“Muslimahs, MN and Goliath” Film Funding
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Over the summer, a notoriously anti-union and -collective bargaining global corporate giant faced strikes at two of its Minnesota-fulfillment centers in Shakopee and Eagan, outside Minneapolis, over working conditions, pay, job security and respect for religious practices. "Muslimahs, MN and Goliath" will tell the story of the refugee Somali women who led the charge for improving the lives of their families and communities in their new home and who have inspired a movement by being the first protests by a low-skilled workforce against and negotiations with this trillion-dollar tech company.
With your help, we are raising funds to begin filming.
The "Muslimahs, MN and Goliath" Story
Source: Daily Mail, Muslim workers protest that they don't have enough time to pray, 12/17/2018
"It was obvious to the 1,500-full-time workforce that an outside organization used" [well-timed protests] "to raise its own visibility ... The fact is that" [the company] "provides a safe, quality work environment in which associates are the heart and soul of the customer experience,” Corporate Statement, CNBC, July 15, 2019.
“They told us if you’re not able to do the job, then quit,” Worker Nimo Hirad, St. Paul Union Advocate, June 4, 2018.
With limited English-language skills, why do Somali American women fight back? From where does the audacity and conviction come to take on management at these fulfillment and delivery facilities?
The Somali national greeting is Maxaad Sheegtay, “Tell me something.” As a two Somali American women-run organization living in the Seattle-area, we know that we are “information junkies” and vocal. After civil war and genocide, knowing our rights and responsibilities are the first things we seek wherever we resettle. As informed citizens, we are quick to learn the “ins and outs” of our new environments. We stress civil war, but only as Diasporic and disenfranchised Somalis have we become cohesive communities outside our homeland. This has been the phenomenon behind the strides we have made in Minnesota and elsewhere. Through this project, our hope too is that Somalis back home will take this new sense of solidarity abroad to heart.
This film is about self-representation of Muslimahs. Not like women truly have equity anywhere, but we are acutely aware that the West disdains or has tried to outlaw our hijabs and burkhas as symbols of our refusal to assimilate and supposed subjugation to Muslim men. There is outsider perception, but let truth be told. Diasporic Muslimahs acculturate to and embrace our new homes. Muslim brothers follow the outrage of their Muslim sisters.
Source: CityPages, Eagan workers strike so they can park without getting towed, 9/19/2019
“Muslimahs, MN and Goliath” is a necessary intervention and ripe for public broadcast. Magnified since 9/11, Muslims have been negatively portrayed in mainstream and social media. Refugees and immigrants, especially those of color—the “voiceless”—face exploitative working conditions and overall discrimination in the U.S. and West.
The perception that "Muslims are terrorists" is absurd. A tiny percentage globally are extremists. We are discriminated against and made to pay for their actions yet, given mass gun violence in the U.S. and West by local white males, the same does not hold true for white "Christians." We Muslims are fellow citizens, parents, co-workers and friends.
Wider Impact
"These aren’t people coming from Norway, let’s put it that way. These people are very visible.” Kim Crockett, Vice President, Center of the American Experiment, New York Times, June 20, 2019.
To provide context for wider-U.S. and -Western sentiment of the Somali refugee experience, we will profile neighboring St. Cloud, Minnesota where a knife attack at a mall by a young Somali man took place, to exemplify blatant anti-Muslim backlash via interviews with lawmakers, churches, other organizations, residents and media. This will be a window into which audiences can witness the fear and isolation that minority Muslim communities face in today’s racially divisive and xenophobic society.
Not everyone is unwelcoming. This documentary also is about mutual alliance across racial, cultural and religious differences. Not just a focus on Somali refugee American women’s leadership, intersectional domination yet mutual support for workers' rights will be presented through testimonials from Muslim and non-Muslim Amazon: Employees for Climate Justice engineers from Seattle, public officials, universities and other organizations.
Considering working conditions at related fulfillment plants worldwide, if funding permits, we also will build solidarity with what took place in Minnesota by including recent company strikes in Germany, Poland and Spain in the overall story.
Our goal is that courageous and continuous dialogue and incremental changes take place. We at Nour Village Production/Eat with Muslims believe that different perspectives around pressing social issues, particularly for disenfranchised communities, must be presented. Let the audience be the judge and show their support, or lack thereof, after viewing the documentary’s various viewpoints.
About Fathia Absie
Source: Today, Meet 2 Somali Americans whose dinner party is educating communities, 2/5/2019
Executive Director Absie’s connection to Minnesota runs deep. She has made three films. Most apropos, “Broken Dreams ” is a feature-length documentary about the exodus of Somali youth in Minnesota for jihad. To their parents, it was a heartbreaking period, prompting a great deal of introspection and collective outcry against what they regarded as Al-Shabab’s recruitment and brainwashing of their sons. To the Somali community around the country, the case brought unwanted attention from the U.S. government. Following these disappearances, the FBI launched the largest U.S. counterterrorism investigation since the 9/11 tragedy. It exposed Diasporic Somali communities to the core, showing how the unspoken trauma far from civil war still defines daily lives. “Broken Dreams” explores the habit of settling scores through clan-differences and how underlying reason and justice are obscured.
