About Us

Together We Thrive is a unique and exciting place where Muslim women connect with others around the UK online and in person. We share our expertise, support and open doors for each other. We believe in collaborating to build and grow ideas, create new projects through developing skills and providing experiences. 

In a collaborative and respectful way we build resilience, challenge the status quo in our communities where necessary and bring about change through our campaigning.

Connect          Collaborate          Challenge           Campaign

Our Vision

For all Muslim women to thrive in however they choose to live their life and to be supported by others to do so, without judgement.

Our Mission

To encourage and facilitate Muslim women of all ages,  to have opportunities to use their knowledge and experiences to benefit themselves and to benefit those around them.

Our Values

Faith based – respect, compassion, inclusion, learning

As Muslim women, we are probably the most misunderstood group of people anywhere on the planet. We are so often talked at or talked about but our own voices are not heard enough.
The mis-use of teachings from our religious texts and scriptures has for too long been used to hold women back, not allowing them to flourish and grow.

Together We Thrive was started by Julie in 2020 following lots of conversations, a survey and even some late night cuppas with groups of women sharing their ideas and aspirations for what this might look like . We created a Steering Group of 17 Muslim women from around the UK to work out our priorities and we have now formed an Executive Board to move things forward in a focused and strategic way, with the voices of our members at the heart of all we do.

As women of faith, our voices are important, our work is crucial and we need to be heard. Each faith community has its own issues, its own learning to do, its own ways of working. We are not all the same but the things we have in common can empower us to make a positive, necessary change.
Together, we truly can and are thriving!

Our Executive Board

Julie Siddiqi MBE

Founder and Director

Asma Jahan

Co-Director and Training Lead

Farzana Chaudry

Co-Director and Governance Lead

Saleha Islam

Pastoral and Safeguarding Lead

Izabela Hanifah Was

Research and Outreach Lead

Farah Halabi

Communications Lead

Sadia Hussain

Domestic and Sexual Abuse Project Lead

Anita Nayyar

Mosques and Equalities Project Lead

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour and some style.
-Maya Angelou

Julie Siddiqi Together We Thrive

Dear friends

I chose Islam as my way of life in March 1995. Fairly quickly I found myself involved in community organising and all of the ups and downs that come with that!

Early on I helped set up and then chaired An-Nisa Slough Muslim Women’s Group for ten years. Through that I learned a lot, I met amazing people and in some ways I feel the work of Thrive is taking me back again to those early days.

Since then I have met such a variety of people, been given fantastic opportunities, developed resilience through difficulties, made lots of mistakes and most of all I have really understood that I can’t do any of this by myself!

My faith is important to me but I am also fascinated and intrigued by teachings of other faiths and beliefs and in the power of people.

Women are so often not represented properly. Faith communities are not good at empowering women in line with what their faith teachings actually say.

Things are much better than they were even 100 years ago in so many ways but we live in a society which is still un-equal. We have still not fully understood that unless we have diversity in every setting, we will never fully develop and grow. That applies in every area of life – business, charity, education settings, sport, places of worship and even in our own families.

I see myself as a positive, optimist but I try and keep it real too.
This website and the work represented here has been a long time coming and I’m excited! I believe the UK to be one of best countries in the world to live in, while also acknowledging its failings and shortcomings. It gives us so many opportunities but we have to make things happen and grab them with both hands.

I am passionate about friendship and connection and I want to share this journey with you.

One thing my community work and experiences have taught me is that we can all make change, we all have gifts to bring to the world, we all need to develop our purpose and passion in the short time we have on this Earth. But none of it works if we try and go alone.

Get in touch. Be involved. Don’t sit on the side-lines waiting for others to make change happen.

Together we truly can thrive, I’m excited to meet you.

 

Love and prayers

 

Julie