Featured Stories

In a recent interview for The Ismaili online on women in the public service, I asserted that women of color are often absent from decision-making processes. I could not have wished for anything better than to have been proven wrong by Samina, Nahla, Nazneen, and Shenaz, my inspirational Ismaili colleagues at the United Nations. While there are more than can be featured here, the four women I had the opportunity to speak with have remarkable stories and reflections on their careers, on the role of the UN over its 74 years, and on what has contributed to their success over the years.

There you are, a 14-year-old Guide waiting with your fellow Counselors, Guides, and Staff (CGS) for the first bus to come around the corner. You’ve never experienced Camp Mosaic before. You have been training hard for the past month — you’ve bonded with your team, learned all the songs, and played every Magic Box activity — but you’re nervous. You ask yourself: Are you prepared to handle the enthusiasm, energy, and excitement of 125 children?

“Educating effective future leaders is a high responsibility. To do it well, we must look beyond the world which is passing from sight and turn our eyes to the uncharted world of the future. We must rise above the antiquated approaches of earlier days and instead infuse our students with what I would call three “A’s” of modern learning - the spirit of anticipation, the spirit of adaptation and the spirit of adventure. This will happen best in learning environments which are both serious and focused on the one hand, but which are also joyous and inspiring places, operating on the cutting edge of pedagogy and knowledge.” -Mawlana Hazar Imam, Aga Khan Academy Mombasa, August 14, 2007.

Three female entrepreneurs with drastically distinct styles have taken the fashion world by storm as they followed a common calling to empower other women. KYNAH, meaning “woman leader,” is a Los Angeles online retailer founded by Aisha Rawji to offer a collection of traditional Indian wear with a twist. The Kayes is a Dallas-based online retailer, founded by sisters Neelofar and Alisha Keshavjee, and offers a relaxed, suburb-city hybridized western style for a fast-paced life.

By age 23, Tahira Dosani was working as a management consultant but considered making a dramatic change in her career. “I picked up and moved across the world, by myself, to Afghanistan,” she says. She would spend the next two years in Afghanistan as Head of Corporate Strategy with Roshan, the first mobile telecommunications operator in the country, at a time when 97% of Afghans didn’t have a bank account.