Uzma Farooq is the Vice President of Muslim Women’s Coalition (MWC), and the Director for the Greater Washington DC Area Office of MWC. Under Mrs. Farooq’s direction, the office was established in February, 2002 with a handful of members and has grown today to include a large membership of diverse women.          

As an avid advocate for social justice in communal work for women, children and elders, Mrs. Farooq has engaged MWC members in a number of activities to give back to the local and international community. Through her efforts to affiliate with organizations such as the United Religions Initiative (URI), Inova Fairfax County Hospital for Children, Loudon Abused Women’s Shelter (LAWS), and Doorways for Women-Families in Arlington, and Fairfax County’s programs for senior citizens, MWC members have donated their talents and resources to the community in which they live in.

Uzma Farooq speaks with passion about the beauty of Islam. She has delivered several lectures on the values of love, hope, and peace of traditional classical Islam. She has been a guest speaker at Church Women United, the annual prayer breakfast meeting of National Capital Presbytery, the interfaith event “A Day of Unity” cosponsored by MWC and Arlington Interfaith Council and she has been annually invited to speak about Islam at Swanson Middle School in Arlington. 

Mrs. Farooq has been invited to attend several conferences and seminars at the U.S. Embassy’s Diversity Dialogue for Muslims in the Netherlands, the Hudson Institute, the Red Cross, the White House Faith Based Initiatives, the Points of Light Foundation, Women’s Learning Partnership and Washington Hebrew Congregation, Interfaith Conference of Washington DC, and the National Cathedral’s Sacred Circles. She has also participated in research with the Institute For Women’s Policy Research, and has been interviewed by Voice of America.  Federal agencies such as the State Department, the Department of Justice and USAID have also invited MWC to events under her leadership. 

Uzma Farooq is also a member of the Sacred Circles Planning Committee at Washington National Cathedral, a member at large at Arlington Interfaith Council and an active member on the planning Committee at Women, Faith and Development Alliance that is aiming to launch a Women’s World Summit in 2008.

Uzma Farooq received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Social Work from Punjab University, Pakistan. She moved to the Washington metropolitan area in 1980 and became a US citizen in 1991.