CCF 10th Annual Family Conference – Virtual
By Mel Underbakke
The Coalition for Civil Freedoms held its 10th annual conference for the families of political prisoners on Martin Luther King weekend, 2021. The conference, originally planned for October 2020, was postponed because of the pandemic and so for the first time ever it was held virtually. The format was experimental for us – but seemed to be quite successful.
The session began on Friday evening with a viewing of the documentary “The Feeling of Being Watched,” followed by a discussion with the director Assia Boundaoui. People in Assia’s Muslim-American neighborhood in Chicago had suspected FBI Surveillance for years and so she investigated and found their suspicions were absolutely correct. The video tells the story of that investigation.
At every conference, family members have been given a chance to tell their stories, and so on the second day, the traditional story-telling session was held with the title “Creating Change with Your Story”. It was led by filmmaker and journalism professor Nausheen Dadabhoy. The session opened with a short video “The Danger of a Single Story” and following a presentation, participants were placed in breakout rooms where one task was to imagine themselves differently. Family members were asked to describe who they are outside of having a loved one incarcerated to identify what other major events or personal attributes have come to define them.
The afternoon session featured a webinar that was open to the public titled “Prisoner Releases: Analyzing Hopeful Trends in the Courtroom & on Capitol Hill”. CCF legal director, Kathy Manley, spoke about recent hopeful trends and outcomes in national security cases—including prisoner releases! Molly Gill, the VIP of Policy at FAMM, spoke about the organization’s recent efforts toward criminal justice reform. Finally, CCF Board Chair Steve Downs highlighted CCF’s legislative objectives toward justice for prisoners wrongfully prosecuted and convicted in the “war on terror” and he analyzed the dangers of the Biden administration’s proposed “domestic terrorism” laws.
The third day began with a very popular inter-generational yoga session led by Board Member and Holistic Health Coach Sonali Sadequee. This was followed by a “Family Mental Health & Wellness” session with licensed counselor Zaira Abu Baker. Sonali is the sister of former political prisoner Shifa Sdequee, and Zaira is the daughter of Shukri Abu Baker.
As always, parallel youth sessions were held. The first youth workshop was “Art Therapy Activity “ with artist and educator Nida Abu Baker and licensed counselor Zaira Abu Baker. (Nida and Zaira are Shukri Abu Baker’s daughters). Zaira told the youth about different ways to cope and control their emotions whenever feeling down. They began with deep breathing exercises and were then taught how to make sensory bottles and use them as a way to cope.
CCF’s own Prisoner & Family Support Coordinator Nada Dibas conducted a workshop entitled “Youth Activism: What’s Your Superpower?” Nada discussed with the youth basic concepts of activism, social justice, and the power they hold as youth.
The third workshop was led by Democracy Now! producer Hany Massoud and educator Ayesha Hoda . The title of this workshop was ”Justice by the Pen”. The children were asked – How do you use what you are good at to make changes using something you enjoy? Each child was given time to create something (they chose leggo) and to present their creation to the group. A clip of this session can be viewed here.
One of the youth who attended the entire conference reported that all the workshops were fun, and they learned a new word – activism.
A final workshop was held at the end of the week. “How to Challenge Prisoner Abuse in the BOP” with Staff Attorney Amith Gupta. The goal was to make sure that all the CCF families have the ability to challenge abuses against their own loved one, and also to look at the question of righting wrongs throughout the Bureau of Prisons system. The session was very informative, and is available to watch on Youtube.
The weekend concluded with a well-received talk by the founder of the Coalition for Civil Freedoms, Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Speaking to us from Istanbul, he talked about “Overcoming Adversity,” and drew from various lessons from history such as Nelson Mandela and others.
