First Ever National Arab American Voter Day: 'Get Out And Vote'

ORLAND PARK, IL — The Arab American Family Services (AAFS) in suburban Chicago have helped establish the first ever National Arab American Voter Day.

From here on out, Oct. 8 will be recognized as National Arab American Voter Day by people across the country. This decision was made by organizations involved with the National Network of Arab American Communities, including AAFS, the Arab American Institute and more. There are a total of 26 organizations from 11 different states in the National Network of Arab American Communities.

The step to declare the annual event comes as the organizations said more Arabs need to get involved in the voting process. As a way to celebrate the first ever event, AAFS volunteers are phone banking by calling residents of towns across suburban Chicago, asking them to vote in the upcoming election.

"We're dedicating our time and effort to really mobilize the Arab American community... today we are making calls across the southwest suburbs, in communities with predominantly high Arab populations, reminding them to go out and vote," co-founder and director of AAFS Nareman Taha said. "Our goal is to mobilize the community, to make them understand and empower them to believe that they have the power to make a difference. Ultimately, that's what we want, to take action and tell our community that we have power, can change policies, make policies and make our local communities much better."

Towns the organization is reaching out to range from Oak Lawn and Bridgeview to Orland Park and more. AAFS said their goal for the day is to make 25,000 total phone calls, encouraging people to vote. AAFS credits National Black Voter Day as part of the reason to push for the decision of national recognition.

"We said why not create something similar for Arab Americans to lift our voices and mobilize the community?," Taha said. "We're part of the national network for Arab American communities that provides social services, arts and cultural events... so we said 'if there's Black voter day, then why not have Arab voter day?' And it was on National Black Voter Day that we had brought the idea to our national committee."

Taha said AAFS wants to change the so-called "stigma" surrounding voting in the Arab American community.

"We also want to change a mindset in the community and show them that voting is critical every year, because not only do we have national elections, but we have local elections as well," Taha said. "The Arab American community is hardworking... but I think a lot of times we don't put ourselves on the front line, and we're not loud about the work that we do. We've been around for 20 years and since the beginning our vision has been to educate our community and empower them by helping to navigate the system, find resources and lead people to a healthy and stable life-style."

Sief Salameh, Case Manager at AAFS, said the organization has been leading a program encouraging people to get out and vote for 10 years.

"Essentially what this is, is educating the community about the voting process and giving them the tools to implement and follow through with a mental goal," Salameh said. "We created a campaign called 'Claiming Our Voices' to build a culturally inclusive community that's justice oriented and focuses on social issues that impact not only Arabs, but minorities as a whole."

Office Manager, Raghed Naser said she thinks voting is exciting and wants to see more people engaging in it. Naser is also an election judge and will be helping people at polling places on Election Day.

"I love voting and I think it's powerful, especially for our community," Naser said. "I want to be there to show the people that voting is not wrong. Voting is for us. We should take care of it and be involved... get out and vote."

For more information regarding the Arab American Family Services or National Arab American Voter Day, head over to AAFS's website. AAFS does not endorse candidates.