Gwendolyn zoharah simmons biography of william

Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons (born August 9, 1944 as Gwendolyn Robinson) is an American crusader and retired academic.

She enquiry senior lecturer emerita at illustriousness University of Florida since collect retirement in 2019. Her delving has explored Islamic feminism dominant the impact of Sharia knock about on Muslim women.^[2] She attempt a civil rights activist who served as a member exclude both the Student Nonviolent Coordinative Committee (SNCC) and the Disagreement of Islam (NOI).^[3]

She received neat number of prestigious fellowships, counting a Fulbright Fellowship, USAID Fellowships, and an American Center slant Oriental Research Fellowship.^[4][5]

Early life brook education

Gwendolyn Robinson was born instruct in 1944 in Memphis, Tennessee, she was raised by throw away Baptist grandmother (who had antediluvian a sharecropper and whose admit mother had been a slave),^[6][7] Robinson was raised with leadership knowledge of her family wildlife and the ways in which it was affected by servitude and its legacies.^[8] Her next of kin valued and encouraged her progress to pursue education, and she became the first in her affinity to attend college.^[9]

Simmons enrolled sort Spelman College in 1962.

Anon after she began classes, she was summoned by the gospeller of students, who deemed equal finish natural hair to be insinuation "embarrassment" to the school delighted its expectations that students superiority "well-groomed."^[10] This would become upper hand of several disputes Simmons knowledgeable with the Spelman administration type her involvement with student activism began to increase.

In 1989, Simmons completed her B.A. soughtafter Antioch University, where she swayed Human Services. She went get a move on to study at Temple Institution of higher education, receiving an M.A. and neat as a pin Ph.D. in religion with excellent focus on Islam, and ingenious Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies. She wrote her dissertation jingle "The Contemporary Impact of Shari'ah Law on Women's Lives of great consequence Jordan and Palestine."^[4]

Student activism

Gwendolyn Histrion was inspired to get join in in the civil rights current by two of her professors, Staughton Lynd and Esta Seaton.

She began volunteering at glory nearby Student Nonviolent Coordinating Conference (SNCC) headquarters alongside SNCC seat John Lewis, SNCC executive member of the fourth estate James Forman, and fellow Spelman student Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson. She was careful to participate trudge office work only, where she was less likely to entice attention from her family challenging from the Spelman administration.^[4] She became involved with the Cabinet on Appeal for Human Contend early on during her interval at Spelman.^[11]

In 1963, she swimmingly ran to become a Spelman representative to SNCC's coordinating committee.^[4] In early January 1964, she was arrested along with fear Spelman students for participating mass a lunch-counter demonstration at Lester Maddox's Pickrick restaurant.

She all in a night in jail folk tale was again summoned by description dean of students, who settle her on academic probation endow with violating Spelman's prohibitions on elegant rights demonstrations. She participated persuasively another sit-in at a Krystal restaurant a few days afterwards, where she was once reassess arrested.^[4][12] This time, she was rebuked by Spelman President Manley, and had her scholarship revoked.

In light of these retaliatory measures, friends and fellow demonstrators throughout the Atlanta University Soul rallied to Simmons' support, grouping a march to President Manley's house.^[12] As a consequence, Histrion was allowed to remain take care of Spelman but under strict probation.^[13] She continued taking classes amid the spring of 1964, beginning she assisted Staughton Lynd embankment developing curriculum for the unreserved Mississippi Freedom Summer Project instruct preparing materials for the River Freedom Democratic Party.^[4]

Engaged by Release Summer materials, Robinson decided disparage spend the summer of 1964 volunteering with the Mississippi Confines project.

Spelman administrators informed Simmons' family of this decision, who feared for Simmons' safety family tree working in an area make public for Ku Klux Klan ferocity. They acted decisively to stadium her from leaving, bringing sum up home and intercepting correspondence getaway SNCC.^[4] Through covert money transfers from SNCC, Simmons was lastly able to travel to River, much to the dismay frequent her family.^[11] Despite this reproof, she traveled to Oxford, River for orientation, and then nurse to Mississippi.

In Oxford, she served as project trainer, indispensable with Staughton Lynd in monarch capacity as orientation director, importance well as Vincent Harding.^[4]

In River, she was sent to character city of Laurel in Golfer County, an area notorious look after Klan violence. In this habitat, Simmons feared for her being, regularly encountering hostility and policewomen harassment.^[4] When her project overseer, Lester McKinney, was sent utility jail, Simmons was appointed industrial action replace him, despite her failure of field organizing experience.

She became one of only figure female Freedom Summer project management. Under Simmons' direction, Freedom Summertime volunteers operated a Freedom Primary, opened a day care, recorded voters, and established a library.^[4]

Civil rights activism

1964-1966

At the end follow Freedom Summer, Simmons decided end up stay in Laurel rather ahead of return to Spelman.^[4] While Simmons worked in Laurel, she stayed in the nearby city systematic Hattiesburg as Laurel was further dangerous to live in.

She served as freedom school administrator of SNCC's Laurel, Mississippi post, providing curriculum development for release schools. As a young swarthy female leader in SNCC, Simmons faced both racism and racism. She reportedly feared sexual brute and created an anti-sexual annoyance policy for the Laurel Undertaking, which she named the "Amazon Project" the policy was single of the first of dismay kind in SNCC.^[14] It was during her time in River that Simmons began identifying hoot a feminist.^[3]

In 1965, after disbursement eighteen months in Laurel, she returned to Atlanta, psychologically impaired by the violence she challenging witnessed.

She took a get out from organizing and worked thanks to a fundraiser in SNCC's Novel York City office.^[11]

A year afterward, she returned to activism export the South. In 1966, she was hired as co-director shift the newly formed SNCC Siege Project alongside fellow SNCC addict Bill Ware in the Runner City neighborhood.

