Advocacy is central to Rana Abdelhamid, and she seems to present this as reactionary. She grew up in a post-9/11 Astoria, which was heavily surveilled due to systemic reactionary Islamophobia. Rana herself was attacked in a hate crime by a man on the street, and she went on to found Malikah because of it. The now global organization is a place where women take self defense classes taught by women, and has grown to provide organizational and financial literacy support for marginalized communities. Rana has also been involved in local politics, contributing to an assembly bill protecting North African communities in New York.

Rana cares deeply about her community, and feels passionately about the diaspora that she’s part of. But, when she thinks about foreign policy and Islamophobia in politics, it bars her from embracing a broader ‘American’ identity. When asked about the American Dream, she feels strongly about a sort-of “New York Dream”: one that’s diverse, working-class, and gives space for migrants to thrive. Rana may have inherited this from her parents, who moved from Egypt fully intending to return once they gained financial stability, but were forced to stay because of fighting back home.

Rana chose to represent her story with a zine created by Malikah, which documents the history of Little Egypt and the North African community in Astoria. It’s representative of her commitment to her community, even as she struggles to identify with everything under the American banner.

– Ismaeel El-Shafei

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant