Zainab Mohseni to contest US Congress elections

KABUL (Pajhwok): An Afghan-American, Zainab Mohseni, is running for the US Congress from Virginia and she has started her election campaign targeting Afghan community to vote for her.

About Mohseni

Zainab Mohseni, a first-generation Afghan-American, is from Aloha, Oregon. In 2003, when she was about 14, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees placed Zainab and her family in Oregon.

She and her family moved to Northern Virginia area nearly 14 years ago. After finishing high school, she attended the Northern Virginia Community College while working full time in multiple jobs.

She later shifted to the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Communication. While pursuing her undergraduate education, Zainab held several retail, food services and clerical positions. In 2015, she became the first person in her family to graduate.

Like many college graduates, Zainab entered the workforce weighed down by debt and survived by accepting jobs in the gig economy. Without privileged connections necessary to secure a permanent position, she worked as a temp in unfavorable office conditions.

Despite labouring at these temp jobs, Zainab consistently found time to give back to her local community by volunteering at immigrant organisations. Her desire to be more involved in social activism led her to complete two terms as an AmeriCorps member at a college equity non-profit organisation.

In her role, Zainab supported individuals, with similar experiences as her own, navigate the economic and social realities of being a low-income student. Additionally, she led trainings on racial justice, women’s rights and LGBTQ+ issues.

Fighting for change through canvassing, phone-banking, protesting and supporting progressive candidates and policies, she also teaches citizenship classes, volunteers at community clinics, and consistently finds ways to support those within her community.

Zainab knows first-hand what it is like to face poverty, live paycheck to paycheck, effects of discrimination because of name, class, religion, sex, or skin color. Therefore, she continues to fight for basic rights.

She wants to re-center politics around working people so that the government works for the majority, those struggling to make ends meet, not for corporate interests of the rich and powerful.

nh/mud