Habeba

"It's okay if people see you differently. Different is good."

By Students of NYC

October 27^th, 2023

"I’m one of the few Muslims in my school. I started around 9th grade, but that year we went to school online. So I didn't really get that first experience of walking in for the first time freshman year wearing the hijab and seeing how everybody would react to it. In a way, that helped me learn more about myself, and it helped me understand the deeper meaning of why the hijab is important to me. It represents who I am. It’s a way for me to express myself as a Muslim, Arab woman. In 10th grade, a girl who I thought was my friend reached from behind while I was sitting at my desk and pulled off my hijab. I didn’t stand for it; I didn’t let it go. My family and I have faced a lot of discrimination in our lives. After 9/11, my parents went through so much. People calling them terrorists, telling them to go back to their country. Go back to Saudi Arabia, people would say. We don’t even come from Saudi Arabia, we come from Egypt. These things build up. My parents weren’t always able to stand up to the discrimination, but I am. That same girl was doing the same thing to another Muslim girl in our school, so I stood up to it. Eventually, she stopped. I think it's important to recognize and confront discrimination in order to take the necessary action to get the justice we deserve. For me, being a leader is so important. It’s a way for me to show that I am trying to shine in the place that I’m in. No matter where I end up, I always want to be that shiny little diamond. To be bubbly, extroverted, getting to know people. I want to inspire other Muslim girls who are striving to express their voice.

I interned at a family court this summer. It was so crazy to see this other side of life. There are families that are going through so much trouble and hardship. There are families who are breaking apart. I saw mothers who had to escape and take their children to other countries just to escape abuse. It made me realize that abuse can do so much damage to a family. As part of the internship, I got to meet Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. There were 99 of us in that room from the program, but afterwards, I got to meet her one-on-one, and I was so nervous that I was shaking. I was like, oh my God, what do I tell her? And she must have seen how nervous I was, because she told me, 'Okay, hold my hands.' So I held her hands and I just felt so calm, like, okay, I can talk to her. It's fine. She told me, 'Look, I know you can do it. I don't think you can do it. I know you can do it. If I could do it, so could you.' And then she told me, 'Come give me a hug.' So she ended up giving me a tight hug. It was so reassuring to me. She knows who I am, and she acknowledges me. And it was something very sentimental for someone to tell me that I can do it while being a Muslim woman, practicing my religion.

Justice Sotomayor taught me that no matter who you are, if you're part of a minority group, you can still have the opportunity to go out and be that voice. She’s a Latina in the Supreme Court — and for her to represent a group like that, it gives me hope that I can do the same. She didn’t listen to any of the negativity — she kept her eyes straight toward what she wanted. It's just so cool to see. As I held her hands, I told her how her story inspired me to go after my dreams and not worry about the people around me, or if people undermine me or say I can’t do it. I told her how I also want to inspire future Muslim girls who have the same dreams and aspirations as me, to not be afraid and go after what you want in life, even if someone tells you you can't do it because you're Muslim or you can't do it because people might see you differently. It's okay if people see you differently. Different is good. Different is unique. Uniqueness brings something different to the table, and just like Justice Sotomayor, it can inspire generations. And then this will develop even better leaders, and it'll strengthen the community, strengthen the society. It'll strengthen the world.

I have a very tight knit family. I'm the only child. My parents and I have a group chat — we text all the time. And I'm grateful that towards the end of my day when my parents come home, we sit at the dinner table and then I tell them about my day, like, oh, we learned about this in AP psych, I learned about this in government. And then these conversations lead to bigger conversations and we start to talk about how my classes kind of tie into what's happening in the real world. Sometimes we sit at the table for hours, long after we've finished our food. And then my mom's like, I can't look at this food anymore. So she takes the food and she puts it in the kitchen, and then my dad and I would still be talking. My dad and I first started having these long talks during Covid. Before the pandemic, he worked a lot, but then he lost his job. My lunch period was only 45 minutes. But in those 45 minutes, I would go to his room and we would just talk about things that were happening in the world. At the time, it was the Black Lives Matter movement, and we would talk all about what’s happening in society. It opened my eyes to like, okay, this is really happening, this is real life. And it also showed me that there is a major lack of Arab representation in our society. It really motivated me to want to become a lawyer — to be that type of Arab representation to people who need it. To be that voice.

But with my mom, what she's taught me, it isn't just about conversations. It's what I see in her.

She shows me what a true independent woman should be. She wants change, and she will do absolutely everything in her power to get that change. How she gets things done, how she's gotten to where she is in life. She went from just being a part of the PTA in my elementary school to becoming a teacher. Through her actions and through everything that she does, how she goes, how she gets that done, especially her getting to where she's at, becoming a teacher from being just part of the PTA in my elementary school. That's a big accomplishment. That's a big leap. I want to go after what I want, just like how my mom did. I want to be able to fight for change, just how my mom did. And I feel like it's through both my parents' experiences, whether it's good or bad, I want to take something out of it and create better. I want to become a lawyer and I want to inspire. I want to be the change."