Author Q&A With Ani Zonneveld
Ani Zonneveld is an author, writer, singer/songwriter, and speaker. She is the founder and President of Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV), which advocates for freedom of expression and of conscience, and human rights for all through an inclusive interpretation of Islam. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Multi-Faith Advisory Council to the U.N., and a board member of Community Partners Foundation in Los Angeles.
As an officiant, Ani pioneered MPV’s Islamic interfaith marriage services and is the subject of an award-winning documentary titled “al-imam,” screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019. As a Grammy-certified songwriter, she uses the power of music to combat hate and to create a new American Muslim culture. Meet Ani:
You are an author, but is it your day job? If not, what fills your days? My day job is as a founder and president of Muslims for Progressive Values. Our mission is to inculcate a culture of human rights through public education, advocacy, and the arts. My work entails administering the day-to-day operations of a non-profit, encompassing work domestically, internationally, and within United Nations spaces.
What is your most recent book, and what inspired you to write it?
In my book, An Unlikely Social Justice Warrior: Making My Life Count as a Muslim Feminist, I write about the sexism and misogynistic structures I experienced in the music industry, in human rights, and especially in religious institutions that inhibit our full potential, and how I’ve overcome them and created an alternative structure to the patriarchal ones. The reason I decided to write the book is that, in many classes I’ve taught as a guest lecturer at high schools and colleges, I’ve noticed how the students sit up and lean in. Having someone teach a class with real-life experiences to complement the theory students are learning helps them not only understand their subject matter better but also build empathy on a deeper level.
How do you hope your book will uplift readers? Human beings are very tribal, and I hope readers will understand the importance of showing up in support of each other’s causes and rights regardless of race, faith, sex, or ethnicity. The old political modus operandi of divide and conquer has worked for centuries, resulting in the demise of our collective rights and well-being. The experiment I want people to test out is to take a disparaging comment about a particular group of people and replace it with your own identity. How does it feel?
What do you find most fulfilling in the career that you’ve chosen? I didn’t choose my career path; it chose me, and fortunately, I had the gut feeling or the openness of heart to be able to hear that calling, and more importantly, to have the privilege of pursuing that calling. The non-profit I founded, Muslims for Progressive Values, enables me to work in a field that uplifts millions of people oppressed in patriarchal societies by providing an alternative to those structures, resulting in a life that is fulfilling and therefore happy. The pursuit of happiness is actually not easy, especially when we are expected to conform to societal and religious norms.
What book uplifts you? The book that changed my thinking is titled The Veil and the Male Elite by Fatima Mernissi. The book explained the historical, social, and religious context of the Muslim headcovering, hijab.
How do you hold yourself accountable and achieve the goals that you set forth? I do a lot of public speaking and writing, and to stay true to the cause of uplifting people, I am mindful that what I write and say does not harm anyone, that highlighting an issue is to provide a solution to the problem, and, most importantly, it is not about me! I have come to be patient with meeting my goals. I will work really hard to achieve a set of goals, but sometimes the Universe has a different timeline for me. I do my utmost best, and then I surrender to the process.
Meet Ani and learn more about her cause and her book through her website.
