As a major cotton producer and exporter for Western brands, Pakistan plays a central role in the global supply chain, driven by economic pressures to offer low production costs and lax regulations. In 2023, Pakistan produced approximately 887,000 tons of pre-consumer textile waste and imported over 800,000 tons of second-hand clothing, much of it ending up in landfills or informal recycling streams. The textile sector accounts for roughly 9.5% of Pakistan’s industrial greenhouse gas emissions.

In agriculturally vital regions like Punjab, textile production significantly impacts land and water resources, with the production of cotton and denim being extremely water and energy-intensive. Weaving, bleaching and dyeing release harmful chemicals and untreated effluents into the environment, leading to marine ecotoxicity, soil degradation and serious health risks for local communities. Rivers such as the Ravi, once vital to farming, are now heavily contaminated by industrial runoff linked to the textile industry. The production of just one pair of jeans can require up to 7,500 litres of water, an alarming burden for water-scarce countries, including Pakistan.  Meanwhile, farmers face worsening challenges from land degradation and water scarcity, further accelerating the loss of fertile land and deepening environmental crises. The unsustainable use of natural resources highlights the urgent need to consider local environmental conditions in global fashion supply chains. 

Pakistan’s Informal Recycling Sector and Greenwashing

In cities such as Satiana and Karachi, the informal recycling sector depends heavily on low-paid, unprotected female labour, who sort chemically treated waste without proper safety measures. With 350 to 450 small-scale recycling units operating without regulation, traceability and compliance are nearly impossible. Meanwhile, less than 1% of clothing is recycled into new garments – a stark case of greenwashing. Without Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws, brands face no obligation to manage their waste, leaving countries like Pakistan to shoulder the cost of a system built on exploitation.

Zille Huma – Sustainable Fashion Production in the Global South

In a fashion system that thrives on overproduction and disposability, Zille Huma stands out as a designer rooted in resistance. Born in a small agricultural village in Punjab, Zille Huma’s work, particularly for her slow fashion brand Xile, is inseparable from the land she comes from – a land now rapidly vanishing under the pressures of industrialization and climate change. Zille has witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of urban expansion in Pakistan: fast fashion labour exploitation, agricultural land replaced by factories, and rivers run dry and polluted. Her work is an urgent response to these transformations.

Zille was the first in her village to pursue a creative career, studying design at PIFD (Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design) – where she now teaches – and later becoming the first Pakistani woman from her region to receive a full scholarship to Parsons School of Design in New York, where she completed her MFA in fashion. Her time abroad, surrounded by the concrete skyline of Manhattan, only deepened her attachment to the green landscapes of home. Her debut collection,  rich in traditional hand embroidery, deadstock textiles, and reclaimed materials,  bridges the tension between the industrial and the natural, the East and West.  Zille displays her rare dual perspective: the deep-rooted connection to the land and a first-hand awareness of the modern challenges facing the fashion industry. For her, sustainability is a personal and political responsibility.

As a designer, Zille Huma sees the environmental impact of textile waste in Pakistan as urgent. “Water pollution from untreated dye and chemical runoff, massive landfill accumulation from synthetic fabrics, and excessive resource use in production,” she explains, are among the most pressing challenges.

These issues, she notes, are worsened by poor infrastructure and low public awareness, underscoring the need for sustainable design to become not just a choice but a necessity.

In her Lahore studio, Zille centres her work around waste-conscious design, upcycling, and the revival of indigenous craft. “Every scrap has a story,” she says. “I don’t see waste – I see possibility.” Her practice is grounded in using what already exists – deadstock fabrics, recycled textiles, and traditional handwoven materials like khaddar and organic cotton, while employing natural dyes and avoiding polluting chemical processes. These materials, she explains, are essential for reducing fashion’s reliance on synthetic fibres and chemically intensive processes, which are often responsible for high water consumption and environmental pollution.

By sourcing locally and avoiding industrial production lines, Zille also minimizes her carbon footprint and supports Pakistan’s struggling agricultural and artisanal economies. “Using handwoven and locally produced fabrics is not just environmentally responsible – it’s a way of keeping our heritage alive,” she says. Her collections, some of which take up to six months to produce, are built with this philosophy, favouring slow, intentional design over trend-driven turnover. 

Across the ocean, Hawa Patel is building a parallel solution rooted in community, faith, and circular fashion. With Apis Closet, a U.S.-based South Asian outfit rental platform set to launch in Summer 2025, she directly challenges the linear model of “buy, wear, discard” that dominates diaspora weddings and celebrations. Instead of importing expensive, one-wear garments, Apis Closet offers a system to a circular model of “rent, party, repeat”, reducing demand for new materials and extending the life of traditional outfits. By making South Asian fashion more accessible, inclusive, and reusable, Apis Closet brings cultural pride into the heart of the sustainability conversation. 

Api’s Closet tackles the environmental and financial costs of traditional occasionwear. “Many South Asian outfits are imported, worn once, and forgotten,” Hawa explains. This issue is especially pronounced in South Asian weddings, which often span multiple days and events, creating pressure for attendees to wear a different, often brand-new outfit for each function.

Not only is that wasteful, “it is disrespectful to those who work so hard to make the pieces.” By participating in the circular economy, Apis Closet aims to reduce demand for virgin materials and keep garments out of landfills, offering a practical, low-waste solution especially relevant to Muslim and South Asian communities. 

The environmental stakes are clear. “Renting vs. buying new is taking a step to break away from the single-use consumption and waste models that are the norm for society today,” she says. In many diaspora communities, traditional outfits are imported at high costs and worn only once. “By renting, the average consumer is reducing their waste contribution. Renting reduces the constant need to buy new fashion, thus reducing overconsumption.” 

Hawa’s approach is shaped deeply by her faith and cultural identity. “ I believe it is my duty as a Muslim to not be a part of the degradation of the planet and society, at the hands of what I work and love the most- fashion.” For her, sustainability is a moral and spiritual commitment: “I have been blessed with life and I cannot justify using it to overconsume and rot the planet.”Her critique extends beyond personal consumption to the structural injustices in global supply chains. She emphasizes the need for ethical sourcing, traceability, and fair production for regions in the Global South that bear the brunt of fast fashion’s costs. Apis Closet’s sourcing partnerships prioritize small-batch artisan designers and responsible production, moving from mass manufacturing to intentional, value-driven fashion. Social sustainability, she says, is about championing artisans and giving their work the longevity and appreciation it deserves.