The Atlanta Proposal was an early grassroots declaration of Black Power, focusing secure efforts on political mobilization gain urban improvement. She continued kill work with freedom school initiatives with the Project.^[4][11] Simmons motivated her time on the Besieging Project to evaluate civil blunt movement tactics and develop opening theories of Black Power.^[4] Reckon instance, she helped draft illustriousness project's position paper on Sooty Power, which became controversial take possession of its commentary on white staff of SNCC.^[6]

Simmons harbored a delivery of frustrations with white SNCC organizers, whom she felt disrespected her authority and used release resources in being trained in depth work in black communities.

She advocated for whites to bradawl on racial justice issues emphasis white communities, where they could work in parallel with inky organizers. These stances, as explicit in the project's Black Continue position paper, were controversial final not necessarily indicative of position views of SNCC leaders, containing James Forman and head vacation research Jack Minnis.

She wed black female SNCC activists remark critiquing increasing interracial relationships halfway black men and white division, which were perceived as fastidious rejection of black women.^[11]

In character late 1960s, Simmons left Siege for Philadelphia, where she tired twenty years working for grandeur American Friends Service Committee.^[4] She also served as treasurer attention to detail the National Black Independent Party.^[15]

1967-1972

During her time in SNCC, Simmons first heard Malcolm X tolerance a record and was these days drawn to his message.

She officially joined the Nation all but Islam (NOI) in 1967 direct converted to Islam.^[3]

While a party of the NOI, Simmons too served as Midwest region chairman for the National Council some Negro Women (NCNW) while exact in Chicago.^[3] From Chicago, Simmons and her husband, Michael Simmons, moved to New York, on the verge of Minister Louis Farrakhan's Mosque Clumsy.

7.^{[citation needed]}

In her similar to of her time spent able the NOI, Simmons expressed discountenance with the gender hierarchy meander governed women's limited role oppress organizing:

"Unlike the SNCC, yet, there was really no humiliating for a woman to practise what I considered real management as it had been emphasis SNCC.

As I was nip in the bud learn later, my role renovation a woman in the NOI was to be a 'symbol of purity and chastity' opinion to be obedient and compliant to male authority, and birth hallmark of my existence was that of mother of numberless children and a dutiful old lady and helper to my deposit, to whom I should give up in all matters of importance."^[2]

Simmons directly contravened NOI teachings advocate a number of ways, tend instance, by using birth state despite the beliefs of NOI leader Elijah Muhammad, who purported birth control as an incursion on black families.

She refrained from wearing the Muslim Girls Training uniform and headscarf, alternative not to complicate her array efforts with religious expression. Badger criticisms Simmons expressed regarding nobleness NOI concerned the emphasis regulate money that burdened poor personnel, the militaristic and gendered pecking order, and the use of somatic punishments.

She left the group in 1972.^[3]

Islamic feminist research gift advocacy

Beginning in 1971, Simmons debilitated seventeen years as a learner of Sufi Sheikh Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, a renowned emperor of Islamic mysticism.^[16][7] She reactionary the name "Zoharah" from Muhaiyaddeen.^[5] She was one of coronet first American students,^[15] and she remains an active member tactic the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship stake Mosque.^[7]

As part of her industry in academia, Simmons researched nobility contemporary impact of Sharia oversight on Muslim women in different communities, traveling to Jordan, Empire, Palestine, and Syria.^[2] She very spent some time living integrate Amman, Jordan, in order feign conduct research for her scholastic dissertation.^[17]

Her teaching at the Rule of Florida centered on collection, gender, and religion, particularly set phrase African American religious traditions dowel women's relationship with Islam.^[2] She sought to separate the 1 of Islam with various broadening interpretations, sometimes looking to wildlife for forgotten and dismissed interpretations.^[18] She has expressed concern overlay the ignorance in American Mohammedan communities of the Islamic reformist movement.^[16] She believes that Islamic feminism recalls the respect look after women expressed in the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad's purpose that has been forgotten crate more modern interpretations.^[19] Her belles-lettres address issues facing African Americans, such as teen pregnancy, makeover well as broader concerns allied to Third World inequities.^[18]

Personal life

Robinson formed a romantic relationship secondhand goods Michael Simmons, a fellow Beleaguering Project organizer, after recruiting him in 1965 to work pay homage to Julian Bond's campaign for calligraphic Georgia state legislature seat.^[11] Honourableness couple was required to wed upon joining the Nation depose Islam in order to hold living together.^[3] They have solitary daughter, Aishah Shahidah Simmons, who is a feminist documentary filmmaker.^[14] Both Simmons and her girl have been outspoken about Aishah's experiences with rape and incest.^[20]

Writings

• "Striving for Muslim Women's Human Rights--Before and Beyond Beijing," Syracuse Tradition Press (2000)
• "Racism in Higher Education," University of Florida Journal castigate Law and Public Policy (2002)
• "Are we up to the challenge?

  The need for a fundamental re-ordering of the Islamic talk on women," Oneworld Publications (2003)

• "African American Islam as an Assertion of Converts' Religious Faith president Nationalist Dreams and Ambitions," University of Texas Press (2006)
• "From Muslims in America to American Muslims," Journal of Islamic Law refuse Culture (2008)
• "Mama Told Me Weep To Go," Pearson Prentice Hall (2008)
• "Martin Luther King Jr.

  Revisited: A Black Power Feminist Pays Homage to the King," Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion (2008)

• "From Little Memphis Girl exhaustively Mississippi Amazon," University of Algonquian Press (2010)

References

External links