Linda Sarsour is a working woman, racial justice and civil rights activist, a mother of three, and in her own words, “every Islamophobe’s worst nightmare.”
Ambitious, outspoken and independent, Ms. Sarsour shatters stereotypes of Muslim women while also treasuring her religious and ethnic heritage. She is a Palestinian Muslim American and a self-proclaimed “pure New Yorker, born and raised in Brooklyn!” She is the Executive Director of the Arab American Association of New York and co-founder of the first Muslim online organizing platform, MPOWER Change.
Ms. Sarsour has been at the forefront of major civil rights campaigns including calling for an end to unwarranted surveillance of New York’s Muslim communities, and ending police policies like stop-and-frisk. In the wake of the police murder of Mike Brown, she co-founded Muslims for Ferguson to build solidarity amongst American Muslim communities and encourage work against police brutality. She is a member of the Justice League NYC, a leading NYC force of activists, formerly incarcerated individuals, and artists working to reform the New York Police Department and the criminal justice system.
In August 2015, The New York Times dubbed her “A Brooklyn Homegirl in a Hijab” and explained, “Mixing street smarts, activism and her Muslim identity, Linda Sarsour has become a political force.”