WASHINGTON – As people dedicate November to count their blessings, and give thanks, an American group has launched a new initiative throughout the month to give thanks to the inspirational Muslim women who are shaping their society.

“The hashtag #ThankfulForMuslimWomen was created by Middle East Collective (MEC) in order to give thanks to the many inspirational Muslim women everyone can look up to, and to show how Muslim women have been prevalently shaping our society,” an editorial shared by HuffPost says.

“We hope to elevate the diverse and courageous voices of Muslim women. #ThankfulForMuslimWomen will also aim to emphasize that Muslim women cannot be defined as ‘damsels in distress who need to be saved,’” it added.

The group launched the campaign to counter rising trends of anti-Muslim sentiments across the US.

“Despite increases in anti-Muslim hate crimes and Islamophobia, we cannot allow this hate to spread,” the group says.

Each day this month, the group will feature one Muslim woman who is making positive changes in the world.

MEC will feature a number of Muslim women on its Instagram account. In the first three episodes, the group featured Rana Abdelhamid, Halima Aden, and Mona Haydar.

We are #ThankfulForMuslimWomen like Mona Haydar. Mona is phenomenal poet and activist who has raised awareness about Islam and stereotyping Muslims through her powerful art form. She has also starred on “The Secret Life of Muslims”, where she’s shared interesting details about her life, work, and marriage. Her husband, Sebastian, converted to Islam before marrying Mona; and they’ve worked together to combat Islamophobia by creating a pop-up coffee stand called “Ask a Muslim” in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mona has been replacing the “trauma and terror” associated with Islam with heartfelt and humorous connections, through her music and her activism efforts. Thank you, Mrs. Haydar, for all of the incredible work you do to spread peace and understanding!

A post shared by Middle East Collective (@middleeastcollective) on Nov 6, 2017 at 12:37pm PST

We are #ThankfulForMuslimWomen like Rana Abdelhamid. Rana is the founder of the Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment. She has worked tirelessly to help Muslim women find their inner strength to combat Islamophobia. She also created the incredible photography series called “Hijabis of New York”. In Rana’s spare time she also teaches self-defense classes, where Muslim women can come together and learn how to protect themselves from anti-Muslim harassment or potential hate crimes.

A post shared by Middle East Collective (@middleeastcollective) on Nov 6, 2017 at 12:18pm PST

We are #ThankfulForMuslimWomen like Halima Aden. Halima was one of the first Muslim Somali-American women to compete for the Miss Minnesota USA title and was the first contestant to ever compete in the competition while wearing a burking and hijab. Ms. Aden has said, “Not seeing women that look like you in media in general and especially in beauty competitions sends the message that you’re not beautiful or you have to change the way you look to be considered beautiful…and that’s not true.” We are grateful for Halima’s courageous, young voice and how she uses it to break the patriarchy’s image of what beauty should look like.

A post shared by Middle East Collective (@middleeastcollective) on Nov 7, 2017 at 10:34am PST