Threading Together Advocacy

On September 12, Muslims for Progressive Value’s new arts initiative, Silver Thread, hosted our first Emmy’s Brunch where the TV show Deli Boys (Hulu) was awarded with the first Silver Thread Cultural Impact Award 2025. 

Recipients of the Silver Thread Cultural Impact Award must fulfill four criteria: 

  • Representation: Works that amplify marginalized voices and expand diversity in storytelling.

  • Influence: Art that sparks public conversations and raises awareness.

  • Society: Contributions that go beyond the screen, helping to build bridges and create meaningful change across communities

  • Evolution: Honoring traditions while reimagining them for a modern audience.

Saarish Khan, Ani Zonneveld, Saagar Shaikh, Farah Merani, Anna Khaja (photographer: Niaz Uddin)

Actor Saagar Shaikh was there to receive the award on behalf of the show’s creators, who created a piece of work that was certainly deserving of the inaugural Cultural Impact Award.  The award is a metal sculpture of a twirling dervish designed by Salma Arastu and especially commissioned for MPV.  For updates on upcoming Silver Thread activities, please follow our Instagram @silverthreadmpv

Ani, Imam Khalfan and DRC Grand Mufti Sheikh Luaba.

After the Hollywood glamour, I was off to Nairobi to attend the Faith To Action Network conference. Besides meeting with African faith leaders, youth representatives, and community activists working to advance human rights, I was there to do a presentation of a new curriculum MPV co-authored and designed with our #ImamsForShe partner in Burundi, Imam Khalfan Bukuru Elie, “Positive Masculinity in Islam”. There was a lot of interest in the curriculum and in MPV’s other educational resources products, including the Inclusive Religious Curriculum for children designed for madrassas and our #TeenClub and #ClubsForShe programs, all which promote inclusivity and positive masculinity.

Besides going there with a mission to share the work of MPV, I also learned a lot from other attendees, whose personal insight and work offered additional perspectives that are important to incorporate into our programs. For example, I learned that in Zimbabwe there was a high number of men committing suicide. It is said that many do so because they are unable to find work, and with their wives being the bread winner, they feel emasculated. This sentiment is an extreme outcome of toxic masculinity. Both partners should contribute to the family’s wellbeing, as income-earners, in domestic work, as engaged parents, and as caring and loving partners. 

While my September may have been consumed by two seemingly contradictory experiences, they do indeed thread together to reflect that advocacy work I have dedicated my life to. In my memoir “An Unlikely Social Justice Warrior: Making My Life Count as a Muslim Feminist”, I write extensively about why and how I do my work.

You can ask your bookstore to order it for you or online from the publisher.  

Onward and upward…

Ani Zonneveld

President and Founder of Muslims for Progressive Values

Ani Zonneveld