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DFS Equity Impact Statement: “The Department of Family Services (DFS) is committed to addressing institutional racism in its core responsibility to support the safety, health, and wellness of county residents. DFS recognizes systemic oppression and institutional racism have contributed to disparities in opportunities for county residents to succeed. DFS will support equitable outcomes by examining its policies, practices, and procedures to eliminate disparities in service delivery and outcomes for county residents.”
In the 1990s, Arab American and Middle Eastern and North African Heritage months were Held in local communities around the United States to recognize the achievements of Arab Americans. Starting in 2017, there was a push for national recognition of the month led by the Arab American Foundation, and April was officially recognized nationally by President Joe biden in 2021. In 2022, the Virginia General Assembly and over 30 states legislatures and 45 state governors recognized Arab American Heritage Month in their states.
Arab American Heritage Month is sometimes recognized alongside Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Heritage Month, which recognizes a wide diversity of ethnicities and cultures that trace their heritage to those regions of the world.
History
Afifa Karam (1883-1924) was a Lebanese-American novelist, translator, and journalist whose writings were a key feature in Al-Hoda, one of the first Arabic-language newspapers in the U.S. Her novels discussed women’s experiences of oppression and how gender roles impacted Lebanese women before and after immigrating to the U.S.
"When an honorable woman sees another woman insulted, she feels as though the insult is directed at all women, not just one."
Evelyn Shakir (1938–2010) was a Lebanese-American scholar whose work was foundational in the study of Arab American literature. Her book, Bint Arab: Arab and Arab American Women in the United States, is known as one of the first books to chronicle the experiences of Arab American women in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a focus on shifts in identity among immigrant and first-generation American children of immigrants.
"Women of Arab ancestry in America want to feel ourselves ... spiritually if not physically, a part of our ethnic community, but at the same time need role models from our collective past that will, implicitly, give us permission to be oddballs."
Leila Ahmed (1940) is an Egyptian American author and religious scholar. Her 1992 book, Women and Gender in Islam, is regarded as a core text on the role of women in Arab Muslim culture and the false conflation of Islam as a religion with rigid gender norms in some Middle Eastern countries. Ahmed became the first professor of women’s studies in religion at Harvard Divinity School in 1999 and a pre-eminent scholar on the intersections of Islam and feminism.
"I get constantly called and asked to explain why Islam oppresses women; I have never yet been asked, ‘Why is it that Islam has produced seven women prime ministers or heads of state and Europe only two or three?’ or whatever it is."
Current Day Activism
Linda Sarsour is a Palestinian Muslim American civil rights activist, author, and community organizer from Brooklyn. Sarsour was an outspoken activist against surveillance of Muslim Americans after the 9/11 attacks and founded the organization Muslims for Ferguson to protest police brutality in solidarity with Black Lives Matter after the death of Michael Brown in 2014. She later served as a co-chair of the 2017 Women’s March and Day Without A Woman protests.
"We must stand together united in solidarity against the targeting, demonization, and vilification of any group of people."
Soraya Chemaly is a Jordanian and Lebanese journalist and activist for the rights of women and intersectionality in the feminist movement. Known for her book, Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger, Chemaly’s work discusses the ways in which women and girls are dismissed as “emotional” to undermine their experiences and how this impacts our cultural understanding of sexual and domestic violence.
"Women should be angry about the violence and fear that inform so much of our lives. So should men."
Zainab Salbi is an Iraqi American human rights activist and author whose work focuses on sexual and gender-based violence during war. She founded the international nonprofit Women for Women International to provide support to women and families impacted by war. In 2018 she hosted the documentary show “#MeToo, Now What?”, which discussed the high-profile court cases that led to broad recognition of the #MeToo movement.
"Being a leader for me is about having the courage to speak the truth, and live the truth, despite attempts to silence our thoughts, feelings, and past experiences."
According to the Arab American Institute, Virginia is the state with the 10th highest population of Arab Americans. A survey of Fairfax County Public School students shows Arabic is the second most common non-English language spoken at home, accounting for 3,200 families across the county. Nearly 82% of Arab Americans are U.S. citizens and over half were born here.
Arab Americans are a group with diverse cultures, languages spoken, countries of origin, racial identities, and religious beliefs. Due to the way race and ethnicity categories are currently collected by the U.S. Census Bureau, national studies on the prevalence of sexual and domestic violence often do not identify Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African Americans as a distinct category. This means national datasets do not highlight Arab or Middle Eastern survivors as a distinct population.
Based on other research, Arab Americans impacted by sexual and domestic violence often face barriers accessing services that reflect their cultural norms and experiences. These barriers are often greater for refugees and recent immigrants, as they may be less familiar with available supports and resources in the community and are more likely to speak a primary language other than English. Arab Americans also experience barriers to services due to a history of stereotypes about gender roles and domestic violence, which can be reflected by service providers’ assumptions about their and their family’s needs. Additionally, the disproportionate history of hate crimes and surveillance of the Arab American community can lead to a lack of trust of resources involving the criminal justice system.
- National Network of Arab American Communities
- Arab American Foundation
- National Arab American Women's Association