Meet Asmaa

Where are you from?

“My life has three parts. I was I was born in Egypt and I stayed in Egypt til middle school and then my mom went to Saudi to work there. So, I left with her and then went back to Egypt, and then I came to United States. […] When I came here [to Indiana], it was too quiet for me because Alexandria is a city and it never sleeps. Egypt never sleeps,  like 24/7 literally. So, it was like ‘I can’t sleep because there is no noise.’

How would you describe your identity?

“I would identify myself as a Muslim practicing Islam. And I’m Muslim before I am Middle Eastern because this is my identity. The Muslim inside me can go anywhere but the Islam will stay inside me. I’m so faithful. I’m not conservative. I’m in between, I’m not so liberal, but I’m so open. Like super open I guess to some cultures. It’s weird because my conservative friends see me as very liberal and my liberal friends see me as very conservative. So, I don’t know where I’m staying, but I’m happy with myself. I believe in God. I do whatever I have to do. I pray. I fast Ramadan. I do all these things. I’m a good person, hopefully. I treat people very kindly. I don’t care their religion their identity. I expect the same from people. So, I do not hate or treat people depending on the religion, but I’m Sunni.”

What is it like wearing a hijab in the US?

“I don’t know, I don’t want to say [people] don’t like me but like it’s strange maybe for them to have a Muslim female hijabi [around]. […One person at the university told me at the end of the semester:] ‘I would never ever before go and talk to you, someone different than me. Like I would never go talk to a hijabi Muslim woman. So thank you to all our international student who made me feel that it’s okay to talk, it’s okay to ask question. It’s okay to be friends with them.’ People might feel scared at the beginning and even when I introduce myself to my student, I tell them I’m international, I’m hijabi, don’t feel scared to ask me question, ask me anything. Ask me why I’m a Muslim, why I wear hijab, anything. Nothing will make me feel offended. And this is how I want people to reach out to me and ask me and they can tell me how they think of me. I can tell them that other side or the other view and we will communicate that way, but rather than like just get away from me.”

“I think that the major element here [is that] the professors [need to] introduce diversity to the other students and make other students welcome, [like] the international and diverse students. Because they don’t do that. And I feel some professors also are scared to communicate with me, like I feel hijab make people scared. I don’t know. It’s so pretty [the hijab].”

“I just don’t know…some people, maybe they experienced something with other hijabi? They they feel like there’s a huge barrier between hijabis and not. But I try to break that barrier.”

“I think from what they hear or maybe they don’t know the culture, they don’t know what’s appropriate and not appropriate. So, with one of my professor, I reach[ed] out to him and I said why you don’t look at me and just talk to me? Like, he was like laughing and then we became friends. But it’s that first push. Somebody has to take it. I take it most of the time and I became friends with these people that they were scared to be friends with me at the beginning, but other people have to see it.”

Have you experienced Islamophobia in the US?

“I usually hear on media that Muslims are, like in America and Europe, are discriminated and hijab is not welcome and stuff like that. So, I was a little bit curious when I came here how it will feel. I didn’t, I didn’t feel that much racism. It is individual incidents that I may find someone like calling me names on the street. But no, like not everyone like is looking at me or treating me badly because I’m hijabi. I think things changed now, not like before, like because a lot of hijabis are here because I think it’s a school city more. So many Saudis and many different nationalities are here and some of them are hijabi. So, people got used to see them more often rather than before they see them like once or twice so they feel strange.”

You’ve been in the US since 2014; did you notice a change in attitudes towards Muslims after the 2016 election?

“Yeah people like maybe [anti-Muslim ideas] was inside them and they were not expressing it. But after like the last election, they’re not afraid to say out it loud. The incident that stood out for me is when the New Zealand thing happened. When it was published on The Indiana Gazette, like some people commented here in Indiana. They said ‘yeah, Indiana needs sweeping too, something like that.’ That was that was harsh. It was really harsh because it’s just not something about Islam, it’s just humanity, people were killed. So, I didn’t know that they have this inside them until I’ve seen it. But everywhere you go there is good and bad.”

What do you want non-Muslims to know about Islam?

“I feel that Islam is a very peaceful religion. Very peaceful. But whether people see it like that or not, but it is very peaceful.  And it respect women a lot, like a lot.  If you hear about the way Prophet Muhammad treated his wives or how before he died the very last thing he said, please take care of your women.  And how women were treated at that age, like it’s way different than now. And people who speak about Islam and how they treat women badly in name of Islam. That’s way, way wrong. It never happened in Islam. And I feel like, I don’t know, like my faith guides me, in a way like I feel that there is some power or control that I have like when I feel depressed or I feel worried, I have something that I can ask for guidance and I feel relieved after that. Islam has a lot of morals like, it just tells me take care of people, help people, use my knowledge and something like that people can benefit from, it makes me a better person. I feel like all religion does help people in some way. That light in your heart, I think, if people can find it, they will be in a better place.”