is it on can you guys hear me all right
so do you guys remember when we were
kids and we used to ask questions why is
the sky blue where do babies come from
what are cooties we agitate it for
answers begged on our parents coats
Havas our friends and never seemed to
not have a question up our sleeve but
somewhere along the line we lost that
enthusiasm when we were little parents
would come up to us pinch our cheeks hug
us and encourage that curiosity it was
endearing it was how we learned but we
got lazy me included some at some point
it became inconvenient embarrassing
unnecessary we were asked enough hard
questions in class but is that really
the case I thought a lot about that
about hard questions about the
importance of asking now because if it
is indeed how we learn how we grow why
then stop so I started asking now I
stand before you today as an activist as
an advocate not because I was born with
some sort of predispositioned knowledge
and purpose and that I was meant to be
this way and I had all the recourses of
resources to be this way but because
I chose a title for myself I embraced
the lifestyle and what it entailed and I
ran with it I really had no idea I was
doing when I started but I grew into the
role by asking hard questions and I
started a lot of the questions that we
asked ourselves in our head why am I
here
do I belong Who am I going to become who
do I want to be but I also started
asking a lot of other questions harder
questions like why do I wear boys
clothes where did that come from who
taught me that like how does religion
influence my identity if at all
should it and why do I believe anything
at all these were questions I still
don’t have the answers to but I started
asking and they define my development my
childhood and my future and the way that
they’ve done so is to my story my story
of hard questions of change and
hopefully a frog routes so to give you
some context I stated in the intro I’m a
17 year old American Muslim Bangladeshi
living in Princeton New Jersey born and
raised and I’m here today here today to
you to talk about hard questions in
Moscow so how did I get here right where
did I come from Who am I I came from a
place that might be familiar to a lot of
you suburbia from the white picket
fences of Princeton New Jersey that’s
where I grew up but my lifestyle and my
life were not defined by white picket
fences I grew up in a fairly
conservative American Muslim household
but I also grew up attending an all-boys
Catholic school and that juxtaposed
reality really informed a lot of the
ways that I identified and how I
interfaced with my identity and I
learned to become comfortable with my
American Muslim
was my identity as a student with
speaking up for myself and through
understanding others but more than that
I also had to ask myself questions and
had to answer a lot of questions at an
all-boys Catholic school a lot of people
have a lot of questions about Islam and
I had to be prepared to answer them and
then all-boys Catholic school I had to
have a lot of questions and I answer a
lot of questions of my own morality and
about faith and about justice but more
than that will really define my child in
my development was my heart was my home
my household there were 12 kids in my
grade at Princeton Academy 12 and a lot
of parents chose to send their kids to
that school because it was sheltered
they could afford to shelter their kids
in an environment where there wouldn’t
be a lot of outside influences where
they could control what their kids were
exposed to my parents were not all like
that my parents and grandparents
mandated that I watched the news it was
so important to them that I be an
informed citizen that I understood the
realities around me and that I knew that
the bubble of my life in Princeton was
not even close to remotely
representative of the world and that was
really exemplified and furthered in
second grade in a turning point in my
life and second grade I went back to
Bangladesh for the first time over
Christmas break and I’m on Christmas
break now so this was ten years ago
and 10 years ago I left the airport in
Bangladesh and driving home to my
grandparents house I vividly remember
being in the car and beggars knocking on
the windows with no eyeballs and I was
horrified I started bawling and bawling
and bawling and I asked myself how is
this fair what did they do to deserve
this who is letting this happen and I
asked those hard questions as a kid like
I said we all did but no one really had
to go to answer
my siblings not my parents not my
grandparents but then again is there
ever a justifiable answer to injustice
but I took those questions about home
with me to Princeton Academy and I began
talking about injustice to my classmates
but they didn’t really seem to care they
thought it wasn’t our problem where it
was for later or it didn’t affect us so
like I said I began to get a little lazy
complicit even but again my life changed
in seventh grade I switched from
Princeton Academy to Princeton day
school where I tend now and it was a
co-ed secular school and it was there
that it became aware of rigid gender
norms the first time a Princeton Academy
there wasn’t this idea of boys things
and girls things whether you did theatre
or played sports they were all boys
things there were only boys in the class
but suddenly at Princeton day school
there was an expectation that because I
was a boy I should talk about girls and
sports girls and sports girls in sports
and I wasn’t down I grew up in at that
all-boys school and I grew up in a
household of all girls my parents were
separated in divorce when I was in third
