Tuesday evening, a few minutes after 6:30 p.m., dozens of students broke their fast with water and dates at Morehouse College’s King Chapel.
After an evening prayer, a buffet of chicken, fish, rice, and samosas opened up for the gathering of current and former Atlanta University Center Consortium students to have a meal before educator and public speaker Sabria Mills began her program about navigating the world as young Muslims in the 21st century.
The iftar, the evening meal Muslims eat after a day of fasting, was co-hosted by the Muslim student associations at Spelman and Morehouse, An-Nisa and Al-Muminoon, respectively. According to An-Nisa’s leaders Rokiyah Darbo, a senior women’s studies major, and Qaí Hinds, a senior health and science major on the pre-med track, most of the preparations had to be handled by the Morehouse students because their organization is officially recognized by their college.
An-Nisa is not.
Without recognition as a registered student organization, An-Nisa cannot apply for funding or reserve spaces on campus for its events. That means that any of the events it hosts have to take place off campus, which can be challenging when it comes to arranging transportation for the approximately 15 freshmen in the club.
“[For] a lot of these girls, this is their first time fasting away from their family in a new environment, and I just don’t want it to be a negative experience for them and I don’t want their parents to be worried about them,” Hinds said.
When An-Nisa’s application was denied last year, the club was told Spelman didn’t have the capacity for any new RSOs. It was Darbo and Hinds’ second year attempting to get registered student organization status for An-Nisa to serve its 40 members.
According to the college’s website, there are 85 campus organizations with RSO status. Only one, a Christian group, appears to have an overtly religious mission.
In a statement to Capital B Atlanta, Spelman said An-Nisa’s RSO application did not meet the submission protocols established by the college. The college did not elaborate.
“Regardless of their RSO status, Spelman College has and remains deeply committed to supporting student clubs and organizations, including An-Nisa,” the college said. “The well-being, inclusion, and cultural enrichment of our students remain central to Spelman’s mission and priorities.”
While Darbo and Hinds acknowledged Spelman’s RSO process, they still haven’t felt supported as members of a religious minority on Spelman’s heavily Christian campus.
“The same day that we were denied our RSO, our adviser stepped down. … If you don’t have an adviser for your RSO application, you can’t turn it in,” Darbo said.
A week later, An-Nisa found a new faculty adviser in assistant professor of history Nafeesa Muhammad, but by then the application deadline had passed.
This wouldn’t be Spelman’s first Muslim student association. Darbo recalled an unofficial group that was active her freshman year in 2022 that later dissolved due to administrative issues within the group and students graduating.
Since 2024, however, she and Hinds have been spearheading a new initiative to get official status for a new group for Muslim Spelmanites.
In addition to the event with Morehouse’s Al-Muminoon, the West End Community Masjid and the Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam have hosted the Spelman students for other iftars this year. Darbo was also able to arrange an iftar for An-Nisa members sponsored by Blourish and Hayat Coffee, two Muslim-owned local businesses. An-Nisa also launched a fundraiser to host future events.
Inclusion in Spelman’s activities calendar, which tells students what groups are having events that month, is another benefit reserved only for clubs with RSO status. An-Nisa is also not included in Spelman’s activities calendar.
“[This is] something that I wasn’t expecting to experience at Spelman, where I would have to be a spokesperson for this religion,” Hinds said, referencing the difficulties An-Nisa has faced.
While she and Darbo said their professors have been understanding and accommodating to them and other Muslim students who are fasting an average of 13 hours per day this Ramadan, they still feel a lack of institutional support from their school and more specifically from Sister’s Chapel, the center of religious life on campus.
“Even when you go look at their social media pages, they’ve acknowledged that Ash Wednesday started. … Ash Wednesday and Ramadan started on the exact same day, but there’s not a single post acknowledging Ramadan or the Muslim students on campus,” Darbo said. “The only organization on Spelman’s campus that has acknowledged Ramadan publicly has been the [Student Government Association.]”
In the school’s cafeteria, Darbo said the halal food option is usually only seafood or vegetables, which poses a special challenge during Ramadan because protein is key for Muslim’s breaking their fasts.
Taylor Harris, a senior biology major, and Amari Ann Shepard, a sophomore political science and philosophy major on the pre-law track, both serve on the SGA board. They told Capital B Atlanta at the Tuesday night iftar that they want to support An-Nisa despite it not having official status.
“Just because you’re not an RSO doesn’t mean you’re not contributing to the Spelman community and culture,” said Harris, who is the SGA’s director of special populations.
Harris said that Darbo and Hinds initially reached out to the SGA to ask for any support they could provide to An-Nisa, particularly during Ramadan but also throughout the school year.
“At Spelman we talk about being rooted in sisterhood, and to me what sisterhood looks like is supporting every person in whatever shape, form, size, color, or religion. And we can’t exclude anything in sisterhood,” Shepard said.
In her role as director of special populations, Harris said she is working to figure out how to make sure groups like An-Nisa have access to the support and resources they need. When it comes to gaining RSO status, Harris said the process can be unintentionally inaccessible for special populations and smaller student organizations.
That sentiment was echoed by Hinds, who said she also spoke with leaders of a gardening club on campus that was recognized by the AUC but not by Spelman.
“A lot of the conversations that I’m having with our administrators is [about] making sure that those requirements are equitable for special populations such as Muslim students,” Harris said.
Hala Karim, a sophomore psychology major, told Capital B Atlanta that she was disappointed last year to learn An-Nisa’s RSO application was denied.
“It’s been hard to show up with the [Muslim student association] as much as I would like to, partly because of my own responsibilities, but also because they don’t have RSO status so that they can organize events properly,” she said.
Karim doesn’t think the limit should apply to religious groups the same way it does for social groups. She remembered how simple it was to start a Muslim student group at her high school in Northern Virginia and expected to have a similar experience in college.
Despite the lack of official recognition, Karim said that whenever she mentions fasting to other students she is usually met with questions about Islam and curiosity from her classmates who are interested in learning about their Muslim sisters.
“I also think that by having RSO status, it would open people up to exploring different religions. I know that — intentional or not — that is something that I have gained at Spelman, learning more about Christianity, like southern Baptist and also Catholicism,” Karim said.
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