KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

In qui­et homes and bustling com­mu­ni­ty cen­tres across T&T, the work of the Is­lam­ic Ladies So­cial and Cul­tur­al As­so­ci­a­tion (ILSCA) is felt every day. A strug­gling moth­er re­ceives fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance to keep food on the ta­ble. A stu­dent, once on the verge of drop­ping out, now has the school­books and uni­form need­ed to con­tin­ue their ed­u­ca­tion. An ad­vo­ca­cy pa­per lands on a pol­i­cy­mak­er’s desk, push­ing for change on crit­i­cal so­cial is­sues.

For more than five decades, ILSCA has been a force for change in the coun­try, dri­ving con­ver­sa­tion on so­cial is­sues. As the or­gan­i­sa­tion pre­pares to cel­e­brate its 54th an­niver­sary in June 2025, its pres­i­dent, Shaleeza Khan-Ali, is de­ter­mined to build on that lega­cy of shap­ing lives for the bet­ter.

“Our work isn’t just about char­i­ty,” Khan-Ali says. “It’s about em­pow­er­ing in­di­vid­u­als and strength­en­ing com­mu­ni­ties.”

Found­ed in 1971 by a pi­o­neer­ing group of Mus­lim women, in­clud­ing for­mer first la­dy Za­lay­har Has­sanali and Dr Joan Homai­da Kaz­im, ILSCA has grown in­to a lead­ing voice in so­cial wel­fare, ed­u­ca­tion, and ad­vo­ca­cy.

The Is­lam­ic Ladies So­cial and Cul­tur­al As­so­ci­a­tion will be mark­ing its 54th an­niver­sary in June 2025.

Its pres­i­dent, Shaleeza Khan-Ali, is in­tent on con­tin­u­ing ILSCA’s mis­sion of con­tribut­ing to the sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment of our na­tion in the fields of so­cial wel­fare, Is­lam­ic and sec­u­lar ed­u­ca­tion, and cul­tur­al ac­tiv­i­ties.

“We im­prove the well-be­ing of com­mu­ni­ties by pro­vid­ing so­cial work and pover­ty al­le­vi­a­tion ser­vices to those most in need. Al­so, by pro­mot­ing Is­lam­ic ed­u­ca­tion, cul­ture and Da’Wah, as well as net­work­ing and ad­vo­ca­cy to in­flu­ence pol­i­cy de­ci­sions at all lev­els,” she says.

Khan-Ali said the or­gan­i­sa­tion was start­ed by a group of vi­sion­ary women.

“At the time, there were sev­er­al women’s groups at var­i­ous masjids in Trinidad,” she says. “Their main pur­pose was fundrais­ing ac­tiv­i­ties to keep the masjids go­ing. Dr Joan Homai­da Kaz­im saw the need for us to get in­to the pub­lic sphere for so­cial wel­fare. To­geth­er with oth­er women, in­clud­ing for­mer first la­dy Za­lay­har Has­sanali, Hazrah Hamid, Khe­lafan Mustapha, Yvonne Shah, Han­i­fa Rah­man, Nel­lie Khan, Imam Baksh, Haf­feeza Mo­hammed, Ayesha Dook­ie, Mai­da Ali and Hafeeza Ali, as well as oth­ers, the as­so­ci­a­tion was de­vel­oped as an NGO.”

More women sub­se­quent­ly joined the as­so­ci­a­tion, with the mem­ber­ship now stand­ing at over 100.

Over the years, sev­er­al projects were ini­ti­at­ed, with the 2012 sem­i­nar on the “Age of Mar­riage in Is­lam” be­ing a ma­jor ex­am­ple of women’s role in Is­lam.

“What we did was bring to­geth­er all the ma­jor or­gan­i­sa­tions in Is­lam in the name of ad­vo­ca­cy. I start­ed in 2013, and way back then we worked with AS­JA, Ahlus Sun­nah Wal Ja­ma’ah In­sti­tute, Darul Uloom, TIA and TML to work on var­i­ous po­si­tion pa­pers which were sent to the gov­ern­ment at the time on var­i­ous so­cial is­sues.”

One of the po­si­tion pa­pers sub­mit­ted to the Min­istry of Gen­der, Youth and Child De­vel­op­ment in 2013 rec­om­mend­ed changes to the Mus­lim Mar­riage and Di­vorce Act.

ILSCA has al­so put for­ward po­si­tion pa­pers and pub­lished ar­ti­cles on so­cial is­sues af­fect­ing the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, such as par­ent­ing (2014), de­crim­i­nal­i­sa­tion of mar­i­jua­na (2019), crime and gen­der-based vi­o­lence (2021), and the atroc­i­ties and hu­man­i­tar­i­an cri­sis in Pales­tine (2023).

The ILSCA pres­i­dent stat­ed that, con­trary to pop­u­lar be­lief, Mus­lim women play sig­nif­i­cant roles in var­i­ous or­gan­i­sa­tions across T&T.

“Go­ing back to the time of the Prophet Muham­mad (Peace and Bless­ings Be Up­on Him), we have seen through the Ha­dith lit­er­a­ture that he worked with women in so­ci­ety. There are many ex­am­ples where he worked with the women in so­ci­ety.

“Al­so, in the Holy Qur’an, Chap­ter 33, Verse 35, Al­lah, in His words, shows that all men and women have the same re­spon­si­bil­i­ty where our faith is con­cerned.”

When it comes to the pro­vi­sion of so­cial and hu­man­i­tar­i­an ser­vices, ILSCA has been at the fore­front of so­ci­ety through its So­cial Wel­fare Pro­gramme since its in­cep­tion.

“Through our Spon­sor­ship Pro­gramme, we as­sist fam­i­lies fi­nan­cial­ly every two months. In ad­di­tion, we coun­sel them in ar­eas such as fam­i­ly life, par­ent­ing, health, en­vi­ron­ment, ed­u­ca­tion and fi­nance.

“We con­sid­er our pro­gramme to be suc­cess­ful as we take clients off once they be­come self-suf­fi­cient. Al­so, we see chil­dren from our spon­sored fam­i­lies suc­ceed in ed­u­ca­tion.”

ILSCA con­tin­ues to run its School Book and Uni­form Pro­gramme as well.

“In 2024, we had an ex­treme­ly high num­ber of re­quests for as­sis­tance to­wards school books and uni­forms. This is such a big ex­pense for par­ents, es­pe­cial­ly when books keep chang­ing. Chil­dren hav­ing their school books and uni­forms to at­tend school in­creas­es their self-es­teem, mit­i­gates the pos­si­bil­i­ty of bul­ly­ing, there­by giv­ing them a bet­ter chance at suc­ceed­ing.”

Khan-Ali said the as­so­ci­a­tion’s work is on­ly pos­si­ble through the com­mit­ment and sup­port of oth­ers.

In ex­press­ing grat­i­tude to past and present mem­bers, she says, “I am grate­ful to all the foun­da­tion mem­bers. Those who have served in the pre­vi­ous ex­ec­u­tive com­mit­tees, all mem­bers and well-wish­ers for their con­tri­bu­tions so the ILSCA fam­i­ly can con­tin­ue its work as sis­ters serv­ing hu­man­i­ty.”

In ad­di­tion to her role at ILSCA, Khan-Ali al­so vol­un­teers as a Re­li­gious Ed­u­ca­tion teacher at a gov­ern­ment pri­ma­ry school. She is al­so the pres­i­dent of an­oth­er NGO, CTA (Call to Ac­tion for So­cial Change Foun­da­tion).