Building 21

🪷At Building 21, projects often start from a question that sticks.

For B21 scholar Islamiyat Jamiu, it was this:
“how can something be described as just, yet not always feel that way in lived experience?”

In her project “Between Devotion and Justice”, Islamiyat looks at how women from Muslim backgrounds move between faith, feminist thinking, and the realities of everyday life.

She spoke with women in different places in their relationship to Islam — some practicing, some questioning, some who’ve stepped away. What comes through isn’t a simple “for or against,” but something more layered. A lot of the tension isn’t about belief itself, but about interpretation — who defines it, and whose voices are heard.

Feminism, in these conversations, wasn’t always an identity people claim. It showed up more as a way of asking questions — about autonomy, expectations, dignity.

The project doesn’t try to land on a clean answer. It stays with the gap between what is said to be just and what people actually experience — and how individuals keep navigating that space over time.

🎥 Watch the video to hear Islamiyat talk about her work and her experience in her own words.

👀 Read about her project here: https://www.building21.ca/scholars/islamiyat-jamiu

🗣️ Spread the word: change.org/building21

Featuring: Islamiyat Jamiu
Created and Produced by: Alex Nicholas Chen
Additional Footage by: Mohamed Amine CHAAI

⚾️💃 LA Los Angeles Dodgers first AI research scientist, Mathilde Papillon, shares with us about how her combination of physics and dance all started at B21!

🤞Spread the word: change.org/building21 !!!