(UW-WA) On November 17, 2017, ASUW’s Middle Eastern Student Commission held their first annual Professional Development Night. Students and professionals of Middle Eastern and Muslim origin gathered in Kane Hall to learn about opportunities in various fields. Numerous UW Alumni returned to campus to share their stories with those attending the event, thus creating a networking opportunity for students.
The planning for this event began in Summer 2017, with the intention of highlighting experienced individuals in the Seattle area. By reaching out to alumni, Middle Eastern Student Commission Director, Mennah El-Gammal, felt that UW students would then envision themselves in the global workforce. “It’s hard for them to have a positive image of themselves, and a lack of representation can affect what they imagine to be possible. Essentially, who is heard and seen, and who is not defines the status quo, and with that in mind our team developed and executed on this event,” says El-Gammal. The lack of representation of professionals with Middle Eastern and Muslim origin has been expressed by many minority students in their community.
The task force identified several opportunities for the UW to improve resources for Middle Eastern students, including starting discussions with the Ethnic Cultural Center about Middle Eastern student representation, providing more Halal and Kosher options on campus, and starting a dialogue with the Seattle and UW police departments about slow response rates to harassment and vandalization of the Islamic House.
The task force also worked to identify the MESC’s potential constituents. Since “Middle Eastern” is such a broad term, it decided to define the region as beginning in North Africa and continuing into inner Asia.
Varisha Khan,a member of the task force, explained how both geographic terminology and political terms were used to identify the region.
“There are many differences between populations,” Khan said. “However, they all face similar issues and the average American often lumps them into a singular identity.”
Khan has seen that for many Americans, the Middle East has become synonymous with the word “conflict.” She said there is a singular view of the community and that many picture someone who is Middle Eastern as an Arab Muslim, ignoring the diversity of the region.
This is what fuels a lot of the misunderstanding and causes violence toward all those who identify as Middle Eastern, Khan said. Anti-Muslim bigotry affects Middle Easterners and even South Asians who are not even Muslim, like Sikh men who wear turbans as a religious practice.
In the weeks following the November Paris Attacks, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said it received more reports of acts of discrimination targeting American Muslims, or those perceived to be Muslim, and Islamic institutions than during any other limited period of time since the 9/11 terror attacks.
