KarunaNews Story

Older Muslim women who have met every Wednesday at Edmonton’s Al Rashid Mosque for conversation, laughter, fitness, prayer, and Middle Eastern treats for the past seven years, are the focus of a new study drawing on their experiences as a recipe for aging well. "Staying active and staying connected is a recipe for healthy aging, and we need to maximize that in our city as much as we can," says University of Alberta gerontologist Jordana Salma, who researches the health and well-being of seniors. Nuzhat Khan’s Council of Muslims on Aging Gracefully developed a pen-pal project, and classes in Urdu, English and Arabic, to combat loneliness of Muslim seniors during the pandemic. U of A researcher Huda Temuri, whose participants are from Edmonton's Southeast Asian Muslim community, notes the power of overcoming cultural taboos to talk about loneliness.