DEARBORN — Fatina Abdrabboh, the Michigan director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), said she is looking to implement “good” and “lasting” change in the organization.
Abdrabboh said she commends State Rep. Rashida Tlaib and former ADC Michigan deputy director Rana Abbas for their “strength” to speak out against sexual harassment.
She stated that last month’s ADC Martin Luther King scholarship dinner, which drew a large crowd, is indicative of the progress of the organization under her leadership.
“Anybody who has criticism of ADC will always have an ear with me,” she said in an interview with The Arab American News at ADC Michigan’s new office in Downtown West Dearborn. “What they have to say will always matter and it will be taken into consideration if and when it relates to things that occur under my control and [on] my clock. A lot of this stuff is pre- my existence [with the organization].”
Abdrabboh was appointed as the head of the local chapter of ADC following the sexual harassment scandal that led to the resignation of her predecessor, Imad Hamad.
After Tlaib sent an open letter to ADC accusing Hamad of sexually harassing her when she worked at the organization’s Dearborn office, several women, including Abbas, came forward with similar allegations. ADC opened an investigation into the matter, but the organization’s national board determined that there was “inconclusive evidence” to validate the alleged victims’ complaints. Hamad was removed from his post and appointed as an “advisor” to the local ADC chapter. He later voluntarily resigned.
Abdrabboh was appointed as the director of ADC on Dec. 1. One of the first ADC decisions after her appointment was to cancel the ADC gala at the end 2013. She said the decision was hers alone.
Abdrabboh, an attorney, is a graduate of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan. She is a mother of two and said her entire family has been involved in civil rights advocacy.
Her writings have appeared in several publications, including The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor and the Washington Post.
The following interview has been edited for space and clarity.
The Arab American News: What challenges have you faced since you became the director of ADC Michigan?
Fatina Abdrabboh: Challenges with any type of new leadership when the predecessor has been there for a decade and a half involve a kind of new perspective. For me specifically, it was a generational change. I’m looking to go back to the grassroot component of ADC, meaning making our core priority to be the pulse of this community. The beat on the street, so to speak, is what I’m paid and hired to represent.
TAAN: You did not speak to the media in your first few months in charge. Why were you quiet?
F.A.: What I’ve been doing for the last 90-plus days has been far from quiet. We’ve worked incredibly hard to assess internally how to rebuild ADC and make it as strong and viable a civil rights organization representing Arabs in Michigan as possible; and externally, we’re trying to be on the lookout and on the alert for every and any conduct from public or nonpublic institutions that is against our community. From that sense, I’m pretty proud to say that I’ve been far from quiet, but I’ve been organizing. The design is to be slow and systematic in my [re] building [the ADC]. Rome wasn’t built in one day. Change is going to be slow and systematic, good change, lasting change. I also want to walk the walk that I talk. Although I was appointed new director, I don’t want the discussion to be about me, personally. I want the discussions to be about the issues in our community and what matters to the community.
TAAN: What kind of change did you want to implement and what changes have you implemented in ADC Michigan so far?
F.A.: I want to make sure that ADC Michigan allows [the] people’s voice to be heard. It is not my call to determine what issues I want to tackle. It is the issues that walk into the door that make my agenda. Those happen to be immigration issues and increasingly employment discrimination. These issues are really appalling in number. In terms of things I’ve already done, what we have just come out of has been described by several people as a very successful Martin Luther King event, well-attended, tons of support. The consensus happens to be that there were so many new faces at this event, a spectrum of coalitions, and I did that by design. I chose the agenda and the program to be perfectly reflective of our new vision, from the keynote down to who gave remarks. You’ll notice that it is a very refreshing new sense of ADC Michigan.
TAAN: Were you hesitant to take the position after you were selected?
F.A.: It definitely required some reflection and some time to think about it on a number of levels. Issue number one was the concern that community members had about ADC and how it handled the situation of the sexual harassment allegations. Issue number two was making sure that I had all my ducks in order personally to make sure that I could fulfill my responsibility of public service.
TAAN: Did you apply for the job or were you picked by ADC?
F.A.: There was a process involved.
TAAN: When you came into the position, there were many women who felt ADC had wronged them. What do you say to these women?
F.A.: Rashida Tlaib and Rana Abbas were among the first people, if not the first two people, I called right after my announcement, in fact before I had even taken office. I had an excellent conversation with Rashida and I had an excellent conversation with Rana about this. They both sent immediate congratulatory remarks and said that they were hopeful about the possibility of ADC under my leadership. I continue to have a very good, open relationship with Rashida Tlaib. That part has played a huge role in my decision to take the job, because so much of my previous work has been in women’s advocacy and empowerment. Specifically I’ve dealt with women who have been victims of all types of violence, so I’m very familiar with the situation of Arab American women as victims of oppression in several realms.
TAAN: When you picked up the phone and called Rashida Tlaib and Rana Abbas, what did you tell them?
F.A.: I basically wanted to reach out a hand to them and I told them the characteristics of what ADC Michigan would be like under my leadership, and I commended them for their strength to say the things they said.
TAAN: How did you deal with ADC-Michigan staff who are close to your predecessor?
F.A.: Since I took over, there has not been a single employee who was employed by ADC Michigan in the past that is employed by us today. The selection of the new office geographically and symbolically was part of this plan. Parts of the past needed to be broken away from.
TAAN: Did that happen with the blessing with the national ADC leadership?
F.A.: My close working relationship is with the ADC national president [Samer Khalaf], who is my boss, and he’s been supportive of most of the decisions I’ve made.
TAAN: Where you associated with ADC prior to your appointment?
F.A.: I was never formally employed. But I’ve been close to ADC, like anyone in this community, since I was in high school. When I was 15-years-old, I gave the keynote address at ADC Michigan’s annual gala and that was when Imad Hamad was director and Wafa Salah was president. They had made a decision that they wanted a student to be a keynote speaker for the night. ADC has always been a part of our community.
TAAN: We reported, according to two sources, that it was the decision of the national board to cancel the ADC Michigan gala, contrary to the statement that said you have cancelled the gala.
F.A.: The decision to cancel the gala was 100 percent mine. It required convincing, in fact. It required assessment. It was never out of concern for sponsorship or turnout or the sale of tables, ever.
TAAN: What was the concern?
F.A.: I was appointed on Dec. 1 and the gala was a couple weeks away. It was a transitional period. New leadership had taken over. Once I came in and assessed the situation, it did not make sense to have a gala in a community in mourning after allegations of sexual harassment. It was that simple. My concern was should we, as a civil rights organization, have gotten up there and celebrated what were successes that year? Did the need to celebrate those successes outweigh the current situation of victims, and other strands of our community, that had criticisms of ADC that were vocal and increasingly public? That was why I made that decision.
TAAN: Many people lost their trust of ADC because of the way it handled the sexual harassment scandal. How do you plan on regaining this trust?
F.A.: I’m proud to say regaining trust has been the key priority for me from day one, and my philosophy has been that there will be a direct correlation between gaining and keeping trust with good programing and doing what we say and saying what we do.
TAAN: How would you assess the organization’s recovery under your leadership?
F.A.: If the MLK event is a reflection, the Michigan director of the civil rights department was there. We had commissioners who drove from Lansing. We had academics and law professors. We had the Muslim organizations’ support. We had the Christian Ramallah Club. They were all meant to symbolize the key areas of advocacy that ADC Michigan will be involved in this year.
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