Instructor

Sister Zarinah is currently studying for a Bachelor of Arts in Islamic Studies (BAIS) at International Open University (IOU) under Dr. Bilal Philips and other senior scholars at the university. She’s also taken courses at the Islamic Center of North America (ICNA) to obtain dawah certifications and spends her free time researching Islamic topics relevant to women and Muslimas in these modern times.

After graduating from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in 2019, Sister Zarinah Raheem immediately pursued teaching in public high school in Newark, NJ. It was here she developed the strongest bonds with students and focused on character development and producing independent thinkers. Very quickly she built a reputation of taking the school’s most unwanted students with poor attendance and misconduct, and cultivated students with perfect attendance and model leadership. She considered important to not only build relationships with the students, but to create a partnership with their parents to close the gap on learning loss and help students establish confidence in their education.

Although Sister Zarinah loved her students, she could not continue teaching for a system that was broken and did not reflect her moral and religious values. She fled the public education system, focused on obtaining a degree in Islamic Studies, and now uses her professional pedagogical training to build an Islamic curriculum to homeschool her own children and for the legacy she aims to establish for isolated Muslimas across the country. Sister Zarinah has crafted lessons that are interactive, engaging, and rigorous for students with different learning levels and backgrounds. It is important to her that the young women of our community develop the dedication, nobility, and knowledge that distinguished the great women examples throughout history guided by Allah (SWT) and those that surrounded our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).