Interview with Rabia Qutab

Description: 

Alexa Garza interviews Rabia Qutab about her experience as a formerly incarcerated woman of color from Middle Eastern descent. Quitab served five years (whittled down from a 20 year sentence) in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) system and was able to acquire her freedom in 2020. Now she lives in Los Angeles. Qutab discusses in detail the differences between post-incarceration resources in California vs. Texas, and also about her reasons for choosing to spend her time in Protective Custody (in a one-woman cell). Qutab’s unique experience sheds light on modes of self-protection within the prison system and the PTSD that lingers post-incarceration, regardless of the measures one takes to avoid politics between incarcerated individuals, and in spite of supportive family and legal systems that linger “outside.”