MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Muslim Women's Coalition has lost funding from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Archewell Foundation following the publication of a pro-Palestinian op-ed by the coalition's founder.
Janan Najeeb, founder of the Milwaukee Muslim Women's Coalition, said she received an email from Archewell Foundation stating they were immediately ending financial support for the organization's Afghan Women's Sewing Circle program.
"I opened up the letter and it was very vague," Najeeb said. "They said that effective immediately, they were no longer going to fund the Afghan Women's Sewing Circle due to this article that I had written."
Watch: Milwaukee Muslim Women's Coalition loses funding from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's foundation over op-ed
The article in question was a pro-Palestinian op-ed Najeeb published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in March condemning the Israel-Hamas war.
In the email sent to Najeeb, the executive directors of Archewell Foundation wrote: "We were recently made aware of an opinion piece you wrote that goes against the values of the foundation," informing her that their donations would stop immediately.
Najeeb said she received a call from a different Archewell employee days before the email, inquiring about the article.
"A tabloid type journalist has contacted them and was threatening to write an article that was disparaging," Najeeb said. "These bullying tactics are meant to silence people."
According to 2023 tax records, Archewell donated nearly $30,000 to the Milwaukee Coalition for its program that brings together Afghan women refugees.
"It's just a wonderful opportunity for them to be connected to each other. For many of them, this is the only outing they have during the week to be with other community members that speak their language," Najeeb said.
Since news of Archewell's funding cut became public, the program has received thousands of dollars in donations from supporters.
"A third party started a LaunchGood campaign, and within 24 hours we surpassed an entire year's worth of the foundation money," Najeeb said.
Archewell Foundation did not respond to requests for comment.
Najeeb maintains the funding was unfairly cut.
"This is just part of the kind of silencing techniques that we are seeing around the country, but we will not be silenced," Najeeb said.
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