While she acknowledges that some parts of the fashion industry are making progress, particularly through ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) strategies adopted by retailers regardless of local law requirements, she is clear that deeper, systemic change is still needed. “Large-scale change will need to come from within because governments, especially in fashion-producing countries, historically have not passed legislation which protects the environment or garment workers.”

A just fashion future requires global accountability through stronger regulation and reparative justice, alongside local innovation such as the work of Zille Huma and Hawa Patel. Their efforts show how Muslim and South Asian communities can lead the way in building a fashion system rooted in cultural integrity, sustainability, and care.

The post Resisting Fast Fashion: Voices from Pakistan and Diaspora appeared first on Muslim Climate Watch.

The graves of our forefathers, stretching under the cool shadow of palm trees, where we prayed in silent remembrance, are now underwater, their grave markers worn away by the relentless currents. The monsoon is unkind to the dead. Yet, those who brewed this storm, the architects of profit and the barons of carbon, sit comfortably in their high towers, toasting to the weather they funded. 

Although I was born in New York City, some of my childhood was nurtured by the rhythm of those very tides. Sandwip is not just an island; it is the heart of our heritage, where spirituality and earth are inseparable. My family, as with every family here, has practiced the teachings of Islamic Sufism for generations. Our island throbs with the teachings of love, humility, and oneness with mother nature. Yet now, the exact nature seems revolting against us, controlled by those who dwell in towering skyscrapers above, manipulating the weather as if they’ve burrowed under her skin. 

The waters are reclaiming what was ours by right. The floods come farther inland every year, consuming houses, crops, and markets. Cyclones tear through our villages with a fury that leaves behind only scattered debris and pale bodies. The Meghna River, once a source of nourishment, now eats away at the land inch by inch, pushing families inland until there is no place left to flee to. 

With each storm, more graves are lost beneath the encroaching water, carrying away the past of the people who tilled this land with their hands, prayers, and sacrifices. Rice fields that once bloomed with rice are poisoned, their fertility vanishing like a memory growing old. The water rises, the land falls back, and the people, my people, cling desperately. 

Islamic Sufi Teachings and the Path to Restoration 

Despite such destruction, our faith is not inundated. When faced with loss, we look to the teachings of Sufism, which tell us that annihilation is not the end but a simple transformation. If the waters have been taken from us, we must give back to the earth. Sandwip can be healed through the lens of Islamic Sufi teachings: Tawheed, Sabr, and Barakah.  

Tawheed (the absolute oneness of God, affirming all creation comes from One God) in Islamic Sufism teaches that nature is not separate from us; it is an extension of the divine. The earth, the trees, the rivers, they are all sacred. To harm them is to harm ourselves. To heal them is an act of worship. Sabr (patience and resilience) refers to our ancestors who built their lives on patience. We do not despair; we adapt, as our ancestors did before us when faced with adversity. We do not fight nature; we learn to move along with it, to yield to its power and to act in cooperation with it. Lastly, barakah (blessings through good works) refer to planting a tree, cleaning a river, and rebuilding what was destroyed. These are not just acts of survival but acts of worship. In Sufism, making the land alive is a path to divine blessings. Below are just a  couple of ways to apply Sufi teachings to nature: 

• Reforestation and Mangrove Conservation: Trees in our faith represent mercy. Therefore, by reforesting the mangroves along the shores, we can slow the erosion and save homes from the storms. Every tree that we plant is a prayer that we sow into the earth. 
• Community-Based Restoration: Sufi teachings also emphasize the need for collective action. We can rebuild what has been devastated, not individually, but as a brotherhood bound together by faith and patriotism, through community-based conservation initiatives. 
• Sustainable Agriculture and Water Conservation: Land is tired, maybe, but not dead. With organic farming methods and rainwater harvesting, we can restore its energy as our ancestors did when they first cultivated this island. 
• Sacred Protection of Nature: The rivers and trees are not just resources; they are beings of God. By including environmental education in our mosques and madrasas, we can have a generation that will think safeguarding nature is an act of worship. 

Sandwip is not just sinking; it is screaming to us. It screams to us for our hands, our prayers, and our actions. Climate change has taken much from us, our homes, our heritage, and even the graves of our fathers, but it has not taken our faith. As long as we hold fast to the teachings of our Sufi forebearers and have faith in the oneness of creation, there is hope. 

The waves don’t ask permission, and neither do we. We will rise, we will rebuild, and we will reassert our land, for Sandwip is not a location. It is a spirit, contained within the hearts of the people who refuse to let it be destroyed. 

The post Sandwip: A Drowning Land and the Sufi Spirit  appeared first on Muslim Climate Watch.

1. Yasmeen Lari

As Pakistan’s first female architect, Yasmeen Lari’s prolific career, remarkable accolades, and unwavering commitment to humanitarian work earn her a rightful place as one of the foremost environmentalists of our time. Born in Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan, in 1941, she spent her initial years in Lahore before moving to London with her family, where she graduated from the Oxford Brooks School of Architecture. She returned to Pakistan at the age of 23 with her husband and established her architecture firm, Lari Associates. For 36 years, she worked on prestigious corporate and state-commissioned projects, from Karachi’s finance and trade center to hotels. 

Image Credit: BBC News

She retired in 2000 to focus on writing and founded the Heritage Foundation. The devastating earthquake of 2005 and the recurring floods that plague the country every few years, resulting from climate change, profoundly impacted her. This experience sparked a deep sense of urgency to aid those in need. 

Lari moved on to work closely with displaced families, helping them rebuild their homes with materials like mud, stone, lime, and wood salvaged from the surrounding debris. Working with volunteers, she trained local people on how to use locally sourced materials to rebuild, following the principles of low cost, zero carbon, and zero waste. She criticizes the ‘international colonial charity model’ and believes that making people co-creators of their homes and lives after a disaster is both healing and economical. 

