslim Ummah? Was our event warm and embracing? Did our event have a unique selling point that made it stand out from other organizations’ events? After the event, did we receive more social media followers and more people interested in volunteering with us?
These are some of the questions we need to think about when considering what makes a good event. I would personally measure the success of the Sisterhood Event in terms of the level of enthusiasm from both the organising committee and participants and their interest to actively participate in future events. I believe that the long term success of this event can be determined by whether or not our vision is carried forward on a bigger scale. If it inspires other organisations and individuals to take responsibility for living and spreading the spirit of The Fajr Sisters in their own way; then we have achieved our goal because when we work together, we are powerful.
- How do you wish to inspire people with such events and what is your final goal?
The Fajr Sisters is a training ground for living our greater purpose, which is to work together in goodness. For events such as this one, it takes a team of sisters to get to know one another on a deeper level, build trust with one another and strengthen their communication. We set an example by getting sisters from all around the world to not only see how the organisers work together and be inspired by that, but also actively partake in the mission to learn more about each other, to see how we can help and support one another and work to create something that has meaning and makes a difference.
Starting from the small things we do every day to our big dreams that take years to unfold, there is so much good inside of us and so much good we can bring to humanity. I wish to inspire people to always find ways to grow as individuals and as a community. I wish to inspire sisters to explore ways in which they can bring more joy, light and development to the world. If we make the right intention, seek Allah’s help and work together, we can achieve great things.
- How do you think events such as this one can benefit people?
Events such as Quran Night and the Sisterhood Event connect us to our identity as Muslims and our purpose of existence to worship Allah. Moreover, these events connect us to our sisters in Islam who are our second family, our blood, and our support system. It’s a fun way to learn more about ourselves, each other and the world around us in a relaxed, loving and joyful space. These events are also a great place to meet and network with sisters from all around the world whom you may have not met outside of the event. I highly encourage others to collaborate and take initiative in making such events possible.
- Before we end this interview, would you care to share your final thoughts with the readers?.
I would like to express how proud I am of everyone who makes events like these happen. Without a great team and interested participants, none of this would be possible. I’d also like to invite anyone who might be reading this to join our family, our team and our programmes to help us make a real impact in this world. I believe each one of us has a unique contribution we can give to this Earth. Being a part of The Fajr Sisters and Revivers family can help us discover what that is and contribute towards the betterment of humanity in the best way we can.
The Fajr Sisters was founded in 2017 by Fatima Altalib and continues to spread their motto to ‘Lead a meaningful life’. Revivers was established in 2018 and continues to promote their motto, ‘Leave a legacy’.
Please follow and join The Fajr Sisters and Revivers by filling in the forms below:
The Fajr Sisters Social Media:
https://instagram.com/thefajrsisters
Website: thefajrsisters.wordpress.com
The Fajr Sisters Recruitment Form:
https://forms.gle/dMGt3WisNKVEiLKL9
Revivers Social Media:
Revivers Recruitment Form:
http://bit.ly/ReviversRecruitment
Follow Fatima Altalib on Instagram:
The Fajr Sisters 