Fattum Mutahr had a question: Where does she go to buy a new scarf?
The answer surprised Ms. Mutahr, who was asking when she was new to the area a little more than a year ago. She learned there were no boutiques or shops to pick up the sort of scarves that she and others wear as hijabs, the head coverings worn in public by some Muslim women.
It was a stark contrast to Dearborn or Detroit, where she and her husband lived before their move to Toledo. There, she said, “you can't go a few blocks without finding one.”
“There's a big Muslim population here,” too, Ms. Mutahr said. And there are mosques and grocery stores and other institutions to support that population. Just no shops, no boutiques.
“People sell scarves from their home,” Ms. Mutahr continued, “but that's not the same thing as a formal brick-and-mortar business.”
So Ms. Mutahr decided it was up to her: She opened the Modest Muslim Market, a coffee shop and boutique, at 837 S. McCord Rd., Holland, in March. As the first shop it's kind in the area, Ms. Mutahr said she sees her cozy market as meeting a need in the community.
That's both in terms of the locally one-of-a-kind stock she sells, like scarves, prayer clothes and other Islamic-centric items. And it's also in terms of a broader mission of inclusivity and cultural awareness that the former engineer promotes in her day-to-day interactions at the shop.
Customers might come in for a gift, but can linger for a coffee and a conversation. Muslim and non-Muslim customers who drop in are invited to learn about the faith tradition through free books and brochures, as well as through an owner who values her faith tradition as integral.
“As a woman who worked in corporate America, I faced so much discrimination and so much hatred that to me this work is more valuable than anything that I could contribute in the world of engineering,” Ms. Mutahr said. “Creating a more inclusive America is where we need to focus our energy as professionals, regardless of what field people are in.”
The Modest Muslim Market came together conceptually as its owner was considering the next steps in her career, after her husband's career brought them to a new community. She just spent about ten years in the automotive industry, in industrial and systems engineering, specifically, and decided to take a few months off before beginning another job hunt.
It was around that time that she began thinking about the need for a boutique that would sell scarves and other items of interest to Muslims, she said. And it was around that time that she noticed a for-lease sign in the shopping plaza across from the not-yet-completed mosque of the Islamic Society of North West Ohio, where she was volunteering on weekends.
She had no way of knowing her timing would be inopportune: On the day slated for her grand opening in March, she recalled, a community police officer showed up to explain the imminent stay-at-home regulations to her and to the neighboring business-owners in the plaza. She put together a website in about a week, and she ran the shop exclusively online for its first months.
While the web offered her some means of growing her new business, Ms. Mutahr said she also aimed to keep her priorities and her expectations in check in her early weeks: In dedicating herself throughout much of the spring to teaching imams across the country to use Zoom, through the Southfield, Mich.,-based nonprofit Life for Relief and Development, for example, and in donating herself to the nonprofits she had planned to support through her shop's coffee for a cause campaign, she kept an eye on the big picture.
“We tried to shift the focus from, ‘Oh, this is so terrible, I can't believe this is happening to me,’ to, ‘How can I help other people who are also struggling and who really are in a much worse position than I am right now?’,” Ms. Mutahr said.
She was able to finally open her doors to her shop alongside other state retailers in mid-May, she said. She's since been welcoming customers, who browse displays of scarves; men's and women's clothing; and books, games and greeting cards. She also stocks a variety of products sourced from fellow Muslim small-business owners in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan.
These include baked goods by Sugar on Top, decor and party goods by Sprouting Buds and prayer clothes and street clothes by Samira's Salah Sets and Socotra. Ms. Mutahr hosts makeup appointments through the Henna Effect, and carries local author Aya Khalil's children's book, The Arabic Quilt, among other local partnerships.
Toledo's Tava T. Hall sells shea butter, body butter and candles under Blue Star by Tava at the Modest Muslim Market. Ms. Hall said she's appreciated some increased interest in her business, which otherwise does not have a brick-and-mortar presence, particularly after her products were featured options in gift sets prepared this spring for Eid.
Ms. Hall said she's been excited to have a boutique nearby – like Ms. Mutahr, she wears a hijab, so she appreciates the convenience of being able to browse and shop in town – and she said she's excited to have her products on display there.
“I am very happy,” she said. “I'm excited.”
Ms. Mutahr said these connections with other businesses are important.
“I think because Muslim women are so under-represented in business in general, it's really important for them to come together and to be able to form partnerships and to really promote each other and to be each other's best cheerleaders,” she said.
The Modest Muslim Market also welcomes amply spaced-out customers to sip coffee and paint canvases on Fridays, Ms. Mutahr said. She prepares the canvases with calligraphy phrases in Arabic, which her artists in turn paint and embellish; the coffee, which is also available outside of painting afternoons, is a nod to her family's Yemeni heritage.
Almost any visit wraps up with an offer of complimentary literature, a Quran or A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam. Ms. Mutahr sees this and the related conversations as a way to break down the perceived walls between religions and cultures.
“That education is super important to me, bridging those community and cultural gaps,” she said.
Contact Nicki Gorny at ngorny@theblade.com or 419-351-0361.
First Published September 6, 2020, 11:00 a.m.
