U.S. Rep. Omar warns U.S. heading towards authoritarianism with Trump
By Tom Gitaa Mshale Editor-in-Chief
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar hosted her fifth annual iftar dinner on Saturday, March at the Brian Coyle Community Center. Iftar is the meal that ends the daily sunrise-to-sunset fast for Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan.
Over 200 guests gathered for the iftar, organized by the Omar campaign staff, with the food line extending from one end of the gym to the other, prompting Rep. Omar to join in serving the food. Mayors Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, April Graves of Brooklyn Center and Terry Wiggin of Hilltop, were among those in attendance. They were joined by the area’s councilman, Jamal Osman, and his colleagues –councilwomen Robin Wonsley of Ward 2 and Aurin Chowdhury of Ward 12. Also in attendance was state Rep. Mohamed Noor who represents the area.
Farah Habad, a longtime Omar campaign volunteer and, by day, a senior communications specialist at Hennepin County, served as emcee for the celebration
This year’s iftar took place eight weeks after Trump’s return to the White House, a period that has wreaked havoc with mass federal layoffs, immigration crackdowns and controversial policies that are upending the country.
“These are truly incredible challenging times and not just for the Muslim community, or our state but those in Gaza, Sudan, Afghanistan and even Haiti”
said Omar in brief remarks to guests. “Whether it is violence or human created suffering, I just know our capacity to advocate for them is being diminished in this country as we move towards authoritarianism with a tyrant in the White House that is punishing free speech.”
During last year’s presidential campaign Rep. Omar was one of the Democrats warning of the dire consequences of a second Trump term, telling Mshale it would be more devastating to immigrants and refugees.
The Pew Research Center estimates that there were about 3.45 million Muslims living in the U.S. as of 2017, making up about 1.1% of the U.S. population. The Pew study also projected the population of Muslims to more than double by 2050.
Estimating the population of Muslims in the United States is not easy, according to the Pew Research Center, as the U.S. Census Bureau does not ask questions about religion.
World Population Review estimates the number of Muslims in Minnesota to be 2% of the state’s population or 116,000. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the largest group of Muslims in the Twin Cities metro area is made up of immigrants from Somalia and that “many estimates use the number of Somalis in the area
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar serves food at the annual Ramadan Iftar her campaign office hosted on Saturday, March 15, 2025 in Minneapolis. Mshale Staff Photo by Richard Ooga
Omar Cont’d on Pg. 5
Guest Commentary by Ilhan Omar and AJ Grant
Medicaid cuts would affect everyone
More than 1.3 million Minnesotans rely on Medicaid for their health insurance — children, families, people with disabilities and seniors. Yet, Republicans in the U.S. House voted to strip Medicaid coverage for the most vulnerable. The proposed budget plan passed by House Republicans included a staggering $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid while handing out $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for billionaires and giant corporations. As a member of Congress and as a Medicaid recipient, respectively, we want to underscore the real-world consequences of these cuts and how they will harm people across Minnesota.
For me, AJ, being able to rely on Medicaid for my health care coverage means I can completely focus on being a full-time pharmacy student and pursuing my career goals. Without Medicaid I would fall into the health care coverage gap, where my only alternatives would be a plan I couldn’t afford or going uninsured. As the daughter of a cancer survivor, I also know firsthand how important it is to have health insurance, even when you are seemingly healthy. You never know what could happen. And my story isn’t unique.
The list of people who will be impacted by cuts to Medicaid in our state includes 92,000 seniors, 592,000 children and 117,000 people with disabilities. These are not just statistics — they’re our neighbors, family members and loved ones who could lose access to the health care they depend on. This means that people will have to make the impossible decision between paying for health insurance, rent or groceries. All while the Trump administration has been taking actions, like a trade war with Canada, that will increase the costs for Minnesotans. This means people will not be able to get preventive care, or access cancer screenings and affordable treatment when they need it. And this means children will forgo lifesaving care because their families were taken off their insurance. Medicaid, also known as Medical Assistance, is a part of the fabric of our communities — so many rely on it for health care and services that directly improve their lives.
One in four Minnesotans rely on Medical Assistance for health coverage. That includes 31% of all children, 34% of mothers giving birth and more than 50% of seniors in nursing homes. Minnesota has been the North Star State in providing care for those who need it most. In 2011, our state began expanding its Medicaid program and completed the expansion in 2014. This was a game-changer. It allowed families to make ends meet, it provided young people with a pathway to stability, and it became a lifeline for those in crisis. Now all of this progress is at stake because of the reckless actions of President Donald Trump and House Republicans.
