
Linda Sarsour (1980-) was a Palestinian-American democratic socialist political activist best known for her involvement in the feminist, Black Lives Matter, and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movements.
Biography[]
Linda Sarsour was born in Brooklyn, New York City to a family of Palestinian immigrants. Sarsour became a Muslim civil rights activist after the 9/11 attacks, and she became executive director of the Arab American Association of New York on the death of her mentor Basemah Atweh in a 2005 car crash. Sarsour protested the police surveillance of American Muslims, claimed that the hijab was a spiritual act and not a symbol of oppression (leading to feminist activist Masih Alinejad pointing out her failure to condemn compulsory hijab wearing in the Middle East), became a regular attendee of Black Lives Matter protests, frequently appeared as a feminist television commentator, joined the Democratic Socialists of America, supported Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential bid, co-organized the 2017 and 2019 Women's Marches and the 2017 Day Without a Woman, called for a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (while also stating her support for Israel's right to exist), fully supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and other anti-Zionist causes, claimed that those who did not criticize Israel could not be part of the feminist movement (claiming that they therefore ignored the rights of Palestinian women), and said that secularist activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali didn't "deserve to be (a) wom(a)n."