The morning of Sept 19th proves to possibly be a dull one for Zahra Billoo, as she is not to be considered a Muslim leader of the women’s march board, and instead just Zahra Billoo. It’s said she was removed for her twitter activity, as she had been criticizing Israel, but she countered it, calling her removal part of a “Islam phobic smear campaign.”
The Women’s March organization is all about being accepting of all women. That spares no prejudice towards any race, nationality, or sexuality to that of the women. They build each other up, stand up for each other, and support one another.
The organization claimed that some of her public announcements were controversial with these ideals and their purpose. In public tweets, Billoo compared Israeli military and the Islamic state. She claimed, “Both are murderous, war crime committing, terrorist entities.” This can also be tied back to a tweet in 2005, in which she announced, “I’m more afraid of racist Zionists who support Apartheid Israel than of the mentally ill young people the #FBI recruits to join ISIS.”
You may wonder why Billoo was appointed to the board in the first place. The answer, in short is diversity. Three Women’s March organization co-chair members (Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory, and Bob Bland) had stepped down while being accused of anti-Semitism. In short, Billoo is not the first to come amid allegations of discrimination against a group of people, though will she be the last?
For more information on the Women’s March organization and events in a whole, visit https://www.womensmarch.com.
Brooke Holben
Brooke Holbenis a fourth-year student at Lock Haven University dual majoring in Communication (Electronic Media) and English (Writing with a minor in art). She served as a staff writer and photographer off-and-on for the Eagle Eye staff and now currently works as the Online Editor. Brooke is also the president of the campus's chapter of national honorary band fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi (Eta Alpha, HA). After Lock Haven, she plans to continue her education with a masters degree in Creative Writing for Entertainment and furthermore use the combination of degrees to become a script/narrative writer for video games, comics, and other forms of entertainment media.
