For Bangladeshi Women, By Bangladeshi Women, in Bangla: Immigrant Rights Forum in Kensington, Brooklyn
The following piece is intended for archival memory. Some of what’s written here is highlighted across Facebook statuses by those of us present. However, community organizing content centering groups rarely or never written about deserves extra care and coverage. Given the Kensington, Bangladeshi women’s forum took place in March 2018, it is already buried in my Facebook. A similar Bangladeshi women’s convening, 100% inspired by the forum I conducted in Brooklyn, took place in the Bronx, which was brilliantly summarized by Thahitun Mariam in her piece here. Following Thahitun’s lead, the below write-up synopsizes the Kensington, Brooklyn Bangladeshi women’s gathering stressing the importance of creating nurturing spaces wherein Bangladeshi women in NYC have access to comprehensive information and resources to support themselves, their families, and their communities.
In September 2017, Annie Ferdous and friends founded the Brooklyn Ladies Club, a Kensington, Brooklyn member-based collective dedicated to Bangladeshi women’s self-determination; a space meant for women in the neighborhood, whose livelihood are too connected to their home, children, family, work, and all the other labor women take on without rest and emotional process, to learn, think, & chill together. This is not your average kitty party.
Annie Auntie reached out to me in February 2018 with the words: “we want a specially designed Know Your Rights talk for Kensington women; it’s time now.”
My contribution here is that of a born and raised Kensington daughter and activist-organizer in the context of immigration, housing, language access, disability, and women’s rights. Additionally, I work with City Council Member Brad Lander (my Council Member) as Director of Organizing and Community Engagement. In my role, I focus on making city services and organizing opportunities accessible to Bangladeshi constituents in Kensington, advise and respond to immigration policy changes, and push Bangladeshi New Yorkers to know and participate in local legislation around housing, jobs, education, community development, and improved city services. I have a say in my office’s budgetary decisions, which gives me, a young Bangladeshi Muslim woman, an opportunity to prioritize the needs of Bangladeshis (domestic violence, aging, cleanup, cultural, etc) and call-in the groups that can meet the needs. There are other hats I wear wherein my work is dispersed to all constituents in Brooklyn District 39. Organizing through local government is unique, albeit the critiques of government.
On Saturday, March 17th, 2018 the *first-ever* Kensington Bangladeshi women’s civic engagement + political education seminar took place featuring a Know Your Rights Workshop on how to respond if Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) visits and State of Immigration talk by Kazi Fouzia, Director of Organizing at DRUM — Desis Rising Up & Moving, fast facts about obtaining IDNYC (NYC’s municipal ID) by Thahitun Mariam, Neighborhood Organizer (NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs), and a discussion led by Syeda Showkat, Assistant Managing Director (Sapna NYC), on disease trends among Bangladeshi women based on the research coordinated by Sapna NYC, a community-based organization in the Bronx.
Everything from our flyer to facilitation were in Bangla. The incredible turnout was possible not only because of the community/women’s need but because outreach responsibility fell on all of us involved. We made calls, shared online, and posted across storefronts and schools.
We shared space in the Kensington Family Shelter, an intentional decision to be in a safe space among other women housed there…and in the future, maybe a deeper collaboration. In 2015, many Bangladeshi uncles and other constituents stood together in strong opposition to the Shelter in our neighborhood. I’m glad they came around because the Shelter is vital to Kensington.
Many in the room are mothers to toddlers and newborns. We arranged for childcare so that attendees could be immersed in the information while taking a break being in care-mode. Thanks Taseen Ferdous for taking on childcare.
In July 2018 in the span of five days, over 200 Kensington residents applied for an IDNYC. This was the first time IDNYC conducted pop-up enrollment in the neighborhood. We will be bringing back the Mobile Command Center IDNYC Pop Up Site in Kensington before the end of this year.
The next seminar will focus on domestic violence, trauma, & mental health…again, led by Bangla-fluent facilitators/counselors. I am looking for more collaborators as we build the series. Additionally, I am facilitating a series of trainings with young Bangladeshi women, beginning with How to Organize a Protest.
My work is sustained with the support of my organizer-sisters in the Bangladeshi Feminist Collective.
Onwards. Check out the photos:
