[Music]
growing up as a young Muslim woman in
Queens New York
I felt oftentimes an over sense
overwhelming feeling of powerlessness in
my body
I remember every morning standing in
front of a mirror eye brows scrunch deep
into my tiny face and pulling up skin
tight blue jeans past sighs I have yet
to learn to appreciate I remember
picking up my Jordans and a white tee
three times my size wearing it over my
body covering most of my body and then
stepping out into the early mornings of
Queens New York City streets early
enough before someone can beg me to eat
something I remember wishing with every
step that I was invisible but somehow
the curves of my body would beckon
chilling grabs and hissing on streets
and in hallways with every touch I would
feel the deep the bitter acid of my
stomach come up to the back of my throat
he must really like you my friends would
remind me or would try to assure me in
between math class in English I would
paint my face in ways that erased my
mother from my eyes but it was the only
way at that point in my life I knew how
to regain any semblance of confidence
you see I was 12 years old growing up in
a post-911 New York City and my identity
was complex as hell I was Egyptian
Muslim a woman of color urban tongued
trying to contain foreign and small
doses small enough to make me still
palatable but somehow home always sent
me away with pita bread falafel
sandwiches even when I threw them out at
the door the smell of home was still
lingered at that point in my life I was
trying to master the art of shrinking
shrinking my body my voice my heritage
my self I am 15 years old standing in
front of a long mirror rapping beautiful
right silk around my head the way my
mother does the way my grandmother did
with each rap it is beauty culture a
tradition wait only we are strong enough
to bear and I would every morning slip
my mentors my mentors copy of Malcolm
X’s autobiography into my backpack and
make my way into New York City streets
at that particular time I was on my way
to volunteer at a domestic violence
organization that was started by a woman
in my neighborhood and I know that I was
only 15 but at that time I already had
such a keen awareness of the violence
that was facing women in my neighborhood
female genital mutilation sexual abuse
domestic violence assault and with every
step that I took I could feel the eyes
of people glaze over my hijab but at
that moment I was a rebel teen so my
difference was a defiance but then it
happened
I remember feeling a tug at the back of
my scarf and then feeling someone
grabbed for me pull me back I remember
turning around and seeing a tall
broad-shouldered man hover over my tiny
body pure hatred in his eyes he was
trying to take off my hijab
I remember being able to fight him off
and then being able to escape locking
myself into the bathroom of the shelter
that I was on my way to and just
collapsing on the floor sobbing thinking
over and over again how could someone
hate me I remember in that moment
feeling an overwhelming sense of
powerlessness in my body wanting so
badly to be able to scrub the brown from
my face and shed the traditions that
once made me feel so whole my name is
the Run Abdul Hameed and I am the
founding president of a nonprofit
organization called the Women’s
Initiative for self empowerment or wise
I started wise exactly a year after that
incident happened and the reason why I
started wise is because at that point of
my life I really was just looking for an
opportunity to heal and I had one skill
like literally just one skill and that
skill was that I had been doing shotokan
karate since I was seven and so I had a
black belt in karate yes Otacon and so I
started I was like okay I’m gonna start
teaching self-defense to women in my
neighborhood and so I got together 13
young girls in my neighborhood and for
the first time in my life over the next
couple of weeks I began to actually feel
safe and secure in my own voice in my
own body for the first time in my life I
found my quote/unquote tribe and I felt
like I could actually find power and I
know all of you are probably like oh
it’s self-defense actually that amazing
and yes it is so as any proper
self-defense instructor will do I’m
actually gonna ask you all to stand up
right now I’m actually gonna get you all
to practice the self-defense technique
it’s gonna be great I promise don’t
don’t be worried but we’re gonna
practice one thing you’re actually gonna
practice as a partner and but before you
practice with your partner we’re gonna
practice consent so we’re gonna ask
you’re gonna ask your partner is it okay
for me to practice the self-defense
technique with you and if your partner
gives you permission then you’re allowed
to proceed unfortunately I don’t have a
volunteer to show the technique so I’m
actually gonna just play one of our
video clips that will show you but you
could practice it’ll be great a very
common attack that often times women are
faced with is that they’re grabbed right
so you could be standing in the subway
or you could be in a bar in a club and
someone will just grab you definitely do
not try to pull away because the person
will only hold on tighter the most
appropriate technique for this is you
