Outburst! is coordinated by adult allies & youth peer coordinators, all of us are Muslim women. We are diverse, loud, fun, fashionable and smart young Muslim women who challenge daily the constrictions placed on us by everyone. We rep Toronto from Malvern, Thorncliffe, Regent Park to Lawrence Heights diverse in our experiences but united in our work.
Coordinator/Adult Ally: Farrah Khan
Farrah Khan is a Counselor and Advocate at the Clinic and has spent the last sixteen years working diligently to raise awareness about violence through counselling, art creation and community mobilization. She holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Toronto and works as a counsellor and advocate at the Clinic. The clinic provides legal representation, professional counselling and multilingual interpretation to 5,000 women each year.
Counsellor/Adult Ally: Henna Khawja
Henna is a Counsellor and Advocate at the Clinic, and a long-time fangirl of the Outburst family. Henna holds a Bachelor of Social Work from Ryerson University and a Collaborative Master Degree in Social Work and South Asian Studies from the University of Toronto. Henna holds social justice, art and activism close to her heart.
Counsellor/Adult Ally: Charlene Bernasko Counsellor and Advocate at the Clinic. She has been working in the violence against field for over seven years addressing specially issues of forced marriage, female genital mutilation and sexual assault. She is a poet, spoken word artist and music lover.
Peer Coordinator/Adult Ally: Shameela
Shameela is an aspiring Psychotherapist who hopes to work with Muslim women survivors. On the side, she dabbles in the visual arts, finding comfort in the zendala art form.
Peer Outreach Workers: Young Muslim Women Leadership Team
Aisha or “The Edgar Allan Poet” is a writer, a poet and everything in between.
Fatima is an aspiring writer and photographer who wishes to challenge notions of “Muslim” and “women” in the media and as society as a whole.
Faduma “I’m life’s student and my own teacher”
Ameenah is in her 3rd year at York University aspiring to become a teacher, in hopes of one day teaching abroad.
Saba was born in Pakistan and came to Canada to pursue an LLM at the University of Toronto in hopes of becoming a lawyer.
Past Founding Members
Khadeeja: I spend my day as a daydreamer, lawyering, and loyal manager of mischief. I am driven to address human rights abuses such as forced migration, violence against women and community violence.
Safiah: I am a recovering student, social butterfly, trying to figure out my place post school, activist. I am passionate about cake, social justice and improving the situation for my community.
Sana: Vancouver Toronto transplant, social work student who loves strawberry lemonade. I want to create safer communities for Muslim women.
Yasmeen: I am MC outspoken queer feminist who wants to support my peers to push the boundaries of our minds. I am a survivor who wants to support other young women to end violence in our lives.