Business Professionals: Join our Interfaith at Work Cohort

I am leading the Business Interfaith Work Cohort at Interfaith America because I believe it is important to have interreligious and interfaith awareness in workplaces to help one another belong. We hope you’ll join us.

I have worked at three law firms in Chicago and currently specialize in intellectual property law. I see the growing potential for the workplace to be more inclusive around employee’s religious identities and the ways in which this affirmation can make business more successful in an increasingly diverse and global market. 

I grew up and live in Chicago and come from a Muslim background. I have never had to question my faith until I entered spaces where my identity and faith intersected in a way that made sense to me but was confusing to others. It was my normal to adjust and code switch to “fit in,” because my coworkers often did not understand what religion I practiced, if I was fasting, or what Eid al-Fitr even was. 

That is why connecting business and interfaith is important to me. Interreligious and interfaith awareness gives space for people to express their faith and feel included at work, where often we spend over 40 hours a week. Ways that workplaces can promote interfaith cooperation at work include integrating holidays into work calendars, creating prayer spaces, and having interfaith dialogue in order to learn from one another. 

The Business Interfaith Work Cohort is a community of professionals working in the business sector interested in creating more inclusive workplaces that value religious diversity and promote interfaith cooperation. We will focus on supporting members of our network to build specific skills that can be applied within the business sector. If you want to get involved or find out about upcoming opportunities, feel free to reach out by signing up.

Join us on January 19

All are invited to join the next Business Cohort’s next meeting via Zoom on Thursday, January 19, from 6:00-7:00 p.m. Central Standard Time. The goal of this event is to touch base on how business and interfaith connect and how we can apply these connections to our work life and/or personal projects. Register here and we will send you a calendar invite with the Zoom link.

In our session we will:

DISCUSS each other’s different interfaith experiences and make connections.
LEARN how to integrate interfaith findings into the workplace and create strategies for interfaith awareness.

Rida Zaidi

Rida Zaidi, the Interfaith Business/Law Cohort Lead, has worked at three large law firms in Chicago and currently specializes in patent law. She sees the growing potential for the workplace to be more inclusive around employee’s religious identities and the ways in which this affirmation can make business more successful in an ever increasing diverse and global market.