actually stop open your hand and you
twist out from where the thumb is again
open your hand twist out from where the
thumb is open twist out from where the
thumb is not twist out from where the
thumb is open twist out from where the
thumb you don’t get it it’s so easy
but say for instance the grab is
actually very firm I actually grabbed my
own hands hey you can all just take a
seat
now it’s probably the first time CFA has
witnessed math self-defense class but
you see what I mean right there’s
something about self-defense that allows
you to feel like you could be in control
of your body
to feel like you can deescalate a
situation if something were to happen
and so that’s exactly what we’ve been
doing at wise wise is the global
movement it’s a global grassroots
movement and we have been traveling
across the world teaching self-defense
and doing various empowerment trainings
for women across the globe and even
though we just started with self-defense
we actually do additional trainings
today because we don’t believe just in
these band-aid solutions we don’t
believe that it should be inherent for
women to need to learn self-defense
so we also train women in social
entrepreneurship training financial
literacy we build their financial
capacity and we also do organizing
training because we want to give women
the tools they need it’s actually create
systemic change to change the structures
that allow for this dehumanization and
this violence to be possible to begin
with and so like I said I’ve had the
opportunity through wise it’s actually
travel for the past seven years across
the globe training women in self-defense
so from a refugee camp and zotti and
Jordan working with Syrian girls to
classrooms in Dallas Texas to cultural
centers in Madrid I’ve heard over and
over again these stories of violence but
I’ve also had the opportunity to use
this work and work with an incredible
team to actually be able to reach many
thousands of women around the world and
conduct a lot of workshops and gave
visibility for this work but you know
there’s not much that I need to tell you
about this violence I mean I could
guarantee that every single woman in
this room knows what I’m talking about
you know that moment when you’re coming
home late at night after a long day and
you hear footsteps walking behind you
and you’re wondering is someone
following me should I walk faster will
he realize should I grab my keys in my
hands you know those words that you sent
to your friends text me when you get
home and you mean it because you really
want to make sure that Thursday’s you
wonder
people will believe you if they if you
tell them certain stories in meetings
you’re wondering if you’re talking too
much or too little it permeates almost
every single aspect of our lives
socially academically professionally
this violence is so so real but the
unfortunate reality is that this
violence and this powerlessness is not a
part of our history as women it’s just
not I mean if you think about the civil
rights movement in the United States it
was a black woman who organizer who
actually allowed and sparked the
Montgomery bus boycotts that was Rosa
Parks right do you guys remember that
yes it was a woman right
it was Dolores Huerta who sparked the
farmworkers movement right she inspired
17 million people to actually boycott
unjust farm working practices it was
Sylvia Rivera a trans woman who sparked
the Stonewall riots and inspired the
LGBTQ movement as we know it today as
mama who’s an Egyptian woman who sparked
the Egyptian revolution and Fatima
al-hariri a North African Muslim woman
who founded the first University so
you’re welcome Middlebury and and of
course I cannot talk about powerful
women without mentioning Beyonce because
there is not one place in this world
where Beyonce is not relevant and she’s
definitely a revolutionary woman so I
just think that if we think about our
history right as women there is so much
powerfulness
and we constantly have to remember that
even in the face of this demon
dehumanization and the reality is we
don’t have to look at these famous women
to recognize the power of the women
ordinary woman and the women in our
lives I mean I want you all to take a
moment to think about the women in your
lives think about the amount of power
and the impact that they’ve had on each
and every one of you through my work
I’ve had the extraordinary privilege to
meet dozens hundreds of women across the
world from Syrian girl Syrian girls in
refugee camps who are raising awareness
about gender-based violence that they’re
experiencing in zotti
to women in Dallas who I just mentioned
who are helping people relocate in the
United States young girls despite
the fact that they’re facing these forms
of violence and they’re constantly
showing me the true man the true meaning
of resilience and resistance and so
you’re probably like okay Rana why are
you telling us this we all know that
there’s a problem with gender-based
violence we’ve been reading the news
well the reason why is because I really
want to build the sense of urgency you
know last year I remember sitting on my
couch Dave Chappelle style watching the
election and I remember receiving a text
