Cultural perspectives on aging, death & dying: Muslim communities

Salwa Kadri is a program and office manager for the Al-rashid Mosque, the first of its kind in Canada when it was built in 1938. Over the past 15 years, Salwa has collected and archived the stories, photographs, and lessons from community members across Alberta. Her works also include “Al-Rashid: a Canadian Legacy”, and the academic publication “Building Canadian Communities” with Dr. Earle Waugh. Outside of work, Salwa invests her time in a number of philanthropic and charitable causes; she is also one of the few Muslims to achieve a Funeral Directors Lenience, and plans to finish a funeral guide book for grieving families.

Jordana Salma is a Registered Nurse and an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Alberta. Her research program focuses on the health and well-being of immigrant and racialized older adults in Canada. Jordana’s work explores diverse experiences of aging and aims to address health inequities that emerge from multiple intersections of disadvantage. The majority of her research to date has been with Arab, South Asian, African and Muslim communities in Alberta. Jordana uses participatory approaches to engage communities in the research process and using story telling to highlight the perspectives of older adults. Examples of research that she is currently working on includes exploring Muslim older women’s experiences of social connectedness, addressing climate change resilience in immigrant older adults, and evaluating immigrant older adults’ digital literacy needs.