Voice of Witness

Voice of Witness is delighted to announce its collaboration with three local and national organizations for its forthcoming book telling the stories of Muslim, Arab, South Asian and Middle Eastern-Americans post-9/11.

The organizations- CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations of California, San Francisco’s Arab Cultural and Community Center, and MPAC, the Muslim Public Affairs Council- will assist Voice of Witness in advisory roles and with community outreach and fundraising for the forthcoming book. Edited by author Alia Malek (A Country Called Amreeka) with consulting support from journalist/playwright Wajahat Ali (The Domestic Crusaders), the project addresses the rise of hate crimes and discrimination against men and women from Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, South Asian and other communities in the US after 9/11.

Editor Alia Malek describes the importance of this project, saying:
“As we approach the 10 year anniversary of …

ALICE

Alice was a grassroots political organizer for the Movement for Democratic Change, the opposition party in Zimbabwe. Now in her 40s, she lives undercover in a neighboring country while she waits to find out if she will be granted asylum. Here, she relives moment-by-moment her experience in 2008 of abduction and rape, sexual violence as political retribution.

My neighbor said, “I heard they are coming to get you today.”

I said, “I’m tired of running. If they want to come and get me they can come.” Less than an hour later, they came. In winter it gets dark early. It was some time after 6 pm when three cars full up with people arrived at my house. This was the 7th of June, 2008.

When I heard the sound of cars, I looked through the curtain and saw that it was …

Our forthcoming book on women’s experiences in US prisons covers a lot of ground, but one issue that surfaces continuously are issues of healthcare within the prison system. A feature on NPR this morning aptly described the experiences of many women in prison. Their experiences are strikingly similar to one Voice of Witness narrator, who was 6 months pregnant at sentencing. She was sent to the hospital prior to going into labor and was then forced to have an unnecessary c-section.  Like the women featured in NPR’s piece, she was also shackled during labor and birth, a common practice in many states.

To read the article, click here.

To help make this book possible with a donation, click here.

Voice of Witness is raising funds for a forthcoming book telling the stories of men and women who have experienced human rights abuse and other injustices after 9/11. This book will illuminate the life stories of people who have experienced the violence, violation of rights and civil liberties, and discrimination that has become widespread in the last decade. We welcome the experiences of all people affected by this issue, including but by no means limited to Arabs and Muslims, South Asians, and Middle Easterners in America, whether citizens or not. The book will be edited by acclaimed author Alia Malek, with consulting support from journalist and playwright Wajahat Ali. We aim to collect oral histories of men and women across the US to create a vital historical record of the experiences of injustices experienced by innocent people in a post-9/11 …

We’re delighted to announce that Voice of Witness has been awarded a $25,000 grant from Amazon.com. With so many crucial projects in the pipeline, this support comes at a great time. We’re honored to be chosen by Amazon.com for their generous and enthusiastic support!

Click here to read more about the grant.

As many of you know, Voice of Witness is in the beginning stages of writing a book illuminating the experiences of incarcerated women in the US. The book will be edited by acclaimed author Ayelet Waldman and is a collaborative project with the organization Justice Now. Currently, we are in the initial stages of interviewing narrators for the book.

This week, volunteer interviewer Claire Kiefer travelled to Alabama to speak with several women prisoners and record their life stories. For Claire, who has worked as a teacher in San Quentin Prison as well as with at-risk youth with incarcerated parents, this was a powerful experience. She writes:
“Yesterday I got up at 5 am and drove to Montgomery, Alabama to meet with two women at the AIM (Aid for Inmate Mothers) center downtown. I prepared my (incredibly futuristic) audio recorder and sat …

The editors of our Burma book, Maggie Lemere and Zoe West recently wrote a piece for the blog Copyblogger.

Visit the site to learn their thoughts on the power of storytelling, human rights in Burma, and more. Click here to read the article.

If I explained how I became a political organizer, I would have to tell you my whole life story. Ever since 1988, I feel like the military regime took me, put me in a pot, and has been shaking me around.

– Kyaw Zwar, Narrator

Dear Voice of Witness Readers,

Political prisoner. Refugee. Child soldier. Trafficked woman. It’s hard to understand Burma’s human rights crisis when entire lives are reduced to labels and sound bites. Whether it was in a makeshift refugee camp hidden in the jungle outside Kuala Lumpur or a bustling Starbucks in Bangkok, the people from Burma who’ve told us their entire life stories remind us that Burma isn’t a country of human rights abuses - it’s a country …

Alia Malek, acclaimed author of A Country Called Amreeka, will be one of Joy Behar’s guests on tonight’s CNN Headline News at 9pm. Malek is also the editor of an upcoming Voice of Witness book on discrimination against Muslim Americans and Arab Americans. To read more about the project, click here.

Voice of Witness is reaching out to you for the help we need to complete our next book.

This month, we’re counting on you to help us raise the $2,500 we need to conduct crucial interviews from inside Burma. This is one of the final steps to completing our forthcoming book, Nowhere to Be Home: Narratives From Survivors of Burma’s Military Regime. Our narrators and editors are bringing these stories to light at great risk and they can’t do it without you.
We need your support …