[su_heading size=”21″]Candlelight vigil will be held to remember one of York’s home-grown activists.[/su_heading]
Mustafa, York alumnus, photojournalist, and activist was was killed on March 9 while covering the ongoing civil war in Aleppo, Syria.
Mustafa was killed in an explosion alongside seven others when the Syrian government bombed the rebel-held Hadariyeh area of Aleppo, according to the Associated Press.
Mustafa freelanced as a photographer and had been published in many places, including The Guardian, European PressPhoto Agency, and CTV. In 2011, he himself was photographed in Time magazine for his involvement in the revolution that toppled Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak.
Mustafa, who was actively involved in the York community during his time here, was a founding member of the YU Free Press—an alternative campus newspaper—and a member of Students Against Israeli Apartheid.
Nathan Nu, another co-founder, says he originally met Mustafa in 2008 at the founding meeting for the newspaper.
“Without Mustafa, the project would not have taken off. Many of us had no experience with journalism so we leaned heavily on those that did at first,” says Nu.
Hammam Farah, another York alumnus, says he met Mustafa in January 2008 when SAIA was formed. “My fondest memory of him was how he always asked about Palestine, how his energy pulled crowds to the SAIA table, and
how he brought so much enthusiasm, excitement, and passion to the movement more broadly,” says Farah.
A candlelight vigil will be held for Mustafa in Vari Hall on March 12 at 4 p.m. “There are a lot of people on campus that have been around over the years and remember Mustafa, so it’s really fitting to have a vigil here at York because Mustafa was so involved at the university,” says Victoria Barnett, volunteer coordinator at OPIRG York.
Barnett says it’s especiallyimportant to have a vigil in Vari Hall as it was one of the spaces on campus that Mustafa showed his activism.
Hamid Adem
News Editor
