My mother wears the Islamic headcovering known as the Hijab. No one ever forced her to wear it, she chose to put it on all by herself. She’s not an extremist whatsoever, in fact she’s a lot more liberal than you would think and sometimes just because I love the idea behind the hijab, I wear it when I accompany her to certain places. The other day we had to go pick up a family member from the airport. As we anxiously waited with flowers in hand, a group of Caucasian males passed by us and shouted ignorant slurs that likened us to members of ISIS. I mean I get it, I really do. They’re ignorant and they make their judgments off of what they see in the media day in and day out; but in that moment I just thought about how powerful a country’s account of history can be that it frames an entire population’s view on who the “others” in society are. There are many African Americans in Iran who migrate to the country and enlist in Howze, the religious academy for Mullahs. The best way that I can explain how they’re treated is by explaining how us Muslims in America are treated every time we step into an airport. History is extremely subjective and America has always done a great job of leaving out the parts when they’ve messed up and highlighted the parts where the other parties were at fault. Everything from Al Qaeda to ISIS has been developed by the same country that condemns it. So as I stood there and watched these boys make fun of my language by blurting out gibberish, I realized that we are never going to be liked in this country because the story tellers of this country have too much to lose if they were to take ownership of the wrongs that have been done unto this country instead of pretending like it was the “others” who brought us to our knees.
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AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2015
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