By: Bethany Vonseggern
In a world where society tends to focus on differences instead of familiarity, negativity instead of positivity
and hate instead of love there is a solid voice of hope – Amal Kassir.
Kassir, a story-telling activist and international poet from Denver, Colorado, travels the world speaking to
groups about her experiences as a Syrian-American Muslim woman in modern society.
As a daughter of a German-American mother and a Syrian father Kassir speaks often of her dual identity
that has built her into a human being with profound understanding of what it means to have two different sides of a bloodline. It is with her dual identity that she is forced to see how both sides are affected and how humanity makes the truth more important than politics.
“When you get these words like ‘war’ and ‘politics’ and’ religion,’ and you build these words up high like they are walls – like they are walls you should not cross,” Kassir said. “We tend to forget that there are people behind those walls.”
Kassir’s story-telling focuses on the strength of humanity through struggle and how we must understand
the person and not just hear the message despite how it may make us feel.
“It’s not possible to un-feel a feeling, it’s not possible,” Kassir said. “I think the greatest impact that my work has is it’s the ultimate reminder of the human behind the controversy.”
Like most, Kassir gets discouraged, but she said she focuses on staying sincere as she tells the stories of her
life.
“If you’re trying to please the people instead of delivering the message with integrity, you are going to
lose sense of what is important.”
Despite being discouraged at times and facing discrimination because she is a Muslim woman in America, Kassir stays positive and hopeful not only for herself, but others.
“There’s a new generation of young Muslims coming up and I want my little sisters to have the courage to wear their scarves and be proud of who they are,” Kassir said.
Exploration and understanding is important to Kassir. She believes despite negativity we should never settle and always keep learning. Kassir strongly emphasized that it’s all right to be offended sometimes, because we all feel attacked; look beyond the hashtags and headlines and focus on person behind the story.
“I think when you hear the real stories, when you let yourself hear the real stories, you’ll come to learn that
your heart has the capacity to expand itself,” Kassir said.
When Kassir visited Western in the Fall she shared a message of understanding and hope. She shared
tragic stories of her family being killed in Syria and the discrimination she faces in day-to-day life. According to Kassir, her stories are not meant for one to get lost in the depth of the darkness below but to explore and feel pressure before heading back up to see the stars of hope.
“It would be foolish to say that I think absolute peace is something that can be accomplished,” Kassir said. “That would be very optimistic of me and I believe hope is far more important than optimism in a lot of cases.”
While Kassir influences hundreds, maybe even thousands around the world, who and what is it that
influences her? According to Kassir, the character of the Prophet Mohammed – peace be upon him, her father and his strength in the time of tragedy and the struggles of the survivor who have managed to make it out alive.
Some of Kassir’s most memorable moments have been when people come up to her after her speech to tell her how her words have changed their life. One particular instance Kassir described was when a “middle-aged, white, veteran man” came up to her, a “little Muslim girl,” who has just finished reading poetry about ISIS and told her he would vote for her in the next presidential election.
“I’m just a person and it shows how impactful our words are,” Kassir said. “I think my words have an impact because words have had an impact on me; stories have meaning and I think storytelling is a type of activism because it really does change people.”