She has built more than 45,000 zero-carbon shelters in areas affected by natural disasters, developed ‘barefoot social architecture’ for impoverished communities in Sindh province, trained the craftsmen and women of Makli in Sindh, and built over 60,000 uniquely designed chulahs, smokeless earthen ovens for the community. She has numerous accolades to her name, from the Jane Drew Prize to the RIBA Royal Gold Medal, but not at the cost of her conscientiousness. Just this March, she rejected the Israeli Wolf Foundation Prize in Architecture with its $100,000 prize money, citing the genocide in Gaza, stating: “I’ve spent much of my life helping refugees, albeit climate migrants, and Gaza is unfortunately now one of the worst situations in terms of displacement.”

2. Sumaira Abdulali

With India’s rich biodiversity and legacy of environmental stewardship under threat from climate change and capitalism, many Indians are actively fighting to protect it. Hailing from a family of environmentalists and anti-colonial activists, Sumaira Abdulali stands as one of the foremost of these activists. Born in 1961 in Mumbai, Sumaira chose to learn from her life experiences instead of a typical college experience. It was the issue of noise pollution that first ignited her passion. 

Dubbed the ‘Minister of Noise’, Sumaira founded the Awaaz Foundation and raised awareness about the damaging effects of the ever-increasing urban noise pollution. She lobbied for the demarcation of silence zones, control of noise from vehicles, and stricter enforcement of Noise Pollution Rules. 

Image Credit: Sachinvenga via Wikimedia Commons

Her relentless fight against illegal sand mining made her stand out as a fearless justice-driven advocate. Sand, often seen as an abundant resource, is one of the most extracted natural materials after water. Yet, for years, its extraction went unchecked, particularly along the coastal areas of Maharashtra, where powerful sand mafias operated with impunity. 

Sumaira was the first to recognize the environmental and social dangers posed by illegal sand mining and campaigned to end it. It was a brutal physical assault by the sand miners, resulting in her hospitalization, that became her turning point. With a stronger resolve, she founded the Movement against Intimidation, Threat and Revenge against Activists (MITRA) to protect activists against unchecked violence. She continued gathering evidence against the wealthy capitalists and politicians who controlled the sand-mining companies, eventually filing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) with the Bombay High Court, resulting in the first-ever court order against sand mining in the region. 

Her opponents retaliated by attempting to drive her car down a cliff, an assassination attempt she miraculously survived. Her tireless work bore fruition when she successfully brought this issue on the UNEP’s radar through the 2012 Conference of Parties of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Hyderabad, and contributed to the production of Sand Wars, a documentary film on the global sand crisis, which won numerous awards and inspired the UNEP to to publish a Global Environmental Alert in March 2014 titled “Sand: Rarer Than One Thinks.” 

Sumaira herself has been awarded the Mother Teresa Award for Social Justice and the Olive Crown Award. She is also an Ashoka Fellow, alongside serving in different capacities with various organizations.

3. Syeda Rizwana Hasan

As the Minister of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change and the advisor to the interim government of Bangladesh, Rizwana Hasan has had an extraordinary career which has earned her recognition as Bangladesh’s environmental champion. Born in 1968 in Habiganj, modern-day Bangladesh, Rizwana graduated from the University of Dhaka, earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in law. Dedicated to environmental and societal justice, she rose to prominence by spearheading a legal battle against the shipbreaking industry in Bangladesh. 

Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons

She filed a case against the import of toxin-laden ships, mostly from developed countries, destined to be broken down for parts in Bangladesh — an industry that exploits its workers through low pay and hazardous conditions and poisons the surroundings. This resulted in government regulation of the industry and marked the first time that a polluting company was fined in Bangladesh. 

Apart from the ship-breaking industry, Rizwana has continued to tackle other sectors that exploit their workers and the environment, filing lawsuits against organizations responsible for filling lakes to construct real estate, misusing polythene, cutting hills, deforestation, shrimp farming, and illegal construction. 

She joined the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) in 1993, eventually serving as Chief Executive, leading it to win the Global 500 Roll of Honor in 2003 from the United Nations Environment Program. She has been awarded many honors and recognitions, including the Goldman Environmental Prize 2009 and the Ramon Magsaysay Award 2012.

4. Afia Salam

Image Credit: TEDx

Afia Salam is a Pakistani journalist, notable for being the country’s first female cricket journalist and an outspoken proponent of women’s rights and climate activism. She graduated with a master’s degree in Geography from the University of Karachi in 1982 and went on to have a prolific career spanning four decades of experience in print, electronic, and web journalism. She joined the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Pakistan in 2008, which impressed on her the gravity of the environmental challenges that Pakistan faced. 

She has played an instrumental role in the designation of Marine Protected Areas along Pakistan’s coasts, including Astola Island, which is now the country’s first such area. This initiative has been crucial in safeguarding marine biodiversity in a region that is vulnerable to the devastating effects of climate change. 

Beyond this, Afia’s leadership extends to her work with the Indus Earth Trust, where she serves as President of the Board. The organization focuses on ‘green construction,’ water replenishment, wastewater treatment, and sustainable energy solutions. 

She also serves as the current elected President of the Executive Committee of Baanhn Beli, an NGO dedicated to striving for a gender equitable education and women empowerment. She works to deliver water through wells, reservoirs, and dams, along with educational programmes in the destitute district of Tharparkar. Afia is also a member of the working group formed by the National Security Division and Strategic Policy Planning to draft climate change and security recommendations.

5. Fawzia Tarannum

A dedicated force in the fight for water sustainability and climate action in India, Dr. Fawzia Tarannum exemplifies the power of education and research in driving environmental activism. With over 24 years of experience, her work spans research, education, and direct community engagement. 

Having held diverse roles, including Assistant Professor at TERI School of Advanced Studies and General Manager-Sales at Cleantec Infra Private Limited, Dr. Fawzia’s experience extends across academia and industry. As the National Coordinator for Water at The Climate Reality Project, India, she has worked tirelessly to raise awareness and build solutions around India’s water challenges. 

Her efforts have reached thousands of people through delivering over 5,000 training programs on water governance, climate change, and gender equality. A Fulbright Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow, Dr. Fawzia’s global perspective on water issues has shaped her impactful work at the WforW Foundation, where she co-founded a platform for people to come together to address water concerns. 

