#help rafeef

[andaleebhany]

Please don't ignore my message

It may be the last thing I write🚨

We are not well 💔

Our only option is to evacuate outside the Gaza Strip and this requires a large sum of money❗Please help us🙏🕊️

I am hany , 46 years old, from Gaza, and I have 5 children. My life was beautiful, I had a home and a job 💚

But after the war in Gaza, I lost everything beautiful 💔

It is difficult to start from scratch, and I lost everything, and my children were deprived of education, health, play, and everything

I would be very grateful if you donated to me and shared the link with your friends to raise the necessary resources to enable us to get out of Gaza and live with my wife and children in love, peace and security that we lost in the Gaza Strip🚨🇵🇸🚨

Will you help my family ؟؟

GoFundMe Campaign Link ♥️ :👇👇👇

@90-ghost @el-shab-hussein @nabulsi @sar-soor @sayruq @queerstudiesnatural @appsa @communistchilchuck @fairuzfan @neptunerings @just-browsing1222 @appsa @akajustmerry @feluka @marnota @annoyingloudmicrowavecultist @tortiefrancis @flower-tea-fairies @tsaricides @riding-with-the-wild-hunt @vivisection-gf @belleandsaintsebastian @ear-motif @animentality @kordeliiius @brutaliakhoa @raelyn-dreams @troythecatfish @violetlyra @the-bastard-king @tamaytka @4ft10tvlandfangirl @northgazaupdates2 @skatehan @awetistic-things @nightowlssleep @baby-girl-aaron-dessner @friendshapedplant @mangocheesecakes @commissions4aid-international

[a-shade-of-blue]

-Rafeef Ziadah: We Teach Life, Sir

I'm sharing this here because I thought of this poem when I received news that Ahmed's (@ahmedpalestine) cousin has been killed when fetching water for his children (gfm); when Mahmoud (@mahmoudfamily1) told me that his family's tent has been bombed and now the 10 children have nowhere to sleep (gfm); when Mohammed (@ahmed0khalil) sent me a photo of a severed leg, telling me that he was at the site of the bombing moments before it happened (gfm).

And then they would write about their tragedies in reblogs and posts, and then I would write about their tragedies in reblogs and posts. Maybe not exactly a 'TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits'. More like a 'Tumblr'd tragedy that has to get enough shares and reblogs and sympathies or else their remaining family members may not survive'.

How many times do they have to rip out the most personal parts of themselves and bare them to the world to move people who have been desensitized to their suffering? Please do not ignore their humanity. We may not have the ability to bring back the dead, but we have the ability to help the living survive. This is no small power, please use it.

All 3 campaigns have few donations, and sometimes they receive no donations for days. Please share and donate if you can:

Mahmoud Salim's campaign (@mahmoudfamily1)

Donation Link: https://gofund.me/cf1e8cbf

Mahmoud has 17 family members trapped in Nuseirat, including 10 children. Mahmoud almost lost all his family when the house they were sheltering in was bombed with them inside, killing 13 people. The place they were staying, including their tent, was just destroyed by bombs! They now have nowhere to sleep!

Verification: #117 on @/gazavetters vetted list. Also vetted by association.

Mohammed & Ahmed Khalil's campaign (@ahmed0khalil)

Donation Link:  https://gofund.me/d906d319

Mohammed is 19 years old and from a family of 8. He has 5 siblings: Fathi (23), Aya (21), Anas (15), Abdullah (11) and Ahmed (6). His father has diabetes, Fathi is blind, and Abdullah is autistic and does not understand what is happening. They are currently displaced in a school in Deir el-Balah.

Verification: shared by 90-ghost, #77 on the @/gazavetters vetted list

Ahmed Khader's campaign (@ahmedpalestine)

Donation Link:  https://gofund.me/93849448

Ahmed has 12 family members including 6 children, in Maghazi right now. He has recently lost his cousin, also named Ahmed, who was a father of 3 children, including a 2-month-old baby girl. He was targeted and killed by a missile while fetching water for his family.

Verification: vetted by @/gaza-evacuation-funds,  promoted by Bilal-Salah0, vetted by association

If you need even more incentive to donate, I'm hosting a freshwater pearl phone strap raffle for people in the UK. Click here to enter after you donated. Just, please, support them!

[starlightshadowsworld]

Palestine poetry: We teach life, sir.

Today, my body was a TV’d massacre.

Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits.

Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits filled enough with statistics to counter measured response.

And I perfected my English and I learned my UN resolutions.

But still, he asked me, Ms. Ziadah, don’t you think that everything would be resolved if you would just stop teaching so much hatred to your children?

Pause.

I look inside of me for strength to be patient but patience is not at the tip of my tongue as the bombs drop over Gaza.

