Many international students have problems getting their student visas, but Sarra Mirghani had some particularly tricky troubles getting hers.
This political science student at Concordia had to take a lot of time off due to some processing complications. Her mother suggested at one point that she phone up Justin Trudeau and give him the low-down because he seemed like he’d give a hand. (@JustinTrudeau).
Here’s Sarra waiting by the phone:
But Sarra did something productive during a semester off and founded Empower, a website that specifically aimed to bring forward issues and achievements of women and femmes all over the world.
We aim to be a platform where women, in all their glorious diversity are represented.”
I have known Sarra since our high school history class, and in addition to always being late she has always been very clever. She’s well-spoken, sympathetic and really really funny. Lina, sister of the star of the article luckily came along to this interview. I begged her to provide all the dorky details she could. Lina managed to share some insight about Penos, (Sarra’s imaginary friend). Sarra insists he was real and the best of buds. She even credits him for teaching her about “recognizing the importance of internalized oppression”
Long live Penos.
Some Sarra and Lina snapshots during the interview. I’m sure Penos was there too.
Sarra founded Empower with Soufia, a friend she met through her older sister, with whom she later founded the blog with. The pair are both studying political science, and although they are in different corners of the globe, they find that they compliment each other’s work quite well. Their thoughts align on a lot of causes, but it is their differences like their specialization in topics or subsections of social justice issues as well as their different writing styles that makes the collaboration more interesting and stronger.
They want to tackle some of the misconceptions about feminism and matters within the theme. Sarra says that her introduction to feminism and social justice course was “basic feminism” or but evolved as her readings became about more diverse and comprehensive understandings.
I pointed out that it was not just her point of view that changed, but social media and popular activism popping up on all these different media landscapes. She finds that these perspectives are more inclusive and great, but still need a lot of work. It’s good that activism is not stagnant but is also evolving. Empower is trying to retell other relevant stories and not just discuss some issues that might be sensationalized or just plain trendy.
It’s problematic because it might be narrow and not everyone is represented. Empower wants feminism to be with people who are similar, different, and those who need activism in their life but might also find themelves unrepresented. This is not to undermine the importance of marketable activism out there but it’s just that Empower focuses on a broader spectrum of issues that are of equal importance like the violence W.O.C. experience, which is not as widely covered.
Sarra and Souphia write profiles, share world news, and touch on a lot of other topics.
When writing her first personal essay a few months ago, she wanted to focus on the topic of “internalised oppression” that personally affected her and others in the community she wanted to approach. It suited Empower as many people find that activism starts with looking into ourselves and where we stand in terms of how we present ourselves and project our experiences. This can be seen as “bettering the activism we participate in by bettering ourselves.”
In many ways, Empower is expanding the narrow definition of what feminism is and the issues associated with the topic. They want to reach out to their target audience or find others who did not know about it but will turn to the website as a resource hopefully.
There are people out there who are doing important work, but just don’t get the recognition that they deserve.
Activism can be as tiny as not feeling down on yourself, or as ambitious as starting a widespread movement.
Images obtained from Sarra Mirghani and Facebook.com/weareempower