Image Credit: TERI University

She is also the founder of her own company, Earthwise Environment and Sustainability Solutions. Honored as one of the 17 SDG Women Changemakers by Sayfty Trust and Twitter India, Dr. Fawzia’s work is a testament to the power of perseverance and passion. 

In a world often overshadowed by the grim realities of climate change, the stories of these women offer much hope. As we draw inspiration from their collective commitment that transcends borders, we must recognize that climate justice is a responsibility shared by individuals and communities alike. Many women in climate-vulnerable nations are courageously leading the way in the fight for climate justice.

The post 5 Trailblazing Muslim Women Fighting For Climate Justice In South Asia appeared first on Muslim Climate Watch.

Nabiha’s work resonates especially within South Asian and Middle Eastern communities, where cultural celebrations often carry a heavy environmental toll. With a BA in Sustainability Studies from Hofstra University, her expertise is well-rounded—not only shaped by academic training but also by a lifelong commitment to promoting eco-conscious practices in spaces that often lack them.

Her parents, both business owners, provided her with early insight into the entrepreneurial mindset. Her interest in environmentalism also began early when her 8th grade science teacher would show her class nature documentaries. These interests surprisingly worked together when she was thinking of a business venture she could throw herself into. Her endeavors, though varied, all tie back into design and the arts— she did her thesis on the fashion industry, and had a stint as a social media marketing manager at a sustainable fashion company. Besides the outright positive effort from a select few companies, she noticed just how wasteful the fashion industry was as a whole. This same observation applied to the events planning industry.

“It started clicking in my head,” Nabiha says. “I’m South Asian and I noticed people from the east— like South Asians, Middle Easterners and East Asians— their parties are really wasteful… and materialistic. I was like, how do I go about this?” In going about the culmination of her small business, she knew this would be a stumbling block. Educating minorities within the Muslim community on the subject would be one her priorities, as well as addressing her own standards for her business:

Nabiha, who is Bangladeshi and based in New York, would go about this in a varied way. While a lot of event planners will travel for a fee, she rebuffs taking a flight for an event or clients. “I know it might hurt me financially, but… I don’t want to have a high carbon footprint. I also want to give business to other small businesses within that region. So I’ll just direct them to (those).” By referring people far away from her home base of Long Island, she ethically helps other sustainably-minded people.

Supporting other local businesses is the crux of her business standards. “I try not to work with vendors that get flowers shipped all the way from, for example, South America, because they’re grown with pesticides.” Shipping the flowers themselves increases the operational carbon footprint, and the events industry is already responsible for over 10% of global CO2 emissions. Day flowers grown in Colombia and flown to the U.S., for example, produced some 360,000 metric tons of CO2 in a recent estimate. “I try to educate people,” Nabiha says. “(If) you’re getting married, or you have a birthday party, graduation, wedding, whatever it is… focus on more local and seasonal items. That’s gonna cost you so much less, and you’re not gonna get exactly what you want, but it’s gonna be really close, and it’s very possible.”

Despite numerous attempts by others to influence her stance, she remains resolute in upholding her self-imposed principles. Her business is driven by a deep commitment to ethical Islamic values and moral integrity, which serve as the core foundation of her motivations and decisions.“I was doing a lot of research (on Islam) when it comes to sustainability,” she says. “I learned so many things about our religion. That was so shocking to me, in a good way.”

“I was relearning Islam…” she says, referencing her journey to making her business into an LLC. “…and reliving life in a new way, Islamically. I was also trying to find ways to be a better person, trying to help educate others to be more mindful when it comes to lifestyle and sustainability.” Avoiding extravagance as a whole is a crucial aspect of being Muslim, but is oftentimes only remembered outside of special events.

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “The best marriage is one that is easiest.”
Reported by ‘Uqbah ibn ‘Amir, Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān 4163

An ‘easy’ marriage doesn’t just mean that the bride and groom get along— it applies to all facets of the process, including a dowry. This, and other evidence from our faith, culminate to a singular ethos in terms of how all Muslims should approach the idea of modesty and asceticism within weddings and events.

Nabiha is not hypocritical when it comes to planning her own personal events. Her own wedding’s guest count was just under 30 people total, spurred by COVID-19 restrictions. The pandemic as a whole reduced the average wedding carbon footprint by 93% due to smaller weddings and travel restrictions. “It was the most beautiful experience that I’ve had such a small wedding, especially as a South Asian,” she says. “And I realized how possible it is to have such an intimate wedding.” Years later, after the pandemic, she was able to host a larger event, but still stayed true to her ethical beliefs by doing more research on sustainability, material sourcing and local vendor selection. This would prove that it was—and is—possible to have a larger event with a low carbon footprint.

Getting the message across to people close to her was done by example. Hosting large-scale gatherings, purchasing numerous outfits over consecutive days, and investing heavily in decor were practices that ultimately felt burdensome and unsustainable to her. “But it was really important for me… to maybe inspire the aunts and uncles that you don’t have to drop all that money, and maybe listen to your kids. Listen to what they want. Because it’s really important for them too.”

Read More: A Climate Professional’s Insight on Islam & Climate

Although she works to sway the preconceived notion towards an over-consumption mindset in the older generation, her clientele of younger people also gives pause towards some sustainable habits. “What I start off with is I tell people how much money they can save,” she presses. “It’s actually really good for not only you, but the environment.”

Despite the lucrative cost-saving potential, some people are willing to throw away this factor for their dream wedding— at the cost of the environment. The average wedding event produces 400 tons of waste per event. Nabiha laments on old clients who would insist on out-of-season flowers, plastic bottles and other tiny details that go against her own business practices. In some countries, a single wedding can produce more than 40 pounds of plastic waste. Some of the biggest contributors to trash after weddings are food, single-use decorations and stationery that is often discarded after the party is over. “So with things like that, I just pitch it in baby steps. Then I start to educate them when they ask for it or they seem really interested,” she notes. “That’s the only way to go about it, because sustainability is still so new.”

Nabiha reaches a lot of clients via her instagram, @thenomadsocial. “Being a nomad is pretty much finding home anywhere you go, right? I feel like it ties in well because the Earth is your home anywhere you are. We’re supposed to be taking care of it as our home— the whole (planet,)” she says.