Not only will these cuts be devastating for Medicaid recipients, but they will have far-reaching impacts for all of us. When hospitals lose funding, costs go up for everyone — so even if you are not on Medicaid, this will hurt you. Hospital and insurance rates will soar. And it gets worse. States will be forced to either raise
taxes or cut Medicaid services even further — which means lower payments to doctors and hospitals, longer wait times, and even more people left uninsured. The implications of this will be felt widely for years.
Make no mistake, stripping coverage will be a death sentence. Every single Republican owes their constituents an explanation for their blatant malpractice. Representatives are supposed to improve the lives of their community — not put their lives in the balance. In the Minnesota delegation, all of the GOP representatives — Tom Emmer, Brad Finstad, Michelle Fischbach and Pete Stauber — voted to strip health insurance from their constituents. They are hoping that this news cycle will move on, but we won’t let it. We will continue to put public pressure on them and make them accountable for their egregious actions.
This is Trump’s Project 2025 in action: cutting health care for millions while rewarding Elon Musk and his billionaire friends with tax breaks. It’s an attack on the most vulnerable so they can line the pockets of their corporate donors. At a time when our government is being hollowed out and our institutions are falling apart, we now have House Republicans slashing crucial programs that people rely on to enact massive tax giveaways to the rich. This is not normal. When many Minnesotans are struggling to make ends meet, it is morally indefensible to make the wealthy even wealthier and the poor even poorer. This is precisely why Republicans have recommended their members of Congress stop holding town halls to hear directly from their constituents. They know these cuts are callous and unpopular.
The decision to dismantle Medicaid only deepens the constitutional crisis we are already in. We have a president trying to rule like a dictator, an unelected billionaire using hate and fear to usurp control over our country, and we have congressional Republicans pretending this chaos is normal, even as their constituents call them out for their cowardice.
While the proposed budget has passed the House, our fight is far from over. We must keep speaking out, raising the alarm and fighting for those who will suffer if these cuts to Medicaid go through. Public outrage is already making an impact — House Republicans have been instructed to stop holding town halls, as the pressure from their constituents mounts. We need to keep this momentum going, continue amplifying the stories of those most affected, and hold those responsible accountable.
The fight continues.
Ilhan Omar, a Democrat, represents Minnesota’s Fifth District in the U.S. House. AJ Grant lives in Minneapolis. Mshale Edtor note: The two wrote this for The Minnesota StarTribune where it first appeared.
Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant’s Black church Target boycott mobilizes 150,000
By Stacy M. Brown Black Press USA
Rev. Dr. Jamal Harrison Bryant, an Atlanta-based pastor of the New Birth Baptist Church, has reported a robust national turnout for his consumer boycott against Minneapolis-based retail giant Target. The fast-selective-buying campaign, which began during the Lent Season from March 5 to April 17, targets what Bryant describes as the company’s neglect of the Black community.
According to Bryant, the boycott has mobilized over 150,000 participants and persuaded over 100 Black vendors to withdraw their products from Target. The movement has led to a $12 drop per share in Target’s stock and a $2 billion decrease in its overall value.
“We just hit 150 thousand people who have signed up to be part of it, with over 100 black vendors that pulled
out of Target, so the momentum is going steadily,” Bryant explained.
The NAACP and the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), representing the Black Press of America, have simultaneously announced the planning and implementation of a national public education and selective buying campaign in response to Target and other corporations that have dismantled their respective Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) commitments, programs and staffing. “Now is the time for the Black Press of America once again to speak and publish truth to power emphatically,” NNPA Chairman Emeritus Danny Bakewell Sr. explained. NNPA Chairman Bobby R. Henry Sr. added, “We are the trusted
voice of Black America, and we will not be silent or nonresponsive to the rapid rise of renewed Jim Crow racist policies in corporate America.” “The Black Press of America continues to remain on the frontline keeping our families and communities informed and engaged on all the issues that impact our quality of life,” Henry noted.
Despite the traction, Bryant revealed that there had been no communication or planned meetings with Target. He humorously speculated that the White House may have encouraged Target officials to avoid meeting with civil rights groups. “No, we’re waiting. As we understand it, the administration is trying to get them not to meet and is hoping that this is just going
to taper off,” Bryant remarked. “But unless President [Trump] is in trouble and buys a whole bunch of toilet paper, I don’t know what they expect the White House to do for them.”