Patience has just escaped me.

Pause. Smile.

We teach life, sir.

Rafeef, remember to smile.

Pause.

We teach life, sir.

We Palestinians teach life after they have occupied the last sky.

We teach life after they have built their settlements and apartheid walls, after the last skies.

We teach life, sir.

But today, my body was a TV’d massacre made to fit into sound-bites and word limits.

And just give us a story, a human story.

You see, this is not political.

We just want to tell people about you and your people so give us a human story.

Don’t mention that word “apartheid” and “occupation”.

This is not political.

You have to help me as a journalist to help you tell your story which is not a political story.

Today, my body was a TV’d massacre.

How about you give us a story of a woman in Gaza who needs medication?

How about you?

Do you have enough bone-broken limbs to cover the sun?

Hand me over your dead and give me the list of their names in one thousand two hundred word limits.

Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits and move those that are desensitized to terrorist blood.

But they felt sorry.

They felt sorry for the cattle over Gaza.

So, I give them UN resolutions and statistics and we condemn and we deplore and we reject.

And these are not two equal sides: occupier and occupied.

And a hundred dead, two hundred dead, and a thousand dead.

And between that, war crime and massacre, I vent out words and smile “not exotic”, “not terrorist”.

And I recount, I recount a hundred dead, a thousand dead.

Is anyone out there?

Will anyone listen?

I wish I could wail over their bodies.

I wish I could just run barefoot in every refugee camp and hold every child, cover their ears so they wouldn’t have to hear the sound of bombing for the rest of their life the way I do.

Today, my body was a TV’d massacre

And let me just tell you, there’s nothing your UN resolutions have ever done about this.

And no sound-bite, no sound-bite I come up with, no matter how good my English gets, no sound-bite, no sound-bite, no sound-bite, no sound-bite will bring them back to life.

No sound-bite will fix this.

We teach life, sir.

We teach life, sir.

We Palestinians wake up every morning to teach the rest of the world life, sir.

- Rafeef Ziadah, Palestinian poet and human rights activist.

[chatonmagique]

Shahd and Ahmed lost access to their campaign on Go fund me. Would you be so kind to share this post so their new campaign gets noticed and supported? I've offered to help them by sharing their campaign on my tumblr page. You can find their account on instagram under the name Shahed_bwab where they have shared a lot of posts about their situation.

https://www.instagram.com/shahed_bwab?igsh=dHhoaDY3ZjNkbmE5

It's unclear whether they can still get their old campaign back, but for now they have lost donations and had to start over with a new campaign on Chuffed.

Shahd and her husband Ahmed were married two months before the escalation in October 2023 and Shahd became pregnant with their daughter Rafeef, who was born on June 17th, 2024. They need supplies like formula and pampers to take good care of her and also lost their home.

Currently they are trying to find a safe place to live and to eventually build a decent life in Egypt. 

[rebirthgarments]

Support Seraj at bit.ly/serajfund

I’m bringing a few updates on Seraj and his family!

First of all, we are raising Seraj’s campaign goal to $70,000 to reflect the continued need their family is in.

Life since fleeing Rah Fah has not been any easier or more affordable. Seraj’s family spends about $500 per day on bare necessities, such as gas, food, water, tent repair, and medicine. The commission rate on cash withdrawals is still around 16%, and food and water are crushingly expensive.

Additionally, Seraj is still full of hope that the border will reopen and he will be able to travel to Egypt. Whenever this is possible, he wants to set his family up for success and provision in his absence. In the weeks before his travel date arrived, Seraj had raised money for this exact goal. However, the family was forced to use these savings for their displacement from Rah Fah.

One of Seraj’s daily struggles is the internet. Because so many people fled Rah Fah to the middle areas of the Strip, Seraj has to walk hours to find enough bandwidth to communicate with us or post on Instagram. Frequently, he can’t even use his translation app until very early in the morning when most others are trying to sleep.

Despite all of these struggles, Seraj is determinedly eager to help others–always. He surprised us last week by deciding to do a 4th mutual aid project for his displaced neighbors! Seraj distributed 100 shekels to 18 people, 50 shekels to 35 people, and 20 shekels to 20 people. Again, he walked for hours to make this possible! Pal eh Stein ians teach life, and Seraj is such a good example of that poem by Rafeef Ziadah. His constant generosity and selflessness has been a teacher to all of us on his team. What an honor it is to know him!

you can see his updates and more photos of his Mutual Aid projects on his Instagram here!

