A Bangladesh-origin US National Security Council member Rumana Ahmed, who joined the White House team in 2011, quit his jobs protesting at Donald Trump’s immigration ban.
According to an opinion piece she wrote on theatlantic.com, she pulled her out of the National Security Council team eight days after the Donald Trump’s swear-in as the US president.
“When Trump issued a ban on travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries and all Syrian refugees, I knew I could no longer stay and work for an administration that saw me and people like me not as fellow citizens, but as a threat,” read the opinion piece.
She was hired to work at the White House in 2011, reads the writing piece. “I lasted eight days.”
Rumana Ahmed was born to Bangladesh-born parents, immigrated to the United States in 1978.
She said her mother worked as a cashier and later began her own day-care business while her father, who was killed in a car accident in 1995, worked at Bank of America and was eventually promoted to assistant vice president at the bank’s headquarters.
She also said she was a White House staff before her joining at the National Security Council.
She added, “My job there was to promote and protect the best of what my country stands for. I am a hijab-wearing Muslim woman–I was the only hijabi in the West Wing–and the Obama administration always made me feel welcome and included. Like most of my fellow American Muslims, I spent much of 2016 watching with consternation as Donald Trump vilified our community.
“I told him I had to leave because it was an insult walking into this country’s most historic building every day under an administration that is working against and vilifying everything I stand for as an American and as a Muslim.
“I told him that the administration was attacking the basic tenets of democracy. I told him that I hoped that they and those in Congress were prepared to take responsibility for all the consequences that would attend their decisions,” read the opinion piece.
Source: Prothom-Alo
Brave girl, admire your moral courage.
You make us proud. Best wishes,
K H Rabbani, Dhaka.
Your uprightness and fearless conduct is exemplary, a beacon for our daughters. May Allah swt shower His peace, mercy and blessing on you. You are in our dua.
On a 2nd thought, had Rumana not quit, she still cud have been the LONE voice at WH to fight for a cause. Walking out may not have been a good idea, after all.
Done is done. Hope Rumana keeps up her good work.