Absie has a growing following on various social media platforms—with at least half being Somali Minnesotans—and has personal relationships with community leaders, Imams, civil service, politicians, activists and other "movers and shakers." As a popular and impartial Voice of America (VOA) journalist, she became known as a “voice for the voiceless” while working at the Somali service of VOA she hosted two very popular programs twice a week, “Somali Diaspora” and “Americana,” which made her a trusted source in the Somali community nationwide.
With your help, we are raising funds to begin filming.
The "Muslimahs, MN and Goliath" Story
Source: Daily Mail, Muslim workers protest that they don't have enough time to pray, 12/17/2018"It was obvious to the 1,500-full-time workforce that an outside organization used" [well-timed protests] "to raise its own visibility ... The fact is that" [the company] "provides a safe, quality work environment in which associates are the heart and soul of the customer experience,” Corporate Statement, CNBC, July 15, 2019.
“They told us if you’re not able to do the job, then quit,” Worker Nimo Hirad, St. Paul Union Advocate, June 4, 2018.
With limited English-language skills, why do Somali American women fight back? From where does the audacity and conviction come to take on management at these fulfillment and delivery facilities?
The Somali national greeting is Maxaad Sheegtay, “Tell me something.” As a two Somali American women-run organization living in the Seattle-area, we know that we are “information junkies” and vocal. After civil war and genocide, knowing our rights and responsibilities are the first things we seek wherever we resettle. As informed citizens, we are quick to learn the “ins and outs” of our new environments. We stress civil war, but only as Diasporic and disenfranchised Somalis have we become cohesive communities outside our homeland. This has been the phenomenon behind the strides we have made in Minnesota and elsewhere. Through this project, our hope too is that Somalis back home will take this new sense of solidarity abroad to heart.
This film is about self-representation of Muslimahs. Not like women truly have equity anywhere, but we are acutely aware that the West disdains or has tried to outlaw our hijabs and burkhas as symbols of our refusal to assimilate and supposed subjugation to Muslim men. There is outsider perception, but let truth be told. Diasporic Muslimahs acculturate to and embrace our new homes. Muslim brothers follow the outrage of their Muslim sisters.
Source: CityPages, Eagan workers strike so they can park without getting towed, 9/19/2019 “Muslimahs, MN and Goliath” is a necessary intervention and ripe for public broadcast. Magnified since 9/11, Muslims have been negatively portrayed in mainstream and social media. Refugees and immigrants, especially those of color—the “voiceless”—face exploitative working conditions and overall discrimination in the U.S. and West.
The perception that "Muslims are terrorists" is absurd. A tiny percentage globally are extremists. We are discriminated against and made to pay for their actions yet, given mass gun violence in the U.S. and West by local white males, the same does not hold true for white "Christians." We Muslims are fellow citizens, parents, co-workers and friends.
Wider Impact
"These aren’t people coming from Norway, let’s put it that way. These people are very visible.” Kim Crockett, Vice President, Center of the American Experiment, New York Times, June 20, 2019.
To provide context for wider-U.S. and -Western sentiment of the Somali refugee experience, we will profile neighboring St. Cloud, Minnesota where a knife attack at a mall by a young Somali man took place, to exemplify blatant anti-Muslim backlash via interviews with lawmakers, churches, other organizations, residents and media. This will be a window into which audiences can witness the fear and isolation that minority Muslim communities face in today’s racially divisive and xenophobic society.
Not everyone is unwelcoming. This documentary also is about mutual alliance across racial, cultural and religious differences. Not just a focus on Somali refugee American women’s leadership, intersectional domination yet mutual support for workers' rights will be presented through testimonials from Muslim and non-Muslim Amazon: Employees for Climate Justice engineers from Seattle, public officials, universities and other organizations.
Considering working conditions at related fulfillment plants worldwide, if funding permits, we also will build solidarity with what took place in Minnesota by including recent company strikes in Germany, Poland and Spain in the overall story.
Our goal is that courageous and continuous dialogue and incremental changes take place. We at Nour Village Production/Eat with Muslims believe that different perspectives around pressing social issues, particularly for disenfranchised communities, must be presented. Let the audience be the judge and show their support, or lack thereof, after viewing the documentary’s various viewpoints.
About Fathia Absie
Source: Today, Meet 2 Somali Americans whose dinner party is educating communities, 2/5/2019 Executive Director Absie’s connection to Minnesota runs deep. She has made three films. Most apropos, “Broken Dreams ” is a feature-length documentary about the exodus of Somali youth in Minnesota for jihad. To their parents, it was a heartbreaking period, prompting a great deal of introspection and collective outcry against what they regarded as Al-Shabab’s recruitment and brainwashing of their sons. To the Somali community around the country, the case brought unwanted attention from the U.S. government. Following these disappearances, the FBI launched the largest U.S. counterterrorism investigation since the 9/11 tragedy. It exposed Diasporic Somali communities to the core, showing how the unspoken trauma far from civil war still defines daily lives. “Broken Dreams” explores the habit of settling scores through clan-differences and how underlying reason and justice are obscured.
Absie has a growing following on various social media platforms—with at least half being Somali Minnesotans—and has personal relationships with community leaders, Imams, civil service, politicians, activists and other "movers and shakers." As a popular and impartial Voice of America (VOA) journalist, she became known as a “voice for the voiceless” while working at the Somali service of VOA she hosted two very popular programs twice a week, “Somali Diaspora” and “Americana,” which made her a trusted source in the Somali community nationwide.
Organizer
Farhia Absie
Organizer
SeaTac, WA