Here's our plan:

1.⁠ ⁠Boost his family's finances for continued survival costs. Withdrawing cash, accessing water, and purchasing food are all outrageously expensive in Khan Yunis. 2.⁠ ⁠Save up for Seraj's evacuation to Egypt. As soon as the Rah Fah border reopens, Seraj is ready to leave Gah Zah. This is terribly bittersweet for him, but he is hopeful that the rumors of the crossing reopening soon will come true. Note--Seraj had previously raised money for this goal, but the border crossing and Rah Fah assault forced him to use those funds for their fourth forced displacement.

3.⁠ ⁠An even bigger mutual aid distribution project! Seraj will be working on the details while we progress towards the goal of $20,000.

If you can see this post, you have some sort of platform. Even if you're unable to give, sharing Seraj's fundraiser and asking friends to give $5 and pass the link along helps tremendously. Thank you all so much!

(To use the QR code, just screenshot this image and tap.)

Image description: A black background with bold yellow text and a yellow star in one corner. The text says "Seraj's New Goal: $20,000. 1: His family's survival. 2. Funds for his travel. 3. A bigger mutual aid distribution."

A black and white QR code sits on the left side over the link "bit.ly/serajfund "--both lead to his Goh Fuhnd Me.

Video Description: Seraj handing cash to kids in the displacement camps.

[pyrokineticqueen]

Here is a cluster of links for you to check out if you were wondering how you can help the families in Palestine:

Rafeef's family needs to evacuate so the little girl can receive major surgery in Egypt: Link

Fadel is twenty-five, plays basketball and dreams of being able to represent Palestine in international competitions: Link

Fadi lives in Belgium and is looking to evacuate his family who is still in Gaza. One of the family members was badly wounded at the leg by a bullet from the occupation: Link

Joint fund for the families of Walaa, Tasneem, Reham, Noor and Ahmed: Link

Mohammed and Asmaa lost their business and home during the occupation and are now physically seperated. The fund is to help them reunite, rebuild their life, and finally get married: Link

Munir was a real estate agent and is now gathering funds to help evacuate his father, cousins, nieces and nephews: Link

Rabeha is a fresh graduate dentist who didn't get to start her brilliant career and aims to evacuate the 23 members of her family she has left: Link

Zeina is 10 yo and needs to reunite with her mother in Cairo: Link

Mai is in Belgium and intends to provide money so her family can survive with the price of food, water and medical supplies being so high, until she can help them evacuate: Link

Lana is fifteen years old and was a star student. She still dreams of accomplishing great things. Her family's business was destroyed, they've been displaced several times and are now looking to evacuate to Egypt: Link

Tareq is raising money for his brother's family. Dr. Hassan AL Qatrawy was a lecturer at Al-Aqsa University until it was destroyed: Link

Aya is seperated from her two children who are stuck in Gaza. Mona is 12 yo, has ADHD and loves to play basketball and read books. Karem is an advanced karate player who wishes to be a doctor someday. Link

Asmaa just finished her intership to become a dentist and hopes to get a job or a scholarship so she can support her family and hopefully have her own clinic: Link

Muhammad seeks to support his family, including his sister, a doctor who was honors student and graduate of the Faculty of Medicine and his brother, an outstanding engineering student: Link

The Shbuir family's home was destroyed and they now currently live in a cramped apartment and searching for security: Link

Esraa is trying to help her family, including her 10 yo brother-in-law with misaligned eyes who needs medical assistance: Link

Ikram Mahdi has lost her husband and wants to escape with her children. The fundraiser also concerns her large family who are also suffering in Gaza: Link

[luvrr-b0y]

I’m sharing the links people have asked me to share

[nightowlqueen]

