Urooj Arshad (born 1975) is an American activist who was a co-founder the

Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity The Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity (MASGD), founded in 2013, is an American support and advocacy organization for LGBTQ Muslims. History The Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity was launched in January 2013 in Atlanta. ...

, where she is also a member of the steering committee.

Early life and education

Arshad was born in Pakistan in a house built by her grandfather. Her middle-class, secular Sunni Muslim family lived in

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

, where her father worked for a petrol company and her mother was a teacher at a military school. Her parents' families both originated from

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

, and immigrated to Pakistan after Partition. She also had two younger brothers. She attended PECHS Girls School, a private school that taught in English. As a teenager, Arshad began developing crushes on girls in her school, although she did not have the language to identify them as such. She also began to question gender roles and stopped wearing jewelry and only wore white clothing in an attempt to present in a gender-neutral fashion. She immigrated to the United States with her family in August 1992, when she was 16 years old, due to increasing violence in the country. They initially lived in the Chicago suburbs with her uncle and his family, who had sponsored the family's immigration. Arshad completed her final year of high school in the United States, where she experienced racism from her teachers and peers. Arshad attended the

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

, where she initially studied a pre-med track. She later switched her major to sociology, with a minor in women's studies. She graduated in 1998. She

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

to her brother at age 19, who then

outed Outing is the act of disclosing an LGBTQ person's sexual orientation or gender identity without their consent. It is often done for political reasons, either to instrumentalize homophobia, biphobia, and/or transphobia in order to discredit politi ...

her to her mother. Her father died shortly afterward when she was 20.

Activism

Arshad became involved in LGBT organizing in 1999. In 2011, she organized the LGBTQ Muslim Retreat. , she was a fellow at the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute. In 2017, Arshad was working at

Advocates for Youth An advocate is a professional in the field of law. Different countries and legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. Howeve ...

as their Associate Director for International Youth Health and Rights. That same year, she launched the Muslim Youth Leadership Council, a support group for LGBT Muslim youth and their supporters. She is the senior program manager for

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

issues at

Freedom House Freedom House is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. It is best known for political advocacy surrounding issues of democracy, Freedom (political), political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, wi ...

Personal life

She identifies as queer and a

cultural Muslim Cultural Muslims, also known as nominal Muslims, non-practicing Muslims or non-observing Muslims, are people who identify as Muslim but are not religious and do not practice the faith. They may be a non-observing, secular, or irreligious individ ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arshad, Urooj 1975 births Living people 21st-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American people 21st-century American women American LGBTQ rights activists American queer women American Sunni Muslims Muslim women Pakistani emigrants to the United States Activists from Karachi Queer Muslims University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Pakistani queer people Cultural Muslims