DISCLAIMER: This story mentions Myenn Rahnoma, who is a former staff member of the Spartan Daily
Around a dozen students met at the San José State Community Garden for the SWANA Open Forum, where members from the group shared their personal and cultural experiences alongside pastries and hot garden-grown mint tea on Wednesday morning.
The SWANA Initiative at SJSU is a group of students seeking to open a center to act as a sanctuary for students with cultural backgrounds in Southwest Asia and North Africa, according to an Aug. 28 SWANA Instagram post.
SWANA is a depoliticized term for the “Middle East” that does not have roots in colonialism and eurocentrism, according to another Instagram post from the organization published on Sept. 2.
SWANA stands for Southwest Asian and North African, and is a much broader term that includes more countries, according to a 2021 Associated Students SWANA Resolution.
Ariana Shah, Associated Students director of intercultural affairs, led the discussion and asked the group questions about being part of SJSU’s campus community, and what they’d like to see from the administration.
Vice president and cofounder of the SWANA Initiative Tara Al-Rehani said while she doesn’t feel excluded, she doesn’t really feel represented at SJSU because the SWANA community does not have a dedicated center for them to gather.
Al-Rehani said while applying for college, it was frustrating to mark herself as white when her ethnic background is in the SWANA demographic.
“When I was applying, there was no Southwest Asian and North African, or even Middle Eastern (option),” Al-Rehani said. “My entire life has always been like, white, and then in parenthesis, Middle Eastern.”
Fatema Balkhi, forensic science sophomore and member of the Afghan Student Association at SJSU, said while she and other SWANA students don’t always feel outwardly excluded at the university, there is no dedicated space created for their demographic.
She said it would be nice for there to be a center for SWANA students instead of having to go through the struggle of connecting with members of her community on her own.
“People in SWANA, we don't have a center or a kind of space where we can start out from,” Balkhi said. “It’s usually people meeting each other through class or a friend of a friend ... if SWANA (had a center) there, then at least there’s a space where everyone can go and start making friends.”
She also shared her personal experience of being a target of Islamophobia.
Balkhi said a group of students told her to “Go back to your country you bitch, you’re a fucking terrorist.”
She said the remark came from individuals in the line formed outside of the Student Union when the President of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, spoke on campus last month.
Turning Point USA is a conservative group founded by Kirk in 2012, according to a Politifact webpage.
Balkhi said she reported this incident to the administration and allegedly was told she’d get a report back, but she still has not received it.
She said she found it offensive that she has to be the person to keep reaching out even though she doesn’t feel safe on campus anymore.
“I do not feel safe going into the classroom,” Balkhi said. “I do my job, I do my part and then I still have to reach out.”
She also said she felt there has been an increase in Islamophobia on campus this semester.
Balkhi said she witnessed an Islamophobic attack last week and reported it to the administration, but has heard nothing back since then.
Balkhi said she and former Afghan Student Association president and now SJSU alumna, Myenn Rahnoma, sat down with President Cynthia Teniente-Matson to discuss including a space for SWANA in the university master plan.
She said President Teniente-Matson allegedly told them that “We cannot have a center for every single minority.”
“That kind of put us off guard,” Balkhi said.
She said she’s seen with her own eyes students try to communicate with the administration and the administration says an answer and that's it, and when they try to fight it then there’s an issue.
She said she is witnessing students trying to communicate with the administration,
Wahhab Salemi, political science sophomore and the president and cofounder of the SWANA Initiative, said there’s a lot more that could be done for SWANA students.
“You have so many places that already have fully functioning, institutional representation that's continuous,” Salemi said. “Whereas over here, I think we've kind of been left behind and so it’s kind of sad because I feel like there's such a large population here too that identifies as SWANA.”
