MY Name is Zainab

“My Name is Zainab, and I Am Not a Terrorist”

Text type: Audio / Ted Talk

Author: Zainab Mabizari

Year of the creation: 2016

Where I found it:  I found the video on YouTube when I was looking for a slam poetry example for my students.

Brief Summary: The speaker starts the poem Introducing herself as a girl, correcting it and introducing herself as a Muslim and for one last time she says “Hi, nice to meet you, I’m uh… terrorist”. As a Muslim woman who wears a Hijab, Zainab apologizes for acts of terrorism that have been blamed on Muslims. She takes a turn and sheds light by taking a positive approach and naming things that Muslims have contributed to the world. She addresses stereotypes and forms of oppression she has faced and ends by saying her name is Zainab, and she’s not a terrorist.

My Response: Zainab’s words along with her presence and inflection really allow you to hear the pain as she describes how Muslims are painted with the same brush and unfairness. I really enjoyed how she mentions being an American and yet still being considered a foreigner in a place called home. She uses her experience as a powerful tool to bring awareness.

Pedagogical Response: I used this video/audio in my classroom as part of ” Exploring Identity Through Poetry Unit”. During our unit, I used features from this audio as a model for some of their own identity poems. We talked about how the Ted Talk related to the speakers’ identity and mapped out what things she said that told us more about her, what words did she use to bring the poem alive, and inflections she made in her voice to make it more powerful. The students had their own poetry slams as the final assessment to the unit where they had to present their poem. This audio helped to guide students in terms of picking out what they think is important to them, critically thinking about what aspects of themselves they want to share, and what word choice we can use in writing to really convey our message.