ABOUT

IWAQ Statement

The IWAQ President / Fatima Abdel Kariem
The IWAQ Director / Galila Abdel-Salam
 

     Are delighted to announce the launch of the “Creating Acceptance and Religious Tolerance Art Project”

    The Islamic Women’s Association of Queensland (IWAQ) is a community organisation with a wide range of services to assist people from mainstream and culturally, linguistically & religiously diverse backgrounds.

    IWAQ was formed in 1991 after it was discovered that there was a large demand for Muslim women and their families to receive various support services. Since its small beginnings IWAQ has become an organization that caters not only for Muslim women and their families but also caters for the needs of a wide section of the Australian Community mainly from culturally, linguistically and religiously diverse backgrounds extending from Europe to the Asia Pacific.

   Through research and hard-work IWAQ has diversified its services to include settlement, aged care, disability and respite services.

  

   We are firm believers and supporters of supporting multiculturalism awareness and have structured many of our aims, projects and fundamental business practices around this belief.

   The project has been created to use art to communicate and address some of the current misunderstandings and conflicts between Muslims and other cultures as represented by the media. As young people are the generation of our future we felt through influencing their understandings and perceptions we have the capacity to mobalise a generation with a new healthy appreciation and understanding towards what multiculturalism of today should be.

    With the rise and popularity of media, especially within the youth circles growing so rapidly we decided to take a new approach and use the influential resources in a positive manner to promote and spread messages of peace, harmony and acceptance. Through art we feel the participants will be able to express themselves in a positive and healthy manner.

    We are excited to embark on this new journey, watch the students progress and see the end result.

Please visit our website at 

Islamic Women Association of Queensland

Or Follow us at

IWAQ ON Facebook

      Regards,

      President / Fatima Abdel Karim
      Director /  Galila Abdel-Salam

  Art For the Community

Young people are the generation of our future. It is through influencing their understanding and perceptions that we have the capacity to mobilize a generation that has a new aspect and healthy appreciation and understanding of what multiculturalism should be.

The project will target young people from a wide range of cultures and religions. An artist who specialists in digital arts, graphics and visual art will be engaged who will run a series of workshops with young people that seek to document (through stories, drawings and interactive media), an understanding of their culture, how they came to live here, their dreams and hopes and personal stories.

The objectives of the project are to:

• Document through art, stories and digital media (video, audio, digital photography), the personal stories and dreams and visions of our multicultural youth 
• Broaden the minds of young people to create an understanding and acceptance of different cultures and religions 
• Utilize electronic media to redesign, reshape and re-establish modern views and to promote integration of different cultures

Outcomes of the project will include:

• An E-magazine, which is an interactive media for the ipad or computer. The magazine has illustrations, drawings, storytelling and content that is both educational and entertaining. 
• A digital video portraying different cultural groups working together in workshops to produce the products as a well as a visual portray of what multiculturalism means to this generation.

Magdy Shiha | Art Coordinator
Brisbane, Australia 2013