Dear CCMW members and supporters,

CCMW would like to provide you with an update of some of our recent activities.

Conference in 2008
CCMW is not holding a conference/symposium this year, unfortunately due to the delays in obtaining funding.

Projects Submissions
We are waiting to hear about our submitted proposals, and will certainly let you all know as soon as we hear from the funders.

Family Law Sessions
At CCMW's national workshop in October 2007, 32 chapter members from across the country were trained and 16 women committed to conducting information sessions in their local communities. CCMW committed to holding 23 local workshops reaching a total of 430 Participants. Thanks to the hard work of all the chapters involved, we have exceeded our commitment and have conducted 26 workshops reaching a total of 441 participants across the country.

While the main objective of the local sessions was to share information, in some cases the sessions also became an exercise in interfaith dialogue and cooperation. For example one of the sessions in Southern Ontario was conducted in a Church. At many of the sessions non-Muslims were present .They were curious about Islam and eager to explore beyond the media stereotypes. The organization of the sessions also allowed us to develop partnerships with different community providers and community organizations. Chapters also conducted information sessions for Law firms and Legal Professionals. The emphasis for these sessions was on Muslim Laws.

Since all those who conducted the local information sessions used and distributed CCMW's family law booklets, we would appreciate any feedback on the booklets in English and in the other languages. If you have any suggestions on how we can improve on the booklets please do let us know, and we will try to incorporate them when the booklets are reprinted.

Future Requests for additional Information sessions on Family laws
Please contact us if you would like sessions on Muslim and Canadian Family laws, or if you would like copies of our booklets on the various aspects of the law –Marriage, Domestic Contract, Divorce, Custody of Children, Spousal Support and Inheritance.

Project with Family Law Education for Women
CCMW is part of a consortium of women's organizations who are developing public legal education and community outreach project. This consortium of organizations - which include, YWCA Toronto, Metropolitan Toronto Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children (METRAC), Community Legal Education Ontario (CLEO), Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW), Springtide Resources and the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) – is called Family Legal Education for Women (FLEW) and is working together to develop materials to inform and enable women who are facing family law issues to make their own decisions with the benefit of accurate and relevant legal information.

CCMW had lawyer, Jasminka Kalajdzic, research and write 3 papers specifically for Muslim women on Marriage and Divorce, including foreign ones as well as a paper on Arbitration.

Muslim Youth Project
In partnership with CCMW's Ottawa Chapter, Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization (OCISO), this project sought to identify issues facing Muslim youth while navigating their multiple identities. The project aimed to develop strategies which would involve the whole community to assist Muslim youth nurture their multiple identities. In this regard, Catalyst Research and Communications was hired.

As part of this project a Muslim Youth Conference was organized in Ottawa, and we appreciate the help and support provided by the Ottawa Chapter. The day-long conference was attended by 100 people, including 60 youth and 40 parents and community resource people.  Over 18 youth were actively involved in organizing the conference. The conference allowed youth a platform to share their thoughts through a variety of media (written, video and drama) about different issues affecting them as Muslim youth.

Catalyst Research has prepared a resource kit which includes ideas and information on how to involve the community, schools, parents and youth on issues impacting young Muslims. The next phase of the project involves replicating this model of community cooperation in different schools across the country. In this regard a training session on how to use the resource kit was conducted in Toronto. Chapter members are currently holding youth sessions in their local communities.

Pre-nuptial Agreements
CCMW is developing an agreement which takes into consideration both Muslim and Canadian family laws.

We hope this will help Muslim men and women to use such a tool as part of their Canadian legal contract.

More information will be provided as soon as the project is complete.

Women Who Inspire
The nominations for Women Who Inspire, 2008 closed on July 31^st. Similar to last year, we have a remarkable slate of candidates and no doubt it will be a tough decision for our selection committee. This year our selection committee is made up of two of our last years finalists—Madina Wasuge and Zia Afsar. Dr. Daood Hamdani, in light of his work on Canadian Muslim Women, is also part of this year's selection committee.

We are still in the process of making the final selection and hope to announce the winners by the end of this year.

CCMW Family of Scholarships
At its 25^th Anniversary conference in 2007 CCMW awarded its first Lila Fahlman scholarship to two Canadian Muslim women. Through the generosity of community members, this year CCMW added four new awards. These include Muslim Women in Leadership Award, for which CCMW was able to secure funding through the work of Dr Nozhat Choudry and Saima Haider; and the Social Justice Award, sponsored by Hassan Law Office of London, Ontario.  We also added 2 new scholarships under the Lila Fahlman scholarships, made trough donations by Ash-Lee Maritime Inc. and Fadumo Gurey.

A decision will be made soon.

Chapter Activities
Our Chapters have been active throughout the year representing CCMW at different events, and organizing and participating in a variety of projects. The Montreal and West Island chapters, in collaboration with AMAL Women's Centre, carried out their annual Ramadan Food Basket project. This year they delivered food baskets to the L'Abri D'Espoir Shelter on Notre Dame Street. Early this year, the Brampton Chapter in collaboration with Rehma organized a senior's celebration, and in August, in partnership with CCMW's Waterloo-Wellington Chapter, held an international Bazaar at Noor Cultural Centre.

We would also like to inform you that due to time commitments, Asma Kassim and Barbara Siddiqui and have stepped down as presidents of the Brampton and Toronto Chapter. Adeela Qureshi is the new president of the Brampton Chapter and Rehana Begg is currently the interim president of the Toronto Chapter.

Media and Advocacy
CCMW is contacted often by the media, academics/researchers, as well as individual Muslim women who need assistance.

The Executive Director writes a regular column for the Kingston Whig Standard which we circulate to our list serve.

International Presence and Collaboration
CCMW has been honoured to be invited to speak at a number of international and national conferences.  For example, members spoke at conferences in Europe, [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] Turkey [COJEP International] Germany [Friedrich Ebert Stiftung] in the United States [Emory University] Egypt, and South Africa. [Association of Women's Rights in Development, AWID)

We have also spoken at a number of national conferences.

CCMW Website/List Serve/Publications
Information of interest is circulated via our list serve and we hope that this of interest to all.

We often circulate documents or opinions with which we do not agree. However we believe in forwarding these to you so that you can decide.

Please visit our website as we have lots of material which will be of interest to you, for example, there is a list of books on Islam and women.

Our recent publications include Muslim and Canadian Family Laws; Canadian Muslim Women At The Crossroads; In the Footsteps of Canadian Muslim Women, as well as the booklets of Muslim and Canadian Family Laws.

Please don't hesitate to contact us for further information.
We look forward to having you as a member of CCMW!
Chapters and board members are listed on the website.

Thank you.