Lila Fahlman

Early Life

Lila Fahlman hails from a distinguished Muslim family in the Canadian Prairies. Lila Fahlman’s father was Sied Ameen Ganam Kadri. In 1901, Kadri left his village in the Beqaa Valley (modern-day Lebanon). He eventually arrived in the Midwestern United States, where he met his wife, Chelsea. She was not Arab and was not Muslim, but she subsequently converted to Islam. They moved to Sheho, Saskatchewan ― roughly 160 km northeast of Regina. It’s in rural Saskatchewan that Lila and her brothers were born. In 1924, Lila was born in Limerick. She recalls her early life as a young Muslim on the Prairies by noting that she did not know formal Muslim prayers but instead “made up my own prayers” by incorporating verses from the Quran that she had memorized.

Eventually, the family made their way, as had many Muslim families across the Prairies by the mid-1930s, to Edmonton, Alberta. There, they could be in proximity to the recently built Al Rashid Mosque.

It was at Al Rashid that Lila learned to pray more conventionally. Meanwhile, Lila’s eldest brother, Saleem, would go on to become a leader of the mosque. He also became Canada’s first homegrown Muslim theologian.

Did you know?
Lila’s other brother was Ameen (“King”) Ganam. Often referred to as “Canada’s King of the Fiddle,” he was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989.

A Life of Firsts

After the family moved to Edmonton, Lila Fahlman attended the University of Alberta and received a Bachelor of Education in 1962. After teaching for several years in local high schools, she returned to the University of Alberta and received her PhD in Educational Psychology. She likely became the first woman in Canada to achieve this distinction.

Fahlman then worked as a counsellor in the Edmonton Public School System. In 1985, she was elected as a trustee with the Edmonton Public School Board ― she was also the first Muslim woman to serve in this capacity. Moreover, Fahlman was the first Muslim woman in North America to serve as a university chaplain, at the University of Alberta. She wrote and published many books with her own publishing company, Purple Wolf Publishing.

Fahlman was a passionate advocate of interfaith dialogue. She served as the vice-chair of Vision TV, the multifaith and multicultural channel that began broadcasting in 1988. She was also head of the World Interfaith Education Association and co-founder of the Edmonton Interfaith Centre.

Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW)

Lila Fahlman was the impetus behind the foundation of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW). Created under the larger auspices of the Council of Muslim Communities of Canada (CMCC), Fahlman and other community leaders formed the CCMW in Winnipeg in 1982.

Like the CMCC, the CCMW was a national organization with branches in cities and regions with substantial Muslim communities. It sought to represent Muslim women across Canada. As of 2025, the CCMW continues to hold annual meetings and lecture series, in addition to sponsoring workshops on a variety of issues deemed relevant to Muslim women.

The CCMW also published booklets for Muslim women in Canada. These touched on “Muslim and Canadian Family Laws” and focused on topics like inheritance, marriage, custody and child support. The aim of these booklets, now online resources, is to explain to Canadian Muslim women their rights both as Muslims and as Canadians, something that is especially important to new Canadians.

In 1984, the CCMW began to publish a newsletter magazine called The Canadian Muslim Woman. Issues featured an editorial and upcoming CCMW-sponsored workshops and conferences. They also included news from various CCMW chapters and touched on larger Canadian issues facing Muslim women.

Like the CMCC, the CCMW was conscious of addressing the fact that Canadian Muslims did not speak with one voice. The CCMW needed to overcome cultural, linguistic and even religious differences. Its goal was to do this from the perspective of teaching Muslim women, especially newcomers, what their legal rights were in Canada.

Al Rashid Mosque

When the Edmonton Muslim community began to outgrow the Al Rashid Mosque, many wanted to relocate it to the historic Fort Edmonton Park. Though Al Rashid was Canada’s oldest mosque, several detractors objected and noted that it was not “historical” enough. Eventually, through the herculean efforts of the CCMW, and especially Lila Fahlman, money was raised to move the mosque to the park, where it is now located.

Mosque

In 2001, Lila Fahlman was made a member of the Order of Canada for a lifetime of public services and volunteerism, in addition to her contributions to the Muslim community and her work on behalf of abused women.

In 2017, the Dr. Lila Fahlman School opened its doors in Edmonton.