message at 3:00 a.m. when we finally
kind of figured out what the outcome
would be from a young woman who was like
Rana when’s your next self-defense class
that was her automatic reaction the
sense of insecurity that morning I woke
up to a barrage of text messages for my
female friends female Muslim friends
there were negotiating whether or not
they should leave their homes that
morning because they felt so afraid you
know and this past year there’s been a
barrage of headlines really showing the
unfortunate reality that women are
facing I mean this year has been the
deadliest year for trans women on record
in the United States women who are
undocumented are calling police for help
only to be deported this is the reality
that we’re living in there is an
increase in hate crimes facing women
Muslim women so you’re seeing gender –
sama phobia – you new to a new rate now
that you have discovered the urgency
which I hope you’ve discovered now I’m
gonna try to tell you a little bit about
how you can start to fight back and so
the first thing and actually falls
within the model for change for wise
it’s actually to discover your own power
I want you also fall in love with
yourself I want you to be able to block
out the messaging that society tells us
about who is powerful I mean think about
it what is the image that we get when we
think of power typically we think of a
man right we think of a white man we
think of someone who graduated from an
elite institution kind of like this one
someone with a lot of wealth
someone who’s straight who’s able-bodied
but that’s not true that’s not
necessarily true I’m five foot one I’m a
brown woman from Queens with a black
belt in karate
right and I feel powerful and I want
every single woman in the world to be
able to feel that power in her own body
and you could do that in many ways
so the first way obviously I’m gonna
tell you is you can take a self-defense
class because really it does reorient
your expression and your relationship
with your body but also finding spaces
that affirm you finding people who
affirm your existence and validate your
dreams and push you forward that is
super important the second thing after
you’ve done that which obviously is so
easy right after you’ve done that I
really want you all to think about
building collective power when I started
wise I was on my own like I said but I
wouldn’t be able to do the work that I
do today if it wasn’t for my team at
wise and it was because I was able to
extend the power that I found within
myself to other women around me that
we’ve been able to train women to train
other women to train other women to find
their voices as well and what’s really
important about building collective
power is that we shouldn’t even be
teaching self-defense to begin with I
want y’all to help me never have to
teach a self-defense class again because
the reason why I teach self-defense is
because there’s so much racism and
sexism and homophobia and transphobia
and anti-blackness I want us to stand
with indigenous people I want us to be
able to uplift the voices of the most
marginalized people in our societies so
that these structures that really are
contributing to this oppression can stop
right but they won’t stop unless we do
something about it
and you’re probably like okay this is a
really cool idea but I have a lot of
readings and I’m a student at Middlebury
College so ain’t nobody got time but
listen it is it’s so important like all
of you can do something all of you can
start somewhere and it actually makes a
difference and the reason why I’ll show
you right now how it makes a difference
I mean think about this past week who
was following the election yes right I
mean we elected the first trans woman
the that the United States has ever had
that’s amazing we elected the first
Muslim woman to City Council in
Cambridge Massachusetts we elected to
Latino women of the first Asian women in
Pennsylvania like all these outcomes and
was because women finally understood
that we deserve a seat it is our right
to fundamentally be safe and fundamental
it is our fundamental right
have power and access to policy spaces
that will have impact on our lives and
then in addition to that how many of you
went to the women’s March
can I see yes so the women’s March right
for women four million people across the
world the hashtag me to campaign twelve
million impressions right
we saw the justice for black women March
hundreds of thousands of women in DC
we’re seeing all these undocumented
women really being able to protect their
communities by creating sanctuary spaces
and so it is possible you got this you
can do this because if you understand
you got this then we could all
understand that we got this and it’s not
unless each and every one of you join
this joins this movement to create real
change for women that were able we’re
going to be able to create a world where
every single woman feels secure safe
able to find her voice because again
it’s our fundamental right to be able to
feel safe in our bodies and so I ask you
and urge you today to join our movement
to fight against these various forms of
violence that face women in our world
today thank you so much
[Applause]
growing up as a young Muslim woman in
