Home»Issues

13 Ways You Can Help Post-Women’s March

By

“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” –Audre Lorde

In the immediate aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, the nation was scrambling to make sense of the election results. With nearly 3 million less popular votes than Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump was elected as the 45th President of the United States. With greater opposition than support of the incoming Commander in Chief, we were reminded that dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

We (“Immigrants of all statuses, Muslims and those of diverse religious faiths, people who identify as LGBTQIA, Native people, Black and Brown people, people with disabilities, survivors of sexual assault – and our communities”) took to social media, uniting through grief, anger, disbelief and love. A delayed sense of urgency transformed into shared resources – how to contact members of Congress, how to get involved at a local level, how to be a better ally, how to protect one another, how to practice self-care, how to disrupt the very thing we had allowed to happen. The Women’s March on Washington was literally born overnight as “Nasty Women” across the nation harbored similar ideas. A counter-inauguration was born.

A delayed sense of urgency transformed into shared resources – how to contact members of Congress, how to get involved at a local level, how to be a better ally, how to protect one another, how to practice self-care, how to disrupt the very thing we had allowed to happen.

The Jan. 21 march on Washington was the largest in history, with more than half-a-million protesters in Washington D.C. alone, and at least 3.3 million across over 500 cities nationwide that held sister marches. Communities on all seven continents united in defiance of the Donald Trump and the hatred, divisiveness and violence he stands for in theory and practice.

It felt good.

Really good.

But we’re not done.

And don’t give me that “we’re just getting started” bit because our sisters, mothers, and our mothers’ mothers, and our grandmothers’ mothers have been doing this for far too long. So don’t hang up your marching shoes, continue to march forward!

The Women’s March has launched the 10 Actions / 100 Days Campaign to encourage folks to remain engaged for effective change. The first action was just released, with the other nine to be announced every ten days.

The First Action: Write your Senators about issues that are important to you, #WhyIMarch, and how you’re going to stay engaged and active on the issue. You can make your own postcard, or download and print the “Hear Our Voice” postcard to send.

Of course, there are way more than 13 ways to get involved, stay involved and encourage others to get involved. Patience, resilience and intersectionality nourish the revolution. Here are some commitments that MuslimGirl’s are making to continue the fight post-Women’s March, you can too!

  1. Practicing our Islam as an act of faith, devotion and resistance.
  2. Educating ourselves
  3. Listening to you so we can be there for you on your own terms. More on allyship post-Trump from a MuslimGirl fav, JooJoo Azad.
  4. Letting you know how you can be an ally to Muslim women and holding you accountable when you’re not. Remember that being an ally is not an identity, it’s an action.
  5. P-p-p-pressure! Calling, writing and visiting our representatives in person to hold them accountable.
  6. Representing ourselves and encouraging more representation in public service.
  7. Volunteering! If you don’t know where then start by peeping the list of organizations that partnered with Women’s March. Many of them have local chapters near you.
  8. Loving ourselves! “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” – Audre Lorde
  9. Protecting ourselves
  10. Expressing ourselves and creating our own #FutureIsFemale
  11. Educating the next generation. Some good reads:
  12. Having “the talk” with our children, about being young and Muslim during these difficult times.
  13. Laughing at ourselves!