grade and fifth grade and if my sisters
are playing Barbies hells yeah so was I
and if at school kids play theater and
sports
hells yeah so was I so suddenly at
Princeton day school when people
expected me to fit into this dichotomy I
became aware of a lot of things that I
was somehow other are different because
I didn’t conform to a dichotomy and I
wasn’t the only one that so many people
were being inhibited because of whose
society told them to be because of these
norms these standards that are unfair
and baseless and I realized that it
wasn’t happening out of malice no one
was saying to somebody else we don’t
like you because your acts right we’re
not gonna play with you because you’re
blah no one says that not a Princeton
New Jersey anyway right but
what was happening was that when people
didn’t understand something didn’t
understand somebody their background
where they came from they didn’t make an
effort so that person felt other and
marginalized ostracized or if you were
marginalized ostracized or other you
felt you had to conform or change to fit
in and I saw this and a rising climate
of so much injustice against so many
types of people and I asked myself why
is this happening and what can I do
about it because like I said it when I
went to Bangladesh I came home and I
asked why are they there and why am I
here and again I asked myself how is
this fair how can we level the playing
fields so I let these thoughts ruminate
and I asked those questions and at the
end of eighth grade I found a redefine
with the idea that we have to ask these
questions because the reason that people
are being excluded ostracized belittled
made to feel other is not because people
are mean not because people are evil but
because people don’t understand and how
do we understand we understand what
cooties are when we ask our parents
right we understand what things are when
we ask so we have to ask questions and
try to answer them that’s how we learn
that’s how he progressed that’s how we
make change so I founded an organization
to do just that I founded redefine in
eighth grade with the mission of defying
stereotypes redefining breakfast
positively embracing acceptance of
Tolerance and creating an active
community and I could not rest you
enough how little I knew what I was
doing I had no idea what I was doing
literally no idea but I knew that these
questions had to be answered
well at least tried to be answered
because so many people were being the
question should have been why are you
the way that you are right why are you
different explain to me where your
background is or how you come from but
instead people were just saying you are
different right in other end so I wanted
to create a platform where we could have
dialogue and share stories about these
questions right share each other stories
you guys really
is so hard to hate somebody you know and
why is it hard to hate somebody you know
because you ask questions if you try to
understand people you can’t hate them
you know their story you know their
contact you know where they’re coming
from
so I created a platform to empower those
stories to emboldened them to share them
because we start with the empathy
there’s so much there’s so much ground
that we can work on to create progress
and to create change and to promote
justice so I did that and I reached and
I created a website I created social
media handles and I went for it
I had no qualifications no business
doing this but I did it and soon after I
was confronted with a lot of hard
questions
I started organization to promote that
and I started getting questions do you
guys remember asked if M some of you
might and on ask fm I was getting a lot
of hard questions right who are you to
start this why are you starting this how
can I get involved and I became over but
overwhelmed with how many people wanted
to get involved and the haters right
those who said who are you to do this
why are you doing this how is it’s your
place but I became bettered by both of
them you can sue their supporters i
restructured and innovated my
organization to allow people to engage
with it and through the haters i
introspectively looked at myself and
decided who I wanted to become to embody
the values that I was preaching about
and I became better by asking those hard
questions and trying to answer them and
by being asked questions and I’m not
here today to talk about my commerce
with the organization you heard a little
bit about in the intro but yeah you’ve
had enormous success we started with
myself and four other of my friends and
we’re now a team of over 300 we have
team members and chapters from places
all around the world like Panama India
Jordan etc we’ve been in PBS CCTV MTV
etc I’ve had the chance to dine at
President Obama to meet Hillary Clinton
and to be on the forefront of what it
looks like to be a youth activist but
that’s
cuz lastly heart questions and so many
people willing to work ask those
questions with me and I’ve been to the
White House three times and when I go to
those meetings I see that those
roundtables and I engaged with
journalist and I engage with high and
high level industry professionals I
realize how often I’m the only young
person in the room I’m the only Muslim
in the room and I ask hard questions
because when you’re not at the table
people assume one of two things they
assume you don’t want to be there or
they can speak for you neither of which
are ever okay so when I’m at that table
I make the most of it because let me be
very frank with all of you we have to
cut the we get to these tables
right we would be give me so much time
and energy we waste so much time and
