Celebrating 10 Years of Life-Saving Work and Revealing the Vision for the Next Ten Years
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AHA FOUNDATION 2017 ANNUAL REPORT CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF LIFE-SAVING WORK AND REVEALING THE VISION FOR THE NEXT TEN YEARS Photo: mikemyersphoto.com Photo: AHA Foundation Annual Report | 2017 With an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and law degrees from Tulane University Law School and McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific, Zarubin practiced law for 10 years in California and Russia before transitioning to work with nonprofits and international development. George Zarubin, Executive As the former Executive Director of the Soros Director of the AHA Foundation Foundation Kazakhstan, Vice President of the Eurasia Foundation, and President of Eurasia INTRODUCING OUR NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Partnership Foundation, he worked as a change agent and implemented new programs to To realize Ayaan’s vision, in 2016 the Foundation promote liberal Western values, supporting embarked on a search for the right leader civil society organizations to engage in policy to grow the organization. After an extensive dialogues with national and local governments. search, George Zarubin was chosen to lead the Foundation as our new Executive Director. “One of my favorite quotes is ‘never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, Zarubin is an attorney and a seasoned, international, senior executive with 20 years committed citizens can change the world; of philanthropic and nonprofit experience in indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has,’ Washington, DC, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia. by Margaret Mead. I truly believe that the He has a proven track record of elevating AHA Foundation is making this quote a the organizational capacity of foundations reality and I am so thrilled to be a part of and nonprofits and by overseeing their our team.” transformation, sustainability, and ensuring -George Zarubin, Executive Director targeted and measurable impacts. Dear Friends, I want to start this message by thanking Ayaan for launching this organization and to express my gratitude to everyone who has worked for the AHA Foundation for the past 10 years. This foundation has a unique vision, a vibrant voice, and a heart for the girls and women it serves and protects. My first year with the Foundation focused on our expanding programs, aligning our goals with Ayaan’s ideas, and shoring up our resources to increase impact. As you can see from this report, we continue to engage legislators actively and effectively to outlaw female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage. We also provided consultations and support to protect over 50 girls from various forms of honor violence. In 2017, our team piloted our new campus program – the Critical Thinking Unit – to promote Ayaan’s and similar unheard women’s, ex-Muslims’, and Muslim reformers’ voices on U.S. university campuses. Several speakers alerted students to the horrors women and girls face here in the U.S. from honor violence, FGM, and forced marriages. Other speakers focused on the need to support free speech and use critical thinking to counter Islamic extremism. We also began an important dialogue between ex-Muslims and Muslim reformers to plan a new program. Simultaneously, we hired more staff - a Campus Program Coordinator and several interns – because we needed the support to continue our work and activate these new initiatives. This growth meant we had to fundraise to increase our financial resources. I’m proud to report that 2017 was the best year on record for the AHA Foundation. My sincere thanks go out to everyone who pledged their support in 2017. Please join me in actively supporting the AHA Foundation for the next 10 years: by pledging your fiscal resource, by providing your vocal support to end honor violence, child marriage and FGM, and by joining Ayaan’s courageous voice supporting Enlightenment values to counter extremism. George Zarubin, Executive Director 2 AHA Foundation Annual Report | 2017 Ten years ago, Ayaan Hirsi Ali founded the AHA Foundation to protect women and girls from honor violence that shames, hurts, and kills thousands of women and girls in the U.S. each year and puts millions more at risk. Her passion, courage, and leadership have led the AHA Foundation to become the preeminent organization working to end honor violence, while empowering survivors of these crimes to thrive. With momentum and great success in these areas, which the Foundation will continue, we have also expanded our mission to address the ideology used to justify many of the issues we deal with: Islamism (radical, political Islam), an extremism that threatens Western civilization. We are excited to not only While the focus on women will remain critical work directly with women and girls, but also to for the AHA Foundation, we are broadening our address the root