An Immigrant’s Civic Engagement Story
In 2010, the uprising of the Arab Spring started in Yemen. The uprising that began as a hope for a better government became a crisis, and many people died for simply asking for freedom and a better future. Buildings were destroyed, people lost their families, and Yemen became the worst humanitarian crisis in the history of humanity and continues to suffer from starvation, disease, civil war, and international intervention.
My sister and I had to flee to Egypt, where we started the process to come to the United States as asylum seekers, knowing that the second uprising in Egypt was beginning and that country was not a safe place for us either. When I got my visa, I had to leave my sister behind because hers was rejected. I was afraid of coming here alone, but I had hope that I could bring my sister with me soon. It has been six years, and I haven’t seen her since we said goodbye, due to the Muslim Ban that Trump’s administration enacted.
I remember the last presidential Election Day as if it were yesterday. In 2016, I was a first-year student at St. Catherine University. Having lived only one and a half years in the United States, I was trying to fit in and learn everything about this new country.
I was watching the debates with many of my classmates, listening to what these two candidates were interested in and what their campaigns were about. I was the Black, Muslim, immigrant girl in that room trying to understand what was going on.
I witnessed the hate against Muslims and immigrants from one of the candidates, and I was scared to think that this person could possibly become the president. I looked right and left at my friends and told them I was afraid that he would win the election. They said with a smile on their faces, “Don’t worry, let him say what he wants. Americans are way smarter and better than electing this kind of person to be the president.”
I waited all night for the election results, watching state after state turn red, thinking: is this even possible? I changed from one channel to another hoping that what they were reporting was not true, that there was something wrong. I gave up as the time was 4 am and went to bed thinking about all the things he said: “We are going to build the wall,” “We must ban Muslims from entering the United States,” and more and more.
Like many in the wake of the 2016 election, I felt so lost, I felt so confused, and I felt I needed to do something. I went to the Minnesota Women’s March in 2017 and realized that I was not alone in these feelings and that I am not alone in this fight.
I started becoming more involved at my school, where I organized events on campus and was appointed to be the coordinator to create and implement civic engagement work. I wanted every single person on campus to learn why it’s important to understand civic engagement, even beyond voting. Not all of us are able to vote, but each of us has a place in this work.
In 2018, I volunteered my time on campaigns at the local, state, and federal levels, including Ilhan Omar, Keith Ellison, Tina Smith, Tim Walz, Melvin Carter, and many others. I hosted and attended community listening sessions and talked about the importance of the census, foreign policy, immigration, education, and more. I wanted the community to understand who immigrants are and listen to our stories through us rather than the media. As an immigrant I made sure we were there, showing up in every space, from protesting to speaking to organizing.
We knew that the 2020 election was going to be one of the most pivotal of our lives, especially for those who can’t vote like me.
We, the non-citizen sheroes and heroes, were on the frontlines and in the streets during every protest.
We organized and brought our families, friends, and allies with us. We took the mic and shared our stories of the past, our concerns about the present, and our hopes for the future. We planned events and brought communities together, knowing that this system took our families away from us. We helped others in need, knowing that our own people are suffering from wars and crises back home. We not only contribute to the United States economically and socially—we are the foundation of this country. We are not the others; we are the people.
As much as many of us are celebrating that Trump is no longer our president, we need to understand that we have not gotten rid of Trumpism. We still have a lot of work to do, and we still have a lot of policies to change. We need to abolish the Muslim Ban; we need to bring families together; we need to create a path for citizenship; we need to establish a better healthcare system; we need to protect the environment; we need to abolish ICE and defund the police; we need to bring justice to the Indigenous people who own this land. As we are celebrating the first woman and first Black-South Asian woman to be elected vice president, we need to remember our work doesn’t end by electing people. Our fight for justice continues stronger than ever before.
As one of our Civic Engagement Coordinators, Zaynab Abdi supports Reviving Sisterhood’s work around the 2020 elections and helps us get out the vote in the Muslim community. Zaynab worked as an Immigrant and Refugee Youth Ambassador at Green Card Voices. She graduated magna cum laude from St. Catherine University in St. Paul, MN with three bachelor’s degrees in Political Science, International Studies, and Philosophy. Zaynab was appointed by Governor Tim Walz's office to serve in the Young Women's Cabinet, where she advocated for young women in Minnesota and took leadership roles within the organization. She is also an advocate for girls’ education and spoke at the United Nations about the importance of educating girls in countries where they are disadvantaged.