Bryant also discussed the Black Church leadership’s historical and present role in America’s civil rights and social justice movements. “The Black Church has always been the heartbeat and the epicenter of the civil rights movement,” he said, acknowledging the changing perceptions among younger generations regarding the church’s involvement in social justice. Bryant called for continued focus and support from the community to maintain the boycott’s impact. “It is critical that Black people can’t afford to get A.D.D; we can’t taper off and lose synergy. It’s important that people stay the course and keep amplifying our voices because it is being heard from Wall Street to Main Street,” he urged.
NNPA President & CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. said he’s known and witnessed the national and international rise of the Black Church leadership and commitment to Bryant. “In the tradition of Richard Allen, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we are pleased to state for the sake of historical accuracy that Jamal Bryant is today the personification of the prophetic tradition of the Black Church,” Chavis remarked. “We in the Black Press of America stand in rigid solidarity with Rev. Dr. Bryant as we target campaign Target’s egregious disrespect of Black America.”
Kirsty Coventry elected IOC president and is first woman, first African to lead global Olympic body
By Graham Dunbar Associated Press
COSTA NAVARINO, Greece (AP) — Kirsty Coventry was elected president of the International Olympic Committee on Thursday and became the first woman and first African to get perhaps the biggest job in world sports.
“It is a signal that we are truly global,” the Zimbabwe sports minister and two-time Olympic swimming gold medalist said.
It was a stunning first-round win for Coventry in the seven-candidate contest after voting by 97 IOC members.
The 41-year-old Coventry gets an eight-year mandate into 2033 with a likely early test in meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump about the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Coventry was asked at a news conference about going to the White House.
“I have been dealing with let’s say difficult,” taking a pause, “men in high positions since I was 20 years old. What I have learned is that
communication will be key,” she said.
It was the most open and hardto-call IOC presidential election in decades with Coventry expected to lead the first round short of an absolute majority. Though several rounds of votes were widely predicted, she got the exact majority of 49 needed.
Coventry’s win also was a victory for outgoing IOC president Thomas Bach, who has long been seen as promoting her as his successor. He did not use his right to vote.
“I will make all of you very, very proud and hopefully extremely confident in the decision you have taken,” Coventry said in her acceptance speech. “Now we have got some work together.”
Walking to the podium, she was congratulated and kissed on both cheeks by Juan Antonio Samaranch, her expected closest rival who got 28 votes.
“For her to start her presidency with those numbers, it is a sign of optimism to all of us,” Samaranch said. “We will all be behind her.”
Also in the race were four presidents
of sports governing bodies: Track and field’s Sebastian Coe, skiing’s Johan Eliasch, cycling’s David Lappartient, and gymnastics’ Morinari Watanabe. Also contending was Prince Feisal al Hussein of Jordan.
Civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong speaks during a press conference outside of Target headquarters in downtown Minneapolis on Jan. 30, 2025 calling for a boycott of the retailer. Photo: KingDemetrius Pendleton/ListenMedia USA Livestream Screengrab
Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant. Photo: Courtesy
Coventry will formally replace her mentor Bach at a June 23 handover — officially Olympic Day — as the
Kirsty Coventry reacts after she was announced as the new IOC President at the International Olympic Committee 144th session in Costa Navarino, western Greece, Thursday, March 20, 2025.
Photo: Thanassis Stavrakis/AP IOC Cont’d on Pg. 8
Omar Cont’d from Pg. 2
as a basis for calculating the larger Muslim population.” The population of Somalis in the state is estimated to be around 82,400, according to the
“We are going to need each other more than ever to just get through these four years, as community is going to be essential,” Omar said. “We have to hold on to each other and remember that we are going to get to the promised land together, so we have to be kind to each other in this incredible country we all love.”
research nonprofit, Minnesota Compass.
Rep. Omar urged the community to look out for each other in order to survive the second Trump presidency because “it is taking away all the essential programs many of our communities need.”
At 7:21 p.m. the room went quiet as Imam Abdirahman Sharif of Dar Al-Hijra Mosque took to the podium to pray, which signaled the end of the day’s fasting. After his prayers, guests broke their fast with the dates that had been placed at each table before lining up for a sumptuous buffet of goat meat, rice, salad and mango juice.