causes used to justify many of mission from a focus on women alone, to the the horrific cultural practices that the women advancement of fundamental freedoms for all and girls who come to us for help deal with, people. while protecting even more girls along the way. Our mission now states that “the AHA Foundation Moving forward, the Foundation is now better believes in liberty for all.” That means liberty positioned to put Ayaan’s ideas into practice and from FGM, honor violence, and forced marriage. to achieve that, we rely on three strategic pillars: And it means liberty to challenge the ideology Align, Alert, and Activate. Fortunately, Ayaan of Islamism with rational, Enlightenment is not the only one who is speaking out about thought, and finding new strategies to fight the dangerous cultural practices and the need for battle of ideas. This expanded mission drives our combatting political Islam. We work to align new campus program and upcoming research with these other voices – activists, intellectuals, projects, as well as our work supporting Muslim and Islamic religious scholars – to amplify theirs reformers and ex-Muslims to combat political and Ayaan’s message to accomplish a similar Islam. vision. We continue to alert students and youth, legislators, law enforcement, professionals, the media, and opinion leaders about dangerous traditional practices and their root causes. We also work to activate those groups to take action as we continue to ourselves. AHA Foundation Annual Report | 2017 3 ALIGN The AHA Foundation seeks to align the work of Muslim reformers, ex-Muslims, Islamic religious scholars, and intellectuals so as to form a cascade of networks, all fighting Islamism. In 2017, we laid the groundwork for the launch of this initiative through several methods, with an eye towards significant growth in this programmatic area in 2018. Ayaan Hirsi Ali and activist Asra Nomani at the U.S. Sen- ate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental In the spring of 2017, the AHA Foundation Affairs hosted a luncheon with several stakeholders to begin developing this initiative by discussing The AHA Foundation was happy to the existing state of affairs, the key players support and attend founder Ayaan Hirsi involved, and the steps that will need to be Ali’s testimony before the Committee on taken. Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the United States Senate. At the hearing, The Foundation also launched its campus titled “Ideology and Terror: Understanding program, which gathered together Muslim the Tools, Tactics, and Techniques of Violent reformers, ex-Muslims, and intellectuals as part Extremism,” Ms. Hirsi Ali, along with political of its summer training program. The campus activist Asra Nomani, spoke to senators program was named the Critical Thinking about the need for a Muslim reformation Unit and its training brought many renowned and the brutal treatment of women under speakers and activists together. Islamist rule. Ayaan provided her invaluable insight on dawa explaining that it “is the Through the campus program, as well as call to Islam and consists of communication upcoming events, the AHA Foundation is or proselytization. In practice, dawa by excited to put our Founder’s work into action by Islamist groups constitutes a process of addressing Islamism. radical ideological indoctrination, often under the cover of humanitarian relief work that is connected to jihad.” Throughout the hearing, Ayaan enforced the need to focus on the ideology of radical, political Islam and offered thoughtful recommendations for future action the United States could take to counter dawa. Following their testimonies, Hirsi Ali and Nomani published an op-ed in The New York Times discussing their experiences at the hearing. Both women were not asked a single question from the Democratic senators, three of whom were women who have been outspoken about feminist issues. In the op-ed, Ms. Hirsi Ali and Ms. Nomani 4 spoke about the deeply troubling trend among progressives who choose to ignore the war on women that is waged by Islamists. 4 AHA Foundation Annual Report | 2017 ALERT MEDIA CAMPAIGNS Media appearances are an integral part of the Since the news broke in April of the case in Foundation’s strategy to alert the public to the Michigan, the AHA Foundation has been fact that hard-won civil and human rights are at called upon to provide context to the crime risk if action is not taken. Highlights of this work and shed light on the prevalence of FGM in in 2017 include AHA Foundation Founder Ayaan the United States. Senior Director Amanda Hirsi Ali testifying in front of a Senate committee, Parker participated in the televised Your Voice, as well as being featured on the Tucker Carlson Your Future Roundtable discussion on WGME Show. regarding FGM in the United States and the need for state legislation. The AHA Foundation has also kept close tabs on the groundbreaking first U.S. federal prosecution of FGM. Up to 100 girls may have been victims of FGM in this case, where Dr.