FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 20 November 2024
SIGN THIS PETITION IN #SolidarityWithAisha ABDEL GAWAD
UAlbany SJP and Albany Young Democratic Socialists of America stand in complete solidarity with Aisha Abdel Gawad, an Egyptian American Muslim writer who has used her pen as a force to fight for all oppressed groups and has recently been targeted for this commitment to the people of the world. Aisha has understood this responsibility as a global citizen, writing about the experiences of Arab Muslim girls in the heart of Bayridge, Brooklyn, post-9/11 in her award-winning debut novel Between Two Moons (2023). She has continuously used her voice as a writer to advocate for an end to the genocide in Palestine.
Just recently, Aisha privately withdrew from a panel regarding her novel at an Albany, NY, literary festival as she felt that the space would not have been constructive to the responsibility we all have in denouncing injustice. It would’ve instead contributed to perpetuating harm during times of global crisis. Because of this discernment, a smear campaign led by pro-israeli government bad actors has been launched, relentlessly targeting her for exercising her First Amendment Right. As a result of this smear campaign, Aisha has been subjected to constant online harassment and has lost her writer-in-residence fellowship at a Connecticut Public Library. Her longtime career as a K-12 educator is now under attack. Sign this petition in #SolidarityWithAisha Abdel Gawad.
The aggressive effort to suppress and harass Aisha for doing what is within her Constitutionally-protected rights and not participating in the panel is not an act that exists in a vacuum. For the past century, the israeli government and military has exposed itself as a unit that relies on racism, Islamophobia, and Anti-Arab hatred to persist. Within the last year, the world has witnessed. It continues to bear witness to the most documented genocide inflicted by the israeli government and military, facilitated and funded by the U.S., onto the Palestinian people. Through these horrors, those who remain principled in revealing this depravity and firmly stand with Palestinians against inhumanity have increasingly been targeted.
UAlbany SJP unequivocally believes that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere and resists these calculated attacks on freedom of speech, thought, and religion that are imposed onto our Arab and Muslim siblings and all those who stand against oppression. With whatever tools we have and whatever skills we hold sacred to us, we understand that it is our duty to use every ounce of our power, no matter how small or big, to be in solidarity with our siblings at home and abroad.
Read the UAlbany SJP and Albany YDSA statement on Instagram here.
