2017 Deakin University Iftar
The AIS and the Deakin University partnered for the 7th Annual Iftar Dinner at Deakin University’s new Downtown Campus. The evening was well attended by the university staff, the student body, community representatives and friends from the AIS.
This year we had the Pro-Vice Chancellor for the Faculty of Arts and Education, Professor Brenda Cherednichenko, MC the event. She gave her impressions of attending an iftar dinner for the very first time and how she has been instrumental in assisting the Muslim students organise an iftar dinner at the university campus. During her warm welcome, the Vice Chancellor Professor Jane den Hollander, highlighted some of the achievements of Deakin University and how they’re investments have beared fruits in terms of increase in student numbers, higher research output and supporting cutting edge technological developments with their carbon nexus program.
Dr Dalal Smiley from Wellsprings for Women provided the keynote speech. Her talk focussed on empowering communities and particularly, women, to help drive the change that respects individual expression and promotes female participation in all aspects of the society. She stressed the importance of reaching out to all individuals and embracing them in this era of uncertainty like the video of Karim Sulayman.
Abdul Musawwir Marian from the Student Islamic Society gave an insight on what Ramadan means to him and the student body before Ahmet Keskin gave a vote of thanks, where he emphasised the important role universities like Deakin play in promoting healthy discussion of ideas to address the complex problems that face our society. He added that the university is a place to grow not only in knowledge of a chosen discipline but be more of ourselves, our environment and how we relate to them.