Queens New York
I felt oftentimes an over sense
overwhelming feeling of powerlessness in
my body
I remember every morning standing in
front of a mirror eye brows scrunch deep
into my tiny face and pulling up skin
tight blue jeans past sighs I have yet
to learn to appreciate I remember
picking up my Jordans and a white tee
three times my size wearing it over my
body covering most of my body and then
stepping out into the early mornings of
Queens New York City streets early
enough before someone can beg me to eat
something I remember wishing with every
step that I was invisible but somehow
the curves of my body would beckon
chilling grabs and hissing on streets
and in hallways with every touch I would
feel the deep the bitter acid of my
stomach come up to the back of my throat
he must really like you my friends would
remind me or would try to assure me in
between math class in English I would
paint my face in ways that erased my
mother from my eyes but it was the only
way at that point in my life I knew how
to regain any semblance of confidence
you see I was 12 years old growing up in
a post-911 New York City and my identity
was complex as hell I was Egyptian
Muslim a woman of color urban tongued
trying to contain foreign and small
doses small enough to make me still
palatable but somehow home always sent
me away with pita bread falafel
sandwiches even when I threw them out at
the door the smell of home was still
lingered at that point in my life I was
trying to master the art of shrinking
shrinking my body my voice my heritage
my self I am 15 years old standing in
front of a long mirror rapping beautiful
right silk around my head the way my
mother does the way my grandmother did
with each rap it is beauty culture a
tradition wait only we are strong enough
to bear and I would every morning slip
my mentors my mentors copy of Malcolm
X’s autobiography into my backpack and
make my way into New York City streets
at that particular time I was on my way
to volunteer at a domestic violence
organization that was started by a woman
in my neighborhood and I know that I was
only 15 but at that time I already had
such a keen awareness of the violence
that was facing women in my neighborhood
female genital mutilation sexual abuse
domestic violence assault and with every
step that I took I could feel the eyes
of people glaze over my hijab but at
that moment I was a rebel teen so my
difference was a defiance but then it
happened
I remember feeling a tug at the back of
my scarf and then feeling someone
grabbed for me pull me back I remember
turning around and seeing a tall
broad-shouldered man hover over my tiny
body pure hatred in his eyes he was
trying to take off my hijab
I remember being able to fight him off
and then being able to escape locking
myself into the bathroom of the shelter
that I was on my way to and just
collapsing on the floor sobbing thinking
over and over again how could someone
hate me I remember in that moment
feeling an overwhelming sense of
powerlessness in my body wanting so
badly to be able to scrub the brown from
my face and shed the traditions that
once made me feel so whole my name is
the Run Abdul Hameed and I am the
founding president of a nonprofit
organization called the Women’s
Initiative for self empowerment or wise
I started wise exactly a year after that
incident happened and the reason why I
started wise is because at that point of
my life I really was just looking for an
opportunity to heal and I had one skill
like literally just one skill and that
skill was that I had been doing shotokan
karate since I was seven and so I had a
black belt in karate yes Otacon and so I
started I was like okay I’m gonna start
teaching self-defense to women in my
neighborhood and so I got together 13
young girls in my neighborhood and for
the first time in my life over the next
couple of weeks I began to actually feel
safe and secure in my own voice in my
own body for the first time in my life I
found my quote/unquote tribe and I felt
like I could actually find power and I
know all of you are probably like oh
it’s self-defense actually that amazing
and yes it is so as any proper
self-defense instructor will do I’m
actually gonna ask you all to stand up
right now I’m actually gonna get you all
to practice the self-defense technique
it’s gonna be great I promise don’t
don’t be worried but we’re gonna
practice one thing you’re actually gonna
practice as a partner and but before you
practice with your partner we’re gonna
practice consent so we’re gonna ask
you’re gonna ask your partner is it okay
for me to practice the self-defense
technique with you and if your partner
gives you permission then you’re allowed
to proceed unfortunately I don’t have a
volunteer to show the technique so I’m
actually gonna just play one of our
video clips that will show you but you
could practice it’ll be great a very
common attack that often times women are
faced with is that they’re grabbed right
so you could be standing in the subway
or you could be in a bar in a club and
someone will just grab you definitely do
not try to pull away because the person
will only hold on tighter the most
appropriate technique for this is you
