The Prohibitions of the Tongue

Your Teacher: Ustadha Shamira

Ustadha Shamira Chothia Ahmed is passionate about educating and empowering Muslim women to grow in knowledge and closeness to Allah ﷻ. Born and raised in California’s Central Valley, she graduated as valedictorian before briefly pursuing pre-med studies at Georgetown University. Her heart was soon drawn to sacred knowledge, and she began her ‘alimah studies at Dar-ul-Uloom Mu’eenal Islam in South Africa, completing the five-year intensive program at Ja’mia Al-Imam Muhammad Zakariyya in Bradford, UK—one of the first and most renowned Islamic universities for women. She furthered her studies in Damascus, Syria, where she received an ijāzah in Tajwīd of the Ḥafṣ recitation from the late eminent Syrian scholar, Shaykh Ḥasan al-Kurdī. She later earned a Master’s degree in Demographics and Social Analysis from UC Irvine, focusing on Muslim-American identity formation. In 2005, she taught Hanafi fiqh for women at the Zaytuna Institute in California and has since taught across North America. She trained under Mufti Abdur Rahman Ibn Yusuf Mangera in women’s fiqh and assisted in the preparation of Al-Fiqh al-Akbar Explained. Alongside her teaching, she is also a certified birth doula and lactation educator, offering spiritual and practical support to women in their childbearing years. She is the founder of Her Sacred Path, a global initiative dedicated to spiritually empowering women through classes, mentorship, and community, and the co-founder of the Rahmah Foundation, which has served women’s education in the Bay Area for nearly two decades. A wife and mother of five, she enjoys spending time with her family, fitting in a strength workout when she can, and dreaming of having more time to read.