Sometimes it's just inexperienced ECRs reviewing, sometimes it's just dinosaurs.

Sometimes it's just people with weird hang-ups that care more about how you talk to them than the quality of your response to their concerns.

But I don't care about my neck, and I won't only speak out in solidarity when it's easy, or doesn't cost.

Christina Pagel ended with tips on "what sustains us" and 3 things were: social support, solidarity, and community.

I hope we can extend these to our Arab community and end the silence.

8/8

Betrayed that my Arab life is worth less than all of yours. Or so it seems.

Disappointed I have to write this, being an early career researcher, and an Arab, that has to risk my career and put my neck on the line instead of those less personally affected with permanent positions.

7/8

As an Arab, I'm not surprised. In a post 9/11 world I've been physically & verbally assaulted since I was younger than ABCD kids, spat on, profiled, interrogated at airports, travel banned, + more, without ever getting this community solidarity. But I still feel disappointed. And betrayed.

6/8

In the last two years I've felt incredibly isolated, lonely, and frankly, heartbroken.

The scientific community I knew to show solidarity during key political moments, whether it be for the LGBTQ community, BLM, Trump, or Ukraine, suddenly lost it's voice in the wake of genocide in Palestine.

5/8

After 4 months of sleeping in a cage under a table - an illusion my parents needed to feel I was safe from dropping bombs - my parents fled to Jordan where we stayed for 6 months as refugees. And when I was 10 months old, I became an immigrant in Norway.

What's it got to do with Palestine?

4/8

I was born in Iraq in 91' during the golf war only days after the worst bombing by Operation Desert Storm. This meant my mom had me in a dark building with no electricity or gas or running water, scared to death I wouldn't make it.

3/8

The diversity session chaired by @jenndsn.bsky.social with speaker Christina Pagel was so good, and one thing I was left with was that if you are in a high risk group (as a minority), one thing you can do is tell your story, so here's mine.

2/8