Shahidi, the eldest of three Iranian/African-American children, told ELLE.com at the SAG Awards on Sunday that “as somebody who’s half Iranian, I have family that I want to know can come here and be safe.”
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Hoping to help bring awareness and attention to the #NoMuslimBan, Shahidi has teamed up with other young celebrities, such as Rowan Blanchard and Zendaya Coleman. The young starlets have pledged to use their professional platforms to make a difference.
“It’s something that’s close to our hearts,” Shahidi continued her conversation with ELLE.com. “It’s kind of been separate, then we realized, ‘Oh, we’re all involved.’ I feel like for each of us it’s personal. Rowan has family that’s in the Middle East, we all have family that’s affected by these policies…I want my family to be able to go back to their home country and not feel as though where they are, where half of their family is, hates them. I have felt like it’s been personal but a the same time, I have to recognize that there are so many people going through ten times worse. There are people that are actually detained…and people that are in airports right now because they can’t come home, and they’re sent back home or wherever they are from.”
Shahidi suggests that staying connected to the news is vital for everyone to know what is going on. What is affecting “others” will, at some point, affect us all.
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