WSF Online Meeting - Faith, Ethics, and Action: Advancing Environmental Leadership through the Al-Mizan Initiative, 9 December 2025
On 9 December 2025, the Women for a Sustainable Future (WSF) network convened online to discuss faith-based environmental leadership through Al-Mizan: A Covenant for the Earth. Al-Mizan is a global Islamic environmental framework developed under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) by leading Islamic scholars and scientists. Drawing on over 50 ecological principles from the Qur'an and Sunnah, Al-Mizan provides a moral, spiritual, economic, and legal foundation for the stewardship of natural resources, the promotion of social justice, and the restoration of balance (mizan) in environmental conservation.
The meeting was led by Dr Iyad Abumoghli, founder and chair of Al-Mizan and the former director of UNEP’s Faith for Earth Coalition; Dr Aishah Abdallah, co-author of Al-Mizan and founder of Anaq al-Ard; and Dr Azizan Baharuddin, member of the Scholars Team for Al-Mizan. Participants included parliamentarians, former parliamentarians, diplomats, academics, environmental experts, health specialists, and civil society leaders from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Ireland, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the UNEP, and Yemen.
The meeting took place at a critical moment in an escalating global climate crisis. Outcomes from the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in Brazil in November 2025, underscored the widening gap between the scale of the emergency and current global action. With accelerating global environmental degradation, conflict, and economic inequality – where impacts fall disproportionately on women and marginalised communities - Al-Mizan offers an urgently needed ethical and faith-based framework for addressing the climate emergency.
Practical applications of Al-Mizan include work in Chad, where Anaq al-Ard applies its principles to support behavioural change, ecological restoration, and nature-based education. Strengthening environmental education and public awareness, including reconnecting communities with Islamic ecological teachings, remains central to fostering sustainable behaviours.
Recommendations focused on integrating Al-Mizan principles into school curricula; expanding women’s leadership in environmental decision making; and supporting youth and grassroots organisations working on climate resilience and environmental conservation. Stronger inter-faith cooperation and partnerships – industrial and oil-producing countries, as well as conflict-affected contexts such as Yemen – are also required to embed Al-Mizan within national and regional environmental strategies.