A decades old photo of a social justice activist recently ‘outed’ for making false claims about her ethnicity shows her with visibly lighter skin and no hijab.
Raquel Saraswati was ‘outed’ by a ‘a group of individuals who care deeply’ about the American Friends Service Committee where she works – the 39-year-old previously claiming to be of Latin, South Asian and Arab descent.
The images posted from the early 2000s show the now 39-year-old posing with a person captioned as her wife of three years.
It remains unclear whether the person in the image and Saraswati are still together. DailyMail.com have reached out to her.
The startling image shows Saraswati, without a hijab, thinner eyebrows and most shockingly a paler complexion.
Recent images of the chief inclusion officer at a Philadelphia-based Quaker group, however, show her with a much darker complexion, hijab and dark eye-makeup and fuller eyebrows.
‘I definitely feel conned. I feel deceived,’ Oskar Pierre Castro, a human resources professional who participated in the search committee to fill Saraswati’s position, said to The Intercept.
An open letter from the anonymous group provided an in-depth analysis of the 39-year-old’s ancestry and her work, and expressed concern about her role.
They accused Saraswati – who converted to Islam in high school, and has since come out as gay – of ‘cultural vulturism’, and noted ‘the shades of bronzer she applies to her face have become darker over time’.
This claim appears to be true the early 2000 picture showing a younger Saraswati with her hair pulled back and only a small amount of makeup on her cheeks.
The authors of the damning open letter called on AFSC to investigate ‘why a member of its most senior leadership has so profoundly eroded trust among people of color’.
They noted her appearance on conservative-hosted shows, and asked: ‘Are there external entities with whom Saraswati is collaborating?’
Saraswati’s case is being likened to that of Rachel Dolezal, a white woman, who in 2015 was exposed as having posed for years as black, rising to become president of an NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington.
Mark Graham, AFSC’s chief marketing and communications officer, said the organization ‘has given Raquel the opportunity to address the allegations against her, and Raquel stands by her identity.’
He added: ‘Raquel also assures us that she remains loyal to AFSC’s mission, which we firmly believe.’
Saraswati’s identity was first questioned by media commentator Sana Saeed, who tweeted in 2015: ‘Can we talk about ‘Raquel Dolezal’ in the Muslim community. Y’all know who I mean.’
