The Arab Students Association (ASA) aims to immerse themselves in their culture while on campus and to introduce people to their cultures and arts. The executive team said a big aspect of their culture is community, and that’s what they are trying to achieve with this group to create a community with similar values.
Fatemah Almahmeed, social media chair of the ASA and a senior in architecture, said there were many key events last semester.
“There was the Arab Night, which was the big event of the semester,” Almahmeed said. “There were also smaller meetings, some were to celebrate holidays and Ramadan, which is a holy month that’s widely celebrated in the Middle East.”
Amani Taleb, president of ASA and a graduate student in architecture, added that the Arab Night was a huge success, it had so many people and creative events.
“We had a Henna area where people just come, and everyone wanted to try Henna on their hands,” Taleb said. “People from different cultures were very happy just to have this piece of culture because it is part of many cultures, but it’s also part of the Arab culture, and people were excited to embrace that.”
“I think a big part of our Arab culture is our openness and hospitality, and it is something that we take pride in,” Ahmad Nazar, treasurer of ASA and a graduate student in computer engineering, said. “One way that we foster the connections between almost everyone within our community, not only the Arab community, is having that openness and open communication with everyone else.”
During the Arab Night last semester, over 400 people showed up with the count coming from just one side of the event, not both.
“It shows that there’s a huge diverse community that’s interested in our community and vice versa,” Nazar said. “We’re very much interested in connecting with everyone else as well. And another thing is that our meetings are open to everyone. At almost every meeting, we had people from all over the place, even from as close as Ames, Iowa, to even Pakistan and India. So it’s not just limited to Arabs themselves.”
The ASA will have their first meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday in Bessey Hall, room 2226. The student organization also has a lot of other events in progress for the academic year.
Taleb said they are mostly focused on creating this environment for people to feel open and to feel welcomed in the space.
“Our meetings are very laid back, casual and social,” Taleb said. “It’s not formal, and we do a lot of fun stuff, so we’re just doing that to show what we can do as Arabs and who we are, which is very open people, very warm and open to making new connections.”
Nazar said the best way the student organization indirectly attacks stereotypes is just by doing what they have been doing in the past.
“We have our open events and spaces for everyone to interact with us, to see ‘Okay, maybe these guys aren’t like what we have in mind,”’ Nazar said. “’Oh, these guys are actually cooler than we expected.’”
In October, the ASA is having Henna Night in collaboration with the Muslim Student Association.
“We’re currently in an outreach phase where we’re in communication with two particular entities,” Nazar said, “One of them that I’m in communication with to organize some events is the Iowa State University Police Department as well as the Department of Public Safety. The other entity is the Redshirt Foundation, a mental health organization.”
The executive team encourages everyone to join, not necessarily people who are Arab or of Arab descent, but people who are interested in the culture and the language.
“The meetings are overall just really good vibes,” Almahmeed said. “We’ve had game nights before, and it’s really fun to even just sit and talk with people because the Arab nations themselves are 22 countries and are diverse on their own. So there’s an exchange of culture within Arabs and between Arabs and other nations, as well as American students who join the meetings.”
Taleb said they have a full calendar this year, so they are really excited to meet new people and the students from last semester and welcome everyone to join the club.
“A big message we would like to share is to just go for it and try new things,” Taleb said. “A lot of the people that showed up last semester were taking Arabic classes, so they were interested in Arab culture. We’ve seen people that were intimidated to come, but when they are there, it’s just a welcoming environment. Everyone is willing to communicate in Arabic or English and have an inclusive environment.”