actually stop open your hand and you
twist out from where the thumb is again
open your hand twist out from where the
thumb is open twist out from where the
thumb is not twist out from where the
thumb is open twist out from where the
thumb you don’t get it it’s so easy
but say for instance the grab is
actually very firm I actually grabbed my
own hands hey you can all just take a
seat
now it’s probably the first time CFA has
witnessed math self-defense class but
you see what I mean right there’s
something about self-defense that allows
you to feel like you could be in control
of your body
to feel like you can deescalate a
situation if something were to happen
and so that’s exactly what we’ve been
doing at wise wise is the global
movement it’s a global grassroots
movement and we have been traveling
across the world teaching self-defense
and doing various empowerment trainings
for women across the globe and even
though we just started with self-defense
we actually do additional trainings
today because we don’t believe just in
these band-aid solutions we don’t
believe that it should be inherent for
women to need to learn self-defense
so we also train women in social
entrepreneurship training financial
literacy we build their financial
capacity and we also do organizing
training because we want to give women
the tools they need it’s actually create
systemic change to change the structures
that allow for this dehumanization and
this violence to be possible to begin
with and so like I said I’ve had the
opportunity through wise it’s actually
travel for the past seven years across
the globe training women in self-defense
so from a refugee camp and zotti and
Jordan working with Syrian girls to
classrooms in Dallas Texas to cultural
centers in Madrid I’ve heard over and
over again these stories of violence but
I’ve also had the opportunity to use
this work and work with an incredible
team to actually be able to reach many
thousands of women around the world and
conduct a lot of workshops and gave
visibility for this work but you know
there’s not much that I need to tell you
about this violence I mean I could
guarantee that every single woman in
this room knows what I’m talking about
you know that moment when you’re coming
home late at night after a long day and
you hear footsteps walking behind you
and you’re wondering is someone
following me should I walk faster will
he realize should I grab my keys in my
hands you know those words that you sent
to your friends text me when you get
home and you mean it because you really
want to make sure that Thursday’s you
wonder
people will believe you if they if you
tell them certain stories in meetings
you’re wondering if you’re talking too
much or too little it permeates almost
every single aspect of our lives
socially academically professionally
this violence is so so real but the
unfortunate reality is that this
violence and this powerlessness is not a
part of our history as women it’s just
not I mean if you think about the civil
rights movement in the United States it
was a black woman who organizer who
actually allowed and sparked the
Montgomery bus boycotts that was Rosa
Parks right do you guys remember that
yes it was a woman right
it was Dolores Huerta who sparked the
farmworkers movement right she inspired
17 million people to actually boycott
unjust farm working practices it was
Sylvia Rivera a trans woman who sparked
the Stonewall riots and inspired the
LGBTQ movement as we know it today as
mama who’s an Egyptian woman who sparked
the Egyptian revolution and Fatima
al-hariri a North African Muslim woman
who founded the first University so
you’re welcome Middlebury and and of
course I cannot talk about powerful
women without mentioning Beyonce because
there is not one place in this world
where Beyonce is not relevant and she’s
definitely a revolutionary woman so I
just think that if we think about our
history right as women there is so much
powerfulness
and we constantly have to remember that
even in the face of this demon
dehumanization and the reality is we
don’t have to look at these famous women
to recognize the power of the women
ordinary woman and the women in our
lives I mean I want you all to take a
moment to think about the women in your
lives think about the amount of power
and the impact that they’ve had on each
and every one of you through my work
I’ve had the extraordinary privilege to
meet dozens hundreds of women across the
world from Syrian girl Syrian girls in
refugee camps who are raising awareness
about gender-based violence that they’re
experiencing in zotti
to women in Dallas who I just mentioned
who are helping people relocate in the
United States young girls despite
the fact that they’re facing these forms
of violence and they’re constantly
showing me the true man the true meaning
of resilience and resistance and so
you’re probably like okay Rana why are
you telling us this we all know that
there’s a problem with gender-based
violence we’ve been reading the news
well the reason why is because I really
want to build the sense of urgency you
know last year I remember sitting on my
couch Dave Chappelle style watching the
election and I remember receiving a text
message at 3:00 a.m. when we finally
