"Women's Empowerment Within Islam" Khutbah by Zan Christ (5/25/18)

Khateebah Zan Christ delivers the 41st khutbah for The Women's Mosque of America on May 25th, 2018. She speaks about the empowerment that Islam has granted women and how we as women can, and should, utilize these rights to better ourselves and society. Zan Christ is the Coordinator for Religious and Spiritual Life Program at Hamline University’s Wesley Center for Spirituality, Service and Social Justice. She organizes the logistics, promotion, and communication of the Religious and Spiritual Life programs with the intention of nurturing the religious and spiritual lives of students, faculty and staff. She supervises student workers of the RSL groups, including Multifaith Alliance, Jewish Student Life, Mindfulness Meditation, Interfaith Youth Core’s Better Together and Muslim Student Association. Also, she serves as an educational resource on religious diversity, interfaith literacy and cooperation on campus and in the community. She is an experienced interfaith leader, accomplishing an Undergraduate Degree in World Religions from Hamline University and a Graduate Degree in College Student Affairs (Counseling and Student Personnel) from Minnesota State University, Mankato. While at MSU, Zan gained a broad perspective while interning in the Career Development Center, Academic Advising, and Enrollment Management. Over the last five years, Zan has been an interfaith resource for Midwestern collegiate panels and programs regarding topics such as Social Justice Within Islam, American Converts’ Journey to Islam, Interrupting Islamophobia, Counseling American Muslims, and Women’s Faith Experiences in Diverse Communities. Most recently she worked for three years as the Advancement Operations Coordinator at the Science Museum of Minnesota, where she was also active in developing diversity and interfaith trainings for the staff of the museum. There she built a designated Quiet Space, where anyone from any religion or no religion could use it to pray, meditate or just take a silent break. For many years, Zan provided leadership and strategy at Building Blocks of Islam on several projects including Qur’an and Islamic studies teacher, Convert and New Muslims Mentorship Coordinator, and Camp Counselor at Young Sister’s Al Isra Retreat, in which she won the highest award of the camp – The Best Camp Counselor Award.