The United States is home to a significant population of Asian Indian Americans or Indo-Americans who make up approximately 1.35 percent of the America’s population. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2023, there are an estimated 4.8 million Indo-American individuals residing in the country of 336 million. Of this Indo- American population, around 2.7 million individuals are first generation immigrants, that is they were born in India and moved to the United States later in their lives.
According to the Pew Research Center 2012 study, Asian Americans: Mosaic of Faiths, the religious makeup of Indian Americans is estimated to be 51 percent Hindus, 18 percent Christians, 10 percent Muslim, 5 percent Sikh, 2 percent Jains and remaining other religions such as Buddhists, Bahais, Jews. Based on the estimate that 10 percent Indian Americans profess the Muslim faith, of the 2.7 million first generation Indian immigrants, the cohort of Muslims is an estimated 270,000 persons, of which half, or 135,000, would be Muslim women and girls from India. The 100 Rising Beyond The Ceiling stories are a small sliver from among these 135,000 Muslim women and girls, who were born in India and spent the early part of their life there, and then immigrated to America either through marriage or for higher studies.
There is a stereotype narrative surrounding Muslim women of India. The major stereotypes that they are confronted with are around education, marital rights, and freedom. They are often imagined and portrayed as oppressed victims, docile, powerless, voiceless, and marginalized. It is also commonplace to view Muslim women of India, and globally, as a monolithic category, even though they are highly differentiated and heterogeneous. The millions of women of India, who identify themselves as Muslim, reach across all states and union territories, are from a spectrum of ethnicities and languages, do not look the same or sound the same, work and study, live in countries around the world, and contribute to progress and development in a myriad way. The stereotypical image of a Muslim woman as uneducated and lacking ambition is neither true nor fair. It obscures the complex realities of life for many millions of Muslim women ― incorrectly attributing their low levels of educational attainment to a lack of desire, as well as to the strictures of Islam, rather than to a broader range of socioeconomic and political roadblocks. It is equally important to stop creating dichotomies like Muslim women, who wear a veil and fulfill their duties as daughters, wives and mothers, and Muslim women, who are independent professionals with modern education. Such binaries overlook the agency that Muslim women exercise and uses only religion to judge them.
Rising Beyond The Ceiling (RBTC) was founded out of the need to change the stereotypical narrative about Muslim women of India. I believe we ourselves must also work to put forward and build our own narrative. Through sharing the stories of the lived reality of Muslim women’s lives, in all their diversity, RBTC aims to dismantle their negative societal stereotypes. The hundreds of profiles of courage and excellence of Muslim women across India and globally, demonstrate how they have overcome and addressed the hierarchies of gender, class, and location. Through shining a light on the untold stories and celebrating the achievements of Muslim women of India, RBTC proposes to make them more visible and drive a new narrative.
I celebrate all the one hundred honorees spotlighted in this publication. The 100 RBTC USA honorees have displayed exemplary resilience and success in various fields. They tell stereotype shattering stories from across 25 states of the United States, Connecticut to California, Florida to Washington State, Montana, Minneapolis, Michigan, Massachusetts, Maryland to Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and of course New York, New Jersey, Texas, and Virginia, among others. They have studied at premier Indian educational institutions and universities in the cities of Allahabad, Aligarh, Amravati, Baroda, Bhopal, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Mysuru, Manipal, Mumbai, Patna, Pilani, Ranchi, others and obtained their degrees in a range of subjects prior to moving to the US.
The Rising Beyond The Ceiling Honorees have taken up substantive positions in US Government departments and agencies such as NASA, CDC, NIH, US Air Force. They are change makers in social development as philanthropists, CEOs, development specialists, socio political activists. They are expert professionals in science/STEM, medicine, dentistry, and nursing. They are academic professors and academic researchers in a range of subjects from computer science, neuroscience, physics to history, Urdu literature, media, and cultural studies. They lead in American and multinational companies as Directors, Senior Executives, Product Owners, Managing Directors, Vice Presidents. They work in the banking, finance and legal sectors. They are entrepreneurs and founders with their own LLCs in a range of areas from psychology practice, information technology, real estate, and lifestyle related. They are award winning authors and poets in English and translators from local Indian languages and creative contributors to the arts and media as curators, artists and journalists. They are a source of pride in their country of origin, alma mater institutions and communities. Learning about their life journeys, I am energized about the potential of the next generation of women leaders in the community who have these role models.
As I review the profiles for Rising Beyond The Ceiling, I read about and talk to Muslim women of India, looking for what the achievers have in common. The many biases and barriers that have derailed women from exploring their full potential could fill pages. However, the bigger fascination for me is not the women who were stopped, but those who refused to be slowed down. And what does that say about what we all can do going forward. While all women achievers are distinctive and individualistic, I see some common pointers emerging. Most achievers have a supportive person or mentor at some point in their lives, whom they mention in different ways – father, mother, spouse, mostly family – who was instrumental in their career selection and/or pursuance. Many women pursued a childhood dream which carried them through failure and disappointment to keep trying and finally succeed. There are stories of taking on professional careers later in life after marriage and motherhood, because of responsibilities after the loss of a spouse or after exploring different professions. Several faced brickbats and backlash but were firm in their belief which helped them continue in their chosen path. RBTC honorees tend to redefine themselves as individuals without limitations of gender stereotypes, and this belief was also encouraged and supported in their families. The whole world doesn’t need to be on the side of Muslim women achievers, and it almost never is. But one mentor, or teacher or parent or spouse offering encouragement is vital.
I continue to learn about and from Muslim women of India. They diversify my perspectives and reiterate that Muslim women are heterogeneous, and not a monolith. As we take charge of the new narrative, inspired by these stories of success, and recognizing the tenacity of women, let us start shedding the narrow definitions of success and of us, Muslim women of and from India. Change occurs slowly, but it does occur. I feel we are making progress….
Farah K. UsmaniFounder & ChairpersonRising Beyond The Ceiling August 2023
