WEST RIDGE — On the third floor of the Devon Bank building in West Ridge, Sima Quraishi and her team — a sort of "United Nations" as she calls it — huddle around a desk to discuss the daily itinerary for the work they're doing at the Muslim Women's Resource Center.
Out the window to the south, a brightly painted mural depicting flags from across the world and people of varying shades reflects back at them, a mirror of the residents who fill the uniquely diverse neighborhood.
And that's exactly why Quraishi is here.
The Muslim Women's Resource Center, 6445 N. Western Ave., employs a core team of mostly women from around the world who run a number of social and community-based programs that assist residents of all genders and backgrounds, with an emphasis on immigrant and refugee services.
From English language classes to helping immigrants apply for citizenship, find housing, buy groceries, find jobs and simply navigate life in the United States, the resource center serves between 3,000-4,000 clients each year, Quraishi said.
The programs are essential to the community, Quraishi said, in-part because many of the others have had to close or downsize in recent years.
One source of the organization's funding comes from its very own community-run grocery store.
When the state cut immigration services funding in 2015, Quraishi said she refused to give up.
Instead, she expanded to open the Muslim Women's Resource Center grocery store at 2727 W. Devon Ave., a social enterprise that gives back 100 percent of its profits back to the organization.
Two men currently run the shop, including butcher Morteza Bazargani, a refugee from Iran.
Quarishi said the more people who shop at the store, the more people she can hire from the neighborhood.
Items catering to a number of ethnic and dietary needs are shipped in from around the globe.
The store also sells gift cards, which can help feed families and individuals struggling to make ends meet by sponsoring refugees' grocery costs.
Morteza Bazargni, a Iranian refugee who works full-time as a butcher at the grocery store. [DNAinfo/Linze Rice]
Rebuilding Lives
A refugee herself who left Afghanistan 30 years ago at age 5, Quraishi founded the organization in 2001 after a spike in undocumented Muslim men being deported.
That left the women and children of those deported in a difficult position, she said.
So she decided to do something about it.
"Because of our culture, men are the head of the families and women just take care of the housework inside of the house," she said. "So most of these women had never worked before."
In 2003, she opened her doors for the first time with a one-room office able to accommodate about 15 people.
Her team began offering woman-centered language and computer skills classes, an idea that also helped the women feel more comfortable without the presence of men — reminiscent of traditional all-girls Muslim schooling.
Within the first three months, the demand for the center's services had already significantly grown.
Not only were the Middle Eastern and South Asian Muslim women they expected showing up, but turnout also included Muslims from other countries, as well as non-Muslims from the Middle East and South Asia.
Though currently about 65-70 percent of her clients are Muslims, the resource center also serves Latino, Jewish, black and Asian community members of different faiths from West Ridge and Rogers Park as well.
Inside the resource center office, where women and men of all backgrounds work. [DNAinfo/Linze Rice]
Today, the resource center still provides women-only classes, but has expanded to mixed-gender classes as well.
Quraishi now provides a number of essential programs that help her clients acclimate and stay in the local community.
The Community Cares program provides job training and full-time work for about 100 refugees and immigrants while also serving the neighborhood's senior population.
Workers receive training before being paired with seniors who require in-home assistance.
In the summer, the resource center offers a youth camp that takes children to museums and libraries.
The center's immigration program helps adults apply for citizenship and registers them to vote, as well as obtain other important legal documents like passports.
The programs not only provide the opportunity for an immigrant's first job or a fun day of camp, it helps those people become part of the neighborhood's colorful fabric.
That is crucial especially now amid fears of travel bans, deportations and immigration raids.
Though Quraishi tells her clients there laws that protect them, the perception and fear remains.
In the last year, applications for her citizenship program have doubled, she said.
"These people they are not coming to this country to become rich, some of them were very wealthy, some of them had good lives," Quraishi said. "But the reason they are coming to this country is for safety and security."
"One thing that I feel, as a woman, that women in particular have very kind hearts, and it just breaks our hearts to see what goes on — not just with Muslim communities ... with everyone."
At the end of the day, the resource center is about helping people not just survive but flourish in the United States and in the community.
Quraishi's programs are meant to provide a pathway to a new or improved life for all her clients, many of whom have been forced to leave their former homes.
Quraishi knows the feeling, she said, but also knows the possibilities.
"I always tell my American friends that Afghanistan is like my child and I want to do everything for Afghanistan," she said. "And the United States is like my mother, because it has done so much for me."
Sima Quraishi at the Muslim Women's Resource Center in West Ridge. [DNAinfo/Linze Rice]
The community-run grocery store at 2727 W. Devon Ave. [DNAinfo/Linze Rice]
All of the proceeds from the store go straight back into the resource center. [DNAinfo/Linze Rice]
Goods are sent in from across the country and world to the grocery store. [DNAinfo/Linze Rice]
Customers can also buy gift cards that essentially sponsor groceries for refugees. [DNAinfo/Linze Rice]
A mural at the Devon Bank that faces the office of the Muslim Women's Resource Center depicting the neighborhood's diversity. [DNAinfo/Linze Rice]
