Why I left Muslim Girl
Before you read this statement, head on over to @niqabaechronicles on Instagram to catch up on the three reels in her highlights titled “receipts” that showcase a number of Muslim women coming forward and sharing their experiences with Muslim Girl and specifically the CEO and Editor-in-Chief Amani Al-Khatahtbeh.
Although Al-Khatahtbeh claims issues were resolved years ago, this pattern of violent work culture has been a consistent part of Muslim Girl. Read Mehar’s experience as MG’s former Social Media Editor/Content Creator who held this position for 2 years before Aima. Her story mirrors Aima’s in multiple ways.
Statement by Aima Warraich
Salaam, my name is Aima Warraich. I started working for Muslim Girl as the Social Media Coordinator in August 2017 after over a year of frustration I resigned this April.
In my role as social media coordinator, my tasks included, but were not limited to, curating social media content, reposting content, creating social media templates, graphics, reaching out and scheduling takeovers as well as editing takeovers. The content I created for MG has gone viral multiple times and garnered love and positive reception from the community. MG’s instagram following increased from 50,000 to 160,000 followers while I was Social Media Coordinator. In addition to curating various kinds of social media content, I went beyond the scope of my role to attend events on behalf of MG and interview trailblarzers in Toronto’s Muslim community.
When I started at MG I thought that it would be a great place to do work that aligns with my own values and supports my community. I wholeheartedly believed doing this work for the sake of Allah and for my community would be rewarding. My optimism internalized the unethical and exploitative idea that I did not deserve to be fairly compensated for the work that I was doing. Other former MG staff members’ statements also illustrate the demanding nature of working at MG. We were consistently given little notice and tight deadlines, we were demeaned if they were not met. Yet I continued doing this work for months in hopes of getting a paid position.
In February 2019, I started getting phone calls from MG’s editor-in-chief, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, that were policing the content I shared on my personal page implying I could not share posts from other platforms nor collaborate with them. She questioned my loyalty, commitment and level of investment in MG if I was not at it’s beck and call. This was around the time that Ilhan Omar was being targeted by Republicans. MG wanted to make sure they were posting content about Omar and I was asked to create a graphic to express solidarity with Ilhan. You will also see from the screenshots below that I was reprimanded for crediting myself for the Ilhan Omar Facebook frame that I illustrated for CAIR but was subsequently was published by Muslim Girl. This frame was made within three hours and published the same day, it is difficult to believe that CAIR did not have money to pay for that labour. Another Ilhan Omar graphic I made later went viral, once again since I wasn’t credited properly. Subsequently I lost possible paid opportunities and collaborations. People were also using the whitewashed version of my graphic which is counterproductive as that erased Ilhan’s blackness. I spent that morning tagging and reaching out to every platform I knew about, so they would use the correct graphic and credit me. One of the organizations paid me $500 as a result of reaching out. Without doing this and no credit given I would have never received the money. The saddest part is the amount of abuse and lack of credit I had experienced at MG led me to believe as an artist I was not worth getting paid that amount. At MG all requests for payment were met with “exposure” as payment responses or none at all.
Soon after, Muslim Women’s Day (MWD) 2019 happened. Even though I had organized multiple social media takeovers, I was not allowed to schedule any takeovers for that day and I felt that my work was minimized. Instead, I was asked to send a list of Muslim artists to highlight on Instagram. I sent a well researched list of Muslim artists, any of whom could have done an incredible job at creating graphics for MWD. But Amani decided to give the MWD graphic opportunity to a non-Muslim woman. One day before MWD, I was suddenly asked to create. assets (graphics) because Amani did not like the graphics made by the non-Muslim artist they commissioned. All the assets, including those that did not make the cut, were put in a folder that MWD partners had access to. The partners credited the non-Muslim artist for my work.
The work created by writers at MG is what keeps MG readers coming back yet they still don’t get paid. How can you profit off free labour after three fundraisers and now a fourth LaunchGood campaign as well as investors. Where are the financial statements showing where the money has gone?
Amani has consistently gaslighted us and minimized the work we have done to build Muslim Girl, leaving us with countless grievances. Staff members who have contacted me have shared how their mental health has been affected by their time at MG. So many of us experience anxiety and panic attacks every time we receive a notification on our phones. My experience is one out of many from Muslim Girl, other staff members are also coming forward. We have collectively joined together to hold MG and Amani accountable and to not fear the repercussions of Amani’s social capital and influence. The writers and artists in the collective range from the founding of Muslim Girl to the present. It’s also saddening because Amani targets youth and university/college students with talent and potential. Instead of teaching them that they should be paid for all their work she sows seeds of doubt and manipulates us into thinking that exposure is enough. She has been doing this for nearly a decade and so many people have suffered. There is no stability in exposure and exposure is not compensation for work. Not everyone can afford to work for free consistently with false promises of pay.
Once I shared my experience publicly on Instagram and Twitter, asking Amani to provide us with answers, she sent me a cease and desist letter stating that, “you shall use reasonable and good faith efforts to ensure that you will not engage in making any “false, negative, critical or disparaging statements, implied or expressed.”
Such cease and desist letters have been sent out to people before me as well.
The below document has evidence that she was addressed privately and had years to rectify her behaviour and work environment. The previous group of writers did not come forward publicly with their experience in fear of damaging their. future careers and opportunities. This enabled the MG audience and the community to continue with their support of MG without being aware of the situation. Instead the Editor In Chief, Amani, continued this her toxic. behaviour which has now led to a public call out for accountability and transparency.
Dozens of people have reached out to me in the past few days. In fact, I was contacted by the Social Media Editor who trained me at MG. She has come forward with evidence which corroborates my experience. There were conversations and evidence that my role was meant to be a paid opportunity.The work I did was advertised in our newsletter which I had applied for as “ Social Media Associate, Freelance Monthly.” In the screenshots, the messages with the dark green background are between the Social Media Editor and Amani, the next few are between the Social Media Editor and I. The last message is between Amani and I.
#allahlovesaccountability
Unfortunately the issue being raised here is a wider community issue which hopefully can take priority if Muslim Girl is used as a precedent to stop exploiting. marginalized members of the community such as our talented youth for free labour. I deserve a living wage, I deserve to create and produce knowing that I am financially secured in all aspects of my life. By undermining the next generation you are continuing a cycle of poverty and violence. Mashallah the community is filled with potential but instead of collaboration and mentorship, we get fragmented partnerships and gatekeepers to exposure and experience. Having worked/volunteered in the Muslim community from middle school to university, I can say for a fact that Muslim girls like myself have been exploited. Everyone always asked “Aima how do you have so much energy to do so much and juggle it around with no compensation and under payment?” My energy and passion isn’t fuelled by trauma but making sure to not let one voice become the definitive voice of the Muslim community. I want to amplify our multidisciplinary artists and creators. Why are we competing with each other? It’s because we believe that there are a fixed amount of spots for minorities and no two Muslim folks can get to sit at the capitalist white colonial table. If your intention is for the sake of Allah SWT then isn’t our goal the same? Share your resources and network so the next generation can continue to empower the voices of our community. Stop exploiting our free labor and implementing our ideas without credit. Stop making us feel replaceable even though we’ve shown you our expertise and credibility time and time again. Self-reflect and realize how you perpetuate the same violence you purport to fight. Empowered women and men don’t exploit girls and boys. In Islam you pay the worker their wage before their sweat dries.
What you can do : tag your community and share this post. We will be releasing our list of demands and an article compiling our testimonies and outlining the institution’s problematic work environment and toxic behaviour.
Receipts
