Help us Nurture the Female Perspective on Islam Using AI
In this season of giving, donate at any level to our 501c3 charity so that we can make datasets that are inclusive of the female perspective of Islam through the work of the late scholar Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar.
Our goal is to create a repository of data, that will make AI less biased against Muslims and to continue the late scholar Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar’s mission of sharing Islamic wisdom that is rooted in the female perspective.
Through her scholarship, Dr. Bakhtiar produced a gender neutral translation, The Sublime Quran, and challenged the status quo on the Arabic word daraba, traditionally translated as “beat” — a word that she says has been used as justification of abuse of Muslim women.
Click here to donate.
Through the years, Dr. Bakhtiar heard from hundreds of Muslim women, battered women, and social service groups who thanked her for bringing an alternative translation into the public eye.
As a keynote speaker in New York in July 2014 for Turning Point, an organization for Muslim women and girls affected by domestic violence, Dr. Bakhtiar turned to the Quran itself to empower the audience to be brave and strong as they transformed their lives. Shireen Soliman, the Board Chair of Turning Point, described the personal impact of Bakhtiar’s work:
You can imagine how validating it was to finally hear of and read Dr. Bakhtiar’s work and her ability through her work and her research to be able to arrive at a translation of the Quran which finally for me really captured the essence of Islam, and is so beautifully aligned with the work we’re doing…with Turning Point.
Lauded for her pioneering work in Islamic spirituality and Quranic critical thinking, Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar lived a rich and fulfilling life as a scholar, a mother, a grandmother, a sister, an aunt, a friend, a mentor, a counselor, an activist, and a global citizen. She died of a rare blood disorder on October 18, 2020 in Chicago, where she lived and worked for over 30 years.
In December 2009, American novelist Dave Eggers recommended The Sublime Quran on Oprah.com. In an August 2009 article Eggers said:
Reading the Quran was so illuminating. I was able to find a wonderful translation by Laleh Bakhtiar, and it opened me up to the beauty of the faith in a way that no interpretation of the text had before. And, of course, in the book you find, very clearly, Islam’s dedication to social justice, to peace, and to the less fortunate.
We are raising much needed funds that will pay for data scientists and voice technologists to synthesize the thousands of data points in Dr. Bakhtiar’s research, letters, notes, audio, video, emails, speeches, and other writings so they can be shared through AI technology. You can learn more about this project here.
Any amount you donate helps create a more complete picture of Laleh’s wisdom and life story for future generations. All LKL donations are tax-deductible.
Can’t do this without your help!
Related Stories:
Resources and Interviews:
The Complete Quran Recitation by Laleh Bakhtiar
Laleh Bakhtiar on her life, recorded by Samira Ardalan
The Sufi Enneagram Course: Knowing Ourselves and Developing Moral Healing November 2018
Laleh Bakhtiar interview with Matt Scott 180º of Impact (September 2018)