Through trial and error, Nabiha Rahaman-Çam has managed to fit into this particular web of her own passions as a minority and a Muslim in the over-saturated events-planning industry. While she continues to educate people on the world of sustainability, she’s also able to act ethically within her passions for photography, design, fashion and the events space, while hoping more Muslims pick up more positions in these fields. 

Nabiha Rahaman-Çam can be found at her handles below:

Business Instagram: @thenomadsocial
Personal art & sustainability Instagram: @nabsthenomad

This article included edits to clarify Rahaman-Çam’s principles as it pertains to flower usage, as well as an anecdote on the wedding events mentioned.

The post How One Muslim Event Planner Transforms Celebrations with Sustainability appeared first on Muslim Climate Watch.

Veganism’s Return

Kamal is a co-founder of Veganzania, once the stand-alone vegan restaurant in all of Egypt, and she now maintains its concept for other companies to use for educational purposes. She also continues to make vegan food from home and sell it under Vegan Box. Veganism is not something the modern Egyptian population is at all remembered for. Still, it should be known that the region has a relatively low meat supply, and in fact, the lack of prevalent veganism in the country is due largely to societal pressure, coupled with a low range of readily available vegan foods. 

“I know that there were so many Muslim figures in history who were actually vegan,” Kamal notes. “And the non-vegans here in Egypt who are Muslims, they themselves would mention that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) didn’t eat that much meat.” Kamal’s journey towards veganism began in Cairo as a comparison between the city and the countryside. “I’m mainly from Cairo, the capital of Egypt,” she says. “My father always tried to keep us out of the city for as long as he could. He got me and my sister really connected to nature, especially me. We had a very big garden, and that garden and house were actually overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.”

When Kamal reached about 12 or 13, her father decided they would stay in Cairo for a better education. That’s when she truly felt the difference between the city and a small town. Kamal started approaching veganism as a way to reconnect with her environment and finally committed to it in 2016. “Since then, I was like, okay, I’m reducing the suffering for animals and the environment.” Her journey has come to fruition by holding a deep appreciation for the Bedouin’s way of life in Dahab. 

Instead of using tortilla bread, Kamal used to get Bedouin bread from a Bedouin lady who was baking at home. “And it actually looks so similar, it’s the same round flat bread,” Kamal says. “That was much, much less waste—or almost zero waste because even when we used plastic bags, we reused them.” Other Bedouins grow their own greens in their homes, which Kamal would also purchase. “Whatever product I could get from the Bedouins, I got, because it was much, much cleaner. That’s my journey with how I developed this awareness.”

The Bedouin’s Love for the Ocean

Veganzania’s initial location was actually inside a local Dahab scuba dive center. The diving community in Dahab is strong, along with adamant windsurfers, vacationers, snorkelers and sailors. The ocean is treasured there, which is how Kamal’s heart expanded naturally towards ocean preservation. Sheila Hanney, who started as Kamal’s boss and is now a good friend, got in touch with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, whose sole mission is to protect and conserve the world’s oceans and marine wildlife. Kamal spent time next to the ocean, doing beach clean-ups and assisting divers who would dive for trash within the water. The Bedouins were also sometimes a part of that process.

“I should protect what I love. So many people here now would call me a mermaid because I spend as long as I can swimming or snorkelling,” Kamal says. “I learned from Sheila that these are living beings that we need to be alive. They need to be protected as well. I learned that it’s not the people who have this bad behaviour. It’s the systems that we are living in who are causing this behaviour to people.” Kamal reminisces on an instance on a cold winter’s day when they were in the midst of a beach cleanup on the Dahab coast. The area was somewhat remote and accessible by boat, but the local government sent officials who helped and supported the clean-up by the ocean. They supplied them with items they needed, and have now integrated into the Dahab community.

Read More: The Soulful Elegance of Islamic Green Burial Practices

“Those amazing Bedouins who have been there since years and years ago were talking and addressing this topic of the environment and conserving the sea,” Kamal says, “and they are still doing their weekly beach cleanups too.” Individuals on their own, she had learned, were also passionate about the environment the same way she was, but were sometimes stifled by a system that pushed them into complacency or capitalism. Kamal uses the hashtag “protectwhatwelove” to encompass that passion she and the people around her hold. “We have beautiful marine life here in Egypt, especially on the Red Sea coast… I don’t want the Red Sea in Egypt to be polluted like other oceans and seas around the world. I want to protect that as much as I can.”

The post Dahab’s Guardian: Summer Kamal’s Eco-Vegan Journey appeared first on Muslim Climate Watch.

After graduating from the University of Maryland focusing on environmental science, his career has primarily been within the government sphere. Ingram was a policy advisor in Resiliency and Sustainability for the State of New York, focused on transitioning the state’s real estate and transportation assets to meet the governor’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals. Before that, he worked in the project management unit of New York City’s mayor’s office, focusing on infrastructure and sustainability-related projects. 

Ingram’s identity as Muslim fuels and feeds off of his work, but it’s not often that he comes across people like him in his work – not just Muslim, but people of colour, in general. In his previous position at the state level, working in the governmental end, he was, from what he remembers, one of three non-white people within the entire policy space in the state of New York. “This…space has been very much dominated by a particularly educated group of people, which is not bad in any sense, but it definitely can lend towards a feeling of being kind of an outsider, and a lot of code switching… there are others that are at least some-what interested in this field, but they’re definitely far and few between.”

Ingram underscores his identity as a Muslim fuels his work. He notes that addressing the climate crisis and being Muslim aren’t inherently independent of each other, and that ultimately it depends on one’s own moral principles. In fact, caring about and pushing against the climate crisis should be something well-aligned with Islamic values.  “As a Muslim, my moral guidelines are…tied towards a moral principle that is outside of the self and outside of the individual.” Whereas, individualism, he believes, feeds a narrative that contradicts a potential ‘solution’ to the climate crisis. “For us, especially in America, it’s kind of contradictory since we are a nation ‘of pick yourself up by your bootstraps.’ It’s all about focusing on yourself.” 

Another symptom of individualism is the rise of climate depression and climate anxiety with people feeling overwhelmed, and even individually responsible, for climate change, especially as the world has enacted deadlines from which we cannot return once exceeded. But as a Muslim, Ingram pushes for perseverance above those feelings. “As much as I understand people’s anxieties when it comes to what’s happening, we people have been through, in my opinion, much worse historically,” He says. 

