reflection 9
Margarita Abuawadeh: We have a responsibility to protect the interests of the oppressed
My name is Margarita Abuawadeh, I was born and raised in New Jersey. My great-grandparents were Spanish. They immigrated to Puerto Rico and put down roots in the town of Lares.
I am the youngest of 14 siblings, 13 of us children of both my father and mother; one, my father’s son from a previous marriage.
I converted to Islam during my college years, but I made it public when I started wearing a hijab.
I got married in 1992, and in 1995 I moved to Philadelphia. In 2008 I started working for the School District of Philadelphia, as a bilingual assistant counselor.
I work and help immigrants to know and protect their rights as students and families, so they have all the opportunities for a good education, and so they have access to the support they need to be successful.
My religion and my race crossed paths
New Sanctuary Movement has been a super active and important organization for the immigrant community in our neighborhood. I wanted to collaborate with them when I realized my religion and my race crossed paths more than I had imagined they would.
As a Muslim, advocate, mother, wife, neighbor and member of the board of directors of CAIR (the Council for American-Islamic Relations), as well as a member of NSM, I feel that all human beings have a responsibility to protect the interests of the oppressed. That is why I am engaged with a number of organizations.
I have been empowering Muslim and our Latino community since I first came to this neighborhood.
We have to come together and hang on
During this month of Ramadan — in which we celebrate the word of God when he send the Prophet Mohammad the Sacred Quran— we Muslims fast all month, from sun up to sun down.
We abstain from eating, drinking and having intimate relations. But more than that — the fast also includes not swearing, not getting angry, forgiving, and participating in works of charity, without forgetting the poor and oppressed.
Sometimes, a smile can be a work of charity.
At this moment of senseless hostility toward our neighbors, discriminating against people of color has been normalized. But, we have to come together and hang on! We have to work so that all human beings have a good life.
