Trying for Full Hearts in Trying Times
The fasting month is coming to an end and in Los Angeles we’re celebrating the month by organizing a final community iftar, followed by a pre-Eid dance party!
It’s been a difficult month for many of us, but all of the MPV community gatherings, from Boston to San Francisco, reminded us of the importance of community, both near and far. Even those who could not participate in our community events managed to support MPV from afar. So many of you donated to MPV this month, and we want to thank you for your support. It is much needed.
At a reception in New York for the annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), I was happy to announce that after 4+ years as co-chair of the Gender Working Group for the United Nations’ Inter-Agency Task Force's Multi-Faith Advisory Council, I stepped down and was elated to welcome the new co-chairs, Dimitra Missira from KAICIID, and Jessica Roland from The Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers.
During my time in New York, I had the opportunity to meet a number of women’s groups and organizations, all facing a funding crisis similar to one that we at MPV are facing. It was sobering to listen to them fret about the funding cuts, not just from USAID, but also from the development agencies of other foreign governments. With the exception of pet projects, foundations too are scrapping and scaling back funding. And amidst all of this reduction in funding few, if any, of the benchmarks on women and girls’ rights have been met, with progress only regressing since COVID.
At the crux of these rights violations for women and girls, is a particularly disturbing form of violence, intimate violence, in the space where all humans deserve to feel safe, at home. Laws of the land, including Sharia law, don't protect them, and at times, protect the abuser. To highlight this abuse, in collaboration with the Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law, we co-organized two events focusing on strategies to combat unequal family laws and build connections across the globe between individuals and organizations with similar missions.
The insidious undermining of women and girls’ rights is a constant battle. Here in the U.S., it has been undermined just when we saw a glimpse of progress. As of today, the Trump Administration has tasked V.P. Vance with “restoring truth and sanity to American history” targeting the Women’s History Museum, which is in development, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in 2016.
The effort to strip away egalitarianism and human dignity for all is a common denominator amongst all supremacists, regardless of their particular identity - White, Zionist, Christian, Muslim, and Hindutva. They all share the same desire to craft an unequal and segregated society based on hatred. And here’s an example of the climate we’re enduring.
The effort to utilize the government to strip away non-profit status of those they disagree with.
Regardless, in solidarity with humanity, we’re co-sponsoring a Parents Circle event in Los Angeles. Please see MPV-LA calendar for details below. Unfortunately, an event with Salt of the Earth had to be cancelled because Osama Iliwat, the Palestinian partner, was not allowed to board his plane to the US despite having a visa.
However, this is a month of beauty so I want to end on a beautiful note. In Los Angeles a Lent, Shabbat and Iftar we co-organized was attended by over 150 people, all celebrating our collective humanity. We left with our hearts full.
I invite you to check out a video of me singing and photos from my Instagram account here.
Onward and upward…
Ani Zonneveld
Founder, President