The following remarks were delivered by Arig al Shaibah, Associate Vice-President, Equity and Inclusion, during a community gathering organized in support of the Iranian community at UBC and held of October 18, 2022.
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Welcome…Assalammu ‘Alaikum
My name is Arig al Shaibah, and I am UBC’s Associate Vice President, Equity and Inclusion.
I want to start by acknowledging that we are gathered on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueum peoples.
This land acknowledgement is particularly salient today as we consider that land is body and body is land…
Our histories, identities, communities, sense of belonging and well-being are all tied up in complex notions of land – homeland, places we make home, and where we feel we are nourished and nurtured to thrive and flourish as peoples…
As a diasporic person from the middle east, having decades ago fled with my parents from my birthplace and country of origin, and then later in my young adult life leaving another middle eastern country – because of repressive regimes – I feel a tremendous sense of gratitude that I, and my immediate family, have had the opportunity to make a life in Canada.
With that gratitude is also a great sense of responsibility to ensure that the promise of human rights, equality, dignity and freedom that my family and some of my peoples have sought from Canada does not come at the expense of the rights and entitlements of Indigenous peoples – that there is the possibility of reconciliation and peaceful, equitable, and anti-colonial co-existence.
There is also a sense of humility that the legal right I currently have to imagine, aspire towards, and realize my full personal and professional potential as a queer, culturally Muslim Arab women is not a right enjoyed by others like me around the world. However, complicated my access to that legal right is here, it is nonetheless a legal right that is non-existent in the places I left.
So, I also appreciate the desire to find meaningful ways to make a difference – in whatever small or large ways – in the lives of those may not yet enjoy the same legal rights.
These are very difficult times – I am pleased that the Equity and Inclusion Office was able to facilitate the organization of this gathering to offer one other venue for connection, grieving, and healing.
Thanks to the Iranian Professionals Network, The UBC Persian Club and UBC Equity & Inclusion Office IBPOC Connections for hosting this event.
Especially, I want to thank:
- Maryam Nabavi
- Afsanah SharifAal
- Shadi Mehrabi
- Naz Tavakolizadeh
- Ava Tabatabaei
- Madison Tardiff
- Vanessa Kim
As we stand together we recognize that in our diversity there is unity in the aim to relentlessly promote gender equality and women’s choice as human rights.
We celebrate the strength and courage of the women in Iran (our sisters) at the forefront of this effort.
We celebrate women, life, and freedom.