Name: Rym Ferahtia
Birth Country: Algeria (born deaf)
Raised in: France since she was 3 years old.
Native language: French
Moved to: USA at 15 years old. Learned English & American Sign Language at the same time.
Education: B.S. in Math at Rochester Institute of Technology and M.S. in Studies in Math Secondary Education at Arizona State University
In late winter of 2009, a friend of Rym invited her to a party where there were many Deaf Muslims which was her first time to meet many deaf Muslims. The next day, there was fund-raising dinner event at ADAMS mosque. Nashiru Abdulai, GDM President, was a guest speaker in this event. He helped Rym to understand better what is GDM about. Rym knows Nash because they attended RIT together and she had not seen him for years. Rym told him she can help him if he needs anything. As a result, he asked Rym to be conference coordinator for Georgetown University on deaf Muslims’ needs. She’s currently event coordinator for Washington Metropolitan Area (DC-VA-MD)