FIGHTING FOR A VOICE IN THE LAND OF FREE

After the 9/11 incident, activities of the homeland security left many South Asian immigrants (specially those are muslims) feeling that they are a second class American citizens. There are over 2 million South Asian in the United States, and all of them felt some impact from the post-9/11 backlash.

Tanzila Ahmed, a Bangladeshi American has established a non profit organization called 'South Asian American Voting Youth' (SAAVY) to raise a voice against these abuses. She graduated from the University of Southern California and has been an organizer in the youth environmental movement for four years. She is vice board chair for Project Democracy. In her voice:

I felt that if the South Asian community had been able to unite and represent their power in a political voice, we could have avoided the wrath of the Patriot Act. As a youth, a Muslim and a South Asian American, I was tired of being ignored and knew that things had to change by the 2004 elections.

There are two things that the people in power pay attention to: the power of money and the power of the vote. Since we don't have the money, we need to do everything possible to influence our power of the vote.

I want to live in a world where the South Asian community can call their representatives without fear of the FBI tracking them, and where politicians start addressing the issues important to South Asians.

If joining the SAAVY fight is something you'd be interested in, please check out www.saavy.org and email taz@saavy.org.

Source: WireTap