Archewell's Decision to Pull Funding Over an Old Op. Ed. is Part of a Troubling National Trend

What we know, the larger picture, and musings about the stories we tell ourselves

Rumeysa Öztürk.

That’s who popped into my mind when I first heard that Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s Archewell Foundation had ended grants to a Muslim Women’s Coalition over an op. ed.

Last month Öztürk, a Tufts doctoral student from Turkey, was grabbed off the streets by plain clothes immigration authorities and sent to a Louisiana detention center. All because of a March 2025 school op. ed.

No matter that the piece was authored by three other students (read here)*. It called for the administration to adopt TCU Senate resolutions related to Palestine and divestment from companies with ties to Israel. It was a far cry from a national security threat. The government has offered no additional evidence against Öztürk.

*The bipartisan response from Tuft Republicans and Democrats following her arrest is worth a read. Honestly our current government officials could learn something from this.

In the case of Archewell, they’ve remained mum over why they pulled the grant, besides an op. ed. that’s similarly related to the Israel/Palestine conflict. While words have consequences and the foundation is well within their right to pull funding for any reason, it’s all a part of a very scary trend concerning free speech.

What We Know So Far

A week ago NewsNation reported that Archewell cut funding from a Muslim women’s group over an op-ed published in 2024 that was shown to the foundation by the writer of the piece.

Let’s get it out of the way: This is a bad article. The framing is sensationalist and misleading. The bias leaps off the page. But, there are nuggets we can extract from it and investigate.

Another thing I want to state off the bat is that we do not know Harry and Meghan’s involvement in this decision. According to a source in the piece, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were appalled when they learned about the op. ed., but that’s all we have to work with.

The Milwaukee Muslim Women's Coalition is an organization that received grants from Archewell. Janan Najeeb, the charity’s founder penned an op. ed. on Feb. 23rd 2024 calling for, among other things, a ceasefire and liberation of Palestine.

Feb. 2024 is important to this story and we’ll return to it shortly.

When NewsNation brought this op. ed. to Archewell’s attention, a “source familiar with the situation” said:

“Yesterday, we sent a letter to Janan and MMWC and let them know the Archewell Foundation has zero tolerance for hate speech, and we let them know the foundation will no longer be making any further donations.”

I’m naturally skeptical of “a source familiar to the situation”. But, there’s also a quoted letter, credited to James Holt and Shauna Nep in the piece:

The letter to Najeeb, authored by Archewell heads James Holt and Shauna Nep, read: “Janan, we’ve recently been notified of a blog post you wrote that goes against the values of the foundation. As a foundation, we celebrate different perspectives and backgrounds but we have zero tolerance for hateful words, actions or propaganda.

“When we started the welcome project, we did so to support Afghan women in finding community, and we are proud of the work we have done to support women in Milwaukee. We remain committed to fostering partnerships that reflect and reinforce the values our foundation stands for.

Archewell has not confirmed or denied the letter, but MWC has. In an IG post they issued a public response to Archewell’s letter. Here is the first slide, where Najeeb states that the op. ed. wasn’t on behalf of the organization.

Before we get into the, “wtf was Archewell thinking” from a PR standpoint, we need to go back 14 months.

Feb. 2024

“What happened in Feb. 2024?” My memory was fuzzy, but I seemed to remember another statement written around the same time.

It was Prince William’s.

This statement shocked a lot of people at the time. Some felt it was too political, others felt it didn’t go far enough. The Prince of Wales’ statement was published Feb. 20th 2024. Najeeb’s op. ed. was published Feb. 23rd 2024.

What was happening during that particular time in this conflict?

This isn’t exhaustive, but here are the biggies that really broke thru. Humanitarian aid workers were blocked from entering Gaza. There were hospitals on the brink of collapse, unable to provide care for patients, including laboring mothers and sick infants. Feb. was also when the U.S. vetoed a U.N. resolution for an immediate cease-fire.

With all that in mind, it’s hardly surprising that the founder of a Muslim Women Coalition would publish an impassioned op. ed. in a paper calling for a cease-fire.

Why did Archewell react the way they did last week to a year old op. ed.?

Thoughts on Archewell’s PR Strategy

When I first read this story, I couldn’t believe they capitulated to pressure from one media outlet. Not just that, a source telling the reporter how Archewell reacted and sharing the letter they sent to Najeeb. Why didn’t they just ignore it? Or tell the outlet they were looking into the matter? Archewell knew this story was coming out. They’ve had a week to prepare a crisis PR response. Instead, they’re silent.

Meghan and Harry at an Archewell event.

My best guess is money (it is a non-profit after all).

Is there a leaker at Archewell or was this by design? Could the grandstanding in the published piece be a savvy way to publicly reassure wealthy donors? The letter didn’t have to go as hard as it did if this was just to alert the organization that they would no longer receive aid. They could have just cut funding.

Will Archewell ever release a statement? If there’s enough pressure, perhaps. They might just wait for the news cycle to turn over to something else. This story hasn’t really caught on from what I’ve seen. From a PR standpoint giving it more oxygen keeps the fire burning. To make it go away you have to starve it.

Final Thoughts

I’ve been thinking back to the months I spent researching and writing about Meghan’s involvement with Hubb Community Kitchen while a working royal. Particularly how the Muslim women were framed as part of a terrorist-supporting mosque and Meghan was therefore supporting terrorism by association.

It was a disgusting attempt to paint Muslim immigrants with a big terrorism brush. It put an already vulnerable community in danger—along with The Duchess of Sussex.

It’s hard to square that situation with a foundation started by Harry & Meghan that seemingly pulled funding & mischaracterized an entire organization representing vulnerable Muslim women based on one media outlet’s characterization of the founder and her op. ed.

Similarly I struggle with universities like Columbia folding to Trump’s demands while he holds their federal funding hostage. What makes them think that the administration won’t continue to raise the bar they have to clear to stay in Trump’s good graces? Does the Archewell Foundation really think scrutiny will cease into their donations? Do they really think the goal posts won’t move again?

There are individuals with no power—like international students—speaking up at great risk to their safety and ability to stay in this country. If you or an institution you run is in a position of immense power, why wouldn’t you spend some of your capital to do what’s right?

Is part of the problem holding Harry & Meghan to these standards in the first place? Their departure from the royal family wasn’t a rebellion or an attempt to drastically reform the monarchy, but maybe some of us kind of hoped it was. When removed from working royal life are they kind of similar to any other good-intentioned, progressive or politically ambiguous celebrities? Can you blame them when you see the circles they move in? It’s a different world.

On the other hand, shouldn’t we expect better from organizations and public figures that we generally agree with? Isn’t that what good faith questioning and critique is all about? If we didn’t believe in its capacity for good, would situations like this one with Archewell upset us at all?

I’m curious to hear your comments. Thank you in advance for your thoughtfulness when engaging with this blog and others on it!

-Meredith