An Islamic women's association started in the 19th century is encouraging more females to unite in sisterhood and flourish in life.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Women's Association works out of the Nasir Mosque in Gillingham and a celebration will be held there this Saturday to mark the importance of the continuing work of "women leading women".

The president of the Kent branch, Faiza Mirza, said the gathering is being held to commemorate the work Muslim women are doing in the community, some of which busts the myths surrounding the religion.

The 42-year-old, who is also the producer of The Voice of Islam show on digital radio, said: "It's a very light and relaxed day, where it's about getting together with other women and celebrating how the community was set up for the advancement of women and how far we have come along.

"We're celebrating 100 years of the women's group being set up, which was initiated in 1889 but started in 1922, and that was because women wanted to lead their own way."

The gathering will take place from 11am to 1pm, with an afternoon of arts, crafts, henna tattoos, food and games. It will also feature a visit from the Mayor of Medway Cllr Jan Aldous.

Ahmadiyya Muslim Women's Association was first established in 1922 in British India as an independent and empowered women’s organisation by the second Caliph, Mirza Bashir-ud-din Mahmud Ahmad.

His wife, Hazrat Amatul Hai, had a great interest in the development and progress of women and it was on her advice that he initiated the organisation, which transformed the lives of the women of the community.

Over the years, the organisation spread all around the world and officially formed in the UK on a permanent basis in 1957.

Today, membership today stands at more than 10,000. The group at Nasir Mosque is the only chapter in Kent and has members from Sevenoaks, Hythe, Ramsgate and beyond.

The mother-of-three continued: "I think it's so profound because I think women leading women is more important in today's society.

"Women only know what women want, we can cater for our needs.

"That's not to say we don't work with men, but when we specifically look at our needs, we can cater for that a lot more.

"So our auxiliary looks at empowering women. We have social outreach that we do, our own religious knowledge we try to improve on, physical health.

"Business is also pushed within the women's community. If you look at the time of the holy prophet, his first wife, Khadija, she herself was a businesswoman."

Just some of the principles the community aims to uphold includes for women to come together to increase their knowledge and share it, to encourage sisterhood regardless of social standing and to work at ever improving our morals and spirituality.

They practice these ways of living through outreach work, social welfare activities, industry and handicraft endeavours along with physical health programmes.

Faiza said: "One of our projects set up to celebrate the 100 years is a scheme to plant 100,000 trees nationally.

"We were down in Capstone Farm in March. We planted quite a few trees down there and in December we're planning to go down there and plant some more.

"Other things we do include feeding the homeless – we work with Gillingham Street Angels sometimes with giving food there.

"At Christmas we like to go round to visit children at the hospital and go and give presents to them.

"At Ramadan, we will help feed the doctors who are working on shift, so there's different things we work on together.

She continued: "Pushing women to look after their own needs and wants is more important than totally relying on men.

"There's a lot of misconceptions with women in Islam, especially with the situation in Iran.

"It is believed that women are forced to cover up, and that men should be telling women what to do, which is completely wrong.

"If you look in the Quran it doesn't say that anywhere; there's nowhere that says that men should be policing women.

"If anything, the injunction is for men to lower their gaze, and there is no compulsion in faith – the Holy Quran has said that.

"Nobody should be telling anybody what to do, it's a case of why you're covering up and for what reason.

"And that's why it's important for women to have their own spaces. They can learn themselves and empower themselves about why we do what we do.

"We have quite a lot of women who are doing lots of different things. We have teachers, women who work with the council fostering children, doctors, dentists, housewives, there's women from all walks of life, but when in the mosque it's all about sisterhood and unity."