Mayors Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, April Graves of Brooklyn Center and Terry Wiggin of Hilltop and Councilmembers Robin Wonsley and Jamal Osman with U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar at a Ramadan Iftar the congresswoman’s campaign office hosted on Saturday, March 15, 2025 in Minneapolis. Mshale Staff
Photo by Richard Ooga
Imam Abdirahman Sharif of Dar Al-Hijra Mosque gets ready to pray to signal the end of fasting for the day at the Ramadan Iftar hosted by U.S Rep. Omar.
Mshale Staff
Photo by Richard Ooga
Over 200 people attended the Ramadan Iftar hosted by the campaign office of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar at Brian Coyle Center on March 15, 2025. Mshale Staff Photo by Richard Ooga
Trump’s DOE shutdown plan creates uncertainty for Black students with disabilities
By Jewél Jackson Capital B News
It had been over a year since Carla and Byron Scott’s 10-year-old son, Tyler, was diagnosed with ADHD, autism, and adjustment disorder.
The couple questioned whether Tyler’s teachers in Portsmouth, Virginia, knew how to care for his disabilities, or if they would simply pass him through grades even if he performed poorly in school.
Then, the couple came across a social media post, and their world changed.
“If you don’t have a special needs advocate, you need to get one,” read a comment under an Instagram post by actress Holly Robinson Peete, who has spoken about her son’s autism diagnosis.
“I never heard of that,” recalled Carla Scott, 38, who works as a project material manager at Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
“It was like a true message from God out of the heavens,” said Byron Scott, 41, who is a quality assurance auditor at Newport News Shipbuilding. “I promise you, that’s how it felt.”
So began the family’s journey with a crucial, if little-known, resource for parents of children with disabilities: a special education advocate — lawyers, former teachers, social workers and others who often work for little to no cost to help parents navigate the complicated maze of administrative and legal issues in school systems.
Under federal law, the nation’s 7 million schoolchildren with disabilities are entitled to a range of legal rights and protections that ensure they receive a free and appropriate education and do not experience discrimination in classrooms.
But the laws only do so much in protecting and entitling rights to students; they have to be enforced. That’s where the special education
advocate — experts in ensuring that those guidelines are followed — comes into play, helping families understand their rights and working with them to guarantee that school districts fulfill their responsibility to disabled students.
While special education advocates have been around for years, they have been the subject of a renewed focus by parents because of a series of potentially sweeping changes to public education by the new presidential
administration. Experts also said families can become active members of their child’s school system and encourage local officials to hire more Black and brown teachers to protect their children — no matter who’s president or runs the Department of Education.
On his first day in office, President
Education Cont’d on Pg. 7
Carla and Byron Scott have obtained better education for their son Tyler (center left, standing next to his brother Kevin) thanks in part to the help of a special education advocate.
Photo: Kuwilileni Hauwanga/Capital B
Donald Trump revoked executive orders tied to educational equity, excellence and economic opportunity for Black Americans, Native Americans and Hispanics. Last week — as had long been expected — Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education; the move is expected to face a stiff legal challenge.
Linda McMahon, a billionaire business executive and former president of World Wrestling Entertainment, currently leads the Department of Education. During her confirmation hearing, she suggested that the most appropriate jurisdiction for administering the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act might be the Department of Health and Human Services.
All of these actions align with Project 2025, a 900-page document published by a conservative thinktank and endorsed by members of Trump’s administration, that calls for a wide-ranging overhaul of the federal government to align with right-wing political ideology. Among the changes proposed in the document is dismantling the Department of Education and reconfiguring the formula that federal officials use to determine how much of federal money should be sent to schools.
In the climate of uncertainty, parents like the Scotts have enlisted the help of advocates to help them make sense of whatever changes may come.
In their fight to make sure that Tyler receives a quality education, the Scotts have spent nearly $10,000 hiring outside advocacy representation and conducting third-party health evaluations. Much of this to hold Tyler’s school accountable in making sure he doesn’t fall through the cracks, like he has before.
“The fact that we have to hire an advocate to get what our child requires for his education is a terrible process, because at this point, if we didn’t have the resources to hire one, where would he be?” Carla Scott said.
After learning about special education advocates, the family hired Cheryl Poe, founder of Advocating 4 Kids, an organization that centers on supporting Black and brown families of children with disabilities.
Poe began to help the family by discussing the needs and academic goals of Tyler with school officials at Individualized Education Plan meetings, which are required by the federal government for students with disabilities. She also taught them what rights they had as parents under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a federal law known as IDEA.
