Page One

When people meet Nadine Naber for the first time, they often see her through the lens Hollywood has provided. 

They see an Arab woman, and assume Naber is docile, Muslim and pathologically oppressed as the victim of a brutal sheik. Any male Arab companion is surely a bomb-wielding terrorist. 

Naber doesn’t fit the profile. 

At the same time, dressed in stylish overall jeans and sitting in her sunny South Berkeley kitchen, the graduate student in anthropology looks like an all-American – or all-Berkeley – woman. But that’s not a good description either, Naber says. 

Born in San Francisco to parents from Jordan, Naber, 30, has made frequent visits to the country of her ancestors and feels her Jordanian roots profoundly. 

“People say, ‘But you were born here.’ But does that mean you have to lose everything?” she asks. 

When she travels to Jordan, Naber’s cultural identity is reinforced by her large extended family there. “When I go to Jordan, it’s just like being at home.” 

It’s different from living in the United States. “You always have support. You never have to be on the street alone. You have people who understand you, who understand your culture.” 

Naber’s identity as an Arab-American is intensified by the prejudices and stereotypes she faces in her daily life. U.S. foreign policy has provided fertile ground for the stereotyping of Arabs, she says. 

“Making the Arab world seem backwards justifies U.S. policies, especially in Palestine and Iraq,” she said. “There’s definitely a systematic media war.” 

Paradoxically, the distorted view of Arabs has unified people from the Middle East, causing them to identify themselves as Arabs, rather than Jordanians or Iraqis. 

By working through the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association and the Arab Cultural Center in San Francisco, Naber says she is attacking the stereotypes and building community at the same time. 

The work is “not just about parties and food,” she says. “It’s about knowing your history and literature. It’s about establishing ourselves as Arabs in the United States, integrating our literature into academic institutions here, becoming a visible part of the United States on our own terms, defining that for ourselves, studying the history of Arabs in the U.S.” 

Some of the work of the Arab American groups is local. The Arab Cultural Center recently got a grant to assess the specific needs of Arab Americans. 

Biculturalism, “people living between two cultures at the same time,” can bring richness to one’s life, but it can bring confusion as well. This is true especially for recent immigrants, Naber said. 

There are also intergenerational needs, “immigrant parents raising U.S.-born kids. There’s a lot of conflict on that level.” 

Working with the Arab community, and working against injustice in various parts of the world, led Naber to join the fight against U.S.-imposed sanctions in Iraq. These sanctions will have been in place for 10 years in August. 

“There is genocide happening. I think it is horrendous, a huge tragedy, knowing that hundreds of thousands of people have died and an entire society has been destroyed,” she said. 

The restrictions on Iraq’s sale of oil means it cannot purchase sufficient food for its people. It cannot replace pipes and sewers damaged in the 1991 Gulf War, which results in unsafe drinking water. Sanctions prohibit the country from importing chlorine, which would be used to purify water. 

The organizations are working politically to try to get the United States to end the sanctions. 

And they are working locally to build a groundswell to oppose the sanctions. Since January, they have been working to finance an advertising campaign. They want to purchase space on billboards, bus benches and at BART stations. Naber said the ad campaign needs to go beyond simply calling for the end to sanctions. 

“If people know that Iraqi people are dying, they don’t care. (To them) Iraqis aren’t human, anyway.” 

So the ads will strive to put a human face on the death and destruction. 

To raise funds, the AADC and ASWA are among the groups sponsoring a walkathon in Tilden Park on Sunday. The event was endorsed May 23 by a unanimous City Council – with Councilmember Polly Armstrong abstaining. 

It will begin at 9:30 a.m. at Mineral Springs, which is on Wildcat Canyon Road. When entering the park from the west, one goes east to the Botanic Garden, then north beyond the Equestrian Camp. People will be asked to pledge whatever amount of money per mile they wish and need not be preregistered to participate. A $5 donation for lunch after the walk is requested. 

The walkathon will be dedicated to the memory of Adil Al Hadithy, an Iraqi and Berkeley resident who was killed in an automobile accident earlier this year. Al Hadithy was among those in the local Arab American community, dedicated to removing the sanctions from Iraq, Naber said. 

“He was a member of the community who was politically astute and respected.” 

Naber sees the walkathon as part of a campaign, not only to raise funds, but also to politicize the Arab community. 

“The walkathon is part this larger campaign.” Naber said. “We want to especially work on empowering the Arab community. Since the Gulf War, a lot of people have a feeling of failure. We want to bring people back to life politically.” 

The march is open to the entire community. “It’s a walkathon for the children of Iraq,” Naber said. “It’s a walkathon for hope.”