“We don’t just sit around and wait for other people to solve our problems,” Ingrams says adamantly. “We’re not cowards; we continue fighting, pushing, and continuing to do what we need to do… For me, Islam is not only a comfort, but it’s also a driving force.” Here he mentions the hadith: 

Anas ibn Malik reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “If the Final Hour comes while you have a shoot of a plant in your hands and it is possible to plant it before the Hour comes, you should plant it.“
{Sahih (Al-Albani), Book 27}

When it comes to a full-fledged solution to the climate crisis, Ingram doesn’t carry an antidote in his pocket. His beliefs do, however, stem from the idea that Islam in itself provides constant solutions. “When you come from being a student going to university, you have a very idealistic idea on how to solve things— just use this technology or use this principle, just push for this sort of thing,” Ingram says. “But when you start really understanding the intricacies of how policy, government and law work, you start understanding how complicated it is. In reality, the deeper you go into it, the more reality kind of strikes in that the climate crisis is not as much about a technological problem or an ideas problem. It’s more of an ideological and philosophical failure.”

As Muslims, the principles followed adhere to a climate-conscious mindset and moderation in consumption. Contrastingly, governments are built on principles of scaling at such alarming rates that are contradictory to our beliefs. “Individualism is the driving force of many of our ideologies and governments,” Ingram presses. “When you start really thinking about a lot of our problems in the world right now, especially in the developed world, it is basically the fault of these beliefs that essentially prioritize our immediate… individual wants rather than the collective goods. As Muslims, we’re not supposed to be thinking that way.”

Read More: Reclaiming Zuhd: Embracing Minimalism in a Wasteful World

Taj notes that urging corporations to take actions that might reduce their profits or individuals to sacrifice their wants results in immediate pushback. He notes this at play in the backtracking of the congestion pricing policy in Manhattan, a push to tackle the city’s traffic congestion by charging drivers for driving within one of the most dense areas of New York. It was shelved indefinitely after consideration, despite the concept being proven to work in other cities. 

“A lot of people like their cars. They like their freedom. They like to go wherever they want to go, whenever they want to go, however, they want to go in a nice individualized transportation sphere, which in many ways is understandable, but in a lot of ways, not everyone can do that.” The money made from the project was intended to go towards reviving New York’s crumbling subway and bus infrastructure and systems.

Ingram believes, “the public and private sphere are not going to solve this, that has become a moral sort of problem, and that the systems that we operate in effectively remove any ability to solve it because, in itself, people continue to focus on their own wants and needs.”—again, a general contradiction to core Islamic principles. 

Instead, he believed we essentially need “a bottom-up approach, a movement, an idea. An approach of people individually deciding to reduce their consumption. To essentially reduce the overall importance of their materialistic ideas and implement that on their own, meaning that it’s not done by the government who is telling them what to do. It’s something that they collectively, and mutually decide on what to do. Which once again requires a moral framework.”

“Because this world is temporary and the afterlife is eternal…Islam and the Islamic frameworks of collective responsibility… is that solution.” Ingram says, pushing that Islam is the ultimate solution to addressing the climate crisis. 

The post A Climate Professional’s Insight on Islam & Climate appeared first on Muslim Climate Watch.

1. Muslim Hikers 

As people from ethnic minority backgrounds felt excluded from the British countryside, this community group was set up to include everyone – Muslim or otherwise – to participate in walks and hiking events across Britain. 

2. The Wanderlust Women

Emerging from the absence of Muslim women seen hiking and exploring mountains in the U.K., women-only retreats and international expeditions are regularly organized and are designed to broaden horizons and challenge boundaries. 

3. Green Deen Tribe

Inspired by Ibrahim Abdul-Matin’s book “Green Deen: What Islam Teaches about Protecting the Planet”, GDT seeks to enhance our spiritual relationship with Allah through connecting with nature. With regular hiking retreats, walks and workshops in the U.K., GDT practices deep reflection on the Earth and its blessings.

4.  UK Muslim Scout Fellowship 

Serving groups from ages 4 to 25 across the U.K. is one of the largest Muslim youth organizations. It provides the opportunity for children and adults to develop skills such as planning, commitment and teamwork. 

5. Brown People Camping

This group started largely as a social media initiative which campaigns for greater access and diversity to the outdoors for communities from marginalized backgrounds in and around the U.S. 

6. Green Muslims 

A volunteer-led organization based in Washington, D.C., aimed at connecting Muslims to climate and environmental activism through regularly hosting events, imparting environmental education and inspiring local action. 

7. Outdoor Muslims 

A community of Muslims around Washington, D.C. who seek to promote environmental stewardship and create a safe space for meaningful outdoor experiences. 

8. Muslim Family Adventures

Empowering families to bond together through having enriching experiences surrounded by nature, establishing core memories and discovering new skills. Taking place in National Parks around the U.K., MFA provides opportunities to discover the power of nature. 

9. Muslim Outdoor Adventures

Aiming to break down barriers, their outreach and guided programs offer the space to involve more Canadian Muslims in participating in outdoor spaces and practicing responsibly using the land. 

The post The Muslim Groups Making Outdoors Accessible appeared first on Muslim Climate Watch.

