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Author: Pavlashah Durrani
Excerpt: “Hers was a name that almost everyone knew.
At one time in Ottawa’s history, Eva Afife Wahab was the go-to person in the Muslim community.
Born in 1914, Wahab was the first Muslim child born in Ottawa. Her father emigrated from Lebanon to Canada in 1903, and her family was the first Muslim family in the nation’s capital. Prior to that, it was individual Muslims who had settled here.
Though proud of her Canadian identity, Wahab remained still deeply tied to her roots, and her faith. Her father would line up all the children with him when he prayed, including the girls, so they wouldn’t forget and would learn their religious practice.
In the time that she was growing up, women had restricted lives in Canada. Hard to believe that up until 1955 women were fired from the federal government when they got married. In the United States in the 1960s, women couldn’t open a bank account without their husband’s signature. Read more here”
