Hayward city council member Aisha Wahab becomes 1st Muslim, Afghan American elected to California State Senate

HAYWARD, Calif. (KGO) — There are only a few who can ever say they had been the primary.

“I genuinely suppose in California, it’s about time. Nonetheless, additionally on the identical time, it’s fantastic to see so many various neighborhood members excited,” says Aisha Wahab.

Wahab is headed to the California State Senate because the first-ever Muslim and first-ever Afghan American elected to that physique. She’s going to signify District 10, which incorporates elements of Alameda and Santa Clara counties.

“I hope to carry my lived experiences to the insurance policies we make, to be extra inclusive, to consider essentially the most weak neighborhood members. That has at all times been a part of my insurance policies, even within the Metropolis of Hayward,” says Wahab, who’s at the moment a Hayward metropolis council member, and the place she first bought into politics.

She was born in New York Metropolis. Her father was brutally murdered. Her mom died when she was younger. Aisha grew up in foster care till she and her sister had been adopted by an Afghan household in Fremont, house to one of many largest Afghan communities in the USA.

Many Afghan neighborhood activists, like immigration legal professional Spojmie Nasiri, say Wahab’s win is a historic second for Afghan People.

“She has been elected to one of many highest workplaces, the primary Afghan American. It’s satisfaction! It is pleasure! And I believe actually lengthy overdue,” says Nasiri, an immigration legal professional in Pleasanton.

Wahab acquired big endorsements from political heavyweights in California politics, like State Lawyer Basic, Rob Bonta, and Treasurer, Fiona Ma, in addition to from Deliberate Parenthood, the Sierra Membership and labor teams.

However the win wasn’t simple. Wahab says she confronted racist and Islamophobic assaults, even rape threats and demise threats.

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“(There have been) quite a lot of canine whistles within the race. Plenty of racism, sexism, ageism, you identify it, I noticed it on this race,” explains Wahab.

Lissette Poole, a lecturer at Cal State College East Bay, says Wahab brings layers of range, which is essential in states like California. However Poole provides that Wahab, who’s in her early 30s, is younger. She says that is essential too.

“She represents youth, that is primary. And she or he represents a dynamic, progressive angle in the direction of fixing issues,” says Poole.

Wahab says she was raised to prioritize neighborhood, which led to politics. In Sacramento, Wahab, who has an MBA, says she is going to prioritize reasonably priced housing, public security and small companies.

“I simply felt that with the politics I noticed, that insurance policies affect these nonprofits, insurance policies affect your neighborhood. And the extra I discovered about it, the extra I bought concerned,” says Wahab.

That path now results in Sacramento, the place she might be sworn in as Senator in December.

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