Fawzia Jaffan
Jaffan is an Animal Rights Activist & Researcher with Middle East Vegan Society and Leader and Manager of the Vegan Islam Initiative 

When it comes to Islam and according to the Qur’an, preserving the environment is a religious duty in addition to a social obligation, and is not considered an optional matter. The Prophet peace be upon him said: “The world is beautiful and verdant, and verily God, the exalted, has made you His stewards in it, and He sees how you acquit yourselves” (Saheeh Muslim). The Quran says, “It is He who has appointed you vicegerent on the earth…” (Quran 6:165). A Muslim’s role in today’s world should be more cautious and aware of their actions and whether they’re contributing to environmental damage or not. Some good role examples would be recycling, using less chemical-derived products, and most importantly cutting away from animal products to further not support the industries that are responsible for many environmental burdens that threaten sustainability including greenhouse gas emissions, land use and degradation, excessive water use, nutrient pollution, use of fertilizers and pesticides, consumer-level food waste through the entire product food chain and last but not least, deforestation. As we all know, Islam forbids wasting of resources, especially wasting of food and water, as Allah said: ‘Eat and drink, but waste not be excess’ (Quran/Al-araf:31). As well as not cutting down trees excessively and unnecessarily. The Prophet (peace be upon him) ordered the Muslims not to cut trees even during war! Every individual Muslim should make Jihad and try their best avoiding damage to our home planet Earth. Allah also said:
“And do good as Allah has been good to you. Moreover, do not seek to cause corruption in the earth. Allah does not love the corrupters” (Al-Qasas: 77)

Yousef Aly Wahb
Wahb is an Islamic Law Instructor at the University of Windsor Faculty of Law and Research Director at Yaqeen Institute 

The discourse on Islam and the environment often focuses on integrating universal religious concepts into prevailing environmental trends and sustainability movements. While this promotes global ethics applicable in postcolonial contexts, it tends to overlook the underlying driving forces of these movements. The recognition of environmental decline and climate change impacts reflects a concerning trend of merely ‘greening the status quo.’ This discourse tends to perpetuate a state of regression, relying on panic-driven crisis management approaches rather than advocating for radical change. There is a minimal exploration of how Islam advocates for systemic and behavioral transformations to address root causes.
To effectively tackle contemporary climate justice issues, we must draw upon Islamic tradition’s precedents and resources while embodying overarching Islamic values such as createdness, mercy, justice, vicegerency, and temporality of life. Justice, for example, seeks to address power imbalances perpetuating eco and social injustices. Mass production exacerbates sustainability issues and labor exploitation, highlighting the need for systemic change. Additionally, the intersectionality of racial and environmental injustices underscores the importance of addressing deeper dynamics in sustainability challenges.

Hashem Abdi 
Abdi is a Sustainability Advocate and ESG Consultant

Climate justice to me is the ability for us to tackle inequality caused by climate change and the current socio-economic system while also working to mitigate the impacts of climate change and strive for more equitable systems. Muslims must play a critical role in helping restore the balance to the ecosystems around the world. As stewards of the earth, we have a religious and moral obligation to ensure that the world we leave behind for our future generations is habitable and just for all. Anas ibn Malik reported: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “If the Resurrection were established upon one of you while he has in his hand a sapling, then let him plant it.” The beauty of this hadith lies in many of its subtle elements. One of the key points is that the person is instructed to plant the sapling even if he never sees the fruits of it. Like so many of us today who are reading this we may never see how the future of the world may become or how a tree may grow that we plant today, but our beloved prophet PBUH has taught us to consider those that come after us instead of just thinking about ourselves. On this Earth Day, we should all reflect on our impact on future generations and think of what can we do to help reduce global inequality that is only being exacerbated by climate change.

Marium Nur Vahed
Vahed is the Co-Founder of Green Ummah

Climate justice is about recognizing the disproportionate impact of climate change on marginalized communities and the critical need for these communities to be part of climate solutions. As Muslims, our role starts with understanding the mandate our faith gives us to take care of this planet. We need to use that as a launching point to encourage the people in our families, communities, and networks to think creatively to address the complexities of climate change. We must each look at the systems we are part of – be it through our career or at the mosque – and think boldly about how these systems need to incorporate a climate justice mentality.

Fawzia Jaffan can be reached at: Email: fawziajaffan@gmail.com | Instagram: @fawziajaffan

Yousef Wahb can be reached at: Email: yousef.wahb@yaqeeninstitute.org | Twitter: @YousefWahb 

Hashem Abdi can be reached at: Linkedin | Instagram: @Hashem2be , @TwoBillionStrong , @SomalisforSustainability

Marium Nur Vahed can be reached at: Instagram: @mariumvahed , @greenummah | Vahed was recently featured in Climate Warriors

The post Muslim Voices On Climate Justice appeared first on Muslim Climate Watch.

Fortunately, many ventures can benefit the ever-growing community of Muslim women in the West. Yet, implementing the ideas many girls have to expand their communities can be challenging alone. Muslim Girls Doing Things, or MGDT, of which Fatima is a dedicated member, is bridging the divide between societal initiatives and the barriers that stop girls from simply making friends. Their nonprofit status and growing interest allow them to explore different avenues of sustainability, including sustainable modest fashion initiatives and fostering a healthy connection to Allah and the community. 

After college, Muslim girls sometimes struggle to find sisterhood. Where it was previously easy to join random MSA events on-campus or cultural clubs, post-education life can feel like an empty void of loneliness and alienation from the community. In Kansas City, Missouri, MGDT creates safe spaces for Muslim women to meet others and gain a new sense of sisterhood. 

On March 31st, MGDT hosted a Modesty Pantry—an open sustainable modest fashion event for women to ‘purchase’ modest clothes, abayas, dresses, skirts, hijabs and prayer outfits. The clothes were collected via several clothing drives urging people to clean their closets of items they hardly wear or never worn. 

Read More: Reclaiming Zuhd: Embracing Minimalism in a Wasteful World

“It’s like killing two birds with one stone,” Fatima says, “getting rid of the hoarding of these clothes that would probably end up in a landfill somewhere, and then taking care of these girls who really need these clothes that might not be accessible to them.” She describes the items they collected, saying there were new bags, shoes and even clothes with tags still attached. The need for the Modesty Pantry event, supported by the University of Missouri Kansas City’s MSA and Somali Student Union, is driven by core issues plaguing the modest fashion industry, limiting the options for Muslim women in the West to access modest sustainable clothing.

During the pantry, attendees were given a limit of 5 pieces of clothing and 7 scarves. There was also a ‘Need Love’ section, from which unlimited clothes could be taken, comprising clothes that required minimal fixing due to minor stains or small tears. The event was largely ‘pay-what-you-can’ so that no woman would be singled out based on her financial status. Any funds collected would go towards fundraising for a retreat this upcoming year. MGDT previously held an all-women retreat focusing on reconnecting with Deen. The retreat also focused on building sisterhood and Rahma, or mercy, with each other. They held Islamic skits, prayed and read the Quran together, and spent plenty of time outdoors.

