Grace Carr on March 4, 2018
Asmi Fathelbab accused Linda Sarsour in December of covering for the man who allegedly sexually harassed her while she worked for the Arab American Association, and now the alleged harasser is suing Fathelbab.
“I’m astonished that I’m being sued by my stalker, harasser and assaulter,” Asmi Fathelbab said, according to Fox News. “Since he stopped stalking me in 2012, this is the first time I heard from him,” she added.
Asmi Fathelbab told The Daily Caller in December that Sarsour, then the executive director of the Arab American Association, that her coworker Made Seif had rubbed her crotch without her consent and had stalked her in 2009 while she worked as an employee for the group. First reported Saturday, Seif is now suing for defamation, maintaining that Fathelbab’s claims are false.
Fathelbab maintains that Sarsour dismissed her allegations, charging that no one would believe her because “something like that doesn’t happen to someone who looks [like her]” Fox News reported. Sarsour allegedly dismissed the allegations because the accused was a “good Muslim” who was “always at the Mosque” Fathelbab told TheDC.
“[Sarsour] oversaw an environment unsafe and abusive to women,” Fethelbab said. “Women who put [Sarsour] on a pedestal for women’s rights and empowerment deserve to know how she really treats us,” she added. She also claims that Sarsour threatened legal and professional damage if she went public with the sexual assault claims.
Sarsour denied Fathelbab’s allegations, labeling them as part of a smear campaign intended to tarnish her reputation. Sarsour was “dumbfounded” by Fathelbab’s claims, according to Buzzfeed News. “There’s no evidence, no email she can pull out where she ever gave those claims to us,” Sarsour said.
Fathelbab started a GoFundMe, “He Abused. She Enabled.” to raise money to help her pay for legal representation in the lawsuit she will now have to face. “Women who fail to support other women, but instead question their veracity, belittle them, women who betray their own gender, who trash female victims and accuse them of shakedowns or some murky motive are as dangerous as sexual abusers themselves,” Fathelbab writes on the page.
Sarsour is an outspoken Muslim activist and co-chair of the Women’s March.