“The system is set up and feels like students with disabilities are more of a nuisance or a problem [rather] than figuring out how to integrate into educational settings,” said Poe, who was diagnosed with ADHD at age 20 while in college. She also experienced the system as a mother with two sons with disabilities, who are now 25 and 28.
With Poe’s help, the Scotts learned Tyler demonstrated signs to school staff that he should’ve been evaluated for disabilities but wasn’t. They also found out that officials were not adhering to his IEP plan and they weren’t collecting data about his
educational progress — instead, they were passing him through classwork.
“He was at a first-grade reading level in the third grade,” Carla Scott said.
Public schools are required by federal law to test children for disabilities if it’s suspected they have one.
Although the Scotts had been asking for help from school staff for years, they said they felt as if the school system was taking advantage of their lack of understanding.
That all changed after they hired Poe.
“She was able to see all the holes within the IEP. As parents, we don’t know what an IEP is supposed to look like,” Carla Scott said.
Thanks to Poe, the couple was able to hold school administrators accountable for their lack of action. But it also angered Carla Scott to see the shift in attitude.
“All the questions from the beginning of the year, before she came, that we were beating our heads against the bricks to say, ‘Is it anything that could be better?’ All of a sudden, we’re getting all the answers. ‘Well, yeah, we can do this. We could do that. We got this, we had that,’” Carla Scott said.
In Louisiana, Corhonda Corley, a Black mom of a son with autism and epilepsy, said for her, navigating the education system felt like an “extreme roller coaster ride.”
“Why aren’t your nurses having conversations with us, parents, and telling us about resources and stuff that’s available. You have a guidance counselor here, but your guidance counselor is not guiding us,” said Corley, who later used her experience to help students throughout her state.
“The ghosts of slavery” in the classroom
Education experts say those feelings of doubt, mistrust, helplessness and an overall lack of care in the education of Black students, especially those with disabilities, isn’t new but is widespread.
Imari Ventura, a speech pathologist, said school leaders need to pay more attention to how evaluations are constructed to diagnose disabilities and provide support.
“There needs to be continuous training on multicultural, multilingual evaluations,” said Ventura, who is the founder of Communication Resources, which offers parent coaching in New York and Connecticut. “When the child is not [taught] standard American English, not white, and their culture is not ‘the pig on the farm’ and ‘the cow’. When they’re outside of that, tests have less and less value. There have to be other supplemental ways to do that.”
Experts say that disabilities have sometimes been used as a justification to punish and criminalize Black students.
“The ghost of slavery lingers in every parent-teacher conversation, every time a parent has to pick a nursery school for that child, go to college, and even graduate school. That ghost of slavery and racism is literally in the room,” said Dara Baldwin, 55, a disability justice activist and former
national director of the Center for Disability Rights in Washington, D.C.
Baldwin, like many others in the disability justice field, have called out the lack of attention given to communities of color as they navigate the education system.
“In disability rights work, the only thing that is important is your disability,” Baldwin said. “When young Black and Brown folks are coming specifically here to D.C., but around the country, and entering the movement and saying, ‘I’m Black, I’m a woman, I’m gay, I’m queer, I’m an immigrant, I’m formerly incarcerated.’ They look at you and say, ‘Well, that’s not us.”
The lack of race in conversations about disabilities can result in interactions filled with microaggressions, intimidation, and gaslighting for students and parents of color, Baldwin and other experts said.
Baldwin added that a Trump administration will likely intensify existing challenges.
“Our fear should not be, ‘Oh my god, he wants to close the Department of Ed,’” Baldwin said. “It should be, ‘What are you going to do to make sure this doesn’t happen.’”
In Virginia, where the Scotts and Poe live, school officials refer more children with disabilities to its court system than any other state.
“Advocacy is more so protecting our children from an educational system that doesn’t respect them, that doesn’t want them there, and that doesn’t really know how to educate them appropriately,” said Poe, adding that the frustration and lack of care that Black families receive in education is by design.
Poe is also neurodivergent — a nonmedical term to describe those with different brain processes. She said navigating life with a hidden disability has taught her how to relate to the families and children that need her help.
“I do this because I know what your child is experiencing,” Poe told Capital B.
Documenting all conversations with school staff is especially important, she said, as the Trump administration continues to announce possible changes that could impact students with disabilities. Poe helps parents
understand that they have federally guaranteed rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which was enacted by Congress.