Fatima shared stories of women at the retreat who opted to buy clothes overseas due to the exorbitant prices in the U.S. The modest clothing available locally, together with the rest of fast fashion clothing, is typically made of materials harmful to the environment and fuelling a global waste endemic. Yearly, between 80 and 100 billion new clothing garments are produced globally, but the world produces 92 million tons of textile waste annually. 17 million of those tons are directly from the U.S.

Read More: Seed-Saving and Community Initiatives Connect Cultures in Metro-Detroit

Fatima adds on to highlight how marketing also drives over-consumption. “When businesses offer ‘buy one get three free,’ I’m not sure we necessarily need that… I think there’s a lot of room for improvement when it comes to marketing and the way that they market their clothing.”

Fatima hopes that more conversations continue around modest fashion and accessibility. “I hope that when people see the Modesty Pantry, they feel inspired to act on that,” she says, hoping that girls are motivated by this initiative to embrace sustainability and start their clothing drives, swapping with friends and reaching out to those in need, like recent converts, women with less funds, or international students. MGDT hopes to release a guide for community members interested in taking similar initiatives in their towns and cities. Fatima shared how Amaal Sheikhadan, a licensed social worker and board member of MGDT, aims to make the initiatives reproducible by anyone who wants to participate. 

Initiatives like the Modest Pantry and sustainability programming foster environmental stewardship, and more importantly, allow the community to serve Allah through ibadah (worship) and charitable giving. “There’s a lot of work to be done,” Fatima says, “but I’m very inspired and very hopeful. I think that Allah gave us all the capacity to be able to make the changes that we want to see in the world.” 

Read More: Fasting from Consumerism: How to Embrace Minimalism

Fatima Mohamed can be found on Instagram and Tiktok as @ummyoms

MGDT can be found on Instagram as @muslimgirlsdoingthings

The post Modesty Pantry: Bridging Sustainability & Muslim Sisterhood appeared first on Muslim Climate Watch.

Q: How has climate change affected your life or community?

Nouhad: Over the past few years, Lebanon has felt the impact of the climate crisis on its infrastructure, human health, and agricultural production. Extreme weather events have been noticeably more frequent and intense including heatwaves and droughts which directly affect the livelihoods of farmers. Wildfires have become a yearly occurrence causing damage to properties and human lives. 

However, as a Lebanese citizen, I cannot separate my struggles from the challenges faced by other countries of the MENA region. Our struggles, how we are impacted by climate change, and the challenges we face meet on so many levels. Our region has contributed less than 5% of historic global emissions, our country less than 0.07%, yet it is bearing one of the heaviest costs of the climate crisis. Vulnerable communities are suffering from the impact of climate change disproportionately in other parts of the world. People’s health is affected by the high temperatures, food security is threatened by extended droughts and social inequalities are deepened even more. Our communities are mutually facing the loss of human lives, homes, and livelihoods due to the climate crisis.

What challenges does your community face in building climate resilience?

Define climate justice and share your outlook on the climate’s future.

Nouhad: Climate justice begins with the recognition that climate change has adverse and disproportionate impacts on different countries, communities, and groups, meaning the presence of disparities in terms of challenges yet also the ability to adapt. It entails the notion that the countries of the Global South do not have equal means to recover and adapt, so it is the idea of equitable distribution of both burdens and benefits. Climate justice ensures that the global community and those historically responsible for the climate crisis support the communities that are bearing its heaviest cost.

As for the future of the climate, it is only getting worse from here unless we act NOW. We need to make daily life changes on an individual basis, adopt green initiatives on a community level, work towards a socio-economic system that puts people’s well-being and sustainability over profit, advocate for national and regional climate policies and laws and finally make sure that the promises and decisions made in global climate conferences such as COP are fairly and urgently implemented.

What casual or innovative changes would you like the Muslim community to adopt for a just climate transition?

Nouhad: Every small action makes a difference. Most Muslim communities are located in the countries of the Global South, therefore they are heavily affected by the climate crisis and their voices should matter.

Stepping towards a just climate transition can work on so many different levels, including but not limited to:

1. Personal and Individual: This can take the form of committing to an eco-friendly Ramadan, an eco-friendly Hajj, leading green initiatives in the community, conserving water and energy, and adopting sustainable habits in day-to-day life.
2. Community: This can take the form of solarizing a Mosque or for example the active engagement of Imams as faith leaders in environmental action.
3. The Inclusion of Muslim Voices in Global Climate Conversations: As they represent their unique experiences and solutions, they represent the voices of the most affected communities and provide a fresh perspective on climate-related issues. Allowing young Muslim climate champions to be part of the decision-making process paves the way toward a just climate transition. We, as Ummah for Earth, had a set of demands that were submitted to faith leaders during COP28 that are available on our website and can be adapted to different contexts.  

Our work, at Ummah for Earth, is part of enabling this just transition. Our mission, projects, and initiatives represent their voices and aim to empower them to be at the forefront and the center of global climate action, and enable them to start making a change within their communities and beyond.

What do you think is the outlook of Muslim Americans/Canadians towards climate action and environmentalism? If negative, what are some ways we can collectively work towards improvement?

Nouhad: The outlook of Muslim Americans/Canadians towards climate action and environmentalism can vary widely depending on factors such as cultural background, education, socio-economic status, and personal beliefs. We do not believe that there is a negative outlook of any community in any place in this world. Some communities need more awareness to help them serve their people and protect the environment. While some Muslim communities may actively engage in environmental activism and view climate action as a moral imperative rooted in Islamic teachings, others may not prioritize these issues due to other pressing concerns or lack of awareness.

Nouhad Awwad is Campaigner at Ummah for Earth, Global Outreach Coordinator at Greenpeace MENA, and a dedicated Environmental Activist.

Instagram & Twitter

Muslim Climate Narratives

A multi-media storytelling project of Muslim Climate Watch showcasing powerful and inspiring stories from our fellow Muslims across the globe as they take us on a journey through their lives and communities, revealing their resilience and adaptability while facing the pressing challenges of climate change.

Do you have a climate story to tell?

Contact us today to be featured.

The post Climate Advocate Nouhad Awwad Urges Global Solidarity in the MENA Region appeared first on Muslim Climate Watch.