Rafeef Ziadah - 'We teach life, sir', London, 12.11.11

Today, my body was a TV’d massacre. Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits. Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits filled enough with statistics to counter measured response. And I perfected my English and I learned my UN resolutions. But still, he asked me, Ms. Ziadah, don’t you think that everything would be resolved if you would just stop teaching so much hatred to your children? Pause. I look inside of me for strength to be patient but patience is not at the tip of my tongue as the bombs drop over Gaza. Patience has just escaped me. Pause. Smile. We teach life, sir. Rafeef, remember to smile. Pause. We teach life, sir. We Palestinians teach life after they have occupied the last sky. We teach life after they have built their settlements and apartheid walls, after the last skies. We teach life, sir. But today, my body was a TV’d massacre made to fit into sound-bites and word limits. And just give us a story, a human story. You see, this is not political. We just want to tell people about you and your people so give us a human story. Don’t mention that word “apartheid” and “occupation”. This is not political. You have to help me as a journalist to help you tell your story which is not a political story. Today, my body was a TV’d massacre. How about you give us a story of a woman in Gaza who needs medication? How about you? Do you have enough bone-broken limbs to cover the sun? Hand me over your dead and give me the list of their names in one thousand two hundred word limits. Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits and move those that are desensitized to terrorist blood. But they felt sorry. They felt sorry for the cattle over Gaza. So, I give them UN resolutions and statistics and we condemn and we deplore and we reject. And these are not two equal sides: occupier and occupied. And a hundred dead, two hundred dead, and a thousand dead. And between that, war crime and massacre, I vent out words and smile “not exotic”, “not terrorist”. And I recount, I recount a hundred dead, a thousand dead. Is anyone out there? Will anyone listen? I wish I could wail over their bodies. I wish I could just run barefoot in every refugee camp and hold every child, cover their ears so they wouldn’t have to hear the sound of bombing for the rest of their life the way I do. Today, my body was a TV’d massacre. And let me just tell you, there’s nothing your UN resolutions have ever done about this. And no sound-bite, no sound-bite I come up with, no matter how good my English gets, no sound-bite, no sound-bite, no sound-bite, no sound-bite will bring them back to life. No sound-bite will fix this. We teach life, sir. We teach life, sir. We Palestinians wake up every morning to teach the rest of the world life, sir.

[ember-knights]

I can't get the idea out of my mind that if the bombing and the siege of Gaza was happening anywhere else in America or Europe, that people would be more affected. That the media would be more honest and outraged on their behalf. That there would be no debates on human life and "appropriate responses" as massacres unfold. That we wouldn't have to keep saying "children are dying children are being buried alive. children children children." as if ... a Palestinian life needs to be proven human first so the people would care.

And that is the bitter truth. We, who speak for Palestine, have a lot of filth we need to work against. Namely, the filth started by Western Media that dehumanizes Palestinians.

So i am doing just that, my first post was about Arabic swear words, told by Mo Amer. And like as we like to say at home, حسن البدايات ( meaning: virtuous/ gracious beginnings), so I have decided that that would the first post of many aiming to show the humanity of Palestinians.

Here is a beautiful poem by Rafeef Ziadah, preformed in London in 2011. Here is a glimpse of the beautiful art of Palestinians:

And personally, i always wondered how do Palestinians go on? How do they laugh and make friends and fall in love and get married and have children. I remember seeing the wedding of Ahmed Hijazee after the Gaza attack in 2021 and seeing them all happy and building him a home and putting decorations, in the face of the rubble, bombing, and death. In face of it all, they smiled and cheered and ate sweets. I felt bad for wondering "what is the point?" but i couldn't help it. I didn't get it. It felt unreal to have seen the brutality of the bombing and afterwards, still fight.

But they do get it and they teach it to their young.

I am not here to glorify their pain, and i do not mean to say they are exceptionally strong. They shouldn't have to be and they should be allowed to be weak and vulnerable and all the spectrum of the human condition.

But what is more human than to face all those horrors and refuse to resist? For them, living and surviving is their resistance.

They teach life.

"They Teach Life" series: Part 1 , Part 2

[1tspcinnamon]

This is Rafeef Ziadah, a Canadian-Palestinian spoken word artist and activist. Her poem—from 2011—is painfully relevant today. Transcript below the cut:

RZ: I wrote this poem when the bombs were dropping on Gaza, and I was the media spokesperson for the coalition, doing a lot of the organization. And we had stayed up to about 6 o'clock in the morning perfecting every sound bite. And by the end—if you're Palestinian, you know most Palestinians get tired and start pronouncing our Ps as Bs, so we become Balestinians by the end of the day. So I was practicing my Ps all night and the next morning, one of the journalists asked me, "Don't you think it would all be fine if you just stop teaching your children to hate?" I did not insult the person. I was very polite. But I wrote this poem as a response to these types of questions we Palestinians always get.