“Congress is the one that would have to say ‘OK, we’re no longer going to provide that Act for people with disabilities’ and I don’t think that’s ever going to happen,” Poe told Capital B.
Strengthening community bonds
In Detroit, Sharon Kelso said she is concerned about the future of public education.
Nearly 7,000 students, or 14% of the 48,476 students in the district, have a disability, according to 2024 state data.
The 75-year-old grandmother, who is raising her niece’s son, Melvin, who has a learning disability, said people need to create and strengthen community bonds especially as the Trump administration dismantles education policy and student protections.
“If people don’t continue to fight within the system that we’re in, because we are able to fight, then the system will never be good for these children, for all of them,” Kelso said.
In Holmes County, Mississippi, Ellen Reddy, 71, has been fighting for education policy, like ending the use of corporal punishment in schools, for over 20 years. When she thinks about the changes the Trump administration will bring, she gets butterflies in her stomach.
“I do know that as a people, we’ve faced harder times than these,” Reddy said. “No matter what the fallout from all of this is, we’ve got to show up. We got to speak truth to power. We have to keep advocating for our children, because we leave a legacy.”
Baldwin, who has helped strengthen disability justice through national legislation, has seen a shift toward acceptance and understanding of disabilities within local Black communities, but said more action must be taken.
“We need parent action networks that are run by Black, brown families,” she said. “There has to be some way to connect these black families in a national way.” Baldwin added that one group, Autism in Black, is a great example.
And as everyone looks ahead to what the next four years will bring, Carla and Byron Scott said they are bracing themselves for what may come.
“You don’t want children of today not getting the education they need,” Byron Scott said. “Some of these same children are going to be the elected officials of tomorrow.”
For now, the Scotts are ready to apply everything they’ve learned from their experience with the school system to help their youngest son, Kevin, if he needs it. They said the 9-year-old was diagnosed with ADHD and they are tracking his progress.
“We have more awareness, we have more understanding of what we’re looking at, and what information we’re getting fed back,” Carla Scott said. “If there’s an alarm to be raised, we’re throwing it.”
Cheryl Poe, founder of Advocating 4 Kids.
Photo: Kuwilileni Hauwanga/Capital B
10th IOC president in its 131-year history. The 71-year-old Bach reached the maximum 12 years in office.
Key challenges for the Auburn University graduate, who is youthful by the historical standards of the IOC, will be steering the Olympic movement through political and sporting issues toward 2028 in LA.
Coventry’s IOC will also need to find a host for the 2036 Summer Games which could go to India or the Middle East. A key IOC member, who voted Thursday, is Nita Ambani from the wealthiest family in Asia.
The strongest candidates in a fivemonth campaign with tightly controlled rules drafted by the Bach-led IOC seemed to be Coventry — who gave birth to her second child — IOC vice president Samaranch and Coe.
Coventry’s manifesto offered mostly continuity from Bach with little new detail, while her rivals had specifics to benefit Olympic athletes, which she was as recently as 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
Coe’s World Athletics broke an Olympic taboo by paying $50,000 to track and field gold medalists in Paris last year. Samaranch promised to relax strict IOC commercial rules and give athletes control of footage of their Olympic performances.
Samaranch tried to follow his father, also Juan Antonio Samaranch, who was the IOC’s seventh president from 1980 to 2001.
Coe aimed to add to a remarkable career of Olympic triumphs: A two-time
Olympic gold medalist in the 1,500 meters, he led a bidding team for the 2012 London Olympics, then worked for the next seven years to head the organizing team of those widely praised Games. He got just eight votes.
“I’m really pleased that it is an athlete that has emerged at the head of the organization,” Coe said. “I think that’s really important. Clearly, it’s a disappointing result, but that’s what happens when you go into an election.”
It has been a stellar week for Bach, who greeted Coventry and shared warm smiles after her acceptance speech.
Bach was feted on Wednesday in an emotional start to the IOC annual meeting, getting lavish praise and the title of honorary president for life. He repeated his wish to offer advice to the next president.
Asked after Coventry won if he had intervened to campaign for her, Bach suggested in an election “don’t blame the voters, don’t blame the procedure.”
His hands-on executive-style presidency will deliver over a financially secure IOC, on track to earn more than $8 billion in revenue through the 2028 LA Olympics, and with a slate of future hosts through 2034: in Italy,
the United States, France, Australia and finally the U.S. again, when the Winter Games return to Salt Lake City.
