This Project’s Person

Hi! I’m Kelsey Hatchitt, the creator of the Muslim Women You Should Know Project and an avid reader, lover, and inshAllah, unlearner of patriarchal interpretations of the world and the women who have built this world. I’m founder of two platforms - Femislay and Muslim Women You Should Know - and a recent MSSW graduate from the University of Louisville. I love to read, garden, cook and spend time in the presence of my loved ones in The United States and Malaysia, where my fiancé and his family live.

Muslim Women You Should Know started as a series on my first project, Femislay, a platform, which, when I first started it, was simply a place to regurgitate white feminist verbiage.

Over time though, and with an introduction to a majority Muslim society, which has become my second home over the past few years, things began to shift. I started to recognize the singular narrative the West pushes upon women, especially those who identify as feminist, of what it means to be a feminist or empowered or successful. A narrative that largely excludes Muslim women and their autonomy or their diversity.

The Muslim Women You Should Know started as a series during Ramadan 2019 as a way for me to explore other narratives of empowerment and the diversity of Muslim women that is often only granted to Western women.

It became its own platform in 2020 and now in 2021, its own project. But no matter where it’s located, it has consistently been one of the greatest gifts that has made its way into my life. And no matter how you stumbled upon this page, I’m so grateful to have you here, learning and unlearning alongside me.