GAMVP Insights

As a field organizer at GAMVP, I felt that my job would only consist of civic engagement-related work, like voter registration. Obviously, I would be working with Muslim communities across the state, but I didn’t expect there to be a religious or spiritual outcome from my job. However, my work here led me back to the Muslim community and my local Bengali community.

I was raised to be a proud Bengali Muslim, and I am still very proud of my identity. I have never once felt like rejecting my Bengali or Muslim identity. However, witnessing the mistreatment of people within my local community, especially my mom and my sisters, never sat right with me. I didn’t want to be involved in communities where people are mistreated, based on unfair reasons like where they are from, how educated they are, what their parents do, or how much money they have. Sadly, I saw a lot of those beliefs in both the Muslim and Bengali communities growing up.  

In 2010, My family moved to Fayetteville and we were severely lacking community. Our first instinct was to get involved in the masjid, as masjids are often safe spaces for community building and friendship. While my dad and I were able to seamlessly integrate into the community, my mom and older sister had the opposite experience. They had many negative experiences that led them to feel further isolated within the community at this local masjid. Amongst those negative experiences, my family was able to persevere and build a community of other Bengali Muslims.  Throughout my adolescence and early adulthood, these moments of discrimination within the masjid led to my detachment from my community and I distanced myself from those spaces. I was unable to reconcile these feelings as it was clear that the values of my local masjid community did not align with my own. 

Things changed in 2022 when I started working at GAMVP. I started visiting different masjids, community centers, and events. Through these experiences, I noticed the amazing diversity within communities of Muslims in Georgia, unlike the community I grew up in. All of a sudden, I was reinvigorated to learn more about Islam and delve back into the Muslim community. A major turning point in this journey happened when I begrudgingly attended an Eid picnic at my local masjid to register voters.  At this event, I ran into an old friend that I hadn’t seen in over five years and we got to chatting and instantly reconnected.  Reconnecting with him was a catalyst for my reintroduction into the community. I was encouraged to go back to my local masjid outside of work-related events. Whenever I was free on a Friday, I would drive all the way to Fayetteville to pray Jummah in the community.  The more I attended my local masjid, the more my community started to grow. My journey has led me back to Fayetteville, and I will be moving there full-time. This used to stress me out because I was afraid to be isolated and away from the community I’d built in Atlanta. However, I am confident that I am not alone because I was welcomed with open arms at my local masjid. It is my goal to become more involved at the masjid and create a space that is open and welcoming for all. 

An unintended consequence of my detachment from the masjid was also the detachment from my Bengali community. Over the years, I was losing my ability to speak Bangla and was overall very distanced from my cultural community. It is often forgotten how interconnected our religious and cultural identities are. However, luck struck me twice and I happened to meet another Bengali student at Georgia State University during one of my canvassing shifts. This triggered a series of events that led to my ultimate reconnection with my Bengali roots. After my initial meeting with the other Bengali students, we became acquainted and started playing badminton together the following fall. Through my new acquaintance and my coworkers at GAMVP, I am now abundantly blessed with a Bengali friend circle of my own. This has encouraged me to brush up on my Bangla skills and learn more about my culture overall.

I am immensely thankful to Georgia Muslim Voter Project for helping me connect with parts of myself that I may have lost otherwise. The experiences I have from working at GAMVP have opened my eyes to the amazing communities that exist in Georgia. I have made many new friends and connections through GAMVP who have taught me more about Islam and Bengali culture. I have finally found a place where I can grow, learn, and make new memories.