Mafaz Al-Suwaidan

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Mafaz Al-Suwaidan is a Kuwaiti-American academic and current doctoral candidate at Harvard University. She is also a producer and writer for American Muslims (2024),^[1] a PBS film series about Muslims in America.^[2]

Al-Suwaidan was born in Oklahoma, the Sooner state, to Islamic author and speaker, Tareq Al-Suwaidan,^{[3] [unreliable source?]} a leader of Kuwait's Muslim Brotherhood.^[4][5] Born in the US, she has also lived in Kuwait and Canada.^[6]

In 2010, Mafaz married Kuwaiti singer/songwriter Humood AlKhudher.^{[7][unreliable source?]}

Al-Suwaidan received her undergraduate degree in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) in 2011.^[8] She then worked briefly as a journalist in Kuwait.^[9][10][11] In 2016, she received her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree from Emerson College, in Boston, Massachusetts.^[12][6]

She earned a Master of Theological Study (MTS) degree from Harvard Divinity School in 2018.^[13] She is currently a PhD candidate at Harvard University in Philosophy of Religion, focused on Islam and Modern Thought, with a secondary degree in African and African American Studies. She is also a member of the university's Committee on the Study of Religion.^[14]

Al-Suwaidan is and has long been a supporter of social justice, human rights, and specifically, Palestinian liberation, in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.^[15]

She has participated in conversations and writings about racism in the Arab world in context of the Black Lives Matter movement.^[16][17] She started the #ArabsForBlackLives campaign with Egyptian-American community organizer, Rana Abdel Hamid, about how Arabs can work to fight against anti-Black racism.^[18][19]

In 2021, when philosopher Cornel West had threatened to (and eventually did) leave Harvard after his request for tenure was denied; Al-Suwaidan, who had trained with West as a master's student, organized a letter of support for him, which was signed by more than 60 other doctoral candidates.^[20]

She was one of the representatives of HGSU-UAW who wrote a letter in February 2024 to Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers (UAW), on behalf of the UAW Arab Caucus, demanding the union divest from Israel.^[21]

In March 2024, she withdrew her participation from a Lowell House panel on antisemitism and Islamophobia, following a lack of institutional support for the event.^[22]