I was honored to be apart of this event hosted by Women’s Voices Now and Projectfresh in LA. There was a screening of nine films that were a part of the WVN: Women’s voices from the Muslim World, which is a short film festival in it’s first year that I had the pleasure of being a part.

After the screening there was a panel discussion about the issues the films addressed. I was on the panel with one of the filmmakers, whose film was screened, and Alysse Stepanian, and Victoria Fine, a talented young woman who is Director of Advancement & Outreach for Tiziano Project and Journalist & Editor for the Huffington Post Impact. Needless to say, it was a great discussion of Muslims and non-Muslims talking about difficult and moving topics about women’s lives around the world.

As has been my experience with WVN film screenings, there is always at least one or two films that really touch me and stick with me. In this case, it was “A Land Called Paradise”, a 5 minute film to song that captures the American Muslim experience in an endearing, heartwarming way.  In complete contrast, my other favorite was “1700% Project”, an intense piece of spoken word with images, about the racial profiling and hate crimes that erupted after 9/11.

As always, I feel so honored to sit on a panel and represent, in my own way, the modern Muslim woman