Khadijatu-Dimalya Ibrahim

Khadijatu-Dimalya Ibrahim is a passionate student leader, community advocate, and co-founder of the Black Muslim Initiative (BMI) at McGill University. She is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree combining Software Engineering and Islamic & African Studies. Before McGill, Khadijatu-Dimalya was President of the Muslim Student Association at Dawson College, where she organized impactful initiatives like a bake sale that raised $4,000 for the Nisa Foundation, a non-profit supporting Muslim women and families. Her work has been recognized by the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec's (CCIQ) Memorial Award, a $3,000 scholarship honouring students committed to Muslim inclusion.

What are the most meaningful aspects of this person's work and life? 

Khadijatu-Dimalya works tirelessly to build inclusive spaces for Black Muslim students on campus through the Black Muslim Initiative (BMI), addressing the intersection of faith, culture, and identity in a way that allows people to feel represented and understood. Her advocacy is rooted in justice and humanity, especially in the wake of the 2017 Quebec City mosque attack. She uses her voice to remind others that Muslim and Black lives matter and that understanding and compassion are essential to reduce prejudice and discrimination.

How has this individual overcome the challenges they face? 

Khadijatu encounters a challenge common to many Black Muslim women: navigating spaces where one's race, gender, faith, and the combination of all that may not always receive full understanding or acceptance. Instead of compromising parts of her identity, she created platforms where she could fully be herself and encourage others to do the same. Khadijatu is persistent and always shows up with a big smile and a strong intellect. 

How has this individual empowered you and/or our communities? 

I first knew Khadijatu in the context of an Iftar fundraiser for Sudan that she was co-organizing through the Black Muslim Initiative at McGill University. I was able to see the level of care she demonstrated through the attention to detail she brought to the event, her organizational skills, and her deep solidarity with Sudan. Thanks to her and her team, the event was a huge success and it encouraged me to want to continue collaborations with them.  The work she does on campus surely has a significant impact too for Black Muslims on campus and in the city. She shows that leadership comes from the heart first, and she creates places for belonging, learning, and shared identity, particularly in spaces where such belonging wasn’t explicitly fostered before.

Name a Black Muslim woman who has been an inspiration to you and why.

For a Muslim woman that has inspired me, it would be my mom. She came here in her early 20s and was pregnant, and was literally just thrown into something completely new, not understanding a word of French or English, and having to raise kids as a first time mom in a very isolated place where she knew no one. She has always put everyone before herself. Being the eldest daughter of seven also made her a mother even before she had her own children. She helped raise her siblings, and most of them now hold high positions and PhDs because of how hard she works to make sure everyone she loves succeed, oftentimes forgetting to pour into her own cup. Her humor, her incredible sense of style, her infectious smile and laugh, the way she never looks like what she is going through, her positive outlook on life, and her resourcefulness make me so proud to even know her, and even more proud to call her my mom. Her patience with me especially (i'm I middle child fyi :)), has shown me that there is nothing stronger than a mother’s love. In my language, Dagbani, there is a saying, “A kuto yo a ma samley,” which means you can never repay your mother for what she has done. Seeing the kind of human being she is, I understand that truly her reward can only be with Allah for all the beautiful woman she is. May the goodness and mercy she shows us as a mother be a means of entry for her into Jannah. Ameen.