FCN 10/16/97
LOS ANGELES--The First Lady of the Nation of Islam will lead a delegation of female Nation of Islam officials to the Oct. 25 Million Woman March set for Philadelphia. Mother Khadijah Farrakhan, wife of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, will be joined by Mother Tynnetta Muhammad, wife of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and Minister Ava Muhammad, among others, at the event.
The march, which will take place on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, comes two years after the Oct. 16, 1995 Million Man March on Washington, D.C.
"I'm in support of the upliftment of family life and the woman is a significant part of that," said Mother Khadijah. "The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that no nation can rise above the condition of its women.
"The Million Woman March is a beautiful suggestion extracted out of atonement and the Million Man March. We thank Minister Louis Farrakhan for that and we stand with him; and we pray that Allah will shower his blessings on the Million Woman March just as he did for the Million Man March" she said.
"I think that for this to happen in this particular year, 1997, it seems to send a signal that relationships of male and female and family development are key issues that have to be discussed with women as well as with men," said Mother Tynnetta, during an Oct. 10 interview at the West Coast bureau of The Final Call.
Just over two years ago, when Min. Farrakhan began the process of calling for the Million Man March, he visited several areas of the country in which he addressed men only. This aroused feminists' reactions as to why women couldn't participate, "because they didn't understand how destroyed the male had become and how his image as the maintainer and as the head of the household had been destroyed," Mother Tynnetta said.
Min. Farrakhan later scheduled events in which he spoke to women only.
"That was the signal that ultimately after the Million Man March, that perhaps a million or more women might get together and discuss how we, the men and the women, can reconcile our differences," she said.
Min. Ava Muhammad, who joined the Nation of Islam in 1981 after hearing Min. Farrakhan speak and who is the first woman minister appointed under his direction in the rebuilding of the Nation of Islam, stressed that the women's gathering will generate the same spirit and camaraderie as the Million Man March.
"When Allah (God) inspired Min. Farrakhan to call the march in 1995, it was not really susceptible to our comprehension," Min. Ava said in a telephone interview from her home in Georgia. "The magnitude was so overwhelming that it will be many, many generations before it will be understood."
Min. Ava, an attorney who is scheduled to speak on the topic, "The Further Development of Black Women Who Are or Wish to Become Professionals, Entrepreneurs, and or Poli-ticians," likened the upcoming march to a powerful tree "yielding fruit." She stressed that any woman who wishes to advance her life must first establish a strong relationship with the Creator.
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