energy with a small talk pivoting
adjusting to get to that moment we ask
the hard question we pop the question we
do not have time to waste when so many
are suffering so when I get to these
rooms I ask people why am I the only
young person here why am I the only
Muslim care what does that say about
their worth that you’re assigning to my
existence I come prepared with questions
that provoke people to action because
otherwise what am I doing with that see
the more than that I look around and I
think of ways that I can empower more
people to sit at that table with me and
I’ve done that because I realize I’ve
sat in these places right and I looked
around there’s no one there’s no one
else under 30 in the room and I’m 17 and
I think to myself I’m not some sort of
exceptional outstanding like so much
smaller than buddy else I’m actually the
only seventeen year old here you guys
have great ideas you guys know your
stuff you active your tables too right
so I found it a youth consulting firm
Juve consulting last year because it is
ridiculous to me did I go around and I
meet youth experts 30 year olds 40 year
olds tip year olds white guys sitting
around a table
we still like the word round and you see
those cringy advertisement that they
made to be tailored to us that are just
horrible and why why are there teen
experts when teens exist in the
three-dimensional world where we can
advocate and speak for ourselves so now
we do just that we profit off of our own
narrative and hopefully company’s
campaigns nonprofits profit more by
engaging with us because who knows us
better than ourselves and again I’ve
been extremely fortunate we’ve built an
amazing team we have over 10 clients we
were in Bloomberg Businessweek magazine
last week and I’m really fortunate or
how hard far we come and I’m really
fortunate to be in a position where I’m
asking hard questions about what a
generation see what are you what are we
can I speak unilaterally for generation
no absolutely not
but I’m asking these questions and
moreover I’m getting asked hard
questions what do you even know who are
you to do this but I think innovate and
I engage with diverse individuals all
across the world like you guys because I
recognize the potential that we can have
when we come together and make use of
our voice that brings me to my next
question
what can we do with our voice because to
me that’s my strongest asset and
hopefully many of yours because we all
have a store we all have that fire in
our stomach that gets us going how do we
tap into it I was not the person you see
before you today when I was a freshman
again I grew into this role by asking
hard questions and seeking answers so
when I think about what is my voice I
created the Muslim Club I blog for the
Huffington Post I created platforms that
allow me to engage with my mission to
engage with my narrative and share it
more than not I think about ways that I
can utilize my voice to engage in
diverse and innovative areas like moral
um I’m sure many of you guys do it and
have you guys ever been in committees in
Model UN but the end the chair says I
wish that the world leaders were like
you guys the change makers were like you
guys
I’m sure some of you had to heard that
right and I always think to myself well
then why aren’t we why aren’t we those
changemakers
I just gave a TEDx talk last year in
Panama entitled our age does not limit
our activism because the idea that our
activism or efficacy is for later is
ludicrous at best so I think about why
those ideas that we have in Model UN we
can influence them in a real way which
brings me to my next question how can we
influence so I thought about those ideas
I have all these great ideas and I have
a lot of friends and a lot of amazing
team members who have these great ideas
how do we advance them how do we
influence with them so I’ve interned for
the US Department of State I’ve worked
at presidential campaigns I’ve endured
for my congresswoman I’ve influenced
policy these we can take those ideas we
can take those dreams that we all have
that fired our stomach and we can push
it forward on real global and national
and local levels we all have the
capacity to do that I’m not special I
asked questions and I’ve sought answers
there’s still so many questions I don’t
have answers to whatever overcome my own
implicit bias will I ever be prejudice
free Who am I
what does tomorrow look like and today
that is sometimes so bleak I might even
write about anything there are so many
questions that I’ll never have the
answers to but I stand before you today
to implore you guys to ask hard
questions because I believe that when we
seek answers we find progress when we
look and act when we look for solutions
right when we look at the world and what
I want you guys to do is look at the
world look around this room right now
right look around think about this world
and think of one thing that you’d like
to change right one problem it can be as
micro as macro as you’d like one problem
something wrong with the world but
whatever comes to mind first and ask a
question about it how can I change it
why does it exist
ask the hard question about it and think
of one way you can be engaged or look
for a solution or answer to that problem
because I believe I believe from the
bottom of my heart that if everyone our
generation the next generation
Generation Z whatever you want to call
us the plurals ask these hard questions
looks for solutions
tomorrow is bright because when we ask
questions when we look for answers we
might I believe that we’ll all discover
something something beautiful
we might even discover ourselves thank
you [Applause]