A signature Bach policy also has been gender parity, with equal quotas of men and women athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics and giving a better balance of female members of the IOC and the executive board he chairs, which now has seven women among its 15 members, including Coventry.
Her win on Thursday will only add to Bach’s legacy for promoting women.
Coventry won back-to-back titles in 200-meters backstroke at the 2004 Athens Olympics and Beijing four years later. She joined the IOC in 2013, almost one year after a disputed athlete election at the London Olympics. Her place among the four athletes elected was eventually awarded after Court of Arbitration for Sport rulings against two opponents.
The voters in the exclusive invited club of IOC members include royal family members, former lawmakers and diplomats, business leaders, sports officials and Olympic athletes. Even an Oscar-winning actress, Michelle Yeoh.
Members voted without hearing further presentations from the candidates in an election that swung on a discreet network of friendships and alliances largely forged out of sight.
One of Coventry’s voters Thursday, Anita DeFrantz, was the only previous female candidate for the presidency in 2001. DeFrantz traveled from the United States to cast her historic vote despite serious health issues.
“I was really proud that I could make her proud,” Coventry said, tearing up, calling DeFrantz an inspiration.
Newly elected International Olympic Committee IOC President Kirsty Coventry, second from right, is welcomed by officials at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe airport in Harare, Zimbabwe on Sunday, March 23, 2025.
Photo: Aaron Ufumeli/AP
Religion
For Muslims with eating disorders, Ramadan fasting can present health and spiritual challenges
By Reina Coulibaly Religion News Service
Muslims around the world are celebrating Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar and a time for spiritual reflection, humility and prayer. The holiday is marked by fasting from dawn to dusk for the 30 days, a spiritual observance required of Muslims as one of the five foundational pillars of Islam.
For many, it is an act of devotion achieved through self-discipline. However, for Muslims living with or recovering from eating disorders, ritualized abstinence from food can pose serious mental and physical health challenges.
About 9% of Americans will struggle with an eating disorder in their lifetime, according to Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health research. Eating disorders are characterized by fraught relationships with food, leading to behaviors like caloric restriction, adherence to specific “food rules,” bingeing, purging and overexercising, among other disordered behaviors.
“Each has their own unique condition,” said Dr. Rania Awaad, director of Stanford University’s Muslim Mental Health and Islamic Psychology Lab. “So, there are some people who will never be triggered by Ramadan. For other people, (fasting) is a withholding that mimics what they may
be doing in terms of restricting as part of their eating disorder. So, sometimes it’s hard to distinguish.”
Awaad, who is also an ustadha or Islamic teacher, described Ramadan as “a reflection month where people are meant to turn inwards, really assess a relationship with God, themselves and with their community. It’s a month of taking stock of all that you have, and it’s a month of gratitude.”
As such, Muslims with eating disorders face a difficult reality and risk when it comes to fasting. Could observing the beloved holiday worsen their illness?
“It’s a slippery slope,” said Noor Mahmood, a 22-year-old Muslim woman in recovery from binge eating disorder.
BED is the most common eating disorder in the United States, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and 1.6% of adolescents in the country are estimated to suffer from it. BED, like other eating disorders, can also lead to an increased risk of physical and mental health comorbidities.
Mahmood, a Columbus, Ohio, resident, recalled her disordered relationship with food beginning in seventh grade when a classmate started talking to her about weight.
“I remember I was slightly bigger than her, and I don’t know what just clicked in my brain, but I just didn’t like that,” she said.
That marked the start of what would be a yearslong struggle with food, where Mahmood attached her sense of morality to her eating patterns, she said. As mental health was not a common topic of discussion in her household growing up, Mahmood herself did not at first understand the nature of her problem. Her dangerous eating patterns continued through middle school and into high school, she said.
“I didn’t know what it was or why it was happening,” she recalled. “I didn’t know that this was considered disordered behavior, and I don’t think I brought it up to anybody.”
Eventually, Mahmood got professional help and acquired tools to help her to recover from BED, citing that learning to advocate for her needs made recovery possible. She’s now working as a nursing assistant and studying toward a career in nursing.
At the height of her disordered eating behaviors in high school, she said, she tried to lose weight during Ramadan. However, refocusing on Ramadan’s spiritual meaning ultimately helped her curb such efforts in later years. The holiday
now offers an opportunity to reinvigorate her faith by reflecting on what she may be struggling with and how to find support.
“Talking to God more through prayer and making dua (supplications) about it always helped me to remember the whole purpose,” she said of Ramadan.
