Nona Abdallah
Nona Abdallah is an Arab, Muslim, transgender woman, and Queer and Trans rights activist. She was born in Canada after her parents arrived in the 1990s as refugees. She studied Mathematics at the University of Windsor and is currently studying Child and Youth Care at St. Clair College in Windsor. After a long struggle facing the backlash of publicly coming out, her focus as an activist and organizer is on others facing the same problems of balancing queer and racialized identities, and the material struggles they face in poverty, public housing, and abusive situations.
She volunteers to support refugees and immigrants and founded a peer support group in Windsor called ‘NAFS.’ This group is intended for people who are from the Arab, Middle Eastern, North African, and Muslim communities in Windsor who also identify as queer and trans. In the past, she has given presentations on the struggles with faith and sexuality, and about the intersectionality of being an Arab who identifies as transgender. She also has been an activist for many years supporting Palestinian human rights and is currently involved in urban and community farming.