Reflecting on Massive Change
As this year draws to a close, I am called to reflect on what a journey it has been, and how much both my business and I have evolved over the course of it.
In 2025, I was forced to re-evaluate who I work with and whether they are values aligned. Some of that was natural and some of it was a forced exercise: I experienced a long gap in client work due to how vocal I was about Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and was actively blocked from projects and work opportunities. I’ve memorialized that experience here.
As a result, at the beginning of this year, I reached out to people in organizations serving the SWANA (South and West Asian and North African) and Muslim communities – clients who would not have issues with the stances I was publicly taking. And it was when I turned to community that the work drought I had been experiencing finally came to an end.
The work I took on this year expanded the scope of the services I offer: I became a contact lobbyist with the City and County of San Francisco and a lobbyist with the state of California. One of my main areas of focus this year was battling against pro-Israel censorship in California public education (opposing AB 1468 and AB 715).
Additionally, my clients started leveraging my social media content creation services. I made explainer videos as part of my work for CAIR-SFBA (AB 715, AB 1468), and traveled to Dearborn, Michigan to create content for ADC National's ArabCon 2025 (ArabCon Day 1, ArabCon panel).
And as I reflect on the path this year has taken, I acknowledge that what I experienced was redirection. This work is so purposeful and fulfilling, especially in a political moment and climate as tenuous as the one we are currently living through.
Please remember to hire and refer the people in your network that you see taking risks, saying the things that need to be said, and speaking truth to power because I can tell you from my own experience, there are very real consequences for doing so.
That said, I would not change a thing and I am so grateful for the redirection.
In gratitude,
Nadia Rahman
Principal Consultant