Mission, Vision and Story
Muslim Mamas was created in 2011 with a view to share the journey of motherhood in a safe space, and ease loneliness by connecting mothers globally. Muslim Mamas is for Muslim women from all walks of life where they advise, support and provide quality information. With a collective audience of 250,000+, many of the women offer skills and expertise in counselling, legal advice, health, education, children’s well-being, relationships, business and more.
Vision Statement
Muslim Mamas aspires to be the largest online global network of [English-speaking] Muslim mothers, empowering and connecting with each other, enabling positive change and impact, becoming the ‘go-to’ place for Muslim women sharing authentic experiences and advice across the globe.
Mission Statement
Muslim Mamas provide a network and multiple safe spaces at the fingertips of Muslim women globally, to connect, inspire, share and empower Muslim women seeking sisterhood and a support network.
It is a global online community and media platform for Muslim mothers to be educated, uplifted and given an authentic raw voice to the underrepresented Muslim woman by providing quality information, consultancy, networking, events, culturally sensitive content and growth opportunities.
Our Story
Nargis Jahan Uddin (Founder)
“In January 2011, I randomly posted a photo of my son sleeping with his bum in the air on my hardly used Facebook profile. It was a moment of sheer frustration, exhaustion and a deep loneliness that propelled me to do this. Within an hour, this experience connected so many of my friends from different stages of my life all across the world who shared their experiences of their children and their sleeping habits.
Suddenly, for the first time, being a first time mum didn’t feel so lonely anymore. Friends from different points in my life suddenly reconnected with me on the one thing we now shared in common – motherhood. This wealth of shared experience, knowledge and prayers not only connected me, it felt like it also validated me.
As an uncertain, guilt ridden, young mother, it was a network at my fingertips. I wanted to retain this, bottle it up and not let go. It was this moment that led me to create Muslim Mamas. I invited a hundred of my own friends, they then invited their friends and so it grew. It was my son’s bum that launched thousands of mums and became symbolic of my time of need, my cry for help. I could post at 3 a.m whilst awake and alone, and I knew there was always someone there to reply; there was always someone with me. I was no longer alone.
Muslim Mamas was the cord that connected me, pulling me out of the dark reverie that I now recognise as post-natal depression, where I had felt so disconnected from motherhood, so disconnected from even my own baby to being thrown what felt like a ‘lifeline’ by connecting with this community at my fingertips.”
Nafisa Rahimi (Co-Founder)
“Muslim Mamas had a domino effect on all its members. Friends invited friends and so the word spread. Members saw the value in collective experiences; they laughed together and cried together. They prayed together and stayed together, building this community that had such rapid growth that it had to be controlled, remaining ‘secret’ and’ invite only’ for many years.
I saw the myriad of mothers who shared their personal stories, some serial anonymous posters with serious problems. Domestic abuse. Oppression. Cheating husbands or crazy in-laws. Child protection issues, Prevent issues to health issues. Slowly but surely, Muslim Mamas admin team worked together to mobilise the community, to signpost to the relevant services, utilising external help as needed.
That’s how I came to be involved resulting in me becoming admin and subsequently Co-Founder. I got a call from one of the admins asking me to help a domestic abuse survivor escape with her young children and to help find her shelter as her then husband was encouraging her to poison herself. It was now or never.
This led to a series of life-changing events where I shouldered the burden of this huge responsibility and personally supported her for over a year and a half with the support of the whole admin team with special reference to Fareena and Jazmin, and some of our mamas. It was truly a baptism of fire, learning on the go, cutting through red-tape and connecting with external services to help give that support.
This in turn made me realise then how much bigger Muslim Mamas was and how much bigger it could be. We needed to build strategic partnerships that could help us and our mamas long-term. We needed to be able to develop our vision, expand our mission and grow in order to achieve sustainability.”
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Muslim Mamas is currently working working at government level with various organisations, campaigning with key messages that have a direct and relevant impact on the Muslim Mamas community. If you or your organisation feel that you would benefit from our community or your services or products will offer value to our mamas, then do get in touch. We would also be interested in brand consultancy, insights and market research opportunities.
At a glance, Muslim Mamas offer:
- an online community, network and multiple safe spaces at the fingertips of Muslim women globally through Facebook Groups
- a multichannel media platform offering quality information and products / services for Muslim mothers to be educated, uplifted and given an authentic raw voice. This will be available through website content, online and offline events, membership lounge
- to work as a consultancy to companies to ensure the collective voice of the community can be shared and heard to improve products and services of interest
Our History
2011 was the year that a single photo of Nargis Jahan Uddin’s sleeping baby gave birth to a fast-growing online platform that has since become a global hive mind for Muslim mothers. Its main purpose at inception was to connect Muslim mothers in the journey of motherhood through shared experience, support and faith. Nargis posted a photo of her baby and sought advice only to find a village of mamas ready to support and share. Nargis understood the loneliness that mothers endeavoured in motherhood and realised that there wasn’t a safe space online for Muslim mums to come together. Thus, Muslim Mamas was born.
Muslim Mamas started as a lifeline for Nargis. It pulled her out of a dark period of what was most likely postnatal depression. It then became a lifeline for so many others too and has changed the lives of many mamas.
As Muslim Mamas rapidly grew, Nafisa Rahimi (a member since 2012) joined the admin team of five in 2014, during an intense and volatile case of domestic violence, where she helped a survivor to escape and subsequently provide on-going, after-care support. She knew then that Muslim Mamas needed professional services to help support the many vulnerable mamas.
In 2018, Nafisa joined Nargis as Co-Founder and thus began Muslim Mamas’ corporate journey, evolving from a Facebook platform to including a multi-channel platform and media space by launching MuslimMamas.com as well as other subsidiary platforms under the Muslim Mamas umbrella, with a collective reach of over a quarter of a million.
Nargis and Nafisa share a common vision for Muslim Mamas with exciting and ambitious plans to elevate this community and develop it into a greater space with a significant global presence, providing solutions to various needs, opportunities for growth and social impact.
January 2021 marked the ten-year anniversary for Muslim Mamas followed by the launch of their website in March. The website has enabled them to produce their own quality content relevant to the MM community and written by the MM community in their own raw voices. It provides an educational platform where mamas can enrol on courses and participate in events as well have private chat rooms (Muslim Mamas VIP Lounge) to converse comfortably with like-minded Muslim sisters without leaving the greater community.
In September 2021, Muslims Mamas was accepted onto the prestigious and coveted Facebook Accelerator Program after a gruelling three-stage selection process. As the strategic leader and main applicant, this was led by Nafisa (see the UK cohort) who was mentored intensively by Founders Intelligence during the process and secured significant funding for Muslim Mamas from Global Giving. From thousands of applicants, with only 131 communities selected worldwide from 640 million communities, Muslim Mamas was one of ten selected from the UK with Nafisa representing less than 1% of the selected elite global leaders.
Going from strength to strength, Muslim Mamas is rapidly becoming an international platform with remarkable engagement and reach. With over fourteen Facebook groups as well as a Facebook page with a significant number of active followers and an increasing footprint on Instagram, Muslim Mamas is a firm brand influence.
Muslim Mamas has bridged the gap between mothers of all walks of life, attracting many Muslim female high profile figures and celebrities. High engagement statistics are testament to the value of the forums, proving it really is a network – a community ‘at your fingertips’
