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Leader of Arab Women’s Group Honored at Borough Hall Dinner
2008-10-08
AWAAM Director Recieves Citation from Markowitz
by Brooklyn Eagle (edit@brooklyneagle.net), published online 09-29-2008
BROOKLYN — After being targeted by the media in an attempt to shut down New York’s first Arabic dual-language public school, and after a year of fighting the appropriation of their “Intifada NYC” T-shirt, Arab Women Active in the Arts and Media’s founding director Mona Eldahry was honored by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz at an annual Ramadan event.
Brooklyn Borough Hall’s 5th Annual Iftar dinner at Borough Hall Courtroom this past Wednesday honored a handful of Muslim community leaders during the holy month of Ramadan.
“Positive recognition from an elected official in this time of growing anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiment is an important gesture of affirmation and solidarity,” says AWAAM Media Mentor Roopa Singh. “With this citation, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and the Iftar Committee are sending a positive message to our embattled communities, the message that we should continue to strive for fair media coverage and equal access to education, public safety and civic institutions.”
In August 2007, AWAAM found itself at the receiving end of a campaign designed to shut down the Khalil Gibran International Academy, New York’s first Arabic-language public school. T-shirts that AWAAM had created to celebrate community empowerment were falsely associated with the founding principal of KGIA, resulting in a dual targeting of KGIA and of AWAAM.
In an effort to protect AWAAM as a safe space for young women who are Arab, Muslim and from communities of color, AWAAM launched its iWord Campaign, aimed at humanizing its members’ communities and asserting their right to use their languages and to discuss their struggles.
“Because of AWAAM, my daughter is comfortable speaking to adults and expressing herself in public,” says Naima Remmak. “She has serious career aspirations, and she has a much higher level of analysis when it comes to politics and social phenomena. Arab mothers are so happy to see a program dedicated to women of minority groups.”