Meet our new staff members!
Meet CAIR-Chicago's new team members!
Joining our cause to defend civil rights and fight bigotry
CAIR-Chicago proudly welcomes its new staff member and volunteer attorney. Meet our new lead Communications Coordinator, Maryam Arain and our volunteer attorney, Tarek Khalil. We also give a heartfelt thanks and farewell to Aymen Abdel Halim for his significant contribution and dynamic service at CAIR-Chicago.
New Staff
Maryam Arain- Communications Coordinator
Maryam graduated from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies with a Master’s in Post/Colonial Studies. She is also a graduate of Dartmouth College, where she studied History modified with African and African American Studies with a minor in Gender Studies. She is passionate about race, gender and identity politics and is interested in issues of neo-imperialism and human rights. In her free time, she enjoys reading literary fiction and poetry; some of her favorite authors and poets include Haruki Murakami, Nazim Hikmet, bell hooks, Kurt Vonnegut, and Kishwar Naheed. She also has a penchant for art and design and is an avid music appreciator.
Tarek Khalil - Volunteer Lawyer
Tarek Khalil is a volunteer attorney at CAIR-Chicago. Tarek received his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a minor in International Relations from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). He received his Juris Doctorate from The John Marshall Law School. While in law school, Tarek was a board member of the Middle Eastern Law Student Association and a member of the Criminal Law Society. He is also a member of the Phi Delta Phi International Legal Honors Society. Tarek has met many inmates who have experienced police torture in Chicago and learned from their experience. He joined the Illinois Coalition Against Torture (ICAT) and helped to push for anti- torture legislation, specifically calling for the elimination of a statute of limitations in police torture cases. As a former intern, law clerk and now as a volunteer attorney at CAIR-Chicago, Tarek has gained a more concrete perspective of CAIR-Chicago’s mission of pursuing justice and educating the public on issues of discrimination, civic engagement, and tolerance.
Graduating Staff
Aymen Adbel Halim- Communications Coordinator
Aymen Abdel Halim joined CAIR-Chicago as the lead Communications Coordinator for CAIR-Chicago in 2011 until the beginning of 2013, after serving as a communications extern in Summer '11. Aymen received both Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees with honors from the Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts program at San Francisco State University, where he studied media research, theory, and production. Aymen's interest and passion in studying media portrayals of Islam and Muslims, media studies and critique shone through his unparalleled work here at CAIR-Chicago. Although, Aymen will be sorely missed here at CAIR-Chicago, we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.