kind of figured out what the outcome
would be from a young woman who was like
Rana when’s your next self-defense class
that was her automatic reaction the
sense of insecurity that morning I woke
up to a barrage of text messages for my
female friends female Muslim friends
there were negotiating whether or not
they should leave their homes that
morning because they felt so afraid you
know and this past year there’s been a
barrage of headlines really showing the
unfortunate reality that women are
facing I mean this year has been the
deadliest year for trans women on record
in the United States women who are
undocumented are calling police for help
only to be deported this is the reality
that we’re living in there is an
increase in hate crimes facing women
Muslim women so you’re seeing gender –
sama phobia – you new to a new rate now
that you have discovered the urgency
which I hope you’ve discovered now I’m
gonna try to tell you a little bit about
how you can start to fight back and so
the first thing and actually falls
within the model for change for wise
it’s actually to discover your own power
I want you also fall in love with
yourself I want you to be able to block
out the messaging that society tells us
about who is powerful I mean think about
it what is the image that we get when we
think of power typically we think of a
man right we think of a white man we
think of someone who graduated from an
elite institution kind of like this one
someone with a lot of wealth
someone who’s straight who’s able-bodied
but that’s not true that’s not
necessarily true I’m five foot one I’m a
brown woman from Queens with a black
belt in karate
right and I feel powerful and I want
every single woman in the world to be
able to feel that power in her own body
and you could do that in many ways
so the first way obviously I’m gonna
tell you is you can take a self-defense
class because really it does reorient
your expression and your relationship
with your body but also finding spaces
that affirm you finding people who
affirm your existence and validate your
dreams and push you forward that is
super important the second thing after
you’ve done that which obviously is so
easy right after you’ve done that I
really want you all to think about
building collective power when I started
wise I was on my own like I said but I
wouldn’t be able to do the work that I
do today if it wasn’t for my team at
wise and it was because I was able to
extend the power that I found within
myself to other women around me that
we’ve been able to train women to train
other women to train other women to find
their voices as well and what’s really
important about building collective
power is that we shouldn’t even be
teaching self-defense to begin with I
want y’all to help me never have to
teach a self-defense class again because
the reason why I teach self-defense is
because there’s so much racism and
sexism and homophobia and transphobia
and anti-blackness I want us to stand
with indigenous people I want us to be
able to uplift the voices of the most
marginalized people in our societies so
that these structures that really are
contributing to this oppression can stop
right but they won’t stop unless we do
something about it
and you’re probably like okay this is a
really cool idea but I have a lot of
readings and I’m a student at Middlebury
College so ain’t nobody got time but
listen it is it’s so important like all
of you can do something all of you can
start somewhere and it actually makes a
difference and the reason why I’ll show
you right now how it makes a difference
I mean think about this past week who
was following the election yes right I
mean we elected the first trans woman
the that the United States has ever had
that’s amazing we elected the first
Muslim woman to City Council in
Cambridge Massachusetts we elected to
Latino women of the first Asian women in
Pennsylvania like all these outcomes and
was because women finally understood
that we deserve a seat it is our right
to fundamentally be safe and fundamental
it is our fundamental right
have power and access to policy spaces
that will have impact on our lives and
then in addition to that how many of you
went to the women’s March
can I see yes so the women’s March right
for women four million people across the
world the hashtag me to campaign twelve
million impressions right
we saw the justice for black women March
hundreds of thousands of women in DC
we’re seeing all these undocumented
women really being able to protect their
communities by creating sanctuary spaces
and so it is possible you got this you
can do this because if you understand
you got this then we could all
understand that we got this and it’s not
unless each and every one of you join
this joins this movement to create real
change for women that were able we’re
going to be able to create a world where
every single woman feels secure safe
able to find her voice because again
it’s our fundamental right to be able to
feel safe in our bodies and so I ask you
and urge you today to join our movement
to fight against these various forms of
violence that face women in our world
today thank you so much
[Applause]
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