Peace and greetings, my sisters and brothers. What an honor it is to be amongst the best thinkers in the world. Thank you for hosting me. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share a story with you. I want to start by first saying that I am a proud Yemeni American and unapologetically Muslim. I stand today in front of you on the shoulders of giants, giants who have now created a voice for themselves and a place at the table. It all started that evening of election day, where we were all feeling hopeful and thinking we’re going to have the first female president in the United States. I walked into the Jacob Javits Center thinking history is going to be made. There was laughter, there was excitement, people were drinking, people were talking, the polls closed, the numbers began to come in, and as they came in, the chatter and the laughter decreased. As more numbers came in, they continued to decrease until you can finally hear a pin drop. And at that moment, all I saw was fear, terror, despair, and trauma beginning. And the first image that went into my head was of Donald Trump promising to have a complete Muslim shutdown. I thought of all of the young people that I knew, the mothers, the fathers, the community members who reminisced on this promise and were terrified. And was so frightened myself, I felt vulnerable, I felt targeted. I didn’t know what to do with that moment. I immediately started getting text messages from young people and parents, should I send my children to school tomorrow? I’m so afraid for them. And at that moment, I had to pull myself together and show moral courage. I started to text them back and say, yes, you have to live your life. This is America. You are American. Don’t let anyone make you feel any different. In the weeks ahead and the months ahead, the unfathomable happened. Donald Trump signed the Muslim ban executive order. I was at an event commemorating Arab heritage. I got the call. And when I heard that he signed the executive order, I felt like someone sucked the air out of me. I felt paralyzed. I felt numb. And all I could think about was my community and what we were going to do. Another moment of getting text message after text message. And these text messages were from my beloved Yemeni American community leaders saying, what does this mean for us? What’s going to happen to us? Are we going to be able to reunite with our family? Does this mean we have to leave the United States? And I immediately started responding by saying, no, please calm down. Let’s meet tomorrow and we will strategize around this issue. The following morning, like thousands of Americans, I went to JFK terminal four where thousands and thousands of individuals came out in protest of the Muslim ban. I was there from 11 to 9 p.m. and then went to meet with my beloved Yemeni American leaders. When I got to that meeting, I saw the long faces. I saw the fear. And I saw the terror of like what’s going to happen to us. 9-11 was a moment that shook my community. And now the Muslim ban in Donald Trump was another moment to shake my community. At this meeting, we talked about strategizing to educate our community. And the one message that I had for each and every one of them was, please tell your family members not to travel until further notice. Go home, call your friends, call your neighbors, wherever you go, spread the news. Monday morning, I get a call from one of the very gentlemen who was at that meeting. And he said to me, I was with a bunch of bodega owners who are upset, who are angry, and who want to do something. And I said, what would they like to do? He said they want to do a bodega strike. But they wanted to get your approval first. I said, I love the idea. How many bodegas do you want to close? And they said to me, oh, 200. I said no. I want 1,000. I will get you the media. I will get you the location for this rally. And we’re going to make it happen. They created a poster, put it up in all of their bodegas. They shut down from 12 to 8 p.m. And I wanted it from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. And the pushback was simply this. We don’t want to disrupt our neighbor’s morning routine. We want to make sure our neighbors get their coffee, their paper. We want to make sure the kids get their snack. We care about these very people. And we want to make sure that we don’t disrupt their lives. I said, OK, 12 p.m. it is. On February 2, they closed their stores at 12. Some of them decided to show up at 12.30. So they asked me why at Brooklyn Borough Hall. They were supposed to be there at 4.30. I get a call from Borough Hall saying to me, they’re out here. What time did you tell them to get here? I said 4.30. They’re like, well, there are 50 people here now. I wait an hour. There are 500 people here. I was like, what is going on? My poor husband, who worked a 12-hour shift, I sent him to Borough Hall to troubleshoot and tell them to go to the mosque, go to Starbucks, which I would never tell anybody to go. But they needed to go somewhere. He gets there. They’re like, no, we’re staying. And it was a very cold and windy day. My fellow colleague, who is one of the organizers, called up a comedian. And he did a Facebook Live to entertain them until we began. And when I got there at 3 o’clock, this is the sea of people that I saw at 3 PM. They were praying and waiting for us to begin. Never in my wildest dreams did I think this tweet would get 22,000 retweets, but it was profound. And what was beautiful was these people were hanging from the fringes of the flags and cheering USA, USA. And I don’t know why they kept saying USA, USA at that moment. But I was like, OK, I will embrace it. And I let them chant it. It was the young, the old, every person that felt affected came out that day. And in the months after the bodega strike, we realized that this community needed to be mobilized and organized. And I helped co-found the Yemeni American Merchants Association, an organization working to educate, advocate, and elevate Yemeni Americans in the United States. It’s become an organization that has become a voice for this community. This past Saturday, we had our second year anniversary. And in preparation for 2020, we have launched a C4 Yama action to get politically engaged in the political process, where we are going to lobby for our interest and also influence races and make sure that we put people into office. That reflect who we are and our values. In addition, after a national search, we hired our first executive director. This organization has made leaps and bounds. And I hope that you are inspired to help us continue to grow by donating. If you’re in New York or if you ever come to New York, come volunteer with us. If you want to contact us, the information is there. You can also reach out to me. And you can follow us on Twitter. Our latest campaign is actually boycotting the New York Post. We have up until today made sure that 1,500 stores are not carrying the New York Post. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. A big blessing. Thank you so much. Thank you to homeowners for dominating our Ezio unemployment today, Hiópn County, D Polytechnic Family and Forging Kyvelin County. We honor you to the United Nations Breathe hardship for fire1001. Thank you.