Muslim Women's Coalition is a long-serving, reputable Milwaukee non-profit working to empower Muslim women and girls through education, leadership, outreach, and wellness programs, helping them reach their fullest potential while creating a positive impact on the broader community. For 30 years, MWC has fought for equity and against bigotry, building goodwill, understanding, and collaboration throughout Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and beyond.

Denied funding for speaking out for freedom and against mass murder

And so, it came as a huge shock when on April 9th, one of their funders, Archewell Foundation, Prince Harry's and Meghan Markle's charity, whose motto is “show up, do good” wrote to inform them that they were cutting ties due to an online piece Janan Najeeb had written over a year ago and would no longer be funding their services. You can read Janan's 2024 Op-Ed here. 

Prince Harry's Archewell Foundation's letter:

False Accusations and Gaslighting

Media reports suggested Archewell Foundation took issue with Janan's call for freedom for Palestinians from the river to the sea, and criticism of Israel as an apartheid state, branding these statements “antisemitic.”

MWC spoke out against genocide/apartheid and for freedom. The misguided and defamatory claim that doing so constitutes “antisemitism" is blatant gaslighting. MWC has nothing to apologize for.

A foundation that stipulates that grant recipients must sit idly by as a genocide that directly affects the women they serve is broadcast live on their television screens has everything to apologize for. An organization that believes that calling for the freedom of a people from oppression is “bigoted” has lots of explanations and apologies to make.

Muslim Women's Coalition's powerful official response can be read here 

MWC stood up for the human rights of all people, including Palestinians, and against the dehumanization of all people, including Palestinians. They lost their funding. Will you stand with them?

I am asking you to help me raise the $27,800 they lost in funding to send a message to MWC that they will NOT stand alone, and to send a message to Archewell Foundation and others attempting to silence our calls for freedom and to normalize apartheid and genocide, that their defunding will not stifle our ability to serve just as it will not chill our voices or determine our values.

The above photo of Muslim women in Hijab is the first photo on the front page of the Archewell Foundation as of the time of this writing. Perhaps an attempt to save face. Ironically, these are the same category of people they are denying funding to as punishment for daring to demand freedom for women like them from genocide and apartheid, a demand Archewell Foundation deemed “hateful and bigoted.”