Peshawar, Pakistan newspaper article scan
State Department Eid ul Fitr reception Sept. 13, 2012, Pictures & Summary (& DC visit):
Peshawar, Pakistan newspaper article scan
My cousins, Mansoor and Asad, who live in Peshawar, Pakistan, told me that stories about me have appeared for the past 5 months. Mansoor scanned one of them for me. It is from an Urdu print newspaper called Mashriq (meaning – where the sun rises, or the east) published in Peshawar, Pakistan. It is translated and based on the original English article that I was interviewed for by the The Friday Times article
It is pretty awesome to see this, and I am happy to hear all of it is positive and very supportive.
I have the image scan of the article posted here:
http://www.liftingcovered.com/peshawar-pakistan-summer-2012/
Los Angeles, California November 10, 2012 Saturday – PAKISTANI AMERICAN YOUTH CONFERENCE: Future Leaders Coming Together
I have been invited to be the keynote speaker for the 1st Pakistani American Youth/Young Professionals Conference. I was asked by Rumaisa Rahman, CEO & Founder at RU ENTERTAINMENT . I met her at the State Eid ul Fitr reception last year (2011) when I was one of the speakers. She produced a story about the Muslim Athletes at the reception. Here is a link to a summary and the video from last year. I am honored to have been asked and am really looking forward to attending and visiting LA!
This blog post has more information and this is the Facebook event page.
State Department Eid ul Fitr reception Sept. 13, 2012, Pictures & Summary (& DC visit):
Since I was not speaking as I did last year, I got a chance to mingle and meet more people. I went straight from the airport to the State Department building. I first attended a pre-briefing:
How has the Department of State’s vision for engaging global Muslim communities been carried out at the grassroots level? Join us as Special Representative to Muslim Communities Farah Pandith moderates a discussion about Muslim engagement at the State Department under Secretary Clinton and its impact on communities around the world. We will hear from a panel of distinguished guests who have been inspired by Secretary’s vision to reach out to Muslim communities around the world to bring Muslim voices to the table, build bridges between communities, promote cooperation between young Muslim leaders overseas and their American counterparts, and bring about change in their communities. These inspired and inspiring individuals will discuss their involvement with State Department programs and the impact they have had on communities around the world, as well as recommendations for improving future initiatives.
Panel participants were: Ms. Toni Verstandig, Mr Mohamed Ali, Ms Humera Khan, Wajahat Ali, Ms Attia Nasar, Mr Marc Askenasi, Mr. Andrew Rabens, Imam Jihad Turk. I learned a lot and realized there is a lot of work being done and much more to do (in and outside of the State department). One website to look at is: http://exchanges.state.gov/
Then I changed and headed over to the reception. I, of course, took many pictures, but still had a chance to see, meet and talk to people, some who I have not met or seen before as well. Just to name a few: Tayyibah Taylor, fellow Atlanta resident and Publisher & Editor-in-Chief of Azizah Magazine, Shahed Amanullah and Farzana Nabi-Amanullah, Linda Sarsour, Randa Kuziez, Manal Omar, Ilana Alazzeh, Jihad Saleh from Islamic Relief USA, Bilal and Suehalia from the Amen family in the TLC show, All American Muslim, Alex Kronemer – Executive Producer and CEO Unity Productions Foundation, Nouman Ali Khan from Bayyinah, and Attia Nasar, State Department rep who recently came back from Afghanistan and Pakistan and many more.
You can see all of my pictures in my album linked below:
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| State Dept. Pre-brief & Eid ul Fitr Reception |
Video and full transcript of the speeches at the reception are here.
and on YouTube:
It was at sad as it had been only two days after the attacks on the US embassy in Libya. Libyan Ambassador Ali Aujali talked about US Ambasador Chris Stevens, and the hopes they had going forward.
We heard speeches from some of the panelists and the Generation Change members. My pictures show the rest of my experience.
I stayed with my sister, and I did get a chance to meet Sarah again, and Salma and Fauzia, my other childhood friends. In addition to eating at Elevation Burger, I also got to eat at Kabob Palace before going to the airport to go back to Atlanta. Our main outing was going to the National Zoo.
Here is a link to the entire Rest of the DC trip album:
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| Rest of the DC trip |
From the times I have visited the DC/MD/VA area, I always enjoy the experience, the people I meet and the community.
Training and competing
I am still training 5 days. I might go to a local competition in Georgia in January 2012. (I am definitely not going to the American Open as a family member of mine is getting married). I have been slack about making videos of my training, but I hope to start doing that again soon. I also hope some of those are going to be PRs in the competition lifts but I have been making PRs in the training and auxiliary lifts. In a future blog post, I will include video clips and summary of what I do in training now as I am working on strength and fine tuning technique since there is no immediate competition I need to go to.
Houston trip + pictures
The Muslim Professional Association (MPA) in Houston, Texas invited me to speak at an event September 20, 2012. I visited my aunt, uncle and cousins who live in Sugarland, TX for one day. It is a suburb of Houston (like the Pet Shop Boys song – OK not really, but I wanted an excuse to reference their song Surburbia). Telfair is the name of thier neighborhood and I got some taste of that Telfair life through the eyes of teenagers. That included seeing some of the suburb, along with a trip to one of the MANY desi (South Asian) grocery stores. It ended with a BBQ and a Falooda trip.
Here is a link to some of the pictures on my trip:
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| Houston MPA & Sugarland (Suburbia!) Sept 2012 |