Today, my body was a TV’d massacre. Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits. Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits filled enough with statistics to counter measured response. And I perfected my English and I learned my UN resolutions. But still, he asked me, Ms. Ziadah, don’t you think that everything would be resolved if you would just stop teaching so much hatred to your children? Pause. I look inside of me for strength to be patient but patience is not at the tip of my tongue as the bombs drop over Gaza. Patience has just escaped me. Pause. Smile. We teach life, sir. Rafeef, remember to smile. Pause. We teach life, sir. We Palestinians teach life after they have occupied the last sky. We teach life after they have built their settlements and apartheid walls, after the last skies. We teach life, sir. But today, my body was a TV’d massacre made to fit into sound-bites and word limits. And just give us a story, a human story. You see, this is not political. We just want to tell people about you and your people so give us a human story. Don’t mention that word “apartheid” and “occupation”. This is not political. You have to help me as a journalist to help you tell your story which is not a political story. Today, my body was a TV’d massacre. How about you give us a story of a woman in Gaza who needs medication? How about you? Do you have enough bone-broken limbs to cover the sun? Hand me over your dead and give me the list of their names in one thousand two hundred word limits. Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits and move those that are desensitized to terrorist blood. But they felt sorry. They felt sorry for the cattle over Gaza. So, I give them UN resolutions and statistics and we condemn and we deplore and we reject. And these are not two equal sides: occupier and occupied. And a hundred dead, two hundred dead, and a thousand dead. And between that, war crime and massacre, I vent out words and smile “not exotic”, “not terrorist”. And I recount, I recount a hundred dead, a thousand dead. Is anyone out there? Will anyone listen? I wish I could wail over their bodies. I wish I could just run barefoot in every refugee camp and hold every child, cover their ears so they wouldn’t have to hear the sound of bombing for the rest of their life the way I do. Today, my body was a TV’d massacre And let me just tell you, there’s nothing your UN resolutions have ever done about this. And no sound-bite, no sound-bite I come up with, no matter how good my English gets, no sound-bite, no sound-bite, no sound-bite, no sound-bite will bring them back to life. No sound-bite will fix this. We teach life, sir. We teach life, sir. We Palestinians wake up every morning to teach the rest of the world life, sir.

[this-is-not-a-slow-burn]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Laiyonelth Hurtado (@laiyonelth)

(also on YT here if you can't view IG links)

Video Transcript:

Today, my body was a TV’d massacre.

Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits.

Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits filled enough with statistics to counter measured response.

And I perfected my English and I learned my UN resolutions.

But still, he asked me, Ms. Ziadah, don’t you think that everything would be resolved if you would just stop teaching so much hatred to your children?

Pause.

I look inside of me for strength to be patient but patience is not at the tip of my tongue as the bombs drop over Gaza.

Patience has just escaped me.

Pause. Smile.

We teach life, sir.

Rafeef, remember to smile.

Pause.

We teach life, sir.

We Palestinians teach life after they have occupied the last sky.

We teach life after they have built their settlements and apartheid walls, after the last skies.

We teach life, sir.

But today, my body was a TV’d massacre made to fit into sound-bites and word limits.

And just give us a story, a human story.

You see, this is not political.

We just want to tell people about you and your people so give us a human story.

Don’t mention that word “apartheid” and “occupation”.

This is not political.

You have to help me as a journalist to help you tell your story which is not a political story.

Today, my body was a TV’d massacre.

How about you give us a story of a woman in Gaza who needs medication?

How about you?

Do you have enough bone-broken limbs to cover the sun?

Hand me over your dead and give me the list of their names in one thousand two hundred word limits.

Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits and move those that are desensitized to terrorist blood.

But they felt sorry.

They felt sorry for the cattle over Gaza.

So, I give them UN resolutions and statistics and we condemn and we deplore and we reject.

And these are not two equal sides: occupier and occupied.

And a hundred dead, two hundred dead, and a thousand dead.

And between that, war crime and massacre, I vent out words and smile “not exotic”, “not terrorist”.

And I recount, I recount a hundred dead, a thousand dead.

Is anyone out there?

Will anyone listen?

I wish I could wail over their bodies.

I wish I could just run barefoot in every refugee camp and hold every child, cover their ears so they wouldn’t have to hear the sound of bombing for the rest of their life the way I do.

Today, my body was a TV’d massacre

And let me just tell you, there’s nothing your UN resolutions have ever done about this.

And no sound-bite, no sound-bite I come up with, no matter how good my English gets, no sound-bite, no sound-bite, no sound-bite, no sound-bite will bring them back to life.

No sound-bite will fix this.

We teach life, sir.

We teach life, sir.

We Palestinians wake up every morning to teach the rest of the world life, sir.

[andaleebhany]

I ask you to save Rafif and her family and help them leave Gaza safely. Until her joy and the joy of all of us are complete with her entering school and her right to education. She hopes to become a nurse. After experiencing all the moments of terror and fear due to this bad psychological situation due to the war we are in now... Please help Rafif and her family.

🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉

👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

[onedumbazz]

Hello, I am Walid from Gaza 🇵🇸. Please help me 🙏🙏and my family to escape to safety. Your donation will save my life and the life of my little sister If each person donates 30 euros to meet our basic daily needs it will save my life and the life of my family 👇🙏 https://gofund.me/bea008c6

[i-am-very-very-tired]

For years, women have struggled to gain equality in all areas of life—from the home to the workplace, and especially in positions of leadership. Despite being 50.8 percent of the population, only 14.6 percent of executive officers in companies are women, and overall, women only earn 80 cents for every dollar men make. These discrepancies are even larger among women of color. Yet women of faith have historically played a pivotal role in challenging gender inequality, and they continue to defy stereotypes in politics, the workplace, and houses of worship. Here are five ways in which women of faith are fighting for gender equality at work and in broader society—empowering young women as feminist and womanist theologians, faith community leaders, social justice advocates, and elected officials.

