When I was a young girl, like most Americans, I read The Diary of Anne Frank. As I read about young Anne hiding in the secret annex fearing for her life, I wondered what kind of political environment led to such terror. How people allowed Read More …
Way back in August, Trump announced his intention to cut legal immigration in half. The bill — the brainchild of Republican senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia — would slash the number of immigrants granted green cards for legal permanent residence Read More …
By now, the sentiment is ingrained within the holiday tradition. Oh, great. I have a family holiday dinner this week. Time to quietly nod and smile and grit my teeth through dinner with [insert rarely-seen aunt, uncle, cousin, parent, or grandparent’s name here] while they Read More …
On a January morning of this year, the body of a woman in her sixties was found floating in the river several yards from my door. She was discovered by two men who had been working for several hours on righting my houseboat, which had Read More …
The world seems to be on fire. Maybe it’s the melodramatic artist in me, but I feel that the world is ending and I can’t do anything but watch it go up in flames. Muslim women of color can’t seem to catch a break. As Read More …
When my mother was in her mid-nineties, she began asking a lot of scientific questions: Why is the sky blue? What’s inside of a cloud? How does that crow over there pecking at a MacDonald’s French fry dropped on the side of the road recognize Read More …
These last couple of weeks have been difficult for me as a Muslim woman who – in my own small way- advocates for the rights of women. As an American woman, I watched the numerous Hollywood women come out and speak up against, Harvey Weinstein, Read More …
Today, my five-year-old tells me he had a lockout drill. “What is that?” I asked him. I thought back to my own earthquake and fire drills. I couldn’t quite remember if I ever had a lockout drill. My son kicks a rock out of the Read More …
When I woke up to Donald Trump’s Saturday morning tweet storm against Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, my initial reaction was disbelief. Surely there was no way that — in the middle of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico Read More …
I am sitting in a coffee shop in Brooklyn. It is Hillary’s pub date, and in her honor I am wearing my “I’m With Her” official logo shirt. I even put on earrings and some lipstick to make up for the leggings and clogs on Read More …