If there is one thing Donald Trump can be credited with since his explosive political entrance, it is galvanizing feminists. In January, some four and a half million women around the world got out into the streets to send their own message to the new president. I work in journalism, and at my workplace the Toronto march was all anyone could talk about in the days leading up. Women would spontaneously gather to discuss where they would meet and what their signs would say. In the days afterward, likewise, it was the dominant topic of conversation. My female colleagues reflected on the march as a unifying moment for women, a call with a universal appeal that moved them to act.
But I live in two worlds. One is related to my work and is overwhelmingly white. The other is personal and overwhelmingly brown. And in my personal life, I do not know a single woman who went. Few of the women in that circle talked about the marches at all, and when they did, they seemed to view...
Naheed Mustafa is an award-winning broadcaster and writer. She is currently working on a radio documentary for CBC Radio’s Ideas on a 12th-century Arabic text that, hundreds of years later, became an influence on early Enlightenment thinkers. It is scheduled for broadcast in the spring. Her writing has appeared The Walrus and The Atlantic, among other publications.
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