1. Shaping and elevating feminist theology

Feminist and womanist theologians exist in every religion, actively engaging in efforts to achieve gender equality from a perspective of faith and making clear that women’s equality and faith are not inconsistent with one another. Challenging misunderstandings or misinterpretations of religious texts that have justified segregating society along gender lines, feminist theologians have surfaced the issue of gender inequality in religious communities. For example, Native American feminist Renya Ramirez wrote an article proposing that gender equality be part of any conversation about the oppression of Native American communities, and she challenges the gender-discriminatory practices that some indigenous nations have traditionally followed. Zainah Anwar also empowers women of faith as a founding member and director of the organization Sisters in Islam, which seeks to teach gender equality through an Islamic framework. In addition, the Sikh Feminist Research Institute exists to engage the Sikh community in feminist research to understand further the causes of gender-based oppression and how to combat it.

In the early 1970s, several Jewish feminists created the social justice group Ezrat Nashim in an effort to give men and women “equal access” to leadership roles within the Jewish community. María Pilar Aquino, a pioneer in the field of Latina feminist theology as a professor of religious studies, has authored more than 50 works on Latina rights, including Our Cry for Life: Feminist Theology from Latin America. Finally, bell hooks, a Buddhist Christian expert on womanism—a form of feminism centering on black women’s liberation—has written numerous essays and books analyzing the effects of racism, sexism, and spirituality on black women and feminist movements.

2. Holding leadership positions in faith communities

In 2012, only 11 percent of American congregations were led by women, and today, only 1 of the 100 largest churches in the United States is led by a woman, due in large part to institutionalized patriarchal models of leadership present in many houses of worship. More women of faith are redefining leadership in their houses of worship, providing important role models for young congregants and pushing to transform gender inequality from within their religious traditions. Bishop Vashti McKenzie was the first woman head of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, a role in which she encouraged and empowered women to grow professionally and attain leadership positions. Sally Jane Priesand was the first woman in the United States to be ordained as a rabbi and has worked in the Central Conference of American Rabbis’ Task Force on Women to help more women become ordained in the Reform Jewish movement.

Some of the largest and most historically significant churches today are led by women, such as Amy Butler, the first woman pastor of The Riverside Church. “Any time we can see women in roles of leadership doing good work … we’re changing people’s perception and chipping away at the patriarchy we all live with,” Butler says. She often uses her platform to speak out about women’s issues including abortion and sexual harassment. Rabi’a Keeble and M. Hasna Maznavi—founders of the first two female-run mosques in the country—have created their own communities of faith, where they saw a need for more gender-inclusive houses of worship. It is imperative that women continue to take the helm of faith-based organizations and communities, so that female congregants will feel more comfortable sharing their experiences as religious women.

3. Fighting against sexual harassment in religious communities

Over the past year, there have been numerous complaints of pervasive and persistent sexual harassment to which no industry has been immune, including faith communities. According to a recent survey, 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men experience sexual harassment at some point in their lives. Building on the #MeToo movement, which aims to destigmatize survivors of sexual violence, Hannah Paasch and Emily Joy created the #ChurchToo movement on Twitter. #ChurchToo gives victims a platform to share their stories of sexual abuse in religious spaces. Paasch states, “for those who felt themselves silenced and their experiences erased, this hashtag is meant to be a place where survivors are heard, believed, seen and surrounded,” as well as hold churches accountable for their actions. In response to this campaign, Belinda Bauman and Lisa Sharon Harper started the movement #SilenceIsNotSpiritual to urge evangelical congregations and leaders to elevate and show solidarity with the voices of those affected by sexual assault.

Popular evangelical leader Jen Hatmaker has openly taken a stand against leaders who have committed sexual assault, telling abusers, “You will not be covered by … your clergy robes … your powerful position … Let this filthy, evil system that protects abusers fall to shreds.” As more women of faith share their stories and create platforms for others to do the same, houses of worship will continue to take steps to reform their sexual harassment policies.

4. Serving in public offices from underrepresented religions

Elected officials that practice a religion other than Christianity are grossly underrepresented in local, state, and federal levels of government. For example, 91 percent of Congress identifies as Christian, while Jews make up only 6 percent, Buddhists make up 3 percent, Muslims make up 2 percent, and Hindus make up 3 percent. Today, the number of women running for elected office is increasing at an unprecedented rate, including women from underrepresented religions. Muslim women are filling legislative positions across the country and advocating for policies to help women in their faith community and beyond: Ilhan Omar (D-MN) made history in 2016 as the first Somali American legislator in the country when she was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives, where she successfully advocated for paid parental leave for city employees to increase support for working families.