As both a psychiatrist and observant Muslim, Awaad said the intersection of faith and mental health is important to consider for those determining the best way to observe the holiday for them personally. Moreover, her research shows common misconceptions regarding mental health can discourage Muslims from
seeking the care they need.
“People will incorrectly look at mental health issues as a spiritual failing of some sort, where they’ll say, ‘You shouldn’t be depressed or have these issues if you’re a person of faith because you should be able to pray them away,’” she said.
Exceptions from fasting are deemed acceptable for Muslims who are chronically or acutely ill, menstruating or pregnant, or elderly, among other health reasons. Awaad argues that these exemptions should extend to those struggling with or recovering from eating disorders and other mental health issues when fasting would be injurious to their well-being.
“It is important to understand that there are exemptions from fasting because of health conditions,” she said. “Mental health is not discriminated against in this. Serious mental health conditions are part and parcel of the exemptions.”
And when they are unable to fast, Muslims are encouraged to participate in Ramadan through helping others in need. This might mean donating to charitable causes, or zakat, or preparing meals for others to break their fasts.
“We focus a lot on the person who can’t (physically) fast, but Ramadan is a month of introspection and turning inward,” Awaad said. “You don’t need to be fasting to be able to do that.”
For Mahmood, life in BED recovery and with Type 1 diabetes has meant that on occasion, she’s had to use such fasting exemptions to preserve her health. Now several years into recovery, though, she is able to fast normally, she said.
“In the past, it was hard to not make it all about food,” she said. “Now, it’s about being humble enough to connect with God and work on that relationship.”
Dates and snacks for breaking fast during Ramadan.
Photo: Zak Chapman/Pexels/Creative Commons
Noor Mahmood. Photo: Courtesy
Dr. Rania Awaad. Photo: Stanford University
Art & Entertainment
A master of the kora, Sona Jobarteh of the Gambia, at the Ordway on March 31
By Susan Budig Mshale
Two years ago Sona Jobarteh took The Dakota stage and filled the house, her kora-playing bouncing off the walls. Her renown has only increased since then. This time around, Jobarteh and band will perform at the Ordway in St. Paul, which more than triples the seating capacity.
While the venues are getting bigger, Jobarteh is still focused on playing the kora in a field replete with men and serving as a role model for other girls and young women who also desire to learn the kora. But Jobarteh’s inclusivity doesn’t stop with gender roles. She also welcomes both male and female non-griots, those who were not born into a griot family, to play the kora.
Mshale spoke with Jobarteh in 2023 at length. She explained the idea behind griot. “There has been so much literature regarding the term griot [that] it’s now… widely recognized by international communities,” she said.
Griot comes from West Africa and carries the mantle of historian, storyteller, and musician. Through the kora and through singing, oral histories are passed down. About Jobarteh’s academy in the Gambia, she said, “I have non-griot students studying griot instruments, but traditionally speaking, this instrument belongs to the griots and the culture is still very strong to this day that if you are seen playing
kora, you are presumed to be a griot.”
Jobarteh, a breaker of traditions simply by playing the kora, is fired up to create change. She said, “So the traditions are starting to change, starting to evolve and these are things that I really want to encourage because I strongly believe— these changes are in respect of what has gone before. Understand what went before. What is important is understanding society now is no longer the same as the society in the 1300s or the 1500s. And the roles of women [are] changing just as the role of non-griot people, families, is also changing because society changes.”
Show presenter, The Dakota, has aligned itself with Jobarteh’s goals of supporting girls and women. For every ticket purchased, $3 will be donated to Global Rights for Women.
Additionally, St. Paul-based Books for Africa will have a vendor table in the Ordway’s lobby. Jobarteh’s academy received books from Books for Africa as part of their ongoing Million Books for Gambia project. Books for Africa will be sending more books in a few weeks to the school (Mshale founder and publisher Tom Gitaa is a past president of the Books for Africa board).
Tickets for the March 31st 7:30 pm show are available at www.dakotacooks. com. Use the code GRW3 at checkout to ensure a donation to Global Rights for Women.
Gambia’s first female virtuoso player of the kora, Sona Jobarteh, will perform at the St. Paul’s Ordway on Monday, March 31, 2025 to close out Women’s History Month. She is seen here playing the kora at her last performance in the Twin Cities at the Dakota in downtown Minneapolis on March 20, 2023. Mshale Staff Photo by Jasmine Webber
