An extremely long journey for peace and tolerance

By Nadia Alshaer

The decision to wear the hijab came at a very young age for me. I had always admired the way my mother and her friends looked while donning the beautiful fabric. I had grown up in a Muslim family, but my situation was far from traditional. At the time of my decision, my father (also a Muslim) was serving in the U.S Military. He was stationed at an Air Force base in Germany. This meant that my family lived on the base, and that my siblings and I attended school there as well. On the morning of my first day of fifth grade, I decided that I was not going to school without the hijab on. My parents were extremely supportive, but asked me if I was one hundred percent sure that I could handle the responsibility that came with wearing it. My voice never wavered as I responded “yes, inshallah.”

The first day of school was one of the hardest days of my entire life. I endured constant ridicule from my classmates and became the target of every person’s taunting. When I arrived home, I went straight to my room and asked Allah to give me the strength and faith that I needed. Weeks turned to months, and soon enough I was addressed as “Nadia” and not “the bald girl,” or the one that looked funny. I carried that same strength with me, as I entered into my Middle and High School years. At that age, the taunting became intensely worse, and the insults stung because of the word “terrorist” becoming so popular among my peers.

Living on a Military air base made the ridicule so much worse, because now I was suddenly the one who was responsible for the deaths of everyone’s friends and family serving in Afghanistan. The bus rides home were hard, because I was stuck in a metal container with some of the worst people in the entire school until I arrived home. Throughout this whole experience, I never once thought about removing the hijab. I knew the only way to change these people’s opinion of me, was to show them nothing but extreme kindness, and to answer any questions they had about the religion with patience and knowledge. I joined in on as many activities in the community as I could, and talked to anyone who would let me. It was a very slow process, but I noticed that some of my classmates who had previously taunted me, now greeted me in the mornings.

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The biggest turning point was when a girl who had been the center of most of the hate towards me, approached me and apologized for judging me before getting to know me. From then on, life at school definitely became much easier now that others understood where it was that I was coming from. High School graduation was a year ago, and I proudly walked across that stage in Germany with my hijab on, and my head held high. It was an extremely long journey for peace and tolerance, but I know that I’ve made a positive impact on that community. Since then, I’ve endured harsh discrimination when trying to find a job, or simply when walking through a grocery store, but it doesn’t change the way that I feel about my religion. I am now entering my Sophomore year of College, and still wearing the hijab on my head. There are definitely days when people yell “terrorist” or some other expletive at me, but those many years of intolerance have prepared me for anything that may come my way. I am so thankful for Allah’s guidance that has always had a presence in my life. Alhamdoliallah for the ability of harsh words to become motivators for strength and wanting to make a change.