Frozen Vanity*: #SeeMyMosque First Exhibition

I have been extremely busy planning the #SeeMyMosque Exhibition and finally or unfortunately it is over!

Firstly a little about the Project:

The aim of the project is firstly to encourage the muslim youth to get involved with doing something for Islam in a fun and interactive way, and secondly to show non-muslims the beauty of Islam and not what is generally portrayed by the mainstream media.

#SeeMyMosque invites the general public to send in Images of their local mosques by hash tagging #SeeMyMosque on Instagram or sending it through the website www.seemymosque.tumblr.com

The First Exhibition:

Many non-muslims have never been inside a mosque or realise mosques are so different across the world. So this is an opportunity for them to see the beauty, and for muslims to fall in love with Islam again. In the month the project was launched we have had over 300 Images of mosques and many from the Middle East, particularly from Doha and UAE.

The first exhibition was in the city Preston, in England on the 31st August.

#SeeMyMosque

The day before I and some team members from Preston To Places including my mother stuck down the 1000 images I had chosen for the Exhibition. 9 hours and a delicious pizza later, we finally finished and packed the boards into the van.

Weeks before that, I had meetings with my project partner Mohammed to discuss the plans and how we would go around doing it, we had meetings and phone calls all week trying to get equipment, space and times. It was a week of sleepless nights for me, creating the posters and collating the images from Instagram and naming them all, creating the website and making sure we did not fall behind schedule.

We had islamic calligraphy done for the general public by the local imam. They could get their names done in Arabic for free. We also had some volunteers from the muslim community and it was great as we had some giving out leaflets and talking to the general public and explaining the project.

Preston to Beijing was a project I worked on, I went to one specific Mosque in Beijing and visited it various times speaking to the women there( with a translator, my dear friend ) and taking photos of the area.

These are Images from my Project partner Mohammed who recently went to the Syrian Refugee camps to observe the situation and help. I have to say, the images were stunning and one could get emotionally attached knowing the stories that had happened and are happening right now.

More info will be shared about Preston to Syrian refugee camps where we hope to raise money for an orphanage that can barely even afford food never mind toys for the little children.