Muslim Sisterhood x The Hoxton Eid Dinner
Celebrating Eid and sisterhood with the important women in our lives
On Sunday April 13th, we partnered with our long-time collaborators The Hoxton Hotel to host our final Eid al-Fitr dinner of the year, inviting not only members of our community and familiar faces but also the women who raised us, grew up with us and live beside us every day.
As we spend much of the year working on public programming with artists and creatives from our community, it was important to us to be able to come together and celebrate with our collaborators and loved ones.
Expanding our invite list to include our mothers, aunties, sisters, neighbours, our 35-person dinner was a heartwarming celebration of sisterhood in the truest sense, reminding us of how important it is to create safe, joyful spaces for women to come together, connect and just be.
With the table immaculately set, the lights dimmed all the way down, and our Cent London candles lit and casting a soft glow and comforting scent through the room, we made sure that everyone was seated before the first course arrived - big delicious platters of appetisers, ready to be shared and savoured down the table.
Throughout the course of the evening, we caught up with familiar faces, chatted with the aunties that we get to see once a year and formed new friendships, bonding over matching Hadiyah Hussain outfits, swapping recipes and laughing loudly over wedding stories and our same-same but different family dynamics. For us, the most special part about being able to invite our closest family members is that not only could we introduce our friends to our family, but our family also got to meet all the wonderful people who make up our community.
With so much catching up to do, we switched seats in-between courses, captured the ever important group photos and TikTok videos and even squeezed in a few rounds of uno flip before returning back to our original seats for mains & dessert.
With everyone dressed in a multitude of beautiful colours, patterns and textures, we couldn’t miss up an opportunity to create fit checks too. Surrounded by our sisters, mums and friends - the room was brimming with energy and chatter as we hyped each other up and gave the camera a good twirl or two.
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We feel so lucky as ever to be able to not only bring Muslim women together, but to be able to have an intergenerational celebration that really centres community and connection. Community has always been at the heart of what we do, but it means so much to us to be able to celebrate across generations, reminding us of how valuable and important it is to show up and support one another.
Thank to The Hoxton for partnering with us to create a wonderful, joyful event for the third year in a row. <3
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How did you replenish your cup during Ramadan?
“I don’t live with my family so the fact that I was able to go offline and spend most of the month with my family was really replenishing and rewarding. We as a family don’t often eat together because everyone has different schedules and Ramadan was a time where we could actually sit down and share a meal together. Those moments alone were so beautiful. So I would say that cooking with my family, spending time with my family helped me to feel replenished. Also, not being online as much and conserving my energy for my worship as opposed to externalising it through social media and events. Ramadan helps you realise how much of your energy goes out to your community naturally, to your family, your friends. Ramadan helps you realise how much of your energy you need to conserve for your worship and your own peace of mind.” Salwa Rahman, Creative
“Similarly for me, I feel like usually the pace of my life is so fast, like moving 100 miles an hour. Ramadan is such a wonderful time because you get to slow down, focus on what’s really important and just reconnect with your family, yourself and your faith. My family live on the other side of the world, which is really tough, but I try to stay connected with my parents and call often and just talk to them more. I definitely spent a lot of Ramadan this year at home with my sister and enjoyed slowing down a lot - basically reducing my socialising - which was just really nice to sort of reset and refocus.” Yasmin Moeladi, Creative & Muslim Sisterhood Substack Editor
What small acts of kindness made an impact on you during Ramadan or Eid?
“It was my friend’s first Ramadan in 30 years. They reverted a week before Ramadan and it was just such a blessing to see how they encountered their first Ramadan. It reminded me of how special it is and how fortunate I am to be born Muslim. They just showed me the beauty of the Deen and the thirst for knowledge and it inspired me to step up” Maria Mahfooz, Artist
“I think sharing is really important. Obviously during Ramadan and Eid, one of the ways in which you bond is via food so I feel like sharing food has added a lot of mercy. I think it’s a beautiful act of kindness.” Memunatu Barrie, Textile Print Designer
And as little treat for everyone
Muslim Sisterhood mother, Lamisa, always makes sure that no one leaves empty handed and this occasion was no different. Guests from our event were treated to a selection of goodies from Lush, Sachi Skin, Barnaby & Thameen - thank you to all our partners for your generous contributions to our Eid gifting this year!
For our readers who are looking for gifts for Eid al-Adha just around the corner, Sachi Skin and Cent London have kindly offered discounts to our wider community:
To unlock an exclusive 30% off discount of Cent London candles, you can follow them on Instagram and DM them mentioning Muslim Sisterhood
For 20% off Sachi Skin products, use code MUSLIMSISTERHOOD20 on their website
