Today, I want to talk about a girl boss. Her name is Mona Haydar. Mona is known as a rapper, poet, and activist. With her debut song, “Hijabi” she reached the top 25 feminist anthems after being named one of 2017’s top protest songs. Her songs come from her intersectional identity and sensibilities.
With her second song, she took on the reality of violence against women in her lyrics while also pointing out the positions men have in religious settings and abuse their power. As a faithful God-enthusiast, Mona completed her Masters in Christian Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in NYC. With a lot of background in religion and cultures, she works as a chaplain and spiritual director to help many people come to Islam through her care and love.
Tracing back to her education at the University of Michigan-Flint with a BA in English, she transformed her poetry into rapping in 2015. Her song called out racism, colorism, and tribalism which gained millions of views while she was 8 months pregnant. If that’s not inspirational, I don’t know what is. Mona is the 7th of 8 siblings moving around from NYC to Morocco back to the US and living in Northern New Mexico. Living peacefully in their home in New Mexico, they lead a simple life of gardening and home-schooling.
Mona was even here in Boston! In 2015, Mona and her husband Sebastian set up a muslin project in Cambridge where they put signs up stating, “Talk to a Muslim ‘free coffee and donuts’ ‘free conversation and ‘Ask a Muslim.” The initiative that Mona shows is her dedication to educating people through love and through interest. It is the very efforts she puts in that make her inspirational to women all over the world and to young girls getting ready for the big world. Once a girl boss, always a girl boss.