At the federal level, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) was the first Asian American woman and first Buddhist woman elected to the U.S. Senate. Earlier in her career, she founded the Patsy T. Mink Political Action Committee (PAC) with the goal of helping elect pro-choice women to Hawaii state offices. As an Obama administration appointee, Farah Pandith was the U.S. State Department’s first special representative to Muslim communities, where she led initiatives to help Muslim youth feel more accepted in society in an effort to reduce extremism. She also led the State Department’s Women in Public Service Project, a program to help women become the next academic, foreign policy, and advocacy leaders through learning institutes and mentorship.

5. Leading advocacy for immigrants and refugees

Since early 2017, the Trump administration has launched a slew of attacks on immigrants: removing protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants, including asylum seekers and long-term U.S. residents; detaining and deporting parents of U.S.-citizen children; and continuously targeting some of the most vulnerable people. In response to increased deportations, women of faith have called for immigrant justice in their local communities and beyond. Social justice activists such as Stosh Cotler— who helped organize a day of action for the Muslim and Jewish communities in solidarity with immigrants—were arrested at the U.S. Capitol while demanding renewed protection for Dreamers. Bishop Minerva Carcaño was not only the first Hispanic woman elected as a bishop to the United Methodist Church, but she has also long advocated for immigrant rights, even testifying before Congress.

Today, approximately 50 percent of refugees worldwide are women and girls seeking safety and economic opportunity in new countries. In their journeys toward refuge, they are often vulnerable to sex trafficking, in which 96 percent of victims are women and girls. Yet faith leaders such as Nadia Murad Basee Taha are fighting to ensure the safety and success of these affected communities. After escaping Islamic State captivity, Taha became a Yazidi human rights advocate and is now the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime Goodwill Ambassador for Human Trafficking. She has testified on the international stage to raise awareness for the disproportionate vulnerability young women face in areas of extreme violence and called on international organizations to help stop the violence against her community. In addition, poet and author Rafeef Ziadah uses her writing to advocate for human rights and women’s rights in areas of war, especially Palestine.

Conclusion

The historical contributions and leadership of women in religious communities are paramount. While the fight for women’s equality has persisted for years, there remains much room for progress. Women faith leaders are defying the limitations that society has historically placed on them in houses of worship, politics, activism, and society more broadly. Moving forward, women will continue to rise in all areas of public life, and in faith communities in particular, as an integral part of the rising tide of women’s leadership and the continuing fight for gender equality.

[gcintheme-blog]

Five Free Ways Westerners Can Help Women in the Middle East Now

1. Go green. It is not a secret that climate change disproportionately affects poor people and that women are disproportionately poor (go figure) so that is one good reason right away, but I have another one. The Wahhabist Gulf States, which include Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, etc), Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar, rely on the oil underneath them for their royal families to function and to spread their patriarchal propaganda, including funding ISIS. So if given a choice between something more fuel efficient or with a different power source and a product that depends on a lot of oil, if you can afford it please try to go green! Even recycling uses less plastic and therefore less petroleum and it is free to reuse things!

2. Boycott the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and its sponsors. This is a venture that Middle Eastern feminists have gotten off the ground but we are having a really difficult time spreading this message. Thousands of migrant workers are dying building that FIFA stadium and the entire system of labor is basically human trafficking:

The name of the current system is kafala, a system forcing all migrants to be sponsored and subsequently tied to an employer. This employer controls housing, wages, travel, and the well being of each employee. The kafala system has been frequently described as modern day slavery due to its exploitative nature. Forced labor, unpaid work, confiscation of documents, and withholding food and water to the migrants are a few of the mechanisms of control the employers enact over the migrants under the kafala system.

Workers mainly from South and Southeast Asia travel to Qatar with the hope of a securing a job in order to send remittances back to their families, but the kafala system traps them under the purview of their employer. The 2022 World Cup announcement has seen a significant rise in migrant workers coming to Qatar, creating a larger humanitarian crisis for the living and working conditions of the laborers. Qatar has not changed its policy of the kafala system since it became host of the 2022 World Cup, even with the additional international scrutiny towards its government. If Qatar does not change its policy before 2022, an estimated 4,000 migrant workers will die, making this event the deadliest in sporting history.

Most of the workers dying building that stadium, but almost all domestic workers in the Gulf States who work under the kafala system are women, and they are treated horribly. Boycotting the 2022 World Cup sends a message that the kafala system is abusive and unacceptable, and it helps women AND men. If you can afford to buy other products instead of these, please help. A list of the current 2022 World Cup sponsors:

Adidas

Anheuser-Busch which includes Budweiser, Corona, and Stella Artois

Coca-Cola which includes Sprite, Fanta, Dasani, Minute Maid, Powerade, Simply Orange, Glaceau Vitamin Water and Smart Water, and Fuze

Gazprom

Hyundai

Kia

McDonald’s

Sony

Visa

If you can, please encourage your national teams not to play. I know most people do not have any sort of power over this, but if even a few teams boycotted to send a message then it could make a big difference!

3. Be aware of issues that specifically affect Middle Eastern women and be ready to talk to other about them. Some of these issues are very sensitive for some people and nobody is obligated to psychologically torture herself. If you feel safe and comfortable you can consider studying one of these topics and talking to other people who might not be aware. Please keep in mind these are issues in the Middle East or parts of the Middle East but many are also problems in other places and in diaspora communities:

Honor killings (I also wrote on honor killings in Iraq here.)

Female genital mutilation

Modern-day slavery and human trafficking, especially with domestic workers

Laws that protect rapists and force victims to marry their rapists

Child marriage, especially the new trend of taking advantage of Syrian refugees

Extremely unsafe conditions in refugee camps including sexual violence

Bans on women basically being independent in any way in Saudi Arabia

Women jailed for reporting rape in Qatar or in Dubai (and these women are European so imagine how many of these cases are not reported in international news)

Assassinating women who speak out in Bahrain

Forced marriage and the mahr (dowry) system

High rates of domestic and intimate partner violence and no punishments for abusers

4. Let Middle Eastern feminists speak. I will give a short recommendation list here but please explore for yourself and form opinions! Many Middle Eastern women write about our lives but for some reason people do not want to listen to us speak and would rather listen to what other people have to say about us. Of course other people are not always inherently wrong but many times, they ignore us and share their own ideas that aren’t very accurate. Here are some works I enjoy that you might be able to find free online:

The works of Inaam Kachachi. Of course because I am Iraqi I will start with an Iraqi woman! I believe her books and other pieces are translated into many languages and she writes about the rise of religion in Iraq and how it has affected women.

Wild Thorns by Sahar Khalifeh.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.

Beyond the Veil by Fatema Mernissi. (She is Moroccan which is in North Africa but I think the piece is very important for everyone to read.)

Woman at Point Zero by Nawal Al-Saadawi.

The poetry of Rafeef Ziadah is available on YouTube and Spotify.

Please stop silencing Middle Eastern women or being condescending if you don’t like what we have to say. If one more Westerner tells me they know more about being an Iraqi woman than I do I am going to lose it!

5. Stay aware and critical of what you read and hear. Countries all around the world are active in the Middle East and this directly affects the women who live here. Of course we understand that people might only have very limited control or no control over their governments and large private companies and most rational people do not generalize Westerners as being war-hungry monsters.

Sometimes Western governments insist they are helping when we are screaming that they are not. For example, did you know that the UN Security Council sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s directly or indirectly led to the deaths of half a million children?

According to Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund, the death rate of children under five is more than 4,000 a month - that is 4,000 more than would have died before sanctions. That is half a million children dead in eight years. If this statistic is difficult to grasp, consider, on the day you read this, up to 200 Iraqi children may die needlessly. "Even if not all the suffering in Iraq can be imputed to external factors," says Unicef, "the Iraqi people would not be undergoing such deprivation in the absence of the prolonged measures imposed by the Security Council and the effects of war."

Saddam Hussein was an evil dictator but by punishing him this way, the UN also punished many of the most helpless people in Iraq. I understand there are no easy answers in these situations. How can the West fight against ISIS in Iraq? (Cutting ties with the Gulf States would help but nobody listens to Middle Eastern feminists!) These are complicated problems but solutions that cause so many children to die are probably not good solutions.

Please be wary of what you are told about the Middle East and how your government’s actions actually affect the people here. Some questions to ask yourself might be:

Is this news source reliable regarding the Middle East? For example Al Jazeera is Qatar state news. This does not automatically mean all their news is false or propaganda or should not be read, but when you read it you should ask critical questions and stay aware of the source.

Where can I read a different opinion about this topic? What do I think when I read this different idea?

How does this action by my government affect the average person in the Middle East? What are people there saying about this?

How does this issue specifically affect women?

What are the differences in reporting or in ideas between people in the West and people in the Middle East? Where could those differences come from?

Can oppressing women ever be a feminist act? For example some people cheer women soldiers that directly oppress and kill women civilians as feminists for serving